Doc

By the way, a part of this original post that got lost along the way is about the sale of Hemlock and Canadice Lakes to the state. For those not familiar with this area, this is a pretty big deal over here in the western finger lakes because both of these lakes are the only ones of the finger lakes that are not commercialized and ringed with cottages and basically sealed of from the public. They were formerly owned by the city of Rochester and have been (and still will be) used as a water reservoir. It's been a long fight, but these two lakes have been saved from development and will continue to provide excellent hunting and fishing opportunities. That was a pretty amazing and noteable achievement for a time when the state is pretty much in a financially busted situation. Doc

Have you ever had somebody try to kick you off your own property? I have heard of this happening, but never had it happen to me. Apparently some trespassers think a good offense is better than a good defense, and assume that you don't own the property and pretend that they do.

Has anyone ever seen a scope mounting system for a Winchester Model 94. The top-eject system seems to pose a rather unique problem for having a scope right above the ejection port. Is there a solution? Doc

I'm still trying to understand this study that is being conducted. There seems to be a massive effort trying to track the spread of the emerald ash borer. What are they going to do once they find out it is here? Do they have any counter-measures in mind that can do something about it, or is the information gathering just something to satisfy curiosity? Anybody know?

Sorry, the point I was making was that I was having a hard time understanding why a thread about harvest reporting was being side-tracked into a discussion about the definition of the word "poaching". I guess you missed that point and maybe it wasn't made all that clear. As far as the rest of your comment, I guess I'm not understanding your point or something. As you said, the reporting system is about as simple as anyone can make it, so reporting that tags were filled and unfilled shouldn't be any particular big hassle. I really don't understand what you are getting so excited about. It's not really a huge change as far as hunters are concerned. But anyway, that's your opinion, and that's what I asked for. Thank you for your reply. Doc

As I said previously, Do NOT put the drill bit in a powered drill. I repeat...do NOT!! It's not necessary and it could pose a hazard to your string. Use a pair of vise-grips to hold and work the drill bit. The reduced wall thickness of the aluminum tru-peep makes the operation very easy and there is no need for a power tool. Done in this way, there is no way that you can even come close to the strands of your string. Doc

Now why in the heck would they require any kind of license? Wouldn't it be a shame if an opportunity to rid an area of these critters had to be passed up because a person didn't have a license. I can't understand that stipulation. Doc

Now there's a thought ....... lol.

Some people are naturals at shooting and others need to really work at it. At 1 hour per week, I roughed it out to a total of 12 hours between now and the archery opener. Take away a week or so for buying equipment, and you are really pushing it. I think you will need to be a bit on that "natural" side to pull that off. It can be done, but personally I would arrange a whole lot more aggressive practice plan. I always hunt from the ground. I can't do heights anymore. It does increase the challenge somewhat, but does not mean that you are doomed to never get deer. Furthermore, I don't think there is a more exciting way to deer hunt. I have done both treestands and ground stands for quite a few years, and there is nothing that can prepare you for the overwhelming panic and excitement of having a nice buck closing the distance between him and your blind while you are right there on his level, eyeball to eyeball. It will really test your nerves if you can pull off the shot under those circumstances. Doc

Yes, I believe that I said all that in the last paragraph of my reply. You did? Your whole reply sounded like you were blaming the govt for releasing the list on the internet or sponsoring the website or something similar. Maybe I was misunderstanding what you said. If it sounded like I was saying that the government created the site, I'm sorry for not being clearer. As a matter of fact the 6th reply on this thread was a comment where I stated that it appeared that the authors of the site had gone to extreme measures to ensure that no one knew who they were. The government complicity is in coming up with the list in the first place, especially if they knew it was eligible to public publishing. That really amounts to the same thing as making the list public themselves because they would have had to have known that somebody would eventually make it public. Also, it is not clear as to how it is determined what information is accessible under the Freedom of Information Laws. There has to be some discretion as to what is accessible under the Freedom of Information Act and what is not. I know that there is a whole batch of personal, individual census information that is not available to the public via Freedom of Information Act, so there has to be a mechanism somewhere that prohibits private citizen info from being made public. Were proper safeguards followed when it came to this list? I don't know. The fact is, if the government wasn't so determined to insert themselves in the middle of our lives, and create their lists, there wouldn't be any reason to even ask that question.

Exactly! It's not a system that you will find me defending.

There is nothing here that I can argue with. I really don't have any facts to prove the case one way or the other. I do have some concerns, but no data that shows them to be valid. This is one of those things that I may develop an opinion at some point off in the future when we have some actual results. Right now, all of the rifle experiments in the more populated parts of the southern zone are relatively new. I'm not even sure how many hunters in these new rifle areas have actually gone out and invested in a new rifle. I also realize that at the present time, we are enjoying a relatively safe set of hunting seasons so we don't really have a whole lot of accidents to draw data from (fortunately). Let's see how it all holds up over time. Then maybe I can come up with an opinion that I can get a bit serious about. Heaven help us if we start coming up with rifle hunters that start picking up the rapid-fire habits that we often think are the sole trait of shotgunners. Doc

To be honest, I don't even know how the term poaching is defined with the DEC. Is it illegal taking only, or does it cover any and all infractions or does the DEC even use the term? Do we even care? If there is a law, obey it. That seems simple. What you call someone who doesn't is irrelevant. Doc

