Doc

It does seem like every year springtime and a good chunk of summer it is just one outdoor project after another, so I understand how the computer can fall way down on the priorities. But generally I try to find a few minutes early in the morning or late at night when I can log in to a few sites like this one to get caught up on what is going on in the outdoor world. Also, there is the weather that on some days is not fit for outdoor activities, so I do manage to get some computer time in here and there. But I do understand the pressures of time consuming activities and have to admit that my computer time gets limited.

Sorry, I meant on-shore or from-shore. The deal is that I do not have access to any boats and so I am a shore line fisherman only these days. But this time of year it gets tough finding access to open, fishable waters.

Anybody recommend some good spots in Western New York that are good for off-shore fishing. Any variety of fish, and hopefully water that you can eat the fish that you catch. The places that we usually fish are all weeded up this time of year.......Duckweed and slime.

I would love to see pictures of some of the fishing vacations....especially some of the off-shore, western NY fishing excursions. Maybe I could learn some more places where I can do some fishing without a boat. I'm always looking for those kinds of places.

I see that conversation here is dwindling. I guess the summer weather has put you all into the busy summer mode.

So now the theory of weaponizing the justice system for impacting elections has been proven to be possible and practical. It is a shame to see our justice system reduced to a tool of politics. But now we have seen it for real at the highest levels.

Has anyone seen a study on how far turkeys range in any given time period or season?

It looks like a fun thing to shoot. The problem is that I am so busy in the spring with landscaping and outdoor work that I don't have a lot of time for shooting right now. But I will be trying to open up some target time as soon as I can. What a great squirrel gun that will make for next year. Thanks for the heads up on the barrel selector button.

I have the same gun........ALMOST. Mine came to me as an inherited set of guns from my brother-in-law after his passing. This one is a Savage over and under model 24S-D. It has a 22 long rifle barrel on top, and a 410 ga. bottom barrel. The barrel break lever is on the right hand side instead of on the top of the stock as your pictures show. The hammer has some extra feature that I have not yet figured out (an extra knurled button built into the hammer). It is in pretty good shape, but the finish on the stock is a bit barked up (Not the wood itself, but the finish). I have no idea when this model was built. I haven't shot it yet, but when I get a chance and a dry day, I will check it out.

Actually, I have found an extra level of challenge and excitement when hunting from the ground level. There is something about looking the approaching deer eyeball to eyeball and still being able to close the deal. Of course that is not the reason that I hunt from the ground. The truth is that I'm simply afraid of heights. But I have noticed a significantly more rapid beating of the heart with a handicap of ground stands. It is a heck of a challenge that brings back a lot of the reason I began hunting in the first place.

There are times when I am thankful that I developed a fear of heights. It has been a few decades since I have been a tree-dweller because of the discomfort of sitting in treestands. It finally got to the point where I had to hang on to the tree. Ever try to shoot a bow while hanging on to the tree......Ha-ha-ha-ha. Since the time that I decided to stay on the ground, I lost a cousin in a treestand accident, and had several friends that have taken an abrupt fall and simply got lucky. I have never fallen out of a ground-stand. Back when I was still building and using treestands, I had a stand built 20 feet in the air. I took a look at it one season and found that almost all of the nails had snapped in two because of the constant bending and twisting of the three major trunks that it was fastened to. It was a pine tree with three huge trunks coming out of the same base. The nails did not fail because of rust or any kind of physical deterioration. It was simply the repeated stress of constantly twisting and bending. The nails finally snapped from fatigue. It wasn't long after that that I became very good at building ground stands. I cannot argue the advantages of hunting from elevated stands, but I also cannot argue the life altering devastation that can result from a fall.

Does Big John ever get it in his mind to chase people? I remember a rooster when I was a kid that used to chase me around the yard at times......lol.

A hunting "hotel". It looks like they took their hunting pretty darn serious and were willing to put their time and effort into it. Bark roofing and siding........imagine that!

By Golly......You do have all the toys and all the fun, don't you?

Sooner or later there is going to be a severe attack with these critters getting bolder and bolder and losing their fear of humans.

As bad as these incidents are, they will be dwarfed by the almost inevitable 911 style of terrorism that will begin with some of the bad-actors that Biden has turned loose in our country

This certainly would not be the first store to slide into the woke thinking in terms of their merchandise would it? When I look at stores like Runnings, it is obvious that there are some people who can still make profit on hunting equipment, if they want to.

Is there any proof that that was their motivation.

The issue of illegal invaders of our border and the burgeoning results on our safety and economy are just one aspect of the treason being committed by this administration since its inception. There has to be more to the current downward slide of our position in the world than just coincidence. Biden or whoever is pulling his strings keep edging us closer to world war. His financial and policy gifts to Iran are now undoing everything that Trump had in place to keep Iran under control with no ability to financially get into the adventures that they are now involved with. Biden financed their war on Israel and on us right from the beginning with the billions given to Iran. He also destroyed Trump initiated policies to keep Iran in an impoverished condition where waging and financing wars was virtually impossible. Budget cuts on the military have now left us in a condition of shortages. The destruction of our fuel industry is crippling our economy along with the foolish mad expenditures of their so-called green energy policies. The Democrats are doing everything they can to bankrupt this nation and its citizenry. His wholesale voter bribery with free this and free that is running amok in our economy. The absolute acts of irresponsibility regarding the trashing of our legal system has us in fear of using the subways and even the streets. Come-on, all these things and more are not simply coincidental. It has to be an orchestrated plan of chaos, being perpetrated by some external force and influence (Think China). I think the crooked shenanigans that the entire Biden family have been implicated in, kind of makes one wonder where his allegiances really are. I know that we always hesitate to use the word treason when talking about the highest office in our country, but at some point, you have to say, "If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, and looks like a duck, it probably is actually a duck.

I was a bit put out to see an ad for the ASPCA pop up on the screen of this hunting forum. Are we supporting anti-hunting organizations now? The ASPCA proudly boasts of their opposition to the hunting of animals for any reason.

You know, a lot of these corporate moves against hunting would never happen if sportsmen would simply stop going to them completely. I know that we are not in any kind of majority or anything, but we still are a large enough block of customers so that if we all decided not to patronize their store for anything anymore, I believe that the impact would be felt and noted by other stores that might be considering similar moves. I have not gone to Dicks for anything other than to use their restroom at Eastview.....lol. I go to Runnings in Canandaigua who has maintained their stock in hunting, fishing, and even trapping. I prefer to patronize stores that have not chosen to snub a whole segment of their customers. By the way, I don't believe that they made their choices based on a shrinking number of hunters. It really looks and smells like an anti-hunting statement aimed squarely at hunters personally. I refuse to reward any of that kind of thinking with my business. And you know what?......They don't have a thing that I cannot find elsewhere and usually at a better price.

Was there some reason why they thought that you might be capable of careless hunting practices? I find their comment to be strange since you did nothing to provoke it. Was there some reason why he thought that you might shoot the horses? It certainly was a strange remark to come from a friend. Or perhaps he made the comment with a big smile on his face and meant it to be a joke.

So as I was feeling sorry for the ice fishermen who have had so little ice this year, it occurred to me that there has to have been some bonus open water fishing available for those hearty souls who have dressed up warm and got out into the lakes and streams. Has anyone here taken advantage of the mild winter this year? Any luck with the winter fishing opportunities?

By the way, did you know that animal skulls that are in good shape are a saleable item. I saw on Google that racoon skulls can go from $22 to $90. I never knew that before.

Damn!.....Somebody had a lot of fun.