wolc123

I am glad I watched to the end, because the closing scene was spot on. I sure would like to get that other, wasted 11-1/2 minutes back though. The guy thinks smoking is good and that mass shootings did not really happen ? What's up with that ? How does that help the pro second amendment cause ?

I got stuck (2) of the last (4) times trying to get into my driveway, after driving home from work with my front-wheel drive car. The snow was really dense and heavy today, stopping me in my tracks with only the nose of the car off the road. I had phoned my wife, prior to leaving work, to turn on the switch in the house that energizes the block heater on my loader tractor. At minus 2 F, there was just barely enough cranking power in the battery for a couple of slow turns. Fortunately, that was enough to start the luke-warm diesel engine. If it was one degree colder, we would still be digging that car out of the snowbank with a shovel. The snow don't bother me too much, but I will be glad to see the end of these extreme cold temperatures. I would be very happy if the temperature were to remain between 15 and 32 degrees F, from December 1 thru March 31. If it gets colder, my tractors don't start good, and if it gets warmer, it gets too hot in the house with the woodstove and I have to use the natural-gas furnaces. I am very appreciative of the town, county, and state highway crews, who have done a spectacular job of keeping the roads clear.

I am ok with the two weeks that we have in the southern zone now, especially since finally filling my first dmp with a crossbow last season. I am very thankful that I can use it here, during the best two weeks of the rut. That has always been my favorite time to hunt deer around home anyhow. It is kind of nice to have a little more "free" time earlier for small game and turkey hunting (with guns). Even though I have only hunted deer around home for those two weeks of archery season, in the five years that the crossbow has been legal, my success rate has trippled compared to the 30 years I hunted the whole season with a vertical. The crossbow crowd is really getting the shaft up in the northern zone however, with just three days before the guns open up. They really ought to have two weeks up there. Even (4) more days up there for the crossbows would be nice. That way the pre-regular gun season would total two weeks including ML. What is the reason for just (3) days now, while the southern zone gets (14) ? Adding those extra (4) days would open up another weekend. That would bring up some more tourism dollars. I know I would unload some of mine up there, if I could hunt on an extra, early weekend in October. I imagine there are lots of non-residents, who would do likewise. Thanks for your work towards full inclusion, which I would still like to see (state-wide). The folks up north could certainly use a little more of your help than us "lucky" ones who live in the southern zone.

My hardest-kicking deer gun is an old Ithaca featherlight,16 gauge deerslayer. That might weigh 6 pounds with (5) slugs in it and is basically built on a 20 gauge action. The ammo is loaded up to nearly 12 gauge energy level. I never notice the recoil when shooting deer with it, but it is rather punishing on the range. I always use a pin-on recoil pad, that is filled with something like silly putty, when target practicing with it. It kicks a lot harder than a buddies Ruger #1 458 win mag, that I fired a few times, but of course that gun weighs about twice as much. I don't think many folks understand how much the weight of the gun comes into play with "felt" recoil. Anytime I hear someone complain about recoil from a deer rifle, I wonder if they have ever had any experience with a shotgun. That said, my Marlin 512 is rather tame with 3" 12 gauge slugs, but it weighs a lot closer to the Ruger #1 .458 rifle than the Ithaca 16 ga. shotgun.

Most would agree that the .223 is near the bottom, when it comes to a good deer round, but many folks are really into the .243. What is your problem with that one? I now what mine is, and I am guessing your's might be the same. I was getting sick of lugging my big, heavy, scoped, Ruger M77, 30/06 around up in the Adirondacks. I came pretty close to picking up a Ruger American .243, the summer before last. I am sure glad I did not after butchering a couple of deer that were killed with one last fall. A buddy, who raised beef cattle down at the end of our road, gave me a 2-1/2 year old buck and a 6 month old doe that he killed with his .243 on opening weekend (his family don't care for venison). The buck was struck twice, once on a hip and another on the neck, just forward of the shoulders. Both bullets remained in the carcass. After trimming away all the bloodied meat, I was only able to salvage around 50 pounds. I did not weigh or get a chest girth measurement of that buck, but it looked like it field-dressed 140 - 150 pounds. Fortunately, the little doe fawn was struck just once, in the heart area, and the bullet passed thru. I was able to get about 20 pounds from that. Comparing the meat damage on those deer, struck with high-velocity, small-diameter, light-weight bullets, to those struck with much larger diameter, heavier, and slower bullets (12 ga, hornady SST slug), was like night and day. I "riddled" my own opening-day buck with three of those, two amidships and one in the neck. Those three big heavy slugs "wasted" less than a pound of meat total, requiring just a little trimming around the three "pass-thru" holes. So the bottom line on the .243 as a deer round is: It is ok for killing deer, but not so hot if you also like to eat them. Going forward, I am going with (2) 30/30 levers as my northern zone deer guns (one with a scope and another with fiber-optic open sights for foul weather conditions). The deer that I have killed up there with my 30/06 have had minimal meat damage, and I am guessing that the much slower velocity 30/30 will be even less. Hopefully, I will find out this fall. This .350 legend looks like it would be a good one possibly even "the best". The closest I will ever get to that will be switching to 170 gr 30/30 ammo after exhausting my current supply of 150 gr. I am content with a "good" deer round, and ammo cost and availability mean a lot more to me than having the "best". Not many rounds are cheaper or easier to find than 170 gr 30/30.

