Doc

You laugh! ...... These are some other guys that are yet to be heard from. Wait until they get the feeling they are being discriminated against. Sure enough, someone will have to ask why they don't have a special season or get shoved into what is becoming a "diminished capability season"..... lol. Think about it... muzzleloaders have a special season, bows have a special season, those poor guys have got to be wondering why they don't have a special season ..... right? Give them some time, eventually they most likely will be trying to push their way into the "early season" too. Ha-ha-ha .... I love this thread. It is getting more and more ridiculous by the page ..... lol.

What is it that makes any of us think that we have the authority to be stating definitions or weapons requirements as though we were reading them out of some official lawbook ..... lol. Understand that there are no individuals making those kinds of calls. As far as I know, no one has ever made a ruling on what components or actions or functions have to be present to turn something into a bow. So I guess we can try to make it sound like we have all the criteria for defining what is or is not a bow and it all might sound real nice and official. But the fact is that as far as I have seen even the dictionaries can't agree on such definitions. The distinctions of what should go into bow season seems to be absolutely wide open to anyone's interpretations these days. And there are plenty of people willing to offer up their opinions. That doesn't mean that anyone's opinion is any more valid than anyone else's. When each weapon is defined by law-makers and the DEC, then it is indeed coming from a legal source and is worthy of being listened to. Anything else is strictly an "opinion" and we all know what they say about opinions ..... lol. It would not surprise me to see people trying to cram this "air gun" thing into bow season based on what ever criteria people happen to find convenient at the time. We have plenty of precedents available for bastardizing bow seasons. It's been done before.

During the summer months, the wife and myself do a bit of hiking over at Canadice lake. There is an old logging road that goes the side of the lake that is now used as a hiking and biking trail. We could go anywhere for a little exercise, but we drive to that specific spot simply because of the beautiful and totally unique landscape that can't be matched in this part of the fingerlakes. I sure would hate to see anything ugly happen to either of those lakes. Below is just one of the old foundations of the cottages that used to ring the shoreline back in the early 1900's before Rochester bought the lakes and pulled them all down. Brings to mind the "metal detector" thread in the Chit-chat forum ....lol. And here's one of Hemlock lake: It was a long struggle to save those lakes from development when Rochester decided to sell. Finally after a few years of lobbying, the DEC bought both lakes and their watersheds. Supposedly all that effort was to preserve the lands for the future. It would be a shame to then have our own DEC offer it all up for destruction.

Wow, at $.75 apiece, that could be a pile of cash. I have 7 or more carousels. That's a lot of slides. I don't know what Walmart charges, but it may even be more than that. I have just a small selected bundle of people pictures that I separated out, and I came up with about 150 of them to start. Thats $113.50 and only a small miniscule part of the collection. However, if I can't figure out a different way, I may have to resort to paying the big bucks. By the way, did I ever mention the fact that I am cheap .... lol. But I may have no choice. I have some that just should never be lost. I'm going to go out and see what Walmart has and what they charge for the process.

Actually 50 years from now, hunting will be a whole lot different than we know it today. How do I know that? .... Well, I have seen how much it has changed over the last 50 years. Other than some extended seasons, and some liberalized bag limits, I'm afraid that it hasn't really improved all that much in terms of the quality of the hunt in fact it is mostly moving in negative directions. Things seem to have gotten a lot more complicated and the social aspects of hunting have really gone severely downhill compared to years past. There now seems to be a lot of politics-of-hunting taking over hunting. And today there is more concern with hunters competing with other hunters than hunters vs. game. The measures of success have been perverted to just numbers and measurements. The lives of people are becoming so crammed full of obligations and other activities that hunting has taken on an aire of "hurry-up and go and let's get this over with". The increasing problems with access have already been mentioned. All those things are showing patterns of increasing and are being reflected in participation and the downward spiral of the quality of the hunt. So what can one really expect from another 50 years? I suspect that if I were somehow magically returned 50 years from now, I probably wouldn't even want to be involved in hunting. Strong words, but just looking at the directions of things and the increasing rate of negative change, I don't think it will even be recognizable or offer anything that I would be interested in. The question is will the changes be so gradual that people will slowly acclimate to all these negative changes and accept the new versions of "hunting". Well, each generation seems to be adapting and even forcing some of these changes, so I would guess that the answer might be yes. Those that have never known anything better really can't miss it and will simply accept things as they are.

Relative to official letters to corporations, legislators and such, your language expressions should mirror whatever importance you attach to the issue. Like it or not people do judge you by your language, and if you are serious about getting the kinds of responses you want, particularly issues of request or opinion, it's probably a good idea to use what you were taught.

Bad case of cabin fever setting in. I probably should have become one of those "snow birds" that migrate south every winter ....... lol. Always get a bit restless about this time of year. Not too much of a snow guy.

