
reeltime
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I use happy jack kennel dip concentrate from tractor supply, mix a soak solution for all of my turkey gear. saturate it and let it hang outside to dry. I also mix up a more dilluted mix and put that in an old scent killer spray bottle marked tick spray and I spray my boots and pant legs before heading out. Ialso spray down my dog and her neoprene vest before we head out. the ticks are getting worse here in NY, but at camp in Pa. they a lot worse, one afternoon on a bow hunt I looked at my legs after getting settled in my stand and I had close to 40 ticks oneach leg... I had not treated my archery gear for fear of the smell alerting deer but after that incident I used my tick spray first then did a little extra scent killer. That seemed to work on both counts, enough permethrin to kill the ticks and the scent killer covered the scent enough to not alarm the deer. As far as winter kill of ticks happens rarely, the issue we had this past winter was that even though it was extremely cold for a long period of time we also had quite a covering of snow. most places here had enough snow cover early on that allowed a blanket of snow deep enough to prevent frost from getting to the ground. most places you could go out in the woods in early march and dig through the snow cover and dig a hole in the ground with just a shovel Had we of had no snow cover and the ectreme and extended cold temps like we had we probably would of had a good tick kill.
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some of the most helpful video's on the market are from Denny Gulvas. he gives some great tips on set ups and calling.
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good advise g man,, I do not use blinds or decoys unless I need to for a young hunter. I employ alot of the same tactics except I rarely ever go out in the evening to roost a bird, I may take up a location far away to watch a bird go in for the night but I rarely ever walk through the woods trying to strike a bird I am always afraid of bumping a target bird. Now preseason I am always in scouting mode, I try to have at least 30-40 longbeards located, of those maybe 6 or 7 make the hit list. once I have found good birds I concentrate on them and learn their habits. each bird is different, some sill avoid fields at all costs while others prefer to roost close to a field and spend a majority of their time in a field. some birds can become very predictible and patternable. as far as set up goes I am a firm believer in you must be where a particular bird feels comfortable being. rarely can you ever coax a bird into an area he doesn't feel comfortable being in. I will rarely set up in wide open woods because I don't use decoys so if your in the wide open you stand a greater chance of the bird hanging up out of range because he can not see the hen thats talking. generally its easier to call a bird uphill than downhill, I try to get above or at least on the same level as him. also you need to know your terrain and try to limit natural obstructions, creeks, roads, fences, etc. alot of this knowledge is gained during your preseason scouting. I rarely miss a morning in the turkey woods of spring, its not uncommon for me to be setting against my chosen tree an hour or more before the first hint of daylight. I have also been known to be leaving the truck or camp at 2:30 am to walk in when its a full moon and clear. turkeys have poor eyesight in the dark but with a moonlit night and bare trees of early spring it can be as bright as daylight. I do not carry a flashlight and do not even take one on the darkest days, I leavearaly enough to feel my way through the woods to my spot. I can set at the base of a tree for several hours before light if I am confident one of the birds on my list is in the area. as far as calling goes, I always have a mouth call in but rarely ever use it as a first go to call, I might start them on a soft slate for tree talk if they don't start on their own. but I rarely do any calls if they are in the tree. grandad always told me a wild turkey hears your calls,, the first call you make he knows about where you are, the second call he knows within a 50 yard circle, the third call and he knows exactly which tree you are leaning against. I can tell you that his wisdom has proven itself true many times. my go to call any more is my trusty Burrville Bomber made by Tim Fralick, that thing is deadly talk!! there are times that you need to do alot of calling but you will probably kill more birds with just a few clucks and short yelps than anything else out there, especially if you are on heavily pressured public land birds. It takes alot of restraint not to blast back calls when he is gobbling with every step and sometimes you have to do that but most times less is more. the thing to remember is in nature the hen is to go to the gobbler we are trying to make him goofy enough to reverse nature and bring him to us. birds that have a few years under their beards become cautious when a hen talks in one spot too many times they know its not natural. once the gobbler has answered you