The big financial savings comes from the free wood (it litteraly grows on trees). If you do not have that on your property, then I agree there would not be much savings. As I mentioned on my earlier post, I enjoy the "work" involved and the little bit of gas and diesel fuel required for chainsaw, splitter and loader/skidder tractors are insignificant relative to the cost savings provided by all that "free" wood.

I have also been pitching most of them back, since my brother in law got a y-bone stuck in his throat a few years ago. He went to the Alex-bay hospital, where they tried and failed to get it out (they dont show up on x-rays). The next morning, he spit it up after eating an Oreo cookie. Years ago, when spearing was legal, my uncle used to grind up boney sucker fillets and make patties out of them. I never had the guts to try that and usually just burried the whole fish around the apple trees for fertilizer. Spearing those suckers at night was lots of fun.

Pike and pickerel are a kind of dry for smoking. Oily fish - like whitefish, are a lot better for that. I tried frying one of those, that we caught thru the ice up in the Adirondacks, on the stove up there and it was horrible. After that, I always brought them home and smoked them with apple wood and they were wonderful that way. If you are looking for something different to do with pike and pickerel, try pickling the y-bones. Those are considered a delicacy up in the Thousand islands. Back when they were a lot more numerous up there, a neighbor used to fillet them for us in exchange for the y-bones. He would remove all the meat in one big slab, then cut out the little sections with the y-bones, using a straight razor. Apparently, the pickling broke down the bones. making them edible. I never tried them myself, but judging by how excited that guy got whenever we brought in a bunch of northerns, they must be pretty good. He would also give us back more "boneless" meat from each fish, than I was ever able to extract myself, so it was one of those elusive win-win deals.

This will be stopped pretty quick because a few highly-motivated (Thank Dr. Ford for that), conservative, Trump Supreme court picks. Odds are there will be at least one more of those before 2020. Roe vs Wade is on very thin ice right now. After that is overturned, there is nothing our governor will be able to do to keep up abortions in NY. It will be just like when Arkansas tried to keep those black kids out of the Little Rock school back in the 1957. States are powerless against the army which is under the control of the President. Just like Eisenhower sent the troops in to get them kids into that school, Trump will send them into NY to stop the baby murders. Starting with Lincoln, Republicans Presidents have a long history in this country of righting the wrongs of democrats.

It don't belong in archery season if it don't have a string. I would be ok with its use during gun season and ML though, as long as the user took the archery course (to learn how an arrow kills vs a bullet). Ideally, southern-zone early archery big game season should be structured as follows: October 1-14 - "traditional" (recurve and longbows only), October 15 - start of gun season should allow compounds and crossbows (with current minimum width and poundage restrictions). The archery course should also be required for crossbow usage.

Data from states that have had full inclusion for a long time (Ohio), indicates that approximately 25 % of archery season kills are with verticals, and 75 % are with crossbows. While 25 % is a significant number, you might be right about "compound" verticals becoming obsolete. The traditionalists, who stick with the verticals, would probably move towards recurves and longbows.

