Doc

No matter what activity it is, if you get enough people together, you will find the same cross-section of personalities in the shooting sports as you do in anything else. That's just a fact of life that can't be avoided. Doc

The dairy farming has completely disappeared in my area and most of the pastures are turning to brush-lots. The other thing I've noticed when you go up into the flatlands is that a lot of farmers don't pasture their cows anymore. The whole darn operation takes place inside the barns. All of their old pastures are full of grain crops. No woodchucks there. So the only woodchuck that I have seen recently was down in my driveway and he was just running from a thicket on oneside of the driveway to the thicket on the other side. Not likely to ever get him. So I guess if I'm ever going to do any woodchuck hunting, there's going to be some serious travel involved. Doc

Ever try to concentrate on a shot when you're practicing and while at full draw you hear that whine in your ear or feel a bug or two bouncing off your face. Those stinking bugs drove me right off my archery range today. There was that and also that annoying trickle of sweat running down the middle of my back. Tomorrow the thermocel goes out with me and I'll be starting my shooting earlier in the morning. Maybe a shot of Yard Guard wouldn't hurt either. I just started my regular practice for this year and am trying to make an attempt to get out there every day, but ol' Mother Nature is really trying to mess with me. Any of you guys starting to get into a regular shooting routine yet? Yeah, I know some of you never stopped, but I've had quite a few months without any shooting at all and it's time for me to get started. But I can't ever remember a year when the mosquitos were as vicious as they are this year. Doc

I guess that all speaks for itself. There's not much point in replying to that one. I just hope that isn't coming from anyone hunting in my area.

One thing you probably won't find in NYS is an expert bear hunter. Anyone who has gotten one here has probably done it accidently while actually hunting for deer. Doc

Hi sits ...... Good to hear from you again. :

There does seem to be a bit of a "bandwagon" effect going on these days where a lot of hunters are saying they are for AR without a whole lot of actual thinking about the ramifications. They have heard other people talk about it, they get visions of huge bucks all of sudden becoming easy to get and say, "why not". Yes, I do believe that some of the more devoted AR fans would just as soon that the ones against AR would get out of the way, one way or another. But whether that comprises a significant number of them or not, I can't say. I get the feeling that most would still rather persuade the rest that AR is a good idea.

I'll bet they wouldn't kick you out if you showed up with a replica. I really do like the idea of historic re-enactment. There's an awful lot of history that we can simulate and experience in that way even in these modern ages. What's really interesting is the extent that these guys go to to learn the details of life back in the pioneer days. Each one of them develops into a historian in one fashion or another, and takes the time to learn and understand about our own heritage and culture for a change.

I think I remember hearing somewhere that law enforcement agencies will take any ammo that you want to get rid of and dispose of it. but I don't know if that is true or not. Doc

I'm going to have to remember that one. That was great!

Where the heck do these guys come up with this stuff? That was hilarious! Doc

Of the whole damned bunch of them, Shockey has always been my favorite. His shows always seem to have a sufficient amount of variety and also an added element of honesty and credibility to them. I don't know why it was so surprising that these programs that we watch for entertainment have such an ugly business-like aire behind the scenes. And I don't know why it suddenly occurred that having that as an occupation might just take the joy completely out of something that I love. but there was something about this particular program that got that point across. No, to me that is not hunting. That's just another day at the office. Doc

That's too bad. I spent a lot of years in field archery, and it was a huge activity not only for me, but our whole family. Well, I guess I should be happy that I got a chance to enjoy it while it was big. Things change and I guess occasionally, we DO throw out the baby with the bath-water. Doc

I'll tell you what. The internet has gobs and gobs of all kinds of wild game recipes with most of them being venison. I've done searches, and always come up with more recipes than I could ever even read. Doc

I guess I would suggest the same thing here as I do whenever we talk about getting DEC opinions on legalities. Try to get it in writing! It may not completely save your butt, but when it comes to legal interpretations, it is always a good idea to be able to show (with tangible evidence) that you at least tried to get the correct answers and were operating under the best advice that you could solicit. When dealing with telephone calls, it is amazing how short memories can get when the wrong advice was given out.

