Doc

Sometimes it takes a few years for that other head to grow under their armpit .... lol. Seriously though, I doubt that anyone thinks that every well causes problems. If it was that guaranteed a disaster, we wouldn't be needing this conversation. In fact every spill or accident doesn't always cause problems. I just wouldn't want to be the guy that lived next to one that did create permanent subterranean pollution.

Back in the late 80's, we went to Ontario for our moose hunt. What we found was that farther is better. The locals put some pretty good pressure on themoose population in the southern area. We went up to an outfitter in Shining Tree, and rented one of his cabins just to satisfy the law that required the services of an outfitter. We spent the first night and then dragged all our stuff for 40 miles of dirt road. We put in two canoes and a small motor boat and went the length of the first lake. A 150 yard portage into another lake and then all the way to the end of that lake into the swampy end. We set up camp, and never heard or saw another person for the days that we were there. No cabins, nothing. Third morning there we were packing our moose out. Went back to the outfitter's camp and shoved the moose into their walk-in freezer and had the guy cook up the liver for us and we spent the night in the cabin that we rented. Tags were no problem at all back then. we had bull tags, cow tags and calf tags. Of course that was quite a few years ago. The entire trip was planned right down to the last detail right from our offices at work. A little topo work, a lot of reading, and some phone calls and away we went.

No, they are not being shunned because they are a corporation. They are being super-scrutinized because they are dealing in admitted (but secret) concoctions of toxins and carcinogens. This philosophy of "trust me" simply doesn't fly with me and any other thinking person who may have to live with whatever aftermath that results from error, accidents or just plain outright deceit. I don't think this can conveniently be labeled as liberal, conservative or any other kind of political idealogy. It is simply an environmental concern that relates to one of the critical needs of human existance ..... water. NIMBY .... You bet your behind! Hell, I don't even want it in anybody else's backyard .... lol.

Just heard a shot up-back about 5 minutes ago.

Ever since the days after my recurves and port orford cedar arrows, I switched to aluminums, and never found any need to use anything else. Over the years, I have accumulated so many aluminum arrows that I will never have to buy another one.

You know, Ontario and Quebec have an awful lot of moose, and tags are plentiful. Why aren't you guys heading there? It's not really all that far.

Sounds like there are quite a few of you guys having luck this year. I'm going to have to try it some time.

Weird critters. They can't make up their minds whether they want o be a mammal or a bird...lol.

So let me get this straight. You have air trapped around your legs and feet so you will float like a cork ..... except upside down. So if anyone is looking for you, they need only look for the pair of feet bobbing around in the water ..... lol. .....Just kidding, but it does make a bit of a funny mental image.

Is there anything about another hunter that even remotely looks like a turkey? Anything at all???

That's kind of what they did at the tire place. I'll have to remember that trick in the future. If the tire went completely flat over one winter, I can probably count on it doing it again next year.

Generally speaking that is a normal ritual that I go through every winter, but I honestly don't remember adding it to the tiller. Plus, I can't believe that in this day and age the stupid thing does not have a gas primer bulb. Everything that I have got now that starts reliably has that feature. I used to have an old rear tine Dynamark tiller (Briggs & Stratton engine) that started with one or two pulls every year ..... always. I can't tell you how old it really was but it's like in the 20+ year old range. However well the engine ran and started, other stuff was beginning to fall off and there was more baling wire and duct tape on it than original parts. Still not really a problem until finally it began to arbitrarily spit the recoil rope out into the turning tines. I had to stop and coax the cord back in far enough so that it would not get ripped out by the roots with the tiller tines. Well last year, I figured the poor old thing had to be replaced so I gave it to my Brother-in-law (who pretty much wrecks anything he gets his hands on), and I bought a nice new, shiney, Troy-bilt rear tine, super-duper tiller. Well, that worked out real good.

What a year so far. I started off with a bad battery in the mower. I had to buy a new one (and it is no fun getting that thing in and out of the mower). Then I pulled out the roto-tiller to do the garden ..... flat tire (why are those tiny tires pneumatic?). Because of the shape and size of the tire, the bead was so far away from the rim that I couldn't get it started. Had to drive all the way into town to go to a tire place to get it blown up. Put it on, and then found out the tiller did not want to start (brand new last year). So, I had to take that 30 miles to drop it off and won't be seeing that for a couple weeks. It's no wonder why I turn into a raving maniac at times. I can hardly wait to see what adventures will occur when I go to start up the weed eater, or the DR Trimmer. I don't have a whole lot of luck with these things.