I have heard that approximately 90 % of the illicit drugs come in across our southern border. There is quite a few miles of wall down there now, but most of those drugs come thru the gaps. Why work harder to send them over, thru, or under the wall rather than just walk around ? Illicit drugs cause the deaths of many US citizens. A wall improves border security by allowing more efficient use of agents. Currently, the democrats hold just 1/6 of the power in Washington (1/2 of the legislative branch). Their lust for more power is what drives them to fight the wall. The unexpected pummeling they received in 2016 caused them to write off the current crop of American voters. They are banking on a new crop for 2020. So building the wall will save lives, while not building it might get the democrats the Senate and Executive branch in 2020 (they have likely lost the Judicial branch for a very long time however, especially if Trump gets a couple more pics before then).

There is nothing like a woodstove, for taking the bite (financial and physical) out of the cold weather, while you are inside the house. We have a centrally located, air-tight, woodstove in the main living area of our 2000 sq foot, L-shaped ranch. Using the air vent control on that, we keep the main living area at about 78 degrees, and the bedrooms at 68, so long as the outside temperature is below about 35 degrees. When it gets warmer outside, I don't bother with the woodstove, and just let the two gas furnaces in the basement cover the heat load (the thermostats are always set at 68 in the heating season). The net result is: The colder the winter, the lower our heating bill. I do not include the cost of the wood, since I have never had to pay for that. I enjoy making it, especially since building a saw platform last year, which has eliminated all the lower back pain I feel sorry for the folks who live up north and can't curl up with their wife in front a warm fire when it is so cold outside. Not quite as sorry as I feel for those who have to endure the heat all summer long down below the Mason-Dixon line however.

"Nest/corn" Predator: Sept 2018 Duke-Dogproof trap / Ruger .22 rimfire - burried with shovel "Target of opportunity predator": December 2018 T/Omega .50 cal. - in freezer now

"Bouncing around" keeps the hot spots from burning out.

As far as guns go, three Marlins have or will soon get a little work. I had enough free time, up in the Adirondacks last Thanksgiving weekend, to sight in my father-in-law's new-in-box, scoped, model 336 30/30. As long as there is no rain, sleet or snow in the forecast, that is what I will carry up there this season. I also swapped out the iron sights, on my new model 336BL 30/30, with fiber optics. That should cover me for the foul weather days up in the northern zone. The Marlin 512 bolt-action 12-gauge slug gun, that I use at home in the southern zone, will also get new optics this year. I am leaning towards a Redfield 2-7 scope, to replace of the beat up Bushnell banner 3X, that it currently wears. I also plan to disassemble the bolt, and clean and lube it well. I dropped it in a swamp, while dragging out a buck on opening day last year. A couple weeks later, on a very cold day, the bolt froze up and prevented a "chip-shot" on a doe. That was the second doe in ten years that owes it's life to a frozen bolt on that gun. As far as habitat improvements go, I am expecting to have a little more time for that this season. I will start with some hinge cutting in a couple sanctuary areas at home. For food plots, I hope to get some winter wheat in this year. I missed that at home last year, because the only little bit I planted failed, probably due to bad seed. The deer sightings were way down here as a result. Fortunately, they were way up over at my folks place, a few miles away. Thanks for that go to an energetic neighbor, who finally got the trespassing issues under control over there, when he bought an overgrown field out back. One change I will make over there will be moving a hang-on tree stand from right near his property line, to the interior of a block of woods that my folks own. I now know exactly where the property lines are, thanks to this guy's fresh survey posts. The posted signs he put up, spaced about every 10 foot along the line, help too. Last year, for the first time in 36 seasons, I did not see a single trespasser in those woods.

poached nutz

?

Where will she sit and who will sit next to her ?

Moma did well today. Stir-fry made with sliced "big" button buck "hidden tenderloins" cooked medium rare. Might be the tastiest oriental dish we have ever had.

God is out and porn is in. How long will it be till dope is legal ?