Lol .... I thought you were just going for a little comedic relief. I never thought you were really trying to make some kind of serious point. I mean if it wasn't meant to be funny, then it is all quite silly and irrelevant. But then most of this thread falls under that category, doesn't it? See, the problem with you guys is that you actually think you are going to change someone's opinion ..... lol. After all the volumes on this subject that have been written on this forum over the past couple of years, you don't really believe that anyone is seriously going to change their opinion do you? And if you don't believe you will change anyone's mind, then why are you wasting your time. It's all become like summer re-runs now anyway. There hasn't been a new point brought up on this subject in two years. Repeating the same nonsense over and over doesn't make any of it any more factual does it? By the way, what is this nonsense about you letting people shoot at you with a crossbow? Are you nuts?

Ok, I have a jillion slides from years ago that I want to put into digital media. I have a converter, but it does a very unsatisfactory job in terms of color matching, exposure and sharpness. I have also tried some of the printer/scanners with slide copying capability with the same unhappy results. I have been considering breaking out the old slide projector and using my digital camera for taking pictures of the screen image. Has anyone tried doing this? Any success? Any other suggestions?

I also am rebelling against high-tech hunting. I've already gone too far in that direction with the super bow that I bought almost 20 years ago ..... lol. But seriously, I want my success or failure to rely more on what I can do than what I can buy. I would just as soon get these electro-tech wizards out of my hunting.

As far as future hunting implements, tracking devices, scouting gizmos and bait-like items, new deer farming methods to create super-deer, and whatever other new technology that will be available to use against our prey, I doubt we can even imagine what 50 years of "progress" will come up with. But you can bet that over 5 decades, they will come up with things that make you shake your head ..... lol.

I would assume that most are in it as strictly a hobby activity. But I have seen some use metal detecting for finding gold. They were not getting rich by any means, but they were picking up some spending cash by playing with metal detecting as a hobby. Watching that program "Diggers" on TV, you have to sift through all the goofy BS, but I did find it amazing at how low a value is placed on most of what they find. Some of those old coins that you would think should really be worth a lot of money turn out to be only a couple dollars. A lot of the other stuff that they find are just plain "junk". However, when they are things that you have found yourself, they take on a different, non-monetary value. Depending on where you find stuff, it can take on a mini-historical value as you try to imagine the circumstances of who, how, when, it wound up where it did, and in some cases even trying to figure out exactly what a find really is can provide a little entertainment value.

Some time in the early 1900's, two of the finger lakes had all of the houses and cottages ripped down, leaving nothing but foundations. I went over there and scanned a few of the foundations and came up with nothing. Of course who knows how many had already been over those same foundations hundreds of times all ready. There was also an old foundation on a deserted road up back that yielded nothing. The reason? ..... All around the area was buried sheet metal roofing just about 2 inches under the dirt. Lot's of signals (everywhere!) but no way to isolate anything. I have another spot that I have to check out. Its the remnants of an old sugar-shack half way up our hill. I want to get out a lot more this coming summer.

Things are really getting out of control. The worst part is that these jerks really do believe that they are accomplishing something useful when they come down hard in these kinds of innocent situations. Is there really any wonder how these kinds of people go from gan-shaped pastries to the irrational thinking that the appearance of a particular weapon (so-called "assault rifle") should be grounds for banning? People are going goofy when it comes to firearms. And this episode is just the latest nuttiness that fits right into the rest of it.

Special seasons weapons and regulations: It is possible that 50 years from now there will be no bow season. It will become something that they might call a "primitive weapons season" where bows, crossbows, and muzzle loaders, and perhaps even black powder pistols and maybe even atlatyls (sp?) and possibly even weapons that we haven't even considered will all become combined. These weapons will be allowed in an early season, right through a much longer "rifle, pistol and shotgun season" and into what we now consider the "late season". Bag limits for all seasons will be increased significantly as the hunter numbers shrink to the point where they cannot adequately control deer populations. There will be increased experiments with alternate wildlife population control. They probably will be unsuccessful, but with the ever-increasing pace of technology .... who knows? Pistols may have to be excluded from hunting seasons depending on how successful the anti-handgun groups and politicians are.

How many of you people own and use a metal detector? Have you ever found anything of any value (other than lost aluminum arrows ..... lol)? What are your most targeted places ... foundations, old abandoned houses and farm buildings, playgrounds, beaches, parks, etc.?

Now again remember that this is an exercise in imagination and may or may not be based on any actual fact. But anyway, let me try my hand at some of this. I'll have a go at future hunting opportunities: State land will be the only land available for free open public hunting except for the commercial fenced hunting preserves. The state lands will have heavy regulation and perhaps even a drawing system in order to maintain a huntable supply of game because of the increased volume of hunters. The fees on leases and commercial hunting preserves will remain exhorbitant and even rise as a percentage of income. Private land that is not being used as hunting preserves or heavy-priced leases will be owned by hunters who keep the land for their own use or will be broken into small parcels or non-hunters who keep their land heavily posted. Farmers will continue to go out of business and will be breaking up their holdings into developments so those lands will go out of hunting opportunities. And so, the bottom line is that access for hunting will continue to be restricted, scarce and expensive to obtain, moving well out of reach for those of moderate income. Much of this will be causing management problems, and some areas will be over-run by deer until the devastating forces of nature begin to be the only population control.

