Doc

I have more interest in reloading components ..... bullets, powder, brass, primers, etc. Has anyone found a good reliable source of those products (PA or otherwise)? Also, does anyone know if the Safe Act background check requirement on ammo applies to components? I don't think I have ever heard that stated yet.

I enjoyed the beavers that we had across the road. They created a pretty nice swamp that drew in just about every kind of walking, swimming and flying critter that you could imagine. A rather boring crick became a wildlife gold mine. However, they absolutely do need trapping. They are quite capable of eating themselves out of house and home and they will abandon areas that have become over-populated and where they have eaten everything that they can including new growth. That is what happened across the road and the colony moved out to better grounds. The dam has long ago deteriorated and all the critters that used to live there have followed the beavers.

I suspect that there are good food-plotters and bad food-plotters..... lol. I have a food plot, and I didn't even plant it. It is just an area a short distance away from the house that I keep mowed. The grasses there are what ever naturally occurred and boy is it ever thick, better than the lawn around the house (my other "food plot"). The deer love it. It is secluded (surrounded by huge spruce trees) and it's beginning to look like a barnyard with all the deer crap everywhere. I do spend a few days hunting there each year. I have had pretty good success there. I also have another food plot called my yard and all those expensive shrubs and flowering plants. I have two Rose-of-Sharon bushes that look like mushrooms. I have a circle of fencing around each one and the deer have trimmed it right to the fence. Above the fence where the deer can't reach they have spread out. They look kind of funny. You want some good "bait", just start planting a few tulip bulbs or expensive shrubbery. You'll draw them in like flies to sh*#@. I'll be hunting this plot pretty heavy this year and start thinning these critters out a bit. I may spend a few afternoons with a front window open and the .270 hanging out, hunting over my "food plot".It's time to start filling those tags where it does the most good .... lol.

So, here is the question ..... Does the ammo shortage exist down in PA also? Background checks aside, is there really any ammo to be had down there either? I understood that the ammo shortage was national (international?) in scope.

It really is as simple as one practice is legal and the other is not. That's the one major difference that counts. personally, I have no interest or need for doing either, but I do think that the DEC would play hell trying to sort out what fields are being done for hunting and what are simply habitat improvements or ag activities. I can see a law that would take volumes to define.....lol. They already are having difficulties getting legal support for their feeding and baiting laws (see Sullivan County). That law has been deemed vague and too general. Can you imagine them trying to word a law that defined exactly what constitutes a food plot .... lol. As far as the "right or wrong of it all, I have to figure that the state biologists probably have a little knowledge about what promotes disease propagation. From that standpoint, I see baiting as being a practice that not only concentrates deer in an "area" but further concentrates them to the exact same "spot" where urine feces and saliva are exchanged directly. Food plots generally don't do that.

Nothing is impossible with a bow in the right hands. I watched Stacey Groscup shoot aspirins out of the air. I also watched him shoot flying targets out of the air holding the bow with his feet. And of course we have all seen Byron Ferguson perform his magic. That stuff takes more than just simple dedicated practice. There is something spectacular about the hand-eye coordination of these guys. It's the same thing that makes a deadly accurate outfielder in baseball, and quarterback in football.... and golfer. No expensive sights. No jillion dollar drop away arrow rests. No super fast compounds. No fancy arrows. Just a super ability between the ears. Great video, and another archery wizard.

Now that was a great video. Looks like a lot of fun. I'm not crazy about the running shot, but it was pretty darn close, and worked out good.

There is an awful lot of public land that doesn't allow camping, or only allows camping in designated areas (often not suitable for hunting). Be sure to check that out before you get too far along with your plans.

So where did they come from? Is there a creek or river or swamp somewhere nearby? If so, you may find a perpetual source of these critters that you can't get rid of. It does look like there is a limited supply of food for them there, so they may start checking out your trees in your yard....lol. They are interesting critters to have in the area, but they may find ways of irritating you .... ha-ha. That setting really doesn't look like ideal beaver habitat.

This NYS Safe Act has got a lot of these mail order places spooked. The results of that legislative travesty are going way beyond what most people even realize. Cuomo and his merry band of lackeys really got away with something there when they snuck that law through in the dead of the night. Just remember all this when the next election rolls around.

I lost a $220 Cuddeback on state land last year. The camera had only been out a week or so and was located in an area surrounded by thick brush and multiflora rose. Hard to imagine anyone actually going in there. In fact unless they were familiar with the only nearly imperceptible trail to the spot, I dare say that it is nearly impossible for anyone to get there. Anyway, I learned my lesson. Even areas that are considered to be nearly inpenetratable, or even spots that are so far in that you would consider them absolutely safe, it is likely only a matter of time before you will lose a camera to these thieves.

