Doc

What all this does is to simply show just how fanatical the anti gun forces are (and they say the NRA is an extremist organization .... lol). These anti-gun nuts would be very happy if the word "gun" were made illegal. Anybody who thinks these people are rational, should read these posts and other similar stories. None of it has anything to do with common sense.

You know what's really amazing is that the government doesn't have the nerve to simply declare tobacco an illegal drug. Instead they go through all this devious nonsense of harrassment and financial punishments trying to further their experiment in human behavior modification through taxation and harrassment. What is frightening is just how perfectly those tactics are working. The success that they have had with tobacco has worked so perfectly, that there is no reason to suspect that it will not be repeated on other citizen activities. What is even more amazing is all the cheering and celebrating that goes on from the citizenry when this government tactic is used. Let's see how popular this sort of behavior modification is when they start working on other things that they feel are social problems, like perhaps obesity.

I really don't have a crystal ball, and I don't know how committed anyone really is to alternate fuels. Past performance doesn't really make us think that gasoline will go out of style for transportation any time soon. I think a lot of the reason that they have not moved faster on this is because every company that gets involved in alternate energy vehicles seems to want to make back all their R&D investment in the first year, and nobody can take them seriously when the cost to the consumer get published. The other neat thing is that every family across the nation has sunk a fair amount of money into their 2nd largest asset, and it only runs on gas. Anybody up for dragging their new shiny $25000 car to the dump so they can mortgage their house to buy a nice new electric car or a hydrogen powered one? So the progress on the alternate fuel has been slow. However, like I said, I don't have a crystal ball, so I am not going to say that someday someone will stumble on to the right technology and the right marketing mindset (such as Henry Ford had) and prices their technological marvels within reach of the average man. One thing I have learned is that I should never say "never". Who would have believed that the hills around Naples would be covered with those giant 200' plus white worley-gigs. When the government wants to throw our tax dollars at something, they can make even unprofitable technology something that a few well connected people can make gobs of money off of. So, if some day, perhaps in the near future, someone were to announce the production of a viable mode of transportation that didn't involve petro-fuel, and they were starting a world-wide distribution at a reasonable price, I guess it probably wouldn't completely shock me. If they can sell tehj public and the government on that loser technology call wind energy, I'm sure there is somebody that cab peddle some non-petro vehicle. If that should happen and someone were to also explain that the costs of plastic products were going to go through the roof, I guess that wouldn't shock me either. I know that not all recycleable plastics are suitable for all plastic products applications. I also know that the recycling process is not free. I also have to wonder if the plastics industry is truly a self-sustaining deal where all the future needs will be met by recycling. I'll bet that's not in the cards ..... kind of sounds like a perpetual motion machine ..... lol. Just for illustration purposes, I would point out that we have ways of recycling asphalt too, but that doesn't mean that even a significant portion of our new highway construction and repair comes from recycled asphalt. So anyway, it is just a thought that rolls around in my head everytime a discussion of producing alternate energy comes up.

I believe the main reason that the DEC is against AR is that it interferes with their prime objective of having as many tools as possible for wacking on deer herds. Look at all the permanent moves that they have either implemented or championed in recent years. Everything from signing over permits to expanding the areas and times of more efficient deer hunting weapons. There is no doubt that the DEC has a vested interest in expanding harvest efficiency (for bucks or does), not the other way around. When do you remember any changes in rules or laws that actually curtailed harvests in any way. I can't think of a single one in recent decades. Yes they cut back on permits here and there occasionally, but that is a temporary move that can be undone at any time, in any year. AR on the other hand would be a permanent restrictive regulation to harvests. They simply do not do that!

Maybe if it was accidental Kneecaps with a baseball bat. Let's keep tradition alive!

So when we are finally successful at replacing petro-fuels, (perhaps with natural gas or hydrogen, or some nifty wind-driven electrical power) some of the undiscussed side-reactions may get a bit challenging to our nation's economy. It sounds like there may not actually be any such thing as a free lunch .... Or at least it's not completely free ..... lol.

have an honest question ...... If the oil industry has such a complete stranglehold on market prices, and there is nothing we can do to affect demand in any meaningful way, how come we are still only paying three dollars and something for a gallon of gas. Why isn't it $20/gal or $50/gal? What is holding them back? My sense of things is that you are exactly right about the price-fixing and the inability for us to exert any kind of pressure on gas prices. But there is still that nagging question of what on earth is restraining them to any extent. There must be some kind of political pressures being brought to bear on them, or something.

