Dave

i was an nra member for a good many years. i elected to not renew my membership a few years ago based on the amount of junk mail i received from them and not to mention the hassling phonecalls. a good portion of my membership dues was spent on postage, telephone operators, and magazine publication. i have talked to a good number of people that feel the same way and have not renewed their membership for those very same reasons. Ramrod , the same thing holds true if you have ever donated money to any organization. Cancer research, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Animal groups that protect dogs etc. They must sell your information to everyone who is looking for money and it never stops. When this happened to me I stop donating period you can't support every group that's looking for money, you would go broke. Dave

Sorry that you are first discovering this, but there are more of us out there than you obviously realized. Some are reluctant to let their opinions known about this, especially on a forum such as this, while I surely am not. I will say it again, and you guys can do the math if you are capable. If only 4 million are NRA members out of 70 million gun owners out there, you can scratch your own heads as to why they only have less than 6% of gun owners as members. Of course in your own minds you are the defenders of freedom while 66 million other gun owners and the rest of non-gun owners in this country are all left-wing communists. Whichever way you slice it guys, you are obviously outnumbered, even amongst your fellow gun owners! LOL That is a ridiculous comment to make. It's like saying that if you don't go to church you don't believe in God. You are assuming that the gun owners and hunters who are not NRA members are against the NRA. They may very will agree with the NRA but just don't pay to do it.Dave Actually if you do believe in God, why wouldn't you go to church? At least a good percentage of the time if not every Sunday. There are plenty of churches out there of all denominations that should fill anyones bill who claims to believe in a God. Once again you boys are twisting things the ways you THINK people should think. I have yet to hear any of you address the reasons for why you think 66 million gun owners choose not to join the NRA? Saying that the 4 million are the savers of freedom while not addressing the other 66 million gun owners reasons for not joining is BS in it's purest form. The best you guys can do is call them cheap and not wanting to pay dues. Anyone with half a brain can figure that there's got to be more reasons than that when people pay more for their freakin cell phones per month than a 1 years membership to the NRA would cost. Of course you guys are far from rational thinkers, so I won't be holding my breath for honest and straightforward reasons directly out of your own mouths. Seems to me that you have a great deal of disrespect for the members on this site who don't share your opinion. Either they can't figure things out or they have half of a brain. As in life there are people who lead and those who follow so maybe, the people who don't put their money where their mouth is are riding on the coat tails of those who do. In many states they don't have the restrictive gun laws as we do here in the North East so they don't have the problems we do. But if they did, they would join in a heart beat.Dave

Sorry that you are first discovering this, but there are more of us out there than you obviously realized. Some are reluctant to let their opinions known about this, especially on a forum such as this, while I surely am not. I will say it again, and you guys can do the math if you are capable. If only 4 million are NRA members out of 70 million gun owners out there, you can scratch your own heads as to why they only have less than 6% of gun owners as members. Of course in your own minds you are the defenders of freedom while 66 million other gun owners and the rest of non-gun owners in this country are all left-wing communists. Whichever way you slice it guys, you are obviously outnumbered, even amongst your fellow gun owners! LOL That is a ridiculous comment to make. It's like saying that if you don't go to church you don't believe in God. You are assuming that the gun owners and hunters who are not NRA members are against the NRA. They may very will agree with the NRA but just don't pay to do it.Dave

Now I know where the turkeys are, nice pictures. Dave

Doc, thanks for that great response in support of the NRA. I had let my membership lapse for the past few years and thanks to you bringing to light all they do for the 2nd amendment I will be renewing my membership.Dave

As one who has a pistol permit on Long Island it wasn't that easy to get. I have had it since 1975 and back then it took about 8 months to get the permit loaded with restrictions. As a veteran, never arrested no traffic infractions do you think 8 months was a reasonable amount of time to wait or excessive. So I wouldn't say any idiot can purchase a gun in N.Y . Plus when my renewal is up it will cost me $200 to get it renewed if the price hasn't gone up. Dave

No objections from me. So even with regulations we still have problems , so what's the solution? Maybe it's not the regulations but the enforcement.Dave

Steve what's your solution as how to purchase guns? Who gets one who doesn't? There are far more people who die each year and it has nothing to do with guns, how do we regulate that? Over 40 thousand people are killed in auto accidents each year, how do those nuts get a drivers license? We just trust them and they pass a drivers test and they drive, even criminals have a drivers license. In our hospital system hundreds of thousands of people die from mistakes made in hospitals each year. How do we regulate that? To me a life is a life no matter how they die, the pain and suffering for the family is the same , I guess your answer would be more gov't regulations, in my opinion. We trust doctors who make more mistakes that cost lives than those caused by criminals with guns. No easy answers! Where is the public safety or are we only concerned with guns. I know it's a little off the topic, but something to think about. Why regulate the lesser of two evils? Dave