and you can tell he is coming to you most times if you go quiet you will be fine, for myself I don't "want" a bird ripping gobbles every step, while I certainly enjoy hearing it I know that the more they gobble the more attention they draw to themselves and that is never a good thing. even on posted ground people just can not seem to stand hearing a bird gobble and a high percentage will walk right by a posted sign. once you have a bird coming in now is the time to keep a cool head and be keenly aware of your surroundings. you need to pay attention to what is happening around you, whatch for signs of an approaching person, deer snorting, running within sight of you, songbirds becoming aggitated, alarm calls, squirrels barking or running part way up a tree and peeking around the trunk, even at times if all of a sudden the gobbler shuts up, yes sometimes they come in hot then go quiet and sneek in but often times when they clam up after coming in hot an approaching person spooked them. having a hunter trying to stalk a bird is one of if not the most dangerous situations a turkey hunter can get into, I have been turkey hunting since the late 70's and I have seen plenty in my day from folks. I have seen guys stalk hen decoys, I have had them stalk my calling, sometimes these people are so convinced there is a turkey there that they shoot the first thing that moves. thats why you NEVER EVER try to wave off another turkey hunter, ALWAYS call out to them in a clear voice "turkey hunter stop" never wear anything red white or blue that can be visible even a tee shirt inder your camo jacket.. like I said some of these people get so keed up their mind convinces them that that white thing they see is a gobblers head when in fact its the white V of your teeshirt under your jacket. alot of times you will hear a bird approaching, they are not like deer that tend to sneak through the woods, they break branches, sometimes you will hear them dragging their wings if they are strutting in, sometimes you will hear them spitting or drumming. if you can hear them drumming generally they are within range. but again always assume the sounds you hear approaching but cannot see it may be a person, don't get caught up in the moment and convince yourself thats the bird coming in because it could be a person and you don't want to put yourself in that tunnel vision scenario, no bird is worth that. good luck and all I can say is if you get hooked on turkey hunting it can be a costly, sleepless, frustrating and exciting season...
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Mike, thesebubblers are used yearly simply to keep ice from building up around perm. dock pilings and lifting them. as with many docks where boats set for the season there are few weeds because people either keep them cut out from around the docks and the shade from your boat prohibits or greatly reduces the weed growth. I know when I take my boat out in the fall there is a basic area void of weeds about 12 foot by 30 foot. not sure what happened to them prior to showing up here, its not hard to tell when things frweeze up to the north as we see large flocks of multiple species showing up. I can tell you that around the first week of dec. we had a massive influx of mergies, both red breasted and commons, when I say massive I mean more than anyone around here has ever seen including veteran waterfowlers with 50/60 years under their belts. consensus from multiple sources were coming up with 50-60 thousand mergies.... with a large majority of them coming into our bay there is no wonder local fisherman were concerned. putting that many fish eaters in a 3000 acre bay every day for a couple weeks they are going to have a detrimental impact of baitfish and sport fish. as far a the zebra mussels go they seem to be on the decline or have declined to a lower level than 5-6 years ago, I did a few dock replacements last fall and there was nowhere near the mussel build up on the old pilings, you don't see the rocks encrusted with them, not a major pile of mussel shells on the shoreline that you have to be concerned about your dogs feet,
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sorry to hear of your friends passing.
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law, I am in sodus point, on my way over to the farm this morning Ziva spied a drake mergie in the field. I tried to get him to take him back to the bay but he ran across the snow andflew off towards the lake but never made it higher than about 20 feet. we are only a couple hundred yards off the lake, but the lake is froze out as far as you can see. Mike these birds have been here since last fall, its not uncommon to have the blue bills, redheads, scoters, old squaw, mergies and puddlers here all winter. The problem is everything is froze over and has been frozen over since early january. the only open water holding ducks is where bubblers are being run around some boat docks. there are so many birds that they have eaten everything they can get to. one things for sure being a waterfowler and seeing this happening first hand on a daily basis is not something I want to see every year.
