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Post by Russ Koon on Nov 3, 2020 20:48:59 GMT -5
Wife and I went down the road six miles to Paragon and voted this afternoon. I think there was one person voting as we came in, but by the time we signed in, we had the machines to ourselves. I chatted with a poll worker for a minute while waiting for the wife to finish. He said there had been a line for about a half hour right after they opened this morning, but it was pretty steadily just a few people at a time since. More than last election, but still uncrowded.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 26, 2020 22:10:58 GMT -5
Just about anything can be argued, but sometimes it takes a little imagination regarding definitions of some terms, like "science".
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 26, 2020 13:16:38 GMT -5
I could never accept "personhood" at conception as being the truth, any more than I could deny the 'personhood" of a fetus at eight months of development. I think the truth lies somewhere between the extremes and that the original decision in Roe v. Wade was probably the best compromise that could have been reached, and that a compromise was the best solution. First trimester, on demand; second trimester, with qualifying medical justifications; third trimester, only to save the life of the mother.
I know, like other compromises, that one left both extremes unsatisfied with their desires to control other's behaviors, and infuse their beliefs on others' wills, but sometimes that is the way it works in real life. And banning legal abortions would not stop abortion, especially since it can now be accomplished with a pill. It didn't stop it back in the day either, it just drove it from a doctor's office to a "backstreet" substitute or an amateur with a coathanger.
It wasn't illegal in any of the states until somewhere around 1813 or so, either. The early states pretty much carried on with the traditions of the old country and frowned upon the practice following the "quickening" (noticeable movement of the fetus), but in most cases it wasn't actually banned even then.
And I can't recall the numbers, but the vast majority of eggs which have met up with a sperm cell they like, still get washed away on the monthly tide. Are they alive, and human? Of course. But that doesn't make them a new person without some level of additional development.
And I don't know where the info above on the heart starting to beat around day 10 came from, but medical science seems to think that the cells in the part of the embryo that will eventually form into the heart of the fetus first begin to fire the tiny electrical impulses that will eventually regulate the heart at around eight to ten weeks.
Zygotes ain't folks, yet.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 24, 2020 10:44:37 GMT -5
Gregr, I see how you could get that impression, but my comment was in opposition to the article, not your post. I should have made that clear, and didn't. It's easy to give the wrong impression with our statements when typing them, and I've been doing this long enough to be more aware of that fact. Re-reading it, the wording in your post was clear enough to have directed me to specify that it was the article that I was disagreeing with, and not you.
Thanks for calling it out and giving me the opportunity to correct the unintended meaning that was so easy to take from my post.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 23, 2020 23:05:42 GMT -5
Steve's series has been a favorite of mine since I first saw one. I wouldn't call his show "liberal" in any way. He's a very dedicated hunter, but with different goals as jjas points out above.
Steve goes into some of the aspects of hunting that aren't touched on on most hunting shows. More appreciation of the natural environment that he's hunting in, and putting in the time and effort to get into some tough terrain, and in enjoying the hunt, locating the game, and sometimes spending the quality time with a good friend in the effort, even when there doesn't end up being a kill.
And his kitchen episodes are really worth watching. The man is really comfortable in the kitchen, but can also whip up a good meal over a few twigs on a creek bank.
He can get a bit philosophical on a long solo hunt, but I suspect many of us have had moments of reflection when the action is slow in the field. He's certainly no bunny-hugger, but he does have an honest respect for the game. And he eats everything he kills, even a coyote! He also had episodes doing some trapping for beaver.
I'd sure like to have his kind of enthusiasm for putting miles on his hunting boots. I used to enjoy doing some long walks and camping while hunting, but I don't think I ever took the easy pleasure that he does in hiking a couple miles to a ridge to see what the next drainage looks like in the dawn. I don't think I've ever heard him mention what an animal will score. Seems more interested in how it will taste. I can relate to that.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 21, 2020 11:07:17 GMT -5
We all have our own ideas on which way the government should be leaning and whether it should be involved at all in some areas.
It can be frustrating to choose sometimes when we're ticking off agree/disagree choices on a list of issue positions.
One consideration that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle is "what difference can the person make if elected in regard to this issue?".