The congress, Senate, President and the Supreme Court have passed all the laws, budgets etc that have gotten us in this mess. They have no Idea or Will to get us out of this mess. We need to have them all removed and start from scratch. We can't borrow money from China and use the money to support Foreign aid at tax payers expense. Does any of our policies make any type of sense . We are broke stop the spending!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dave

Sorry guys this was meant for SteveDave Why do you perceive me as being angry?? Some of you fellas are the ones who are having a hard time accepting that there are many gun owners out there who understand that some gun laws are needed and make sense. VJP being the main culprit since he is singling me out at the beginning of this thread. I am only making the point that ALL gun owners don't think exactly the way the NRA does. He has a coronary whenever anyone takes issue with anything he posts and thinks that ALL gun owners should think like him. You should try reading his posts from the past for proof. If he or anyone else here doesn't like some of us posting OUR opinions, they could as I said before, suck on a lemon for all I care. That is not being angry, only being completely honest. I won't agree with him or anyone, just because it's how gun owners should be thinking according to people like them. Just responding to how you respond and it seems like you are angry and over reacting.Dave

Sorry guys this was meant for SteveDave

What's your problem? Why are you so angry? Dave

Wooly, one day at a time, take it day by day. Dave

Yeah, and instant background checks for firearms purchases became law in the early 90's also. This common sense law at least keeps some undesirables from purchasing firearms from licensed dealers. I will never accept the claim that allowing people to carry lowers crime, while a common sense law like this didn't have a positive effect also. More people don't carry in comparison to those that do. I highly doubt the ones who carry are the ones scaring criminals away from a life of crime. If anyone is scared it is the ones who are carrying. Steve, it seems you get confused with the facts or you just don't agree because they don't fit your opinion.Dave

My old man smoked two packs of Camel no filters and quit cold turkey. But had to have lifesavers in every pocket. So gum, straw or lifesavers will work ,hang in there Wolly we need more of your wonderful pictures. Dave

If I can recall that in Florida they passed a right to carry law. The left outcry was murder and crime would rise but the opposite happened crime went down year after year. This law was passed many years ago and the statistics are the proof which gun control advocated will never admit. You are safer when citizens can defend themselves and the criminals know that, probably why right to carry firearms works in Florida. Dave

One thing I noticed this weekend was the road kill some deer but many turtles. Mostly looked like snapping turtles and a few red eared sliders. Any one else notice turtle road kill? Dave

Got caught in the same storm un real lightning show . Could see it in the distance for hours before it hit us.When the rain hit it was dead calm the rain came down in torrents but the flag never even moved I thought that was very strange. After a while the wind came but not bad as some have described. Loved every minute of it. Dave

Are you talking about illegal immigrants who move into NYS?? NYS is surely not the only state they move into, and this is a whole other topic in my opinion. Steve just responding to your statement, and you were talking about NYS. That's what I was referring to. Illegals are better off to. I hope to be one of those moving out in the next few years.Dave

Especially the illegal immigrants. Who pays for that? Dave

Now that's what I call a flag. I fly my flag every time I go up state. Dave

Doc, it all depends what part of the state you live in, some have much higher taxes than other and that is something to think about in the future. I am also retired and the school taxes are killing me where i live. I find it hard to support the teachers and their pensions that are guaranteed by NYS. State workers who retire may no state taxes, what's up with that? Then they raise our taxes to cover the shortfalls. Sorry for rambling this is a never ending story of Long Island. But I love my house on 20 acres up state it's my sanctuary. Dave

Doe, I feel the same about moving out of New York too expensive to live here anymore. I was looking into Pennsylvania they have a very friendly tax structure when you retire. First no state tax, they don't tax your pension or 401k plans. Second the taxes are much lower, flat sales tax 6% for most parts of the state. Property taxes less than half of what I am paying. So for me it would mean about a grand a month savings, with that savings I can book a nice hunt every year. Plus the hunting in Pa. is as good if not better than N.Y and you are not too far from N.Y if you have to visit. Dave

Culver thanks for the info and all who responded thanks.Dave

Culver , I shoot a 2315 aluminum 31" arrow would a carbon arrow come off the bow faster than the aluminum?Dave