My father in-law lives near the Lewis/St Lawrence county line (WMU 6C). He has been after me to shoot him a bear, so that he can make a rug, since they began building their retirement lake-house up there 6 years ago. He does not hunt or fish himself, but wants to decorate their place with native species. I managed to kill a nice Adirondack 8-point buck up there, and had a shoulder mount made for him in 2014. It looks kind of lonely up there all by itself on that wall. He still complains on occasion about my release of a 22" smallmouth bass, back into the lake, a few years ago. On the year they bought the land, his relator friend (who sold it to them) got an arrow into a big bear up on the mountain behind their house, but did not recover it. I have yet to see one alive during the last 6 early ML seasons. I did see a big dead one in the skinning shack at Nolt's (in Lowville) when I dropped a doe off there on an 80 degree, early-October day in 2016. Reading about the bear's attraction to apples on this thread gives me an idea how to step up my game a little this year. I have had good luck with deer while sipping on hot cider from a thermos. I usually reserve that tactic for cold weather, but nothing is stopping me from bringing a thermos of cider along on an early, warm-weather bear hunt. Baiting may not be legal, but drinking a warm beverage is. A nice thing about WMU 6C, during the (3) day early crossbow, followed by the (7) day early ML/crossbow season, is that antlerless deer are legal to kill. There is a pretty good population of them up there (I see about six per every one with antlers). They make nice "targets of opportunity", when you are out after bear. There is enough ag in the area, to make their meat taste good, which would likely apply to bears also. More often than not, those 10 days also include the peak fall foliage. You would be hard pressed to find better scenery on the face of the earth than you can find up there at that time. Good deer hunting, fishing and great scenery are worth the price of admission even if no bears show up. Adding my mother in law's spectacular cooking to all of that makes it tough to keep me out of there at that time. Good luck on your quest.

It is in your best interest to develop and maintain good relations with the neighbors. My folks farm, a few miles west of that location (where there is lots of AG), has been in the family for about a century. The block inside their "L-shaped" woods, is a big overgrown field that had been "no-mans" land for many years. A neighbor, around the corner, bought it at a tax-auction a couple years ago. He had it surveyed, and put many posted signs on the property lines. As it turned out, one of my stands, which I thought was on the back of my folk's "L", was actually on his land. He left blunt notes, with his contact info on it, and another that I had about 10 feet from the line. In more than 30 years of hunting those woods, I had killed just a handful of 1-1/2 year old bucks, and one button-buck. The hunting was never that great, due mostly to trespassing issues. There were very few hunts, when I did not see others wandering off that overgrown field, into our woods. They ignored the widely spaced posted signs that we put up along the edges. It is hard to exaggerate the improvement since that neighbor bought that overgrown field and laid down the law. My folks farm has yielded big-bodied 3-1/2 year old bucks for me the last two seasons, and what may be my largest ever button-buck last year. I also blew it on a nice doe last season, which would have been my first one of those over there. I have not seen a sign of another hunter in those woods since that neighbor entered the scene. I do my best to maintain good relations with him. Two seasons ago, I ate my gun buck tag, rather than killing a smaller buck late in the season, that was just on his side of the line. This year, I called him after downing my heavy swamp buck on opening day, to ask if I could drag it over the dry land on the corner of his field. As it turned out, my brother showed up with a big sled and we were able to use that and float it out over the water instead. The neighbor was nice enough to send me some trail cam photos he had of it though. He also sent me trail cam photos of the one I killed the year prior. He has given me permission to enter his land and retrieve wounded deer if necessary (if I call him first), and we have reciprocated.

There is lots of Ag in that area, which makes for some heavy deer. I killed 3.5 year old bucks, less than 6 miles from that spot, the last two seasons. Last year's field dressed weight was 182 pounds. The one the year prior may have been a little heavier but had a smaller rack. Local farmers hit the antlerless deer pretty hard with their nuisance permits (prior to October 1). That significantly improves the buck to doe ratio, and the average buck body size (they don't have to compete with as many does for the acorns). Downsides are: thruway noise, extremely flat, featureless land, and difficulty filling DMP tags. If your primary objective is a crack at a big, heavy buck, that should be a good area. Listening to that noise throughout hunting season gets old for me, and makes me very thankful that I also have access to a quieter and prettier spot up in the northern zone.

It is good to hear that you will not get points on your license. Hopefully, the fine will not be that steep. Law enforcement is under a lot of pressure up there, to slow snowmobiles down, due to all of the deaths and injuries lately. It is too bad that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it does not sound like your ticket was deserved. Writing tickets does slow folks down, and that saves lives. Several factors have increased casualties: First, the suspensions are so good on new machines, that the operators are able to maintain much higher speeds on the trails, than was possible when most of these trails were developed. Second, the horsepower and top end speed of new machines is always increasing. Last but not least, climate change has resulted in warmer temperatures, less snow, and generally poor trail conditions for most of the winters in recent years. That, coupled with the booming economy, puts a ton of machines on the trails on those rare weekends when conditions are good.