I might have a strong disagreement with a candidate's position on school choice, for instance, but my "child" is now 56 years old and considering retirement communities in Florida. So the issue has less weight in my decision than one that might affect my ability to continue escaping the virus that tends to kill us old folks if we get it. Or the candidate's position on gun control that might leave me without an effective defense if some doped up thug breaks through my front door some night, or catches me out on the street running the few errands that I can't take care of from home.
I might disagree with his position on abortion, but any change in that government position is likely going to depend on a SC decision, and not a governor's preference, so I would give that issue less weight than one in which the candidate might end up having more actual influence.
That consideration can sometimes help in deciding between two choices that seem pretty evenly matched.
Another one that sometimes doesn't come to mind when choosing between candidates based on their responses to an issues list, is to consider whether the list of issues covers all that it should, in your opinion. And whether the way the issues are described is slanted towards one or the other possible positions.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 20, 2020 12:30:34 GMT -5
I remember many years ago reading that the Arkansas DNR estimated the number of deer taken illegally to be about equal to the number taken legally. They couldn't put actual numbers to to the estimate, of course. Some years after that, I'd seen similar estimates issued from other states. I wondered at the time how much weight to give such an estimate. It could be an official looking for a chance to be quoted, or hoping for an increase in support for his branch of government's efforts in enforcement. Doesn't sound like much of an endorsement for a job well done, but could be an exasperated expression of the need for more support from a frustrated employee who has fought the battle for years and has seen little improvement in the numbers.
I thought at first that it was surely an exaggeration, but through the years, I've come to see that it was probably closer to the truth than I gave it credit for at the time. Those of us on here talking about it where our words will be seen, are not really typical of the average of all those out there shooting critters. When mingling with others who have killed deer, and the conversation comes around to regulations, it was surprising to me how little regard there is for doing it completely by the book, even among those who consider themselves to NOT be poachers, and who might just thump a few knots on your head to emphasize that opinion.
Mostly it seems to come down to whether you're using a "strict interpretation" of the regulations, or one that's more generally accepted informally, that might consider it to be immaterial whether the legal shooting time had actually arrived before your shot, as long as you had "shooting light". Or whether it was actually baiting if you were hunting over that place where there used to be a salt block and the deer were still pawing and eating the dirt where it had been, as long as you weren't the one who had put it there. Or whether you actually had a written permission slip on your person stating that you could hunt there.
I'll admit that I was guilty of some of the above in my early years. I was always strict on the time issue, and the baiting, but I did go into the "south entrance" to Atterbury with some buddies several times, and had "unofficial permission" to hunt some of the places where I hunted squirrels and later deer when I was a kid.
I always considered myself to be legal hunter, and took a more strict interpretation as the years went by. The only deer I ever took that turned out to be "a little bit illegal" (I know, that's like being a little bit pregnant) was one I shot on a morning hunt on Thanksgiving Day, back when we had only 24 hours to check them in. He was legal when I shot him, but there was no place open to check him in on that day. I called the usual places near me where I'd checked deer in before, and when that didn't work, I called all the ones listed in the Hunting Guide within about fifty miles, and had no luck. I'd shot him just after sunup, and none of the places were going to be open early enough the next day to check him in legally, so so he was skinned and hanging in the garage to be processed after we got home from the family T-day dinner that evening. So did I "poach" that deer, because he never showed up on the DNR toll of legal deer taken ?
I've long been a proponent of regulations being more reasonable and more enforceable, even while obeying the ones I consider to be unreasonable and unenforceable. And some of them have changed over the years. The requirement to check in the deer within 24 hours changed a few years after mine went into my freezer un-checked, to "within 48 hours", and of course with today's technology can be accomplished electronically before even dragging them out by most of us. And a couple years ago, the completely silly "possession limits" on squirrels were changed to no longer include any that were processed and in the freezer at home. The daily limits remain, and should be sufficient discourage anyone from decimating the squirrel population.
I still think the baiting regulation should be either eliminated or modified. It's no secret that all those bags and blocks of deer attractants that are also tasty edibles that are sold every year at this time at feed stores, Walmart, and many gas stations, are not going to be used to attract "wildlife for viewing purposes only". A regulation that can't be enforced effectively is one that really works in reverse to its intent. Rather than discouraging the taking of game by the use of bait, it aids and abets the taking of game by those who choose to ignore the law, and eliminates their competition from those who obey it. It ends up being worse than having no regulation at all.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 18, 2020 20:46:35 GMT -5
We have battles going in several wars, some of them connected and some not.
