wolc123

You are probably right. I suppose there is a certain thrill to "living on the edge" that many find appealing. I guess that is a good place for them. If the nukes don't get them another virus might.

After we get through this thing, the biggest result of the Covid-19 pandemic for NY state will be a mass migration of people out of the NY city area. Those diehards, who choose to stay there, ought to see a big drop in rent costs anyhow, while upstate property values will likely skyrocket. There is no reason to believe that another pandemic will not occur anytime soon, and this one clearly indicates the sheer stupidity of living in such a densely populated area. The good news is that this population shift should give upstate a lot more influence in state politics.

Use your internet skills to determine how much territory was controlled by ISIS while Obama was President. Compare that to what they hold now after 3.5 years of Trump. Then get back to us with who did or is doing a better job. Obama was a talker, while Trump is a doer.

Thanks for the sound advice. I have always been a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" type of guy, but it is probably time to upgrade the Recruit. I have not heard any bad stuff about the $ 239 Centerpoint Sniper package, so I think that is the way I will go. That 370 fps model should give me a solid 60 yard effective range. The bulk of my venison, since 2014, has came from that 2-week crossbow season so spending another $ 239 on that now makes a lot of sense.

My great great grandad built a couple of large post and beam barns on our farm in 1880 and 1883. Woodchucks loved making their dens under them. Those old barns got in pretty rough shape through the centuries, and I hope to get the last one completely dismantled this summer. That will probably mean the end of my "woodchuck hunting", which mostly consists of 40 to 60 yards shots from my bedroom window, averaging 4 or 5 a year. I used a Ruger M77.22/250 for about 20 years, always aiming for center of mass on the chucks. At that range, it would usually not leave a mark on the chucks, but I imagine it turned their insides to jelly, because none of them even twitched after taking the bullets. To me, that rifle seemed like a little "overkill", so I traded it for another deer rifle (3) years ago. I do miss that gun a little, because it never failed me a single time. My hearing would probably be a little better today if I never had it though. I started using my Ruger 10/22 for chucks at that point. The first one, that I shot on center of mass, made it half way back to the barn before expiring. Since then, it has been all head shots, and none has gone more than a foot. That is definitely the place to shoot them with a .22 rimfire. Although we don't have many close neighbors, They do appreciate the less noise of the .22 rimfire (as do I ). An neighbor of mine claimed to have killed hundreds of chucks, with the crank-handle of his old Case tractor, while he was out spreading manure. He said that the secret was to get between them and their hole. I decided to try that one time. I got up in the hay loft of the back barn with my .410 single shot squirrel gun. A chuck was about 50 yards away. I tapped the side of the barn and then stuck the muzzle out thru a space between the siding boards, aiming down at his den. I gave him the load of # 6's from about 12 feet directly overhead and it flattened him right out. That was the only one that I have killed with a gun that was not .22 caliber. I still have one old crank-start tractor, so maybe I will try an get a chuck out in the fields with that, after the barn action ends this summer.

I take the bolt off the rail, when I leave my spot, and then put it back on when I get back up to the house. Then I shoot it into my rag-bag. If it is dark by then, as it often is on afternoon hunts, then I do under a floodlight. That way no deer are alerted in the hunting area. The only way to totally eliminate wear and tear on the limbs and strings is to not practice at all. So far, I have been able to compensate for the wear and tear on my 2014 Barnett Recruit, by adjusting the vertical on the sight. I hope to squeeze another season out of the original string this year, by switching from 125 to 100 grain broadheads, but it will probably needs a string replacement prior to the 2021deer season. I average about (25) shots a year on it, including unloading and initial sight in each year. It has not needed any adjustment throughout the seasons after the initial sight in, but the last two years I had to make a significant vertical adjustment on the initial sight-ins. The string is definitely starting to stretch a bit. It was good for a 59 yard shot the first year, but I will keep them under 30 yards this year (even with the lighter broadheads). It is not shooting nearly as flat as it did the first few seasons. My laser range-finder helps out with that situation. I have shot at (5) deer with it since 2014, killing them all. I will definitely have gotten my $250 purchase price out of it, if I can take a 6th one this year. If it costs less than $ 50 to have it restrung, I may try and get another (7) years out of it. If it costs more than that, I will buy another new "entry level" model. I will keep my 2014 Recruit around as a spare with it's stretched out string.

