Doc

Now there is a slick fine line if ever I heard one. The government has single handedly put cigarettes completely out of reach of the poor. Not a mandate? .... excellent playing with words, but not really fooling anyone. Come on, that kind of silliness is something I would expect from some kind of politician trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes. I doubt that many will actually buy into the kind of distinction you are trying to push. They have done everything but take the honest route of making tobacco illegal. I do debate that point because I don't think that the cost of maintaining old people into the nursing homes has been accounted for. I don't think that the routine handfuls of expensive medication that older people take daily has been accounted for either. I will not argue the point about which category of people are healthier, but I will say that non-smokers most likely live into that age of required 100% care and stay there long after smokers are dead and gone. And those that ignore the cost of the elderly likely will believe the statement in your quote. But you can't just count the cost up to age 50 and then stop counting ....lol. I love that soft-peddled phrasing of "discourage"..... lol. But anyway, assuming that healthcare costs are a legitimate justification for mandating standardized individual lifestyle habits, it sounds like you are ready to abdicate your lifestyle choices to the rule of the government. Most likely you believe the concepts of mandated government dictated diets, and required exercise programs are a good idea. I arrive at that because you seem to think such activities by the government are fine when it comes to tobacco. It really is the same mentality. Well, personally, that kind of capitulation to government control is something that I will never agree with. Interesting thought. That little phrase can have very wide-ranging interpretations. Are you also in favor of the government using the same tactics of gross public service ads, and massive taxation being applied to those who are obese, or have unhealthy eating habits or some of these other kinds of harrassments aimed at forcing people to have regular exercise activities? How about some Twinkie taxes? Certainly there are plenty of studies that show links between these kinds of risky eating activities and catastrophic health problems. Why don't you come out in favor of government getting involved in these parts of your life? Or perhaps you do. How about if the government decided that red meat was unhealthy? Would you be in favor of punitive taxation on meat? Certainly you must be in favor of a good punitive tax being placed on sugar. I'm just curious where you draw the line when it comes to government intervention into your life .... all in the name of the negative public impacts. It seems to be ok with you when it is smokers that are on the receiving end of this government harrassment. I wonder how you feel about government intervention and harrassment into things that you engage in?

One thing is for sure ...... The coyote sits at the top of its domain and for the most part, with only one exception, is at the top of the food chain with no effective controling predator .... except humans. The only other controlling features are disease and starvation, and the population has to be way out of balance for those two controls to begin to have much of an impact. So, to fear that liberalizing coyote hunting limits might jeopardize their population or existance, is probably misplaced fears. In reality, increased hunting may actually improve the lives of those that remain. Without some meaningful control (intervention by humans), the populations would be controlled by catastrophic population collapses through disease. That shouldn't be viewed by coyote lovers as being a good result. The other thing that is pretty obvious is that coyote hunting does not have the popularity that something like deer hunting does. If all seasons were to be made unlimited, I doubt that there would be an over-kill of coyotes. But perhaps we might be able to keep the populations more in tune with the habitat and food supply.

Well, here's the deal that I just can't buy. This idea that smokers cost more in medical care than those that don't smoke. The assumption apparently is that if you don't smoke, you go through life without any ailments and then quietly pass in your sleep without costing anybody anything. Well folks, I hate to break it to you, but perhaps you should take a trip to a nursing home to see just what good health and longevity costs us. Most of the people there are not there because they smoked a pack of cigarettes (or more) each day. Smokers generally pass away at a much earlier age and die on theiir own dime. Ever wonder what kinds of cash those poor old souls in nursing homes eat up daily? Old age isn't cheap! Surprise .... surprise ... we all die and it is seldom "cheap". But anyway, even if we do accept the assumption that our living habits can cost extra money, I would like somebody to point out the clause in the Medicare and Medicaid legislation that gives the government control over our personal living habits. Just imagine all the freedoms we can eliminate from diabetics with that philosophy of imagining extra costs involved with poor dietary habits. We can get to the point where we have a mandatory government approved diet. How about the cardio problems that are laid at the feet of "diet & exercise" ..... How far are you willing to go? Should we eliminate anything in our lives that could cause medical problems? How about a government mandate requiring compulsory exercise? Do you people think that tobacco is the end of this kind of thinking? It's only the beginning. Stay tuned ... as ridiculous as some of these remedies sound, believe me, there are a lot of people who have those kinds of things rolling around in their minds. Quitting tobacco use is a great idea, but it should be an issue of personal choice, not a mandate of government.

Nice job!!! And the good thing is that when the smoke from the fire starts chasing you around like it always does me, it's easy to just keep changing swings .... lol.

