wolc123

Number 1 for me, would be the NY state Adirondack mountains, The NW corner of the park, is my favorite part, because it is the farthest from NY city, which limits the crowds. Also, there is a decent deer population around there and enough agriculture, so that the deer taste pretty good. The fishing is good there too. I feel extremely blessed to have the chance to spend several weeks there every year, with free food and lodging. Most likely, that is where I will stay when I retire. Number 2, would be NY state St Lawrence river / Thousand island region, mostly for the good fishing. Both of my top two have unsurpassed scenery. I travel a fair amount for work mostly, and the best part of that is that it makes me appreciate what we have here in NY. I can't take the heat very well, and I could never survive south of Gettysburg PA. Incidentally, that is one of my favorite out of state places to visit. My favorite place to eat there is Oroark's. I feel sorry for those folks who live in Southern CA, and have to deal with all that traffic, but again, I don't mind an occasional visit there. Two of my favorite places to eat are in Ocean Beach SanDiego (South Beach bar and grill, and Hodad's). Florida, Alabama, Missisippi, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia are way too hot and Humid for me but ok to visit breifly in the cooler months. I don't care for desert scenery at all, which takes Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado off the list of states I would like to visit again. I have been to many of the lower 48, and in my opinion, none of them can hold a candle to what we have here in NY. I appreciate our high taxes and dysfunctional government. Without that, it would be way overcrowded, because everybody and his brother would want to live here. My international travel has been limited to Ontario and Quebec in Canada, and Cozamel in Mexico. Again, those are ok places to visit on rare occasions. but not places where I would want to spend a lot of time. A distant second, as far as a state to retire to, would be Minnesota. That would be mostly for the fishing. The hunting probably wouldn't be as good,due to the wolves, and the scenery is way behind, but not terrible.

I agree. They have pretty much destroyed the skyline scenery on tug hill around Lowville, and many other formerly pretty areas of upstate NY. In addition to the bird slaughter, they dont make any sense economically. The value of the power that they make doesn't pay for their build and upkeep costs.

Besides pack animals, supposidly they are good eating. I read that the meat is lean and tender, with flavor somewhere between lamb and beef. That provides meal options, on back country hunts in the US, that you can't get with horses (it is not legal to eat those in this country).

What about the piles of dead birds (including bald eagles) under wind turbines ? How is that legal ?

I hope this old hay fork doesn't get busted up too bad when I pull the barn frame down. I fondly remember using it to unload wagons of loose hay when was a little kid. As soon as I reached my teens, my grandad bought a baler. handling those bales sucked compared to the loose hay. Those little square bales were nothing compared to these concrete silo blocks though.

I finally got all the busted blocks piled inside the 12 ft diameter fire pit. That made for a good workout, better than the stationary bike. If we would only get a few days without rain, I could haul some dirt up with my loader tractor and finish it off. I am working on the barn dismantling now, pulling the upper siding boards off, up in the hay loft. That made a nice vantage point for an aerial shot of the big new fire pit:

This starling took one too many craps on my pickup truck. I dont get so fancy with my weaponry. A copper bb and a $ 30 China-made Daisy Red Ryder brought it down and I still got both eyes.

Hawken chew worked good for my first antlered buck. I gave that up in my 20's though, and I am not willing to take the health risks involved in using that again. I will never forget that buck walking out of the bush and sticking his nose in the brown spot in the snow that I was making, right below my tree stand. Hot apple cider seems to work good for me these days. One of the biggest bucks (rack and body), that I have killed in the last few years came in from down wind two weeks in a row, shortly after I opened my thermos full. I have been using Evercalm the last 5 years or so, and it seems to help a little. I just put a little on my heels, walking to my stand, maybe 50 yards out, and wipe a bit on the tree or blind rail when I get there. I tried doe in heat several times (tinks 69 and others), but only ever had one button buck respond to it, and that turned put to be my first bow kill. No antlered buck ever paid any attention to it when I tried it. Haven't used any in more than 25 years.

I haven't got my mom a gift yet, but I just thought up a perfect one. I should have an hour or so to kill (litteraly), prior to church on Sunday. My wife and kids were not crazy about it, the last time I brought home a shot-up wild turkey. Something about the blood and guts turned them off I guess. Maybe I can kill a tom for mom, on Mothers day morning behind her house, with the little .410 that grandpa bought for her when she was a little girl. Wouldn't that be a "special" gift ? I will remove the breast and hand it to her in a zip lock bag. Tentatively, I am planning on fishing Saturday morning (maybe she will also get a fresh lake Erie walleye). I am going to at least give turkey hunting one more shot on Sunday. We gave my nephew permission to turkey hunt our place, so I dont want to horn in on his action at home. He did a great job on the concrete work in my new pole barn. I might get one last shot at spring turkeys, up in the Adirondacks, when we visit the in-laws on Memorial day weekend.