Thanks a lot all you guys that responded. This was exactly the kind of discussion I wanted to start. Sometimes things aren't always as simple as they look at first glance. I guess if the subject were all that simple, you would only have one scope size to chose from ..... lol. So now I think I see why there are so many 3x-9x scopes to choose from. It does seem like an excellent choice for deer hunting with all things considered. Doc

I was watching Jim Shockey on TV the other day. I have always considered him one of the more entertaining TV hunter heroes, simply because his shows aren't simply non-stop deer hunting repetition. He probably provides the biggest variety of game species of any of the hunting shows. But this show was a bit different and quite an eye opener. For one thing they were showing one of the organizational pre-hunt meetings back at the Shocky headquarters, where they were discussing an up coming African hunt for some rare, hard to hunt, goaty-looking critter. The meeting looked like some industrial board meeting. I don't know how many people were involved, but they had a rather large table and there were people sitting all around it. The discussion was deadly serious as they talked about commitments for the program and the possibility that they might fail because of the nature of this animal. I mean the pressure to perform was a whole lot more intense than anything that I have ever experienced (or ever want to experience) in any of my hunting. Then during the program, he was trying to get the job done with a crew of at least 5 people that I could see in tow. I'm not sure how many people were behind the view of the camera. So there he was trying to hunt some super-elusive, relatively reclusive, super spooky animal while dragging along this circus of people. I mean it was truly a team event ..... with a HUGE team. The first day he did an endurance test of 12 solid hours in the blind. I mean, everything was being done to eliminate any fun out of the activity. It wasn't hunting, it was and industrial project with a whole lot of profit driven demands for success. When the program was over, and they ran the credits, I couldn't believe the number of people involved in the production of one of these shows. By the way he did manage to be successful inspite of all this nonsense. I've got to say that if I ever did envy the lifestyle of any of these guys that program sure straightened me out on that score. There is nothing about what those guys do that I would ever want to be involved with. Too much business and not enough hunting. It looked like the fastest way to drain every ounce of enjoyment of hunting out of the activity. Is that kind of life anything that any of you guys would like to be doing? I'm just curious because I think I got an insight into something that might just look a lot better from the outside than it really is on the inside.

I tend to be pretty lazy about my cooking too. So I generally have the wife do it. I think we wind up with a better job of it too.

No, but seriously, I really would like to know what the intent was. I'm really trying to figure out what they had in mind when they went through all the effort of filing a FOI petition and then built the website to put it on. That just isn't normal behavior unless there is something in it for them (him/her/whatever). Just curious and not easily convinced to simply ignore it.

I don't think that is really any part of the motives behind AR. It may be the unintended consequence, but I don't believe it is intentional. No I honestly believe that they don't even think of that part of the potential consequences or they look at their own hunting and habitat conditions and can't imagine that anyone might not have those same circumstances as they do. I don't think there is any malicious intentions on the part of AR proponents.

"hill-side veal" ....... can't beat it!!

I forgot to mention that one. I also have a Bear Kodiak Magnum hanging on the wall downstairs.

Yeah, I guess over half of the participants in the Ohio bow season probably are using them because they like all the extra handicaps of lugging a heavy, awkward, clumsy, noisy, piece of junk that can't even group at 40 yards. And all these people asking to use them in NY must be just plain idiots that don't even understand just how ineffective they are. That's too bad. It sounds like they are in for a surprise when they find out that they can't hit the broad side of a barn at 40 yards. I'm surprised that these x-bow companies can possibly stay in business, putting out useless trash like that. Are you guys sure they are even adequate for taking deer? Sorry guys ..... I had made up my mind not to comment on these x-bow threads, but it does seem as though after all these years of redundant repetition, somebody has finally come up with something new ....... an attack on the crossbow itself. That's a new and interesting twist to the discussion that I thought I would like to comment on.

I suppose you could. I never tried. For centerfire, I have an impact bullet puller, which i don't think will grab a rimfire cartridge. And then, since the primer is in the rim, I would be a bit nervous bout using that style of bullet extraction. I suppose you might be able to use pliers and such to dismantle the bullet, but there is no way to dismantle the primer on a rimfire ...... that I am aware of. I have never had any bad ammo like that either, but I have heard of that sort of thing happening. Also, I have had some extremely old corroded ammo that probably should have been tossed somewhere rather than put through a gun. I also had a few reloaded 20 guage shotshells and the gun I used to use them in has been gone for about 30+ years. I wanted to toss them, but I really didn't know a safe way to do that. Anyway, I was just curious as to how you should properly dispose of junk ammo. I would assume there must be some approved way to do it. Doc

Ok, now first of all let's be honest neither you or I have any idea why they posted it. We can guess, but only they know why they went to all the effort to do that. I sure don't know about people going crazy, but if gun owners are concerned with this kind of nonsense, then I guess I feel better than if they simply shrug their shoulders and say, "I don't care".