35.8 degrees right now at 6:17. That doesn't mean we're out of danger, but it looks pretty good. If we can get by this morning, the temps are supposed to keep going up for the next bunch of days. I've got all the plants in, and bunch of little tiny peaches on the trees (first time in several years). Quite a bit at stake, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Actually, it appears that "Big" tobacco must not have paid off enough politicians seeing how the government has done their best to put them out of business. So now government is trying their hardest to wrap themselves around everyone's personal lives. They're doing a damned good job of it too.

So, how about re-loading components? Are they still scarce? Anyone find a good source of pieces and parts where you don't have to start changing your favorite recipes to suit availability? There is another question that I haven't seen answered yet. Does the "back-ground check" on ammunition apply to components, or is it only finished ammunition? That is going to take a lot of the economy out re-loading if mail-order procurement is made impossible because of a background-check requirement. I am assuming that back-ground checks will need in-person sales with all the appropriate paper work to prove you are who you say you are.

Lol ..... It really has become a national pastime to get into everyone else's business, and critique their lifestyle. Must be we all feel like we are the only ones who know the right way to live, and we all intend to live forever. It's probably not a news flash, but we are all going to get sick and die of something eventually. As far as I know, nobody has perfected immortality. Also, I haven't heard of anyone who has figured out how and when to die in the most convenient way. In fact, for the rest of us, the smokers are the most thoughtful types. They usually die early and don't force the rest of us to provide them with all the geriatric needs and care for decades into their old doddering years. It's interesting to visit nursing homes and look at how we are warehousing all these people for years way beyond what we would have if they had continued to smoke. Maybe I should be apologizing now for having quit smoking a handful of years ago......lol.

And who says you can't eat antlers?

I have to agree that government has probably way over-stepped its boundaries with the smoking issue. In fact I am not totally convinced that cigarette smoking costs us anything. To say that assumes that if we eliminated tobacco products, no one would ever die or be hospitalized or get sick from something else ..... and we all know that's not true. But what I like least is the proven concept that government with all of our limitless resources can effectively get engaged in mass behavior modification through taxation. Look for this remedy to be exploited on all kinds of other things in the future. They decide they don't like obesity, expect sugar taxes. They don't like anything else that they deem is harmful behavior, expect new taxes. Oh and by the way behavior modification through taxation can be applied to hunting and gun ownership if they should take such a notion. Here's the deal .... if you can prove that something should have government backed elimination, at least have the stones to declare it a controlled substance and make it illegal rather thanusing the back-door and turning it into a tax issue. That solution (taxation) to control citizen behavior is getting to be an all too popular remedy.

Shot in the arm ..... That's probably a good trade-off rather than sitting and watching the guy get eaten alive by the bear waiting for the perfect shot .... lol.

Another feature that I have found that is a natural deer magnet is what I call "seeps". They're not exactly flowing springs, but they are super sloppy-wet muddy spots of water seeping out of the ground. I have never found one that wasn't completely mucked up with deer tracks. I believe these may be mineral springs that provide minerals that deer really crave. I know of only 3 of them in the area that I hunt, but they are traditional hot-spots and often get visited well within daylight shooting hours.

I gave up on trying to salvage roadkilled deer. Too much clotted up meat lost. Wasn't worth the time it takes to butcher them.

So, I am trying to picture how this became a fatality. Was the injury caused by some part of the deer wacking him in a lethal part of his body or was it the contact with the pavement after the collision? Was the guy wearing a helmet? Yeah, it's got to hurt to be clobbered with a deer running full-tilt, but it's hard to imagine that would be fatal. Normally deer collisions become super violent because of the speed of the vehicle. But a bicycle ??? I've got a feeling there may have been some secondary contact that actually caused the death that they collide with. Whatever the details are that were left out of this story, it really does sound like a "freak" accident.

Many years ago, we (Our NFAA archery club) used to use excelsior bales, metal banded to keep them tight. That worked pretty good and almost all of the clubs used them. But ... They weren't cheap even back then (mid 1980's). But over-all, they were a lot better than hay could ever be for longevity.

Eddie .... One thing that should work out well with thai target is that it is good for broadheads too. that's the one drawback to my corrugated cardboard butt. It may last almost thirty years with field tips, but don't ever shoot a broadhead tipped arow into it if you ever want to get it back again. When it comes time to check out my broadheads, I get those cheapie styrofoam targets from Walmart. I can get about 2 years out of them before they start leaking arrows. One thing that discourages my using field tips in styrofoam is the gosh-awful grip that it gets on the arrow shafts when the target is new. It really doesn't want to give the arrows back. It's no problem with broadheads because they cut a "relief" path through. One complaint that I do have with Walmart's variety of styrofoam is that after the target starts getting chopped up a bit, it leaves an awful mess with little round styrofoam balls all over the place. That's the one advantage of removing the plastic wrapper like you do. On the Walmart targets, the plastic wrapper is the target face. When I take it in the house for the winter, that plastic sheeting is like a leaky bag full of all that styrofoam debris. It always seems that over the winter the thing gets moved around enough to make a hell of a mess in the basement. Also I think I like the price of your target a lot better than Walmart's .... lol. The one thing you can always be sure of regardless of what material you use is that broadheads will eventually chop them up. It's good to have a free replacement material.