The General and The President (about MacArthur and Truman). Pretty interesting so far including these tidbits: 1) Winston Churchill claimed the bravest thing he every saw anyone do in war was MacArthur's landing at Tokyo airport accompanied by only his pilot and a small group of unarmed staff. This happened prior to the "official" surrender on the Missouri. 2) Only two father/sons won the Congressional Medal of Honor: Arthur and Douglas MacArthur , and the two Theodore Roosevelts.

I don't mind the fact that I have to shoot my Barnett Recruit to unload it. That forces me to practice, throughout the 2-week season, which gives me more confidence in making that shot on a "live" target, when and if it appears. I specifically remember that when I think of this 2-1/2 year old buck that I killed in the early afternoon in 2016. He showed up about (3) hours after I had taken an "unloading" shot at my rag-bag target (and center-punched the bulls-eye) following my morning hunt. He was almost at the exact same range. Even though that shot was at relatively close range (about 15 yards), the angle was not optimum (slightly quartering to), which required precise bolt placement. That bolt hit the right spot (just behind the shoulder blade). Confidence helps a ton with making the shots on live targets. In-season practice is the best way to maintain it. Humans are lazy by nature, and being "forced" to do that in-season practice is not a bad thing. Giving people the option of skipping it is just setting them up for failure.

The one on the left is not coming for any of my guns.

Finally, they got some of the good stuff just in time for DAD day (day after dingus).

Definitely saving money on gas, with the lower prices and a lot less miles, thanks to not needing to run the kids around for after school activities. I still have to drive to work every weekday, but that uses about a third of the gas as running the kids around does. Getting to spend more quality time with the wife and kids is the biggest plus for me. Most of our protein has always came from wild game and fish anyhow, so no huge additional savings on groceries, but not being able to eat or drink out at all, has saved us plenty. That is making the freezer meat go faster than normal, so I don't see us having anything left in there after November 1 or so. Hopefully the upcoming bass fishing and deer seasons will go well. To improve my chances that it will, I am planning on using some of the Covid-19 savings this spring, to get plenty of corn planted, and maybe upgrade my crossbow a bit over the summer. I also need to put some cash into ML equipment, mostly cleaning supplies and bullets/sabots, and maybe even make the change to the Buckhorn 209 powder.

Thanks for the warning. I just finished lashing down the kids trampoline with a chain and ratchet straps. I also added a couple of extra clamps to the old truck cap that makes a roof for my wood-splinter shed, and brought the kids big canvass Lacrosse backstop into the garage. I should be good for 80 mph or so now. I heard on the marine forecast that they are expecting 18 ft waves on Lake Erie tomorrow, which means the wind must be coming out of the southwest.

Happy Easter to all and may the risen Christ help guide you all to success in all that you do (especially deer hunting):

I have eaten vacuum-sealed venison, that has been in the freezer up to (4) years, with no notable loss in flavor. Straight venison freezes and keeps very well because it is very low in fat (which is an oil that does not freeze). If your processed stuff (slim-jims, summer sausage, etc) contains any added pork, then you might have a problem. Pork is very high in fat and only good for about 6 months in the freezer. I never add pork to venison, but my brother in law gave me some grind that had some added, after I gave him a doe a few years ago. That was good, but we made sure to eat all of it within a couple months. The hamburg patties held together real well on the grill compared to straight venison. When I make hamburgs on the grill, using straight venison, I add an egg and form the patties at least several hours before grilling. That binds them and holds them together thru the grilling process, almost as good as the added pork. The advantage of grind with the added pork, is that you can make the patties and immediately throw them on the grill. They won't taste so good if it has been in the freezer more than a year though.

Where is Hop-sing ?