So, let your imagination run loose for a moment. What do you think hunting will be like 50 years from now? What changes do you envision as far as weapons, seasons, regulations, game availability, etc.?

That's the one that counts!

Many years ago (58 to be exact), I climbed the hill behind the house with a hammer and chisel and carved my initials and the date into a huge old granite boulder that some farmer from long ago had dragged over to the edge of the field. I'm thinking that some day somebody will run across that and see perhaps the only thing that is left from me ..... ha-ha. I picture them looking at this carving and trying to picture how that came to be there. It is kind of like an old beech tree about a 1/4 mile from my house that I call the initial tree. It is a huge twisted old thing that is about 4 to 5 feet in diameter and is covered with old initials. One of the initials is R.C.A. with a 1913 date. It is Ruby Allen from a family that owned our old homestead years ago. She carved her name all over the place in our old barn and apparently this tree got in her way too ..... lol. The lines of the letters had grown to about 1-1/2 inches wide, but the whole carving was still very readable. The entire surface of the tree was covered with the initials of a whole bunch of people (probably all neighbor kids) that left their sign of passing there for people of the future to read. Of course mine is there also from back when I was a kid. Today, the tree is dying and probably will be down soon.

That's amazing. The fantastic stone-work and the time and effort put into these structures is unbelievable. I do seem to remember an out-flow of water on one of them. Isn't it something how you can run onto so many things that are long-forgotten, but were so important to the individuals that put them there. It's a rare gift of historical minutia when you stop to contemplate the lives of the people that actually used the land, you can concoct some amazing mental images of these people who were born, lived out their lives, and passed without leaving a trace except for these random item scattered through the woods. One thing it always does for me is to put in perspective all those things that seem so damned important and earth shattering during our lives, and the fact that they too will all eventually fade into nothingness and of concern to absolutely no one.

The Iranians have had decades to buy, steal, and be given assistance as an oil-rich predominately war-trained entity. If we ever found ourselves in a situation of sudden government oppression, we will find ourselves without the war-focused infrastructure that Iran has. As far as our technically trained civilians, of course given enough time they could figure out these things by reverse engineering them. And then perhaps the opposition will allow enough time to train operators. And then maybe they would let you take the one unit that you captured on-site to a location where you could operate it for a minute or so before they blew the unit up along with any personel near it. Another thing to keep in mind is that we are getting real big in the area of unmanned warfare. That is where the focus is today and will become the wave of the future. Think about that for a bit when you are talking about a civilian uprising. Look, I can daydream right along with the best of you. But when the thinking gets out of the comic-book stage and enters a bit of reality, there is nothing wrong with understanding the realities of your situation. Less time fantasizing and more time thinking of real solutions is probably a lot more sensible. There may be preventative measures that we should be focusing on right now rather than trying to find comfort in fantasy. It is a lot of fun trying to write the next movie depicting how our fantasy war with the government will go. But we have real problems facing us that will need real solutions. coming up with these feel-good solutions is great for entertainment, but right now we should be focusing on political solutions to avoid the apocalyptic scenarios that we are entertaining ourselves with. I keep getting the feeling that there are way too many who are saying, "Look at us. We are invincible. Never mind all that political stuff, If anything ever happens, we'll just smear up our grease-paint, grab up our deer rifles and take care of it". I'm simply saying, don't get all caught up in that nonsense. There are some real political actions that are required, not this useless fantasizing.

Look, don't get mad at me for adding a little common sense into the conversation. If you and others choose to view yourselves as some kind of Rambo-types, don't let me interrupt your fantasies, but I will tell you that only a tiny number of people are savvy enough to operate most of the military weapons of the day. And I am honest enough to admit that if you walked me up to one of those drones, or the patriot missle system, I would definitely not be able to operate even if I had an operating manual in front of me. I can't picture too many of us that could jump in a tank and even get the thing to move. That's not condescending .... that's just plain old horse-sense.

It is a fact that short supply and high demand will be reflected in the prices when all this craziness shakes out. Both the manufacturers and the retailers understand that. Neither the retailers or the manufacturers can do anything about the demand, but they sure do have control on the supply side of the equation, should they choose to use it.

Lol .... It's real hard to imagine that goofy-looking piece of wood being mistaken for or intended as any form of a rifle type stock. My comment about the illegality of "mean and dangerous" looking firearms was a facetious remark relating to the current criteria for determining what guns should to be outlawed.