My worst one happened around 1990, at Highbanks campground on Kinzua reservoir. The ramp is very steep and I had removed the tie downs at the top. I had also unhooked the winch and safety chain from the bow hook. Rookie mistakes for sure. My trailer has bunks and normally the boat stays on them until it floats off. That time, the boat started to slide off when I was still a long way from the water. When I saw it begin to slide, I mashed my trucks throttle. Fortunately, the outboard was tilted up. When I got to the bottom of the ramp, and hit the brakes, the boat literally launched like a torpedo off a rack. There was no one on board and no ropes attached. My buddy Joe and I could only watch as it headed out towards the middle, pushed by a stiff offshore wind. Joe's dad and his old buddy were right behind us with their boat. We were having a little 2 boat walleye tournament that day. Naturally, the old pros took their time, carefully tieing off ropes, and not removing the safety chain until thier boat was in the water. By the time they they let us board their old beat up scow, my shiney new boat had dissapeared around a bend, downstream on the mighty Allegheny. They got a big kick out of that one, but we out fished them that day pretty good, so I guess we had the last laugh that night at the cabin.

3:1 in favor of full inclusion of the crossbow is as close as I have ever seen it in a poll on here and there have been many. Maybe it's time for another, now that the NYB forum is shut down.

It sounds like you would do some archery season hunting in NY, if full inclusion of crossbow went thru. That might put you in position to take a NY buck that might otherwise fall to a NYB member. It is all starting to make sense now. It looks like the forum is shut down on the NYB website, which has brought some of them over here.

I am definitely going to go with it. Another reason, is that I already have killed a turkey with my 28" barrell, 12 ga 870 (a hen in the fall from a treestand). I really dont see a need to pattern my .410, given the number of tree rats that I have taken with it, and the number of clay birds it has broken for me. I probably will go with the 6's and set my decoy at 23 yards, to keep the shots close. I am very confident in that .410 and I know its limitations. I used to shoot on a trap league and we always had a .410 week at the end of the season. Some of the guys regularly outshot me with their 12's, but nobody did with their .410's . The key, on those clay birds with the little gun, was to get on them fast and break them close. I dont think the other guys ever figured that out. They just shot the same as they always did with their 12's. I needed some excitement to get back into turkey hunting, after not seeing it hearing anything yesterday. Were it not for that .410, I probably would have chased walleyes on the cold, muddy waters of Lake Erie instead.

I have lead, high brass 4's and 6's. My .410 is a full choke single shot. Which of those two shot sizes would you recommend ? I might go with it next Saturday. It would be cool to hunt with that, because my grandpa bought that gun for my mom (who never took to hunting much like our own girls didn't). I will be hunting on his farm Saturday, where my mom and dad live now. I am leaning towards the 4's because I like the 6's for squirrels. I also have some target load 9's but it sounds like those are out based on the law. I cant be first on the forum to kill a turkey but maybe with a .410.

If you are hunting from a popup blind, I think shorter would be better. I had a 28" on my 870 Saturday in one and it was waaaaay too long. Fortunately, no tom showed up, so I didn't have to stick it out the window to shoot. Are .410's legal for turkeys ? If so, I have a nice little, full choke Winchester model 20 that would fit perfect in there. I have plenty of high brass 4s and 6s for it. If that ain't legal, I will go with my Barnett Recruit crossbow next time.

I was well stocked like that prior to St Patty's day (all kinds of green genny's). Summer's coming now though, so I got to get stocked up on Ruby red's. Hopefully they will have some at the market tomorrow when I stop by after work.

They call those "hammer handles" up on the St. Lawrence. They sure do love spinnerbaits. I always double up my last foot of fluorocarbon, to keep from getting bit off, when we get into them.

I like their fish too, and consequently, my "free" fish is also lasting longer than usual. We finally finished the last of our lake Erie bass from last year this week. I have never been a big chicken wing fan, but I would have to give Marvin's a slight edge over CPC on those. I had a few of their Bourbon street bbq ones Thursday night and they were phenomenal. Plus, it's a much shorter drive for me.

Both of our daughters work at CPC, down your way, so that's where most of our pizza comes from these days. Their pizza is good and so is lots of other stuff that they make. I find that my venison goes a lot farther since they started working there. Normally, I would be thru at least one deer by this time, but we haven't even gone thru half of one yet. I guess I will have to start being more selective with my buck tags this year. Maybe 4 points on a side rather that the 3 points minimum on a side antler rule that I have used for many years.

I am aiming for that also. Hopefully, it gets a little warmer and the rain and wind hold off.

Speaking from experience, as someone who has been thru more shit than that guy, I can tell you all that luck has nothing to do with it. If you watch the whole thing again, without fast forward, you will hear him tell you why he survived.

More like an early lunch, cold pizza and cream ale:

It is a beautiful morning here on the SE corner of wmu 9F. The wind is right very light and the temp is 35. The other birds are all waking up and chirping but I dont hear any turkeys yet. I am in position, in my popup blind, watching my decoy 25 yards away. Hopefully the wind will pick up soon and get her moving a bit, and maybe a tom will show up.

My wife and I had our second Pfizer shot on Wednesdsy. She got a little tired the evening after getting her shot in the morning. I developed a minor headache Thursday afternoon, but it was nothing that a few beers couldn't fix that evening. I felt no more pain after about my third one.