Way to go guys ....... only 9 more pages. You can do it!

Lol.... I'm sure they will be happy to hear that. License costs will continue to up and up as long as nobody squawks about it. The more we say we will pay ....... the more we will pay. It could be the best deal going, and I would still never admit it publicly. That's probably the quickest way to make a good deal go away and be replaced by a "not-so-good" deal. It's kind of like those that I have heard who defend higher taxes. What..... are you crazy? Those kinds of thoughts are better kept to one's self. Those government types do just fine in the department of reaching into your back pocket without any encouragement from us.

I hunt state land, and I would never leave anything behind that I didn't mind having stolen or destroyed or used in my absence. It's a shame that we have to think that way, but we do! Nothing of value is safe if we leave it there. I suppose there are other reasons why I don't really want to leave stands installed on public property. It could be construed as somebody's attempt to lay claim to a certain chunk of that public property. That may not be the most appropriate thing to be doing. It's not a big concern of mine because in the almost 50 years that I have been hunting the particular parcel of state land that I hunt, I have only seen two stands left. So it's not a big deal to me.

All of this emphasis on natural gas drilling as well as other forms of nice pretty "greener" types of energy has brought a thought to mind that I haven't heard anyone ever mention. When the day finally comes that most forms of transportation run on something other than petro products, will the petro industry react by closing down significant oil well numbers in favor of other popular greener fuels? What do you think will happen to the costs of every plastic part that is in just about every product we buy? Plastic is a petroleum product. There are other products such as asphalt that may escalate in cost because of near elimination of petro production? You can't produce these kinds of products from natural gas or wind power or solar energy or hydrogen or any of the other favorite fuels of the future. So I just wonder if these things will be made from super high cost of shrunken volumes of petro production? I'm not saying that it will become a problem, but I am just wondering how all that sort of thing may play out. I was just thinking about that aspect this morning when I was looking around at all the plastic products that we rely on and was just wondering how we would be impacted if the raw material for that vital product was suddenly increased by a factor of 10 or 20 or whatever.

I can understand the reluctance of instructors to offer up ethical solutions that regard breaking the law or a law that has been broken. It's a touchy subject. After all even when done quite innocently, shooting a buck without a tag is a violation. And then to arrange to have someone else tag a deer that you shot further compounds the violation. What is an instructor going to say publicly about all of that? I think my public response in a situation like that would be to report the incident to a CO with the explanation, and hope for the best. What I might do in reality might be something quite different, but that is the advice I would be handing out if I were standing in front of a class full of students. By the way, that is the advice that I would be giving out if I were discussing the subject of game law violations on a public forum .... lol.

Everytime a new gun law is passed three or four new versions of the same law get proposed. How many volumes of redundant gun laws are really required. It's called incrementalism and is designed as additional ratcheting of harrassment for legal gun owners in an attempt to make gun ownership so painful and costly that more and more law abiding gun owners simply cave in and get rid of their weapons. So why shouldn't gun owners say, "enough!" When the motives of these anti-gun nuts is as clear as it is, why shouldn't gun owners dig in their heels and resist. This idea that everyone is simply supposed to roll over anytime some anti-gun nut wants to get confrontational has gone on about long enough. To me, if the NRA and other gun owner organizations want to draw a line in the sand, they have my support, 100%.

Fantastic pictures! That one caterpillar with the orange spikey things all over it looks like something you should have been running from rather than taking it's picture ..... ;D Doc

Is anyone really all that naive??? You really believe that all these wonderful ideas for new gun controls have anything to do with cutting gun crime? You apparently think that each additional gun-owner harrassment law when added to the huge volumes of existing gun laws already clogging up law books is going to be the silver bullet that eradicates the use of guns in the commission of crimes .... lol. Since you obviously haven't figured it out yet, let me clue you in that the anti-gun crowd has one, and only one, objective. That is to eliminate the private ownership of all firearms. It's really that simple, and you apparently are a naive, unsuspecting partner in that cause who thinks that anti-gun forces can be appeased by each and every new concession made to their cause. I'm sure they truly appreciate your support.