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this topic has been in the news for a few weeks. with the numbers I am seeing around here I can not imagine the numbers as a whole along the lake ontario shoreline. just stopped back at the house after helping shovel out the store... and look who showed up again.. there was another drake blue bill at the store las week a buddy of mine thawed out and took over to the open water. I told Judy he came back to get thawed out again. I found a drake old squaw a couple weeks ago all froze up and thawed him out and took him over to the bubbler, while he was thawing out he sat on the seat and ziva sat in the passenger seat watching him. took him back over to the marina after he thawed out and let him go. its too bad we can not do anything to help them, he was severely emaciated felt like little to nothing on his breast. he did fly out of my hands and landed with his buddies around the bubbler. that old squaw drake was still there this morning and I picked up 2 more dead mergies and another dead blue bill. he was really iced up these pics were taken after he sat in the truck with Ziva for 15 minutes. now off to the farm to try and move some snowdrifts that are over my head... thankfully we have a 6' snowblower to put on the tractor. will have to go in on snowmobile since there is no safe place to park the truck till we get the driveway open.
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hey I resemble that remark we don't give up all our nformation though.
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pygmy, I put a 2.5 x bushnell on my turkey gun 20 years ago and have never once regretted it. nothing like having pinpoint accuracy when your shooting softball sized groups at 20 yards or less..... And that scopes real handy when I am trying to see the spurs so I can make sure its a bird on my hit list.
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Warm camo coat or jacket
reeltime replied to Pygmy's topic in Hunting Gear Reviews and Gear Discussions
ecws polar weight base layer, and windshear wool 1/4 zip sweater in tall.. not a short joke, with the talls the torso is longer so it helps cover the small of your back. good bibs also help. as far as jackets go,,,, about the best I have heard of is the sitka gear line. they are not cheap but they are good I guess. rogers sporting goods online carries them. I am not sure if they still make them but there used to be a pocketed waist band belt that you could slide hot hands in the pockets to keep your kidney's and liver warm. wear as little as possible on the walk in and layer up once there helps greatly also. if you get sweated up on the walk in your done before you begin. -
agree with a lot of the replies here, if you are in the market for a grinder from personal experience I will say that this is one tool you do not skimp on. L.E.M makes a good grinder, get the medium to large grinder. those little 99-150.00 grinders are a waste of money and time. I found one 25 years ago at a closeing sale at a grocery store, got a good buy on it and have never been sorry for buying it. if it will fit in the grinder throat it will grind it. if you get a grinder protect the blades!! do not reassemble the grinder after cleaning it to store it. after I clean the auger, throat, tray, blade and screen I boil water and then rinse everything down with clean boiling water then set the pieces on a dish strainer to finish drying, with the boiling water any residual water generally dries off almost immediatly. I do all my butchering first, I put all the burger meat in a couple tupperware bins, then have 2 extra bins to grind into when I am grinding I am focused on that. keep the grinder head tight so the screen against the blades is tight, before I assembly the grinder I give the blade, screen and auger a quick shot of cooking spray. feed the grinder steady and do not allow long lapses in time without meat being ground. If you choose you can grind twice, you will need a meat stuffer, it should be just about the size diameter of the grinder throat. for cutting I use a fillet knife with sweedish stainless steel, it holds a razor edge and the blade is a little flexible to follow the contour lines of the bones and muscle lines. if your cutting steaks ALWAYS cut against the grain of the meat. I use a 4x4 sheet of luan that I set on the kitchen table. and any meat that is going to be further processed into steaks or stew meat we use a regular poly cutting board. any of the burger meat gets put into the burger containers during the processing. steaks, roasts, and tenderloins go into seperate containers. we skin our deer different than most. (unless its going to the taxidermist) we hang them from the head, use a knife to cut around the front leg knee joint and seperate at the joint, dont even need a saw fo that. then cut from there up the inside of each leg towards the neck then up the neck to just under the head. your cut will look like an upside down Y. From there I cut around the neck and then peel the skin down to the chest. I cut through the tendon on the rear leg just above the knee jointand fold the leg up to get the joint line more visibleI then cut around the leg at the joint severing the connective tissue around the knee and the interior tendon within the joint. then bend the leg backwards and finish removal. once both are done I cut up to the interior thigh on each side. then I finish skinning down and when I get to the tail I just cut the tail off at the base. seems that skinning from the neck down seems to help with less hair on the meat. I use a propane torch ( like a plumber uses) to burn off what little hair there is on the meat. I cut down along the last rib to the backbone on each side, when you look at the body cavity your cuts should end just about at the start of the tender loins. I cut right to the backbone and then cut through the spine with a saw,, when I do the upper half I cut around the neck just below the hair line all the way to the spine and then saw through the spine. I second the suggestion to vaccum pack the meat. certainly not the cheapest way to package meat but by and far its one of the best ways to package. wny is right, freezer burn is almost eliminated when done right. I have had lobster meat in the freezer for 3 years and its just like it was when we processed it. good luck.