On first set-ups, it may be worth a few extra dollars to buy from a local pro-shop. The time that he will spend with you will be worth something when you start adding up all the costs. Ebay and the big box stores and mail order will not provide that service. Yes, he likely will try to sell you some stuff that you may not need, so be sure you have a shopping list in mind. Keep it simple. Such things as releases and peep sights and stabilizers and fancy arrow rests, and expensive sights are things that you may want to grow into as you find you need them. I would be very hesitant trying to tell you what of those kinds of things you absolutely need. Everybody kind of comes up with their own kinds and styles of accessories as they find a need for them, so I would be careful of advice that tries to talk you into the more expensive and exotic equipment ........ unless money is no object....lol. Keep it basic. After hours and hours of practice, you may begin to see where some more sophisticated accessories are necessary or will be of some assistance. You have a pretty aggressive schedule to go from needing equipment to being hunting-ready by October. It can be done if you are willing to work at it enough. Good luck. Doc

Just don't drill it while still in the string or... twang... it will be time for a new string! No, actually I have never had a problem with that. I don't put the bit in a power drill, but instead use a small pair of vise-grips to hold the bit and rotate it by hand. It's a completely hand operation. On the Tru-peep, there is a center diameter of thinned out area that drills very easy and still has plenty of wall thickness away from the string strands even if you drilled that whole area out (which I never have). Doc

Yes, I believe that I said all that in the last paragraph of my reply. And I also stated that they had overstepped their bounds when they created the list knowing full well that it could become a subject of the Freedom of Information Act (which is also a responsibility of the government). Such lists on the personal habits and possessions of citizens should not be created in the first place. Creating such a listing with the knowledge that it could be accessed and republished in a more public media is exactly the same as publicly publishing it themselves. Also the implications of such a list is exactly as I stated. Doc

Why did they do that? Was it some article on the science of scent? I have been looking everywhere for some kind of article, video or seminar about some of the physical properties of scent and how it reacts with physical forces of nature and how deer really relate to it. I have all kinds of questions about how scent adheres to brush and weeds and what the duration of it is, and how barriers such as thickets and trees might impact the broadcast distance. I have tried the topic on several hunting forums, and have come to the conclusion that nobody has really studied the subject or ever seen such a study. But yet, I have a vague recollection of having seen such an article in a magazine years ago. The picture that you are speaking of sounds like it could have been related to that subject. I sure would like to read such an article or whatever if you can remember the origin and location of it. Doc

I could probably post a few messages in a Varmint Forum, but not this time of year. I don't get out until the dead of winter and usually well after deer season closes. I'm not really very good at it, and I sure could use all the help I could get. A forum devoted to predator calling and hunting might be quite useful to me. On the other hand if that kind of info were posted on the small game forum or anywhere else, it would be just as useful. Either way, it don't matter to me. Doc

Nah! ...... Let's just move to another old dead horse. How about we fight over AR some more ...... That's always a good one. I'll bet we can bore each other to death with those good old summer re-runs too. Doc

Lol ......... Now you have finally stumbled on it .....Ha-ha. Further discussion is a waste of breath. That just occurred to me too. Took long enough ..... lol. This entire discussion could be conducted with the cut and paste function if we had access to the old forum. And that goes for both sides of the argument. It gets a bit boring, redundant and repetitive. And look what it has done to poor old Bubba. He's been reduced to a frothing maniac who doesn't even discuss crossbows anymore. He just sits there in the corner, twitching. Personal attacks are about all he has left anymore. The rest of us pretend that we have something new to say, which really isn't true at all. It's all quite humorous actually. If this thread dies the natural death that it deserves, which most of them eventually do, I'm sure one of the crossbow proponents will start up another thread trolling for reaction. It's kind of funny, but as you said, it really is a waste of breath ....... on both sides. There's no minds being changed here. Doc

Sounds like a good place to go grocery shopping.

It's a pretty fussy process in order to get it right. I generally buy the smallest one I can get and then keep enlarging it with different sized drill bits until I am satisfied that I am getting the smallest diameter I can without sacrificing too much light loss. I'm not sure what size I wound up with when I finally was satisfied.

I've been using the ultra-nok for quite a few years now. It seems to work pretty good for getting the release jaws right in line with the nock without pulling up and pinching against the nock of the arrow. Actually one of the main reasons that I went to it was to enable me to fine tune my peep sight to get it to open up perfectly at full draw. I just have it rotated on the string slightly so that when I attach the release, it rotates the string (and peep) so it is perfectly oriented. Works slick without having to mess around with twisting the string and everything. Back when I shot fingers, I used to use a nok-set that had a little tail sticking down that could be slightly rotated on the string for the same peep aligning purpose. Back before I went to a loop, I noticed that my nocks were developing an actual indent from the upper nok-set. This was being caused by the force of the release trying to slide the arrow nock upward. There was so much force that it was actually leaving an indent in the plastic. I don't know whether all that pinch was doing any harm, but I don't get that anymore with the loop. Doc

Time keeps marching on Bill. Starting to feel a bit of that myself at 67 (68 not that far away). Sorry to hear that you had to close the archery shop. I would imagine that it was a lot of fun for you and a good way to stay involved with archery and bowhunters. Doc

Well, you'll have to take that up with your legislators because as far as I know they are both legal. Also, as far as I know they both use the same principles of operation as any other bow too.