That kind of bickering is quite an eye-opener, isn't it? Hunters and gun owners are un-organizable, and this thread seems to be pointing to at least one of the reasons why. I've heard the same kind of nonsense with other sportsmen's organizations. So on issues where we seem to be constantly losing ground to the antis, I guess it's not that much of a mystery anymore is it? :

Deer can't go nocturnal if you don't let them... if you go find them and dog their butt it's hard for them to be nocturnal... And years ago, that's exactly what used to happen. There used to be huge drives that basically beat out any kinds of sanctuary areas that the deer were trying to hang up in. Guys used to stand for about an hour and then be constantly on their feet snooping and pushing every little patch of brush and every little thicket. That's the way it was ...... not the way it is. Yes, as an individual, you can go root them out, but as a general trend in today's hunting, that simply is not happening. Hunters are content to sit all hunkered down at the base of a tree for a few hours and then head out to their cars. And that is why so many guys are getting the impression that there are no deer around. That's not to say that there are not areas where real deer scarcity occurs, but that does explain why some people in some areas say the herds are devasted when sightings after the season, and other sign observed by those that recognize deer sign say otherwise.

I'm not sure just how many future hunters we actually influence on internet forums. I think the reasons for shrinking numbers are varied and many, but I suspect that forums have a very small impact on that situation. My thought is that the biggest impacts are cultural, and while we don't really like to hear it, I believe the anti-hunting organizations are having their impacts on hunting and how the public views the activity. Quite simply, they are heavily financed and organized and have the ear of the media while we are content to remain divided and disorganized. It's kind of hard to win the hearts and minds of perspective hunters when we continue to handicap ourselves in that way. The public perception of hunting continues to slide into something that many people would rather not be associated with. The way I see it, the handwriting is already on the wall, and I don't feel real optomistic that the trends can ever be reversed.

Now there's an idea that I haven't heard before. I like it!!!!

Excellent observation! However, I might add that even the hunters that are out in the woods these days seem to be far less serious and dedicated than in years past. We seem to have a lot of 1/2 day hunters, or guys that cut their entire season to 1 or 2 days. Also, those that do actually go into the woods during the season seem to be sitters who park themselves in one spot all day (isn't modern-day, high tech clothing wonderful?). There is enough pressure and presence of hunters in the woods to allow the deer to understand there is a season going on, but they are all the hunters are stationery which allows the deer to find little areas of sanctuary and not move a bit until dark. So your comment is spot-on. During the season, it is getting harder and harder to really appreciate just how many deer there actually are.

So, just out of curiosity, does anyone know what state or province has a documented breeding population of mountain lions closest to NYS's borders?

Lol.... Now this thread is sounding a whole lot more like something I would expect to read in a NYS forum.

See....The DEC is doing a good thing when they give everyone a pocket full of antlerless permits and encourage the farmers to shoot every deer that comes anywhere near their crops.... ;D

I started bowling once a week several months ago. No league or anything, just open bowling. Man am I lousy at it. I don't really seem to be improving at all and each week it looks like I had never picked up a bowling ball in my life. Zero consistancy and crappy scores. There's no damn sight on the thing to aim with. By the way, just to add insult to injury, my wife started at the same time and has been slaughtering me. She has a natural talent for bowling and keeps getting better every week. She has been averaging in the 140's and occasionally gets a few 180's. meanwhile I'm happy as hell if I break 120. : But it's still fun. I just like throwing things at something and watching the stuff fall down. ;D Ha-ha, it's just another new trick I'm trying to teach this old dog ......

Somebody still has to man the controls on a 24/7 basis somewhere .... right? However, a couple of tweaks and we could get the manual labor element right out of it. Perhaps the guns could be hooked up to motion sensors that would blow everything flat that moved out there ..... lol. That would save some man-hours of hog removal time. You might even be able to pick up an occasional trespasser or two as well. Add in a couple of full-auto rifles, and a reciprocating sweep mechanism that allows the lead to cover the whole field, and you could have a doozy of a high-tech varmint eradicator.