I simply have problems with those that decree that they have a private insight into all kinds of conspiracies with absolutely no shred of proof. These mythical characters and the lore that goes along with them certainly are entertaining, but if somebody is trying to convince anyone about these evil forces, they had better come equipped with hard evidence and documented proof rather than some once-upon-a-time movie plot. Seriously, when we discuss "human nature", it is wise to understand that it is also human nature to try to take credit for some level of superior secret knowledge that no one else in the public is privy to. It is also true to human nature that many people have wild uncontrollable attractions to anything that sounds conspiratorial. I don't think it is particularly out of line to perhaps apply a bit of mocking to these kinds of "The-sky-is-falling" rantings and ravings until some credible proof or evidence is put forth. That would be credible proof or evidence from credible sources, not some article in some wacked out conspiracy mag or internet site. Oh, and if we are going to assign some conspiratorial motives to every world summit or any kind of meetings where world leaders get together, then we had better figure that the world is already under total domination because this has been going on for centuries. Look people, we have enough real, in-the-flesh problems to worry about without conjuring up mythical ones. I get all excited and concerned about things I can see, hear, touch, and feel. I really don't need any new fictional ones being doled out on a constant basis.

Imagine the presidential democratic choice ....... Miss Hilary or crazy eyes Cuomo. Scary isn't it? And then consider that the Republicans will probably put their usual opposition candidates that no one has ever heard of, or who can't form a complete sentence with their foot stuffed firmly in their mouth. It's a pretty depressing picture isn't it?

Ok, I finally got some of my money back on the messed-up .270 Winchester Powerpoints. I had to drive to Auburn (about 2 hours round trip) to get a couple of replacement boxes of bullets. That is the last Winchester ammo product that I ever will be buying. The whole thing was a $21 loss when I factor in shipping the buggered up bullets back to Winchester. And then, if time and travel and gas count for anything there is an additional screwing involved. Of course the travel to Auburn is not Winchester's fault because they have no control over the ammo shortages that have since developed here. So anyway I am about as clear as possible as far as this whole fiasco (loss and all) and I will be sure never to do any business with Winchester ammo or components again. By the way, I am extremely lucky that the Bass Pro in Auburn had my caliber because most of the shelves that would have contained a lot of the other calibers were absolutely empty. Also, I had no luck finding reloading components anywhere in the store. But anyone with .270 has got it made for a while anyways. The price had only gone up about a dollar since I bought the boxes of damaged ammo at Gander. So it doesn't look like they are trying to gouge anyone there. Sorry , but I didn't look for any .22 rimfire for those of you that are looking for that, so I don't know what their supply and price situation is for that.

Ah yes, buck fever. hopefully we all get a bit of it to one extent or another. I do remember one huge buck that just about killed me in that regard. I had this huge critter about 35 yards from me for about 20 minutes but he was lightly screened with brush. My stand was just inside a thicket on the edge of a small field, and this guy kept me watching from my ground stand with my bow up all that time. He kept pacing back and forth giving me a good view of a huge rack. And quite a few times me made movement toward a trail that would have brought him the 10 or 15 yards to me through the thin line of brush and right into my shooting lane. I have to say that I was starting to go over the edge. This guy had me worked up that much. In fact a couple of times I started getting a bit light-headed. That kind of scared me. After this 20 minutes of physical and mental torture, he just melted back into the brush without ever giving me a shot. I have to wonder if I could have gotten off a shot anyway, I was in such a screwed up state.

Beard and mustache used to work best but that white is kind of defeating that now ..... lol.

Beard and mustache went on in 1972 bow season and will be with me when I get planted.

Yeah, I kind of felt sorry for the little critter. He was constantly being plagued with bugs. That was amazing video quality for a cell phone.

I can recall every bow killed deer. It may take a bit of prompting on some, and maybe I would have to consult my records a bit, but eventually I can recall every detail of each bow kill. I can even recall a lot of details of bow-hunts where I got nothing .... lol. Unfortunately, I cannot claim the same with my gun-killed deer. A few may stand out, but most gun shot deer have been relegated to "meat gathering" status. I'm not real proud of that, and have always considered that I had the same attitude toward all my hunting that you talked about above. But apparently my memories and appreciation of the kills are tied very much to the challenge and method of the hunt and the weapon that I used.

Never underestimate the power and impact of technology. I have seen so many things become reality that were once said to be flat-out impossible. We can't even imagine the extents and potentials of technology in hunting. My example of "computer hunting" was just one example of hunting technology gone crazy. That is definitely one version of hunting success "being completely dictated by the efforts of some set of mechanical and electrical designers". I suspect the future will continue to surprise us with how invasive technology can become in what we consider to be hunting. Maybe we will pay attention and recognize it when we see it or maybe, as has already happened, we will simply come to accept it all simply because of the slow evolutionary way that it comes on us.

Great video, but I still haven't figured out how the fawn got in there in the first place. In the second place, how did anyone know it was in there?

Not nice to have our legal system bent by the social issues and biases and hot-buttons of the day.

Will those stop the penetration of a thorn from a multi flora rose?.....lol

But it's all true!

Wow! That video nailed it.