Well, you certainly have your work cut out for you. How many acres in the new chunk of hunting ground? Regarding that "new weed", do you have any idea what it is? Maybe somebody here has dealt with it before. If you're not sure what it is, it might help to post a picture or two of it.

Again, I have no quarrel with targeted exposure to those who need it. It might make a good school project to distribute such stuff to known smokers. I could see pre-recorded messages that kids could email to friends that might be thinking of starting smoking. But again, I have to ask, is there a human being on this planet that is still in the dark about the health effects of smoking?

My Brother-in-law from Canada sent me down a video that was very much like those ads only worse. And no, that didn't work on me either at the time, but at least it was pointed at the particular individual that it was intended for and not just randomly blasted across the airwaves and forced on everybody. Yes, if anyone is convinced that his sort of gross-out is ever effective, my Brother-in-law's technique of targeted exposure certainly was in far better taste.

The very best arrow backstop that I ever had is a 4' x 4' corrugated cardboard target. I constructed layers of cardboard arranged so that the arrows would be shot into the legthe of the corregations which makes it quite self-healing. The layers are compressed together with two 1/2" threaded rods that can be re-tightened when necessary. Every so many years, when the center eventually becomes chopped up, the whole thing can be pulled apart and rebuilt with the unshot corrugations put into the center and the shot ones moved to the top and bottom, and reversed so that there are all new corrugations to shoot at. I built this target back in 1986, and it is still in use today. It has taken untold thousands of arrows from my constant practice and additional shots from guests. Today, 27 years later, it finally only serves as a backstop. The edges are still holding arrows, but the center has finally gotten a bit too soft. Instead of rebuilding it again, I took the lazy way out and just hung a Block target in from. The outside edges of the 4' x 4' original butt will still stop some crazy shot that gets away. So even after all these years, it still is serving the purpose of stopping arrows. Poor old tired cardboard butt has finally given up the center, but the edges will still stop any crazy shots Yes, I do have lights so I can shoot at night. The frame off to the left is my target holder for bench shooting with the rifles.

We have some good ones as well. And at my age, I may very well need one some day. However, I have quit smoking enough years ago so that it will be getting harder and harder to blame it on smoking as time goes on. At any rate, these TV ads aren't too likely to help that situation a whole lot other than to spoil my suppers with gross images. But you know, that isn't really what I pay those exhorbitant Cable TV rates for. Maybe you enjoy seeing that garbage on your TV, but I don't.

Oh, that's just plain crap. That's like the justification for some of the gun laws ..... if it saves just one life then it's worth doing. Yeah ... right. The fact is that that line of reasoning has been used to justify more damned abuses than any other argument going. The fact is that these gross images can not be justified for invading the homes of people who would rather not see that kind of garbage. TV programming should still be subject to rules of good taste and a respect for the sensitivities of the majority of viewers who are paying good money for that kind of crap. You want to muck around in the lives of others and try to dictate what's good for them, find some other way of doing it than forcing these gross images into the lives of every TV viewer (smoker or not). Oh, and by the way, does anyon ereally believe that smokers are unaware of the consequences of smoking. I maintain that if they have been under a rock somewhere and aren't aware of all the health problems associated with smoking, they aren't likely to be swayed with some gross TV ads.

I saw a video of a guy sitting at a rifle shooting bench with his cross bow. He had the bi-pod dropped down and the stock nested into a sandbag and peeking through a scope, shooting at 100 yards. He had the prettiest looking rifle shooting form and was rock steady. He probably got that nice "surprise triggering" that every rifle shooter likes to get. He shot quite a few shots that never strayed out of the bull. I suppose he could have missed but he would have had to do so intentionally. I'm not sure what that's got to do with the original post, but just going along with the most recent replies .... lol.

So many things to think about in archery. Absolutely, your arrows should be matched including every accessory on the arrow. The name of the game is "consistancy"!! Also, be just as critical on consistancy with your form as you are with your equipment (maybe even more so). Consistant anchor is a must ....... Consistant stance .... Consistant grip ..... Consistant shoulder and arm set-up .... Consistant follow through ...... Consistant aiming ..... Consistant-consistant-consistant-consistant. When talking groups, all these things have an impact and repeating the same form and shooting routines are essential. So when it comes to closing down groups, equipment is only one part of it all.

How on earth do we ever get people to serve as law enforcement officers? I can't imagine doing such a job. It seems like there are way too many no-win situations that they have to get involved with. Also, there seems to be an awful lot of peple who simply hate cops (why, I can't figure out) and are hoping that they screw up. The assumption always seems to be that the cop messed up. You couldn't pay me enough money to take on that job.