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been doing my own for years, once you watch it a few times its pretty easy. takes me less than 2 hours to process a deer including skinning if I am doing it by myself, about a half hour longer if someone helps me. too much talking and too much of watching the knife so I dont cut off my helpers fingers.
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with out seeing the area you are trying to cross I would lean towards the jon boat idea. with any style of boat if you plan on tethering it to a cable or rope only attatch it on the bow. attatching it via the bow and stern in swift water you stand a great chance of having the boat swamped with water. I would also attach a second line to pull yourself back and forth across the stream. I would suggest wearing a life jacket and keeping a set of dry clothes on each side of the stream, with the cold water and colder temps in hunting season if you happen to get wet you will need dry clothes to avoid hypothermia. if you plan on going the boat route I would suggest making some practice runs during the summer so you can get familiar with doing the crossing. good luck and be safe.
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while I understand your concerns for the deer with the heavy snow cover most of us are experiencing this winter and our natural urge to feed them to "help" them. I would NOT put out hay, while they do forage for dormant grasses that is far different than hay in both texture and qty. when they forage for food they tend to spend far longer doing so than when they happen upon a suplimental feeding area where the food is easily accessible and a larger qty of it, my suggestion would be to feed with a chainsaw, its the best method for all around health and benefit to both the deer and the woods. I cut down unwanted maple species,poplars, etc. limb them up, place 3' pieces of 12" water pipe on the ground and then pile the brush on the pipe. in the spring I generally have to go back and repile the brush on the pipe because the deer usually rip the piles apart. by doing selective cutting you provide a deers primary winter food, woody browse, by placing the brush in a pile on the piece of pipe you are providing a nesting location for rabbits. the benefits to the woods comes in the spring when by removing selective trees allows for more sunlight to reach the forest floor which generates new growth.
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tombstone also, with kurt russell and val kilmer.... drives the little lady nuts when I recite the lines before the actors do
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yes the roman nose, true not all mature bucks will develope the classic roman nose. generally though truely mature bucks will have a wider snout and the snout will appear stubbier because the actual skull is larger. another characteristic is the imaginary line from the base of the ear to the nose where the corner of the eye lines up, normally on bucks 3.5 years of age and younger that line is pretty close, on 4.5 and up is whenyou start seeing a noticable change in skull characteristics. granted with frontal pictures its hard to see the "line" I was basing my thoughts on what I could see in the pictures, again to me his face looks slender, and while the body can change dramatically from pre to post rut generally facial features don't change as much since there is very little fat on the skull. hopefully the op gets his hands on the sheds or the actual deer would be interesting to get an age on him. no doubt he's a nice buck.
