nyslowhand

With all respect to those that do, I just don't get the expectations or standards applied to deer hunting. If you have these, are they carried from opening day thru the last day of the season? Possibly just my old fart thought process, but simply getting out hunting, enjoying nature, hopefully seeing deer and having an exciting encounter with (any) buck being a plus! I go into every hunting season with no expectations, goals or anything to prove to myself or others!!! This is part of my (lack of better word>) hunting ethics and I'd never attempt to impose this on another hunter. Hunt how you want, shoot what makes you happy and use whatever weapon you prefer. Makes NO difference to me even if you hunt with me or on an adjacent property.

Having a service dog is a great thing, if gone about properly and legally. It's my assumption Doctors or Psychologists prescribe or authorize an individual to require a service dog. Sort of like the handicapped parking, open to a lot of abuse making people actually needing permits somewhat frowned upon or questioned. IRC, in NYS isn't there some sort of license or documentation required by an individual to take a service dog into public places...? I've seen this 1st hand where a business owner would not ask for any service dog's proof due to legalities with people w/disabilities. Women carrying the lap dog into the diner in a tote was asked by server if it was a service dog, she replied it was and business owner would not pursue it further. On the surface it was clearly a scam. Customers complained when dog was on the table eating from owner's plate. Nothing was done, many customers unhappy, owner showed he was a coward, but service dog was happily fed. Clearly a loop-hole in the law that allows people using pets as false service dogs. Form the US Dept of Justice: Q: How can I tell if an animal is really a service animal and not just a pet?

FYI - If you're going the filter route... Every thing GREENEHUNTER said plus install it/them where water enters the house, thus a whole house sys. Esp true for well water supplied homes.Not as helpful for village or city supplied water, as I found out. IRC, hard water can only be remedied via a softener..!?! As far as draining a water heater annually, can say I never have. Suppose if you actually flushed it out while draining it, might help prolong the water heater's life... 50gail is a lot of water to be dumping into the backyard. Hope you've got a long garden hose!

Looked out the window and the ground is covered with snow, again. Cruel joke fer sure!

^^^ ... as well as social media bragging rights! If you, as a hunter feel good about what you put on the ground, NO ONE has the right to criticize you!!!

Cool, congrats on new-ish truck! I feel your pain about dealing with car dealerships. I've gotten up and walked out a few times when the "runner" was constantly giving or getting offers from the Sales Mgr out in an office away from the showroom. Really hate it when they play the #s game, trying to baffle you like some shady investor thinking you're a dumb-a$$ willing to part with your money. Could go on & on, just a bad experience almost every time!

Probably nation-wide, but at least in NYS - Law enforcement has a difficult time enforcing DUI/DWI, esp for repeat or felony offenders. Can NOT imagine how they'd effectively enforce this new law!!?!! Any one with 1/2 a brain knows mixing alcohol & firearms is just a common-sense taboo. Sad fact is NYS thinks they need to legislate to control "stupid". Had a similar wake-up call to Rob's above. In my early 20s about 8-10 of us had access rights to various parts of the county and wanted to have deer drives. After a couple of semi-successful morning drives with a few hair raising situations, mostly from none of us knowing the other hunter's ethics and esp hunting unknown terrain/habitat. So.. We stop for lunch to warm-up and get something to eat, at a local watering hole. After 2-3 shots to warm up and 2-3 beers to wash down lunch, the crew decides to go back out. As I'm looking at these guys all raring to go out, booze infused, I declined the hunting offer, kept the shotgun in the trunk and ordered another beer! All the others survived the afternoon's hunting, which I was worried about & happy to hear! JMO, the sad part is some don't see this situation as a problem... If you feel this way, count me out! I'll do one or the other, but NOT mixing the two.

Just saw an interesting observation by IRC a retired LEO detective that has been involved in numerous dismissed cases like Smollett's. Sign there was a backroom, strong-armed agreement will be when Smollett's over-paid legal team does NOT file a suit of deflam of character or similar suit.

Get a goldfish, dude! Listen to Doewhacker's advice &/or experience!

Hard to believe, a real common-sense law passed by NYS legislators!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing new. Isn't there a Parker Xbow with similar cocking option?

JMO, not going to make any uninformed judgments or unfounded conspiracy theories, waiting for the dust to settle & facts speak for them selves! Not sure situation is politically motivated, but it reeks of blackmail &/or witness tampering. Wait n see!

Gas grills are quick and easy to use, but nothing beats a Weber Kettle once you've mastered using charcoal and have the patience to wait for it to be ready for the food. For convenience, back to the gas grill reviews!

Poplar trees are maybe the worst choice for s/u a ladder stand.

You get what you pay for, ... generally! All depends on how much up-front $$ you want to spend to get a grill that'll last longer. Or spend less and repeat purchase every 3-5yrs. Depends on the time of year you purchase a grill & sales prices available. Pretty sure you will have a hard time finding one that'll last 15-20yrs within your budget. Companies would be out of business before grill self-destructs. Thus a sort of built in obsolescence or expected service life to ensure repeat customers.