Anyone watching this on Netflicks ? It is pretty good. The acting is not bad and it looks like they went to great lengths to maintain historical accuracy on the sets. They did a much better job of that than most of the other Westerns that I have seen. The guns all look legit to the period, as do the steam-engines, furniture, clothing and whatnot. It may be the only western that I have seen where they actually reload the guns during the big gunfights. I am most of the way thru season (2) now, with (3) more seasons to go. This thing blows Tiger-king out of the water by miles. I could not even get thru one full episode of that nonsense. but my wife liked it. Thankfully, she is starting to get into "Hell on Wheels" a bit. It actually gets better as it goes, unlike some of the other junk that is out there.

The owner is a very nice guy and does a ton of good for the community. They always provide the pizza for the local fireman's Labor-day picnic and I can vouch for the fact that their pizza tastes great on top of a belly full of beer (I always go for the Labatts blue light lime at the picnic now days because it is the only one that is brewed with the "Geneseecret" - pure Hemlock lake water. I won't touch the other stuff, that is all brewed up north of the border, using who knows what as the main ingredient. I boycotted the beer-tent at that picnic a few years, after they dropped Genny and went to Labatts. Now I am back, because they have at least one brew that doesn't give me a headache after the first sip. Their steak subs are great. My daughters favorite is the "stinger" wraps. which contain steak and chicken fingers combined. I am no fan of chicken, so I have avoided those myself.

Our older daughter makes subs at Clarence Pizza and they are pretty good.

There used to be a picture of a waterfall on the old Coors light cans. My buddies (who I went on a Colorado elk / deer hunt with one year long ago) told me that was fish creek falls in the Steamboat springs area. That may or may not be true, but for years after (until they changed the can/logo design) I would point out to drinking buddies, the spot on the can where I killed my mule deer. That was certainly one epic drag thru those mountains.

My in-laws always rented an old off-the-grid camp on Red lake for a couple long weekends each fall (once in September and once in October). The bass fishing was great there for smallmouth and largemouth. I also took a few walleyes thru the years (including one nice 7-pounder), although I seldom targeted them. My wife and I were married on the third Saturday in June and we rented that camp for our honeymoon week that year (makes it real easy for me to remember our wedding date every year). We caught lots of largemouth in the Indian river, on the stretch between Red lake and Theresa, many of them in the 20" class. I took my 17 foot walleye-type boat on that trip. It works ok as a bass boat, with a front trolling motor and casting deck, especially in the river where the wind can't blow it around too bad. On the fall trips, I mostly used the little 12 foot row-boats that were kept at the camp, with either my 15 hp Johnson, or an old 1950's Mercury K-5, the last few years that we went. There was often guys in big, fancy bass boats fishing the weedbed on the end of the lake where the river entered. I never seen them catch much, but they always watched closely as I was bringing in big fat largemouth and smallies and clipping them onto the stringer of my antique, beat-up boat/motor rig. I got to know that lake very well over the years, and it rarely took me over an hour to get my limit each morning. There was also some good deer hunting in that area. About half the years, our October weekend fell on opening week of rifle season, and the other half it was early ML season. It took me longer to figure the deer out than it did the fish, but I had that down pretty good by our last year up there (around 2012), and was finally able to take a nice doe with my ML. It was so remote in the spot I hunted up there, that it seemed like that doe may not have had any idea what a hunter was. After she took my shot behind the shoulder, she walked closer and just stared at me (from about 10 yards away), until her knees began to buckle and she fell over, and slid down a steep cliff. The key to the hunting was finding the oaks. On that last September trip, I was out in the little row-boat one morning, fishing a remote stretch of lake shore and I heard a deer snorting up on a hill-top. On the October trip, I was up on that hill-top with my ML on opening day when the sun came up, followed closely by a group of 6-7 antlerless deer, led by that big doe. The other deer just stood there watching in disbelief, as their leader staggered and tumbled over the edge of the ridge. A convenient thing about that was (unknown to me at the time), the winding gravel road that led to our rented camp was down at the base of that cliff. That made for a very easy recovery. I will never forget walking into the cabin (with the warm heart in a zip-lock bag), as the family was eating breakfast that morning, and asking my father in law if I could borrow his ATV. My sister in law was unimpressed, especially after she finished jogging around the gut-pile later that morning.