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I would agee with others that age is tough to judge with the photos provided, but I would not estimate this buck at over 4.5, I would actually estimate him at 3.5years. The reason being isfrom the frontal features I can see. first, his face looks narrow and lacks the nasal hump that is very common in older age class bucks. second, his chest does not apear to be fully developed, his front legs seem to be too close together for a fully mature buck. He just doesn't seem to show the common barrel chested charactaristics of a mature buck. is he a nice buck? he sure is, and certainly one I would be happy to put my tag on. scoring on the hoof or from pictures is tough. but from what I see with this buck and I mean no disrepect to the deer or the folks that have put a score up here. I would say this buck would top out mid to upper 130's while he has good tine length on g2 and g3 the g4 's appear to be 4-5" in length. he carries good beam length's but appears to give up on mass and spread. again he is a nice symetrical buck but I personally feel that he is mid to upper 130's at the most, even as a 10 point main frame you need good numbers to get to 130 inches. for a 10 point to get into the 150 class he needs all he can get, width, length and certainly mass, it takes a lot of bone to get that high. hopefully you can get him next year. good luck.
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Anyone have a problem with this post.
reeltime replied to First-light's topic in Hunting Related Pictures
I just about replied on the first page but read through all the replies first. "Its not the Anti's we should be concerned with, its the one's that are indifferent that something like this could get to and cause damage." you sir have hit the nail squarely on the head! we know that trying to change the anti hunters mind is not going to happen while we certainly need to keep awareness of the anti hunters because like it or not the numbers between the anti's and hunters are growing closer together. We as hunters are aging, the recruitment of young and upcoming hunters to replace those of us that are aging is FAR less than it was even as recent as 20 years ago. When the anti's numbers exceed ours we as hunters will be in trouble! not you personally but hunters in general need to remember that fact, and not sure if we will see it our lifetime but I am quite sure my grandkids will certainly have an uphill battle on their hands to keeping the hunting future alive and well. now about your statement about the indifferent people,,, THIS is where a lot of hunters miss the boat entirely. during my short stint of living in new hampshire I was a huge opponent to the visible while transporting law they had there. basically it was when you were transporting a deer or bear it had to be visible outside the vehicle ( so you couldn't put it in the trunk and close the lid or in the bed of your truck and close the tailgate.) My biggest issue was not everyone is a hunter, you have 3 groups. anti's, hunters and those setting on the fence of not being a hunter nor an anti hunter but have them setting at a traffic light and pull up behind a vehicle and be staring at the bloody body cavity of a deer or bear and you might have them move over to the anti hunting side. When I was teaching hunter safety in NH. we talked about care of your animals you shot. I was pretty frank with people about my displeasure of public display of animals. I have been a hunter my whole life and fully understand and lived the meat pole years at camp, but unfortunately times have changed, while still in areas the outside poles are fine as they are not in general public view it irritates me to drive through town and see deer hanging in plain view of the road, Not that we have anything to hide but be respectful to the animal ( you did take its life afterall ) but more importantly be respectful to the public and more importantly don't ever forget about those folks that are setting on the fence. There is an old saying "actions speak louder than words" how we as individuals act and converse in the course of our hunting endeavors whether right or wrong reflects on ALL of our brother and sister hunters. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy unfortunately. -
not sure which swamp your talking about unless its the marsh area south of the seneca outlet in the glen. I would not go by hearsay, I would find out for certain from a warden in that area. someone told me I could hunt here is not a valid excuse to a warden and I wouldn't want you to find out the hard way that you can not hunt there. with the temps we are having and snowfall amounts I would be surprised if any marshes are open water, generally a marsh has slow moving water which in turn is generally the first to freeze over. canoe's and cold water are a dangerous combination, trying to hunt the fingerlakes from a canoe is also a dangerous proposition. you can go from knee deep water to 40-100 foot deep in one step in some places. can you duck hunt without a dog? yes doing so in a marsh is going to be tough because a lot of places its so swampy and muddy you just cant walk in the marsh. unless you ensure that every duck you shoot lands in the water you will likely loose birds. I would suggest looking over the finger lakes and find some spots you can put the canoe in, watch the winds and hunt accordingly. unless you are absolutely sure of the bottom contour and depths set a few decoys from your boat. Stash the boat and find a good hiding spot on the shoreline. Remember if your hunting the split season respect the weather and certainly respect the water. good luck
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we do the big rigs when there are a good number of bluebills and redheads around, generally they fly relatively close to the water surface so the more decoys you have out the greater the chance of having them see the spread. when you have out that many decoys it also gives the birds a whole lot to sort out so they are looking more at where they can land than whats a possible danger to them ( you in the boat) for puddle ducks we generally run a small spread because they tend to get decoy shy the fastest, sometimes I set out as few as 3 or 4 mallards, a couple hen and drakes and a single drake by himself. I will also set out a few geese as a confidence decoy for the ducks, also the size of the goose decoy helps the birds zero in on the other decoys.
