Doc

Quote from article: "Public perception of Walmart (WMT) and Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) improved after both retailers imposed new restrictions on gun sales". Well, that is all very nice, so now the public thinks they are all nice people....But what about paying customers? What do they think? These people fail to understand that their income does not come from " the good will of the public", but rather from cash carrying sportsmen and women. They have forgotten that their purpose is to make money, not good public images. We need to get through this cycle of corporations committing suicide in the name of political correctness. I suppose this nonsense will cure itself once enough of then wind up in the trash-heap because of their stupidity. That can't happen soon enough to suit me.

I see all this talk about the age to BUY guns, but nothing about people under those ages from USING them. As I understand it, I can hand a kid a gun at any age and let them use it.......Is that correct or not? I hope so or Florida has just dealt hunting a lethal blow in that state.

No, in my opinion, a .223 is a bit under-gunned for reliable deer killing. That's not to say that it can't be done, but there are so many other calibers that do a so much better job in a far more reliable fashion.

Pretty much, unless something breaks, bends or gets lost, nothing new gets added anymore for archery equipment.

Recorded the first episode the other night and watched it last night. Great show so far. I always enjoy shows about the frontiersmen. Probably my earliest interest and involvement with hunting, trapping, and nature and such was because of books that I read as a kid about these people. These guys were my childhood action-heroes.

Look, we can argue all day long about whether we agree with the science used, but there is no doubt that science and statistics and studies and procedures are the backbone of management principles. I guess I really don't understand this article. Are they implying that seasons and bag limits and such are simply drawn out of a hat or established with a dart board and a handful of darts? Come-on, I have as many complaints about goof-ups and mis-calculations and items that I think seem a bit off the wall and off target as anyone, but I do believe in the studies and text books and the general principles behind the management practices that the DEC uses. Any scientific system can always use improvement but that does not mean that they are not scientific systems. There is damn little examples or proof of the claims provided in this article and I guess we are just supposed to take this guys word for all of his claims. But it is a lot easier to take exception with this poorly written article than it would be to believe that wildlife management is just a series of arbitrary guesses.

We can consume one or two deer per year. When I reach that number I quit hunting. We used to eat a lot more venison but eventually I got to the point where I could regularly afford black angus.

Amphibians: deep fried, breaded frog legs Wild caught fish: Deep fried breaded smelt ...... Tartar sauce or horsey sauce, or cocktail sauce. Big problem knowing when to stop. Game Birds: pheasant or duck Big game animals: Moose

Yes, that is where the ATV did the job that the truck couldn't. Most of my driveway is a bit bigger than one lane wide and it's elevated with deep ditches on both sides. All he could do was push straight ahead depending entirely on the rake of the plow to shove that Heavy snow off the driveway. With summer tires, he quickly reached a point where he couldn't do it. With the ATV, I was able to take those little bites off in a sideways direction into the ditch where he could not. Yeah, I think he learned a lesson that if you are going to plow snow commercially, you really do need the tires for the job. He wound up with his tires sliding sideways out over the edge of the ditch and then he was really stuck. As far as the chains, he could have saved himself a lot of grief if he had a set of those strap-on chains. He was stuck and had to call a buddy from 12 miles away to come and help pull him out. I mean here is the guy stuck 1000' off the road, not going anywhere without help. You figure it out if chains would have made sense.

I couldn't find any index of participants. How many vendors, etc. Might be something I would be interested in attending, but it sure would be nice to know what all was going to be displayed there.

Come-on guys....... Aren't you really rushing this old age thing a bit ..... lol. At 74, I am properly impressed with what I can still do. Digging out from this latest snow storm showed me that I may have a few more good years left in me yet. Yeah, I've slowed up a few steps, and I might be a little bent, but I ain't broke yet. Still bow hunting with real bows and wandering all over the killer-hill out back. Not too much grunting and groaning when I get in and out of my tiny Honda Civic. I'm not sure what it will be like when I really get old, but right now everything is still working adequately......and that is without ever visiting a gym since high school. I have to agree that getting old does suck, but I'm reserving the complaints until I really am old.

I know that this forum is frequented by some of the best noted experts on international economic policies, and I won't even pretend to be qualified to speak on that subject as to whether tariffs are good or bad for our country. But there is one thing that I think is fairly logical. And that would be that our national security is not a service industry, and that we no longer have the metals industry within our borders to build our own weapons of self-preservation. Our ability to arm ourselves is really in the hands of our adversaries. If a president wants to reverse that situation, he has my total support. Over many decades and through administrations from both sides of the aisle, we have worked diligently to hand over our technology and the control of our raw materials and the means of beating us at our own game of production of finished products to whatever third world country that wanted them. And we find ourselves in the position of being beholding to all kinds of other countries for our basic self protection materials (steel and aluminum). Trump wants control of those materials back primarily within our borders. I'm with him no matter what it takes. I know he publicly sees it as a fairness problem, and that is important too, but I see it as a self defense problem, which to me is a much more pressing reason for concern.