I see our battle against the virus as a separate and unconnected matter from our struggle to retain our rights. It's a life-and-death battle against an infectious disease, and anyone who argues against the measures that the scientific and medical communities agree and that the numbers from reliable sources strongly indicate to be imperative to reducing our risk of contracting and spreading the virus is "playing for the other side".
We may differ on the actual beginning point of human life, and about the use of the death penalty, or about our positions on armed conflicts, and have factual and intelligent debates. But can we really have a debate on which side to be on in the war between a virus and our population?
Many things violate our supposed rights to do a good number of things we might feel the desire to do, and that we might consider to completely within those rights, but we accept the regulation of our activity in those matters as being in the common best interests. This particular issue should not be a matter between pro-rights and pro-government-overreach groups as it is between pro-virus and groups who favor the virus over the other higher life forms on which it preys.
So, pick your side....are you pro-virus or pro the rest of us? But politics really shouldn't be involved in this one.
If you don't want wear a mask because the governor says you should, please wear one because the rest of us can use your help in surviving this pandemic.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 18, 2020 11:10:12 GMT -5
Thunderheads here too! Still my favorites and I returned to them after several years of using other brands. They're still the most accurate and durable I've ever used.
I started out with a Super Hilbre, got my first deer with a Satellite many years later, and had a variety in between that included Savorra, Wasp, Bear, Zwicky, Pearson, and a few others, one with five blades in a rotating ferrule and a "pizza cutter" free-spinning round wheeled one. When I finally settled in to one and slowed my experimenting, it was Aa Bear Super Razorhead for a few years, then the T'heads when the Bears seemed to get scarce. Also gave Muzzy heads a real good try for several years and liked them pretty well while I was shooting 70# compounds, but went back to my old familiar T'heads when I had to reduce draw weight. Went to Muzzy Phantoms then and still have some of them, but the NAP Thunderheads won out in the end.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 16, 2020 11:33:52 GMT -5
The Eastons are made in the USA. I've been using their Hunter shafts for a generation or so now, and have been completely satisfied with their durability and accuracy. Everyone I know who shot them while I was actively shooting 3D also found them to be very good shafts and excellent bargains. I recently caught a bunch (15) of my 340 spine at a local shop that had been traded in by the original purchaser but never cut to size or used, so I'm pretty well stocked now.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 13, 2020 9:29:01 GMT -5
About forty years ago, more or less, I was hunting in Owen County off Rattlesnake Road, and came across a beech tree with some strange scratch marks. They caught my eye because of their depth and regular parallel spacing in groups. Just seemed to be an unusual pattern to occur naturally, and the more I looked at them, the more curious it seemed.
The first explanation that popped to mind was that some other hunter had been trying to climb that beech or attach a stand, and had a lot of difficulty getting much past head high. Then I noticed that the tree had been "topped" at about twelve feet or so, apparently by nature (lightning. another falling tree ?) but not killed. No clues as to when, but the scratches looked to be newer than the height reduction. That added to my curiosity as it seemed to eliminate the reason tor anyone to be trying repeatedly to climb it with climbing spurs or a climbing stand. And the thought of bear claws did come to mind. Always enjoyed any nature shows I could catch at the movies or on tv, and I had seen the marks from bears said to be marking their territory and these looked to closely resemble them. Dismissed that idea pretty much because everybody knows we didn't have any bears running around in Indiana. But the suspicion did last.
I think it was my next trip to that area when I saw a UFO (unidentified furry object) about 200 yards away across the picked cornfield in that same hollow, walking through the woods on the opposing hillside. It was very black, and was shaped like a bear, and walked like a bear, but at that range and without binoculars, I couldn't make a positive identification.
I did tell another bowhunting friend about the sighting a few years later when we were waiting out a rainstorm sitting in my old Scout and got on the subject of odd things we'd seen hunting. He had seen what he felt pretty sure was a black bear in that same hollow a few years earlier, too! And he had asked around among other guys he knew who had hunted there and found a couple other similar "sighting reports" that had also never been officially reported. Nobody really wants to be the only guy who sees the flying saucer.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 11, 2020 11:04:55 GMT -5
gregr, similar, but with a subtle difference; in this case it was more like "some people thought about doing something".
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 11, 2020 10:54:47 GMT -5
I have only installed carpet once, and learned only that it was not as easy as I thought it would be.
The question that came immediately to my mind was whether it might be more practical to