Ever wonder how much of this stuff has been hyped beyond its true impact? I mean, just how many years is it supposed to add onto your life if you obsess about each and every bite you eat. The doctors, scientists, and media have you reading labels, and not eating this and not eating that to the point where we stress out at every meal. And yet there is no way that they can say that if you eat regularly at McDonalds that it will strip "X" number of years off your life. The way I read it, the whole U.S. population consists of obese, out-of-shape, self-poisoned time-bombs that are at danger of keeling over at any time because of their lifstyle and eating habits. And yet the life expectancy continues to stretch. Oh and before anyone brings it up, I do realize that they have perfected the ability to keep you alive almost indefinitely through drugs and medical devices (Some of that I don't really call "being alive"). But still ... listen to the constant drumbeat of the so-called experts. we're all going to die next year if we don't start taking up a set of "grazing" eating habits. Most likely we are more liable to die from the added stress in our lives over the proper eating and lifestyle habits. Get me another order of fries and huge dish of ice-cream!

That is the very least that I expect to come out of all this nonsense. Shooting will become a lot more expensive than it was before all this hoarding crap began. It probably will mean fewer trips to the range.

Thanks for the tip. I have never heard of that brand of ammo before and maybe the "hoarders" haven't either .... yet. They seem to have most of the more popular calibers. The only disappointment that I had was in their components. The selection was very sparce. Reloading components is where my need is right now. The problem with reloading is that the recipe is very specific and interchanging components is not really an option once you have a successful load worked out. So sizes, makes, materials, formulations and styles are all exactly important. But anyway, if they truly have all the stuff in stock that they advertise, you have indeed found a rare source. Thanx for that.

I'm not exactly sure which area science you are into since there are a whole lot of scientific aspects to the problems caused by fracking. Are you disputing that significant numbers of toxic spills occur with fracking? Are you thinking that toxic spills cannot create ground water contamination and/or airborne hazards to surrounding properties? I let my fingers do the walking through the internet, and I can assure you that with just a few minutes of your time, should you choose to do so, you can find plenty of evidence from unbiased sources that plenty of toxic spills have occurred with fracking practices. I can assure you that you can find bonafide reports that not all of these spills and pollutions stayed contained to the site or property lines where they occurred. So your assurances that I can deny drilling on my property, while very generous of you still does not protect me from spills that occur on your side of the fence. I am willing to concede that as far as I know, what happens thousands of feet underground has not been proven to impact surface conditions .... yet. But I and others are rightfully concerned about what can and does happen at the surface when dealing with toxins and carcinogenic materials. I'm not sure if that satisfies your need for scientific proof. But then I will say that I have seen no scientific evidence from you or anyone else that slopping toxins and carcinogenic materials around on the ground is environmentally safe.

Yup, I know it's a nationwide condition, but it still seems like a pretty extreme situation. It's hard to believe that manufacturers are cranking out stuff as fast as possible and still hardly anybody is able to beat these hoarders to the stores. It all seems way out of scale. It makes you wonder just how many of these hoarders there are. They must be heavily blanketing the whole country. Just think of the volume of bullets of all calibers and makes and the components (again all calibers, manufacturers, powder formulations, sizes and other variations), these guys must have accumulated already. The variations and combinations of these things poses a monstrous volume of stock. It's staggering! Oh, and by the way, I wonder if Canada is in the same situation ..... other countries? Anybody heard?

Currently, I have no interest in factory ammo. But I am hurting for reloading components. Apparently that is being hoarded. Even the kinds of powder that I use is impossible to locate. I've got to say that that is one heck of a lot of hoarding. It sure sounds like more than just a few guys out here filling their houses with rifles, bullets and components. In fact it almost sounds unbelieveable in scope. particularly if it is true that manufacturers are maxed out.

Oh this is complete nonsense. You think that everyone who has an issue with pumping toxins into the ground and slopping it all over the environment is a tree-hugging lib? That's utter foolishness. And if you don't think that corporations are capable of being environmentally irresponsible (and a bit devious with the truth) then you don't have much of a grasp on reality and history. And if you are looking for anti-fracking links you don't have to spent more than 3 minutes on google to find more than you could ever read. Those that would give all corporations a free pass and no scrutiny and complete unquestioned faith in the "science" of corporations deserve whatever they get, but don't be criticising those that do want to make them prove their case. I think it's quite natural and proper for people to worry about environmental issues, especially extreme cases such as fracking. And thank heavens there are a few that do.