I had a guy in to plow my 1000' driveway because I thought the consistency of the foot of snow was a bit too heavy for my ATV. He came up the level part ok, but as soon as he started up the area where there is a slight grade, he buried himself and left a huge pile of that sloppy-gloppy snow About 4' high blocking the driveway completely. It was dark and he decided to come back the next day. So he had a friend pull him out and off they went with my driveway barricaded with a pig pile of compacted snow. I figured that the guy would never be able to finish (He had a nice rig, but only summer tires). So yesterday I got out the ATV to see what I could do. Well with a bit of hand shoveling to get around the side of the big pile that he left and lot of stubbornness, I finally finished the job where a 4WD pickup truck failed. I have a renewed sense of respect for those little ATVs. The agility and maneuverability of those things gives me a leg-up on some of these trucks....lol. Of course if the guy had some good tires on his truck or maybe some chains, he should have really had no problem, and he could have saved some wear and tear on my trusty Yamaha. My conclusion: These guys with the snow plows should first have appropriate tires, and second they should keep a good 4WD ATV w/plow, in the bed of their truck for times when things get tough.

I don't know an exact density number either, but on the bigger state parcels, you usually can get away from the crowd. Also, some pressure in gun season is usually a good thing once you discover the hot escape routes.

Damn March! More times than not we get a doozy of a sloppy, heavy, storm in March. It is almost guaranteed. I remember one back in the 70's where I had to have a payloader come in and open up our driveway. This one is a bit more than my ATV can handle. It's just too darn heavy and deep. Last night at midnight I took a look at the thermometer and the temp was 32 degrees and there already was a pile of snow. So you know that crap is the consistency of ice cream.

I am hoping that before any such plan were to be put in place, a very rigid program of background checks and mental evaluation and a very rigid program of school security training would be developed for anyone who would take on the responsibility of being an armed protection resource whether they be a teacher, janitor, coach, registered security guard or even a member of the local police force. I doubt they would simply make it a "bring your gun to school" day for any volunteers that might come along ..... lol.

That is the site of the huge March deer yard back in the 80's around the Emil Muller farm. Yeah, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that they numbered in the thousands when the yard was at it's peak population. Things have changed a lot since then, and I have lost track of the deer situation over there in recent years. But the area still looks real "deery". I'm not sure what the hunting pressure is like now with it all turned into state land. Take a day off and wander around over there. If there are deer in any numbers, they will be obvious at this time of year.

It is hard to get the proper perspective on the ravine behind our place, but I can only say that just over the edge of what you see in these pictures is vertical drop of about 200 feet straight down with nothing but shale. This was where I learned about rubber boots and how fast your feet will go out from under you when you step on a slick stick just under the snow. The only thing that stopped me from going over the edge one day was a small spindly root of a small hemlock sapling. There are no ledges or anything else to stop a falling body until it smashes onto the rocks a couple hundred feet below. Scary??....... You bet!

I wonder how many consumers are like me. Once I stop patronizing a store based on incompatible principles, I tend to stay out of those stores completely even on unrelated products. I also cannot remember ever reversing that choice. So stores such as Dicks or Field & Stream have really not lost any gun sales with me because I would likely never buy a firearm there. But they have most clothing and footwear sales and archery purchases, camping supplies, and ammo and reloading supplies and equipment, and any number of other outdoor related items because I will never again see the inside of their store. Multiply that times untold numbers of hunters and gun owners who also feel betrayed, and I have to wonder how many millions of dollars in lost revenue that represents.

I have never seen Dicks as a "go-to" place for hunting gear, and so they will not be missing my business in their stores. Now Field and stream was a different story. They had selections and reasonable prices on their hunting supplies and accessories, and I have spent considerable amounts of cash there. That has now ended. I wish them well, but their success will have nothing to do with my support. We have enough enemies outside the industry without having their deceit inside the industry. And I can do very well without ever setting foot in their businesses.

I have learned to be organized to the point where I actually make lists of needed items and periodically take the hour drive down the road to the Auburn Bass-pro and load up my shop with reloading components and equipment and what ever hunting accessories that I need. It actually is a pleasant drive and I take the longer scenic route down 5&20 through all those neat old towns and get to see some different country a few times a year. Its not a big imposition. It's almost as far to go to Henrietta as it is to go to Auburn, and I avoid dealing with the wolves dressed in sheep's clothing. It's bad enough that we have the libs to deal with but now we have those that are supposed to be 2nd Amendment advocates doing the heavy lifting for the gun-grabbers. As far as the Victor version of Bass-pro, I have basically given up on that deal. I think something must have killed that deal. Nobody's even talking about it anymore.

Such silliness. It's all symbolism and feel-goodism. They will fill the empty slots with typical semi-auto hunting rifles that are functionally the same things. It is all about appearance and cosmetics and some non-lethal interchangeability features for harmless customization. They want people to think that they are good caring libs, when in fact their moves will have zero effect on those that would commit mass murders. What phoniness! I'm not very big in boycotts, but there is no way that I will spend another cent in a store that makes such a big deal out of trying to make fools of their customers through phony deception.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is one of those ideas that Trump blurted out that he wishes he could take back after a few quiet moments of explanation from LaPierre. Have you noticed that all of the gun control talk of the last few days, the topic of minimum age has conspicuously been missing. I suspect that this is one suggestion that will never really be offered into legislation. It was a bad idea and I think he is already convinced of that.

Actually, those plastic bags are highly recyclable. We have collection boxes at out local Walmart.

I have to wonder how something like this would impact hunting. Yes, that is kind of a weak concern when compared to school mass shootings, but the thought does go through my head. Will the restriction be limited to purchases only. or will it be extended to possession and use of long guns. I guess we will have to see how or if it develops.