Obviously, what G-Man suggests ^^ is ideal! If most of you are like me, you inspect the ladder stands "as-is" or still attached in your favorite/productive spots. Have a couple ladder stands in the most productive areas where I hunt that have been up 10+yrs. What works for me is to start with a HD stand, 2ea-2K# ratchet straps around platform and a ~1.2K# long strap criss-crossed at vertical support. Those 600# ratchet straps that are included with a stand are great goodwill gifts to neighbors and not so great for securing a stand!! I always put a PT plank section under the bottom of the ladder to keep it from sinking in. I try to pick the largest available tree within bow range of the best travel routes. ideally one that's ~18-24" dia up where platform rests against the tree. The species of tree (root system) also makes a difference! Only issue I've ever encountered is every 2-3yrs I have to put wedges/flat rocks under the PT plank as the tree grows and pulls stand up with it. Granted, a smaller tree will have more growth in/around the trunk/platform area than a more mature tree that has it's growth out in the taller branches. Can't always pick a larger tree, but there are several benefits, IE: more secure stand attachment, hides your profile up in the stand better and they have a less "white-knuckle" experience in windy conditions. Will admit I've had a couple trees with attached ladder stands blown over during the winter months. Basically my fault for choosing a boogie terrain, my bad. As a sort of testament to my (^above) madness, when blown over those stands remained attached to the tree w/o any damage. Clearly, I abandoned that area for erecting stands after numerous nightmares about what-ifs...!!!

OMG, lets send in the Finding Bigfoot crew, again!!!!

I also had a fairly HD ladder stand stolen from the backside of a property I'd owned. Unfortunately, didn't realize it until ~April when I was scouting for turkeys and the ground was bare. Had to have been a snowmobiler as it's about 1/4+mi to nearest road. Inquired with neighbors about anyone having permission to hunt or snowmobile on their adjacent properties - None! Although PO'ed, my hope is some one is using it and it wasn't merely stolen for scrap metal. What I did the following deer after deer season ended was to remove the bottom ladder section & horiz brace and hide them in the brush ~100yrds from stand location. Seemed to work, never had another stand stolen. Or maybe neighbors were more alert to trespassers after I'd mentioned this issue.

UB still in tournament, while "Cuse is out. Who'd a thunk...!

Congrats to the hunter & PH/guide! BUT.. someone is a dumb-a$$ for posting this hunt on social media and not expecting any negative responses!!!!

IRC, this action by Dick's was prompted by their sporting goods customers complaining about the gun sales. Dick's caved-in to the pressure, but they could have just as well put a ~6' tall partition around the hunting related section. Whatever..., not my personal preferred place to buy firearms anyways.

If you've ever been lurking/drooling around the gun counters of places like Dick's, BassPro, F&S, etc - you've overheard some hair raising conversations between customers and the sales clerks. Obviously there are people who qualify for pistol permits, buy one with almost no knowledge about them, take them home a couple days later, go to the public range with probably NO instruction or safety rules explained. If I were a frequent user of a public range, I'd want to be assured the person next to me was at least semi-competent of handling a weapon safely and how to use it properly. Asking too much!??! So some do not want any govt agency involved in this type of weapon handling and safety training. At the local R&G there are several seminars or training sessions put on multiple times a year by 3rd party companies that specialize in this sort of thing. Make the consumer responsible ($$) for having this type of training before any initial handgun purchases. Maybe I'm living in some sort of alternate universe, JMO it just seems to be common sense. Don't hear anyone complaining about the decades old hunter safety course. Similar scenario...!?!

OMFG, way too much OCD & time involved in making the 1st cup of coffee for me when I wake up. Need my caffeine injection fast! Do respect you for being a coffee connoisseur, so am assuming you drink it black!?! Mine takes only a dribble of 1/2 n 1/2 to hide any bitterness. Oh yeah, gotta be piping hot, not room temp stuff.

TV antennas now-a-days are much like the old style rabbit-ears. Only get the strongest "over the air" signals from local network stations, IE: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, etc. IRC, shopping for antennas, they'll have signal reception strength listed in miles. All the news, weather & sports are regional but revert to network programming after that. Most TV sets have internal decoders to convert signal to view-able TV shows. So you basically install antenna, connect cable, adj aiming of antenna and you're good to go with TV remote controller. Check before you plunge, my Visio TV has no decoder/converter. If you want to store/save programs using an antenna, need an additional TI-VOish box. Some streaming services have an add-on for network TV viewing at a $$ if you don't want to be bothered with the equipment issue. And some streaming services offer program storage (cloud) add-on, again more $$ typically.

Now here's one for the other thread about nostalgic things. Still remember going to the market, down the coffee isle, dumping the bag of beans into the big red grinder, selecting grind fineness and hoping no one put any .. foreign objects into the grinder before I used it. Wasn't it mainly Eight O'clock beans, at least when I shopped at local Acme supermarket???