You may need some coon control on the sweetcorn or they will wipe you out. Fortunately they are about the easiest furbearer that there is to trap and NY state laws are very lenient towards landowners and "damaging" coons. As long as you bury or burn the carcasses prior to the opening of regular trapping season (in mid October), they may be trapped and killed without restriction. The dog-proof style traps, baited with cat food, work very well, as do box-type live traps, baited with marshmellos coated with peanut butter. I always use field corn for my deer plots, which the coons also hit, but not quite as hard. This year I am going to put in a few rows of sweetcorn on each plot for my own family's consumption and to draw out the coons for early eradication. Coons will always hit the corn before it is fully mature. They are also terribly inefficient in their usage of corn. They knock the stalks down, and then other species (like doves and wild turkeys) finish off the ears which they have brought down onto the ground. Deer, by contrast, are very efficient users of corn. They eat the entire ears directly off the standing stalks, consuming only what they need. When it comes to coon control, there is a tradeoff regarding deer hunting. Deer (and any species) will always expend as little energy as possible to get the food they need. That means they prefer to feed on corn down on the ground. For that reason, if you can get in enough acreage to last thru late ML season, it may be best to not remove the coons. That might mean plots of 10-20 acres in size compared to 1-2 acres if you have a large coon population.(as we have had nearly every year since furt prices tanked and trapping basically stopped). Rabbies or distemper will sometimes wipe out most of the coons in an area. If that happens, you don't need to worry about trapping. Keep an eye on your corn after it starts to tassle, and watch for coon damage, soon after the ears begin to form. That "damage" gives you the green light from NY state DEC to start trapping. I am going to try burning the coon carcasses instead of burying them this year. Burying requires more effort, and the coyotes usually dig them up anyhow. With all the fat on them, I imagine they would burn fairly easy.

That is not a shot that should be taken with any type of archery equipment, however (speaking from first hand experience) it is one of the most effective and ethical shots that there is with a high-powered rifle.

I lost the rope-pulley cocker that came with my Barnett Recruit, in the excitement after killing a massive-bodied (43" chest girth) buck with it a few seasons ago. After losing the cocker, I made up a couple of "T" handles, using short lengths of chain and hooks. These are faster to use than the rope-pulley was, but they take more force, since there is no pulley for force multiplication. At just 150 pounds draw weight, that ain't no big deal. Someday, I hope to get a "double" on deer, which should be possible, because it is so fast to reload with the two home-made T-handle-chain-clips. I would definitely recommend that you use mechanical broadheads for deer with your crossbow. Culver posted a non-biased study that was done on a large military base, which indicated that a crossbow, with mechanical broadheads, was significantly more effective on recovering deer, than any other combination, including vertical bow/fixed broadhead, vertical bow/mechanical broadhead, or crossbow/fixed broadhead. That also matches my own personal experience which has been 100% (5/5) on deer with a crossbow/mechanical, and considerably less than that with two of those other combinations. I have not yet tried fixed broadheads on deer with my crossbow, and I probably never will unless they ban mechanicals (if it ain't broke don't fix it). Last year's buck was the first that went more than 40 yards, after taking a mechanical from my crossbow (he made it just over a hundred yards). I blame that on me being too cheap to buy new mechanicals (I used an old one that I attempted to sharpen last year). The other (4) bucks, which I hit with new mechanicals, all dropped dead within 40 yards of where they stood when struck. I hope you enjoy many years of success on deer with your new crossbow. That last one you picked up looks quite similar to my Recruit. It is certainly not the fastest or the most expensive, but it's light weight, ease of draw, and ease of handling go along way towards getting the job done every time.

I replaced the shoes on my JD model 246 corn planter a few years ago. The old ones were almost completely worn out. I do get more consistent germination and uniform planting depth with the new shoes. They were new to me anyhow and probably only had a few acres on them, judging by the wear. My father in law gave me an old JD model 290 planter, that was parked in a hedgerow behind his place. The is a pull-type version of the three-point 246 and most of the parts are the same. The shoes on it were like new. I swapped them for my worn out ones on my planter. I freed everything up on that 290 and sold it on craigslist for a few hundred bucks (without fertilizer hoppers). That was back when folks were just starting to get into food-plotting.