I am a pretty regular customer of theirs and never received any e-mail from them. I'm not saying that such a thing never happened, but if you are serious about reaching all of your customers, a little blurb one one of the many flyers that they are still sending out wouldn't hurt. Also, I believe you have found the only place on the entire site that mentions any kind of limit. I checked through the .270 listings, and even on the couple that had an availability there was absolutely no statement of quantity limits. On components .... the same thing on bullets. What I am finding interesting is that it is claimed that ammunition manufacturers are all going balls out with their productions, and yet it would appear that Midway has been getting none of it for months and apparently don't expect to be getting any for the foreseeable future. It seems like some of these mom and pop gun stores have a better line of supply than Midway because periodically something shows up for the hoarders to clean off the shelves. Something simply isn't adding up. If hoarders are the problem, where is it that they are getting their supply. Are we saying the the entire ammunition industry is only selling to hoarders? Come-on. There is something not being explained or not being explained correctly. Something is being terribly mismanaged in the area of supply, and Midway is part of that problem. Enough excuses! I want results. And that is exactly what I asked Midway for. How they solve their supply problem is up to them. I simply want it solved.

There certainly is enough blame to go around, but this attitude of business as usual without a word of explanation or announcements of what the future of this situation is or what their actions are relative to solutions is inexcuseable. I'm sure they are not just sitting on their hands waiting for something to run its course. Midway is not your corner gun store. I know there are things that customers can do to apply pressure on their suppliers, and that applies all the way from the individual consumer on up. I have been in that end of business and know that there are no acceptable excuses for disrupted continuity of supply. Of course if everyone is going to dream up excuses for everyone along the supply side of this issue, then I really don't look for anything to change. Right or wrong, I don't accept excuses, I only accept results. It's up to everyone along the chain to apply pressure as needed to get to those results. If somebody is buying up all ammo as quickly as it can be manufactured, I find it hard to believe that Midway management is not aware of it. I also find it hard to believe that they would not implement limits on sales to get a more uniform distribution. Satisfying a handful of hoarders at the expense of your main customer base is not good business for the long haul, and is a slap in the face to the regular customers. And for those of you that think everything will be back to normal in a few months or a year, I hope you are right, but I don't see anything that will make that happen. Like it or not, there is a new middleman in the pipeline. We call them "hoarders", but they really are people that buy from the willing and cooperative retailers and then gain control the market and the product. That little arrangement with the willing cooperation of outfits like Midway are not likely to disappear and prices will forever be impacted by this activity. I really don't want to recieve flyers trying to sell chronographs to people that can't get bullets to shoot through them. They need to understand that their number one priority has to be figuring out how to solve their supply and resale problem. Those that want to just sit back and become silent victims, fine. Myself, I am going to start kicking and screaming a bit. And my voice begins at my supplier.

I'll tell you what. If I encountered that kind of gouging going on by these filthy hoarders, I would have been right in their face telling them what I thought of someone would do that sort of thing to fellow gun owners. Perhaps if these guys spent their entire day with irrate gunowners ripping them a "new one" they might end this nonsense and allow the supply to return to normal. But as long as people continue to play into their hands and buy this stuff at their inflated prices, the hoarding and gouging will likely continue indefinitely. We've got to get a little less tolerant of this situation people and start fighting back where we can and in any way that we can. A lot of people think that all we have to do is sit back and wait like a lump and all will get better. I don't think that is going to cut it. I believe that the ammo retailing system is going through some changes and perhaps permanent changes where this kind of gouging is in danger of becoming the norm.

I think you guys are too eager to give these retailers a break. They have an obligation to at least acknowledge that there is a problem. Has anyone heard word one about how they intend to alleviate the situation? Anyone seen any attempt to explain anything about their inability to supply their product? Has anyone seen any sign that they are concerned for their customers? Has anyone seen any explaination as to how they are trying to thwart the hoarders? Are they doing anything to thwart the hoarders. I want to see some concern! I don't want to see a major supplier yawning and carrying on business-as-usual without their one primary product. These are the guys who have the ear of the manufacturers. They are a major account that has some clout. At the very least they have the ability to get answers and convey them on to us out of simple concern for their customers. I'm not ready to let anybody along the chain of supply off the hook. They all are part of the system that's going to have to adapt and take action. And as a very minimum, they should have the decency to communicate to their customers with more than just sale flyers.

They have allowed their supply to their customers to be disrupted. If you can't guarantee supply then get the hell out of the business. I don't care if they are part of the problem or all of the problem, or just a symptom, but months have gone by and the situation is exactly the same and shows no sign of being fixed and not even a statement or apology or explanation or even an acknowledgement that they have a problem. Your damned right I am mad and while I may be striking out at the wrong people, I am getting sick and tired of sitting here like a lump watching this problem go on and on for month after month with no end or explanation in sight. They definitely have taken the posture of not caring about the inconvenience to their customers and if they feel the need to be sending out flyers and such, it might be a good idea to add in an occasional statement about the disrupted supply of ammo and ammo components as well as maybe at least a minimum of explanation as to what they are planning to do to remedy the situation. Are they in the business or not?