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no problem AT,, glad to be of help. i see your location listed as nyc, most of my hunting is done in non tidal waters. but I will say that if you are hunting tidal waters another thing to be aware of is the amount the tide rises and falls. one steadfast rule to follow is NEVER get out of the boat and hunt where there is no vegetation, chances are those rocks could be under water at high tide. If your getting decoys for the most part do not go cheap, you want realistic decoys, early season the birds will decoy decent, as the season goes on and or the hunting pressure is heavy birds become decoy shy. around here our mallards will do 3-4 flyby's before they ever think of setting wings. you need good camo to match the terrain, snow camo when needed, but most of all movement spooks more birds than anything else, especially puddle ducks. divers are pretty bold, you put out a big spread and they are more concerned with trying to sort out their landing spot than anything else ( as long as you are not moving around) our basic diver spread consists of 15-20 screens of bluebills, 5-6 screens of redheads, 2 screens of goldeneyes. then we set 2-4 long lines of bluebills, redheads and goldeneyes. ( keep the goldeneyes on their own line leading into the goldeneye screen. each screen holds 9-12 decoys depending on conditions and water depth. the long lines are anywhere from 150-300 foot in length and have anywhere from 2-4 dozen decoys on each long line. I did tell you it was alot of work right?
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thanks Grey,,, unfortunately personal experience ( not me personally being in that situation) is a real eye opening experience. back in my paramedic days I was on several duck hunting accident calls. one of which was a cold water drowning. People just do not realize how dangerous water is in any form. duck hunting can be alot of fun, its expensive and alot of work but it can be fun,,, but it can also be very dangerous.. never take cold water for granted it can and will kill you if you don't respect it.
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you might want to reconsider :-) you can spend a TON of money on waterfowl hunting especially if you find that you enjoy it. I don't even want to think about the amount of money I have tied up in decoys, guns, weights, boats, blinds, waders, clothing. is waterfowling expensive? yup, probably one of if not the most expensive hunting sport going. is waterfowling fun? yup. is waterfowling fun in the early season? yup. is waterfowling fun in the split season after christmas? yup but this is the season that separates the men from the boys! single digit temps with 20 mph wind driven snow is when the fun really begins! Is waterfowling dangerous? YES! you have to remember even in the early season in Oct. our waters here have cooled greatly. You have got to stay aware of the conditions, have a boat suitable for the conditions. a good motor also! cold water kills and it doesn't take long to do it. if you waterfowl long enough you will go for a swim, know that up front, prepare for it because it will happen. the more prepared you are for it and expecting it to happen at some point may help to keep you from panicing when it happens,, if you panic your in trouble. with the proper waders and life jacket you will float. If you don't know how to swim I would start there, can you swim with all that gear on? NO but if you don't know how to swim and you end up in the water you are GOING to panic and you are not going to know the basic ways to stay afloat. go out in the summer with the duck gear on and practice going in, get comfortable with your gear on and confident that your gear will keep you afloat. Get a good pair of neoprene waders, they are not cheap but they will keep you warm and you will float with them on. stay away from the old style rubber waders, and even some of the canvas waders those fill with water and you don't float. all I can say is good luck and be safe. you might want to tag along with a duck hunter and see if its something you want to partake in.
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we went to direct tv last spring, the sweetest part of the whole deal is that we got 2 extra receivers and took those to our place in Pa. and had them put a dish up there.... so now we get the same channels here and at "camp" . certainly better than watching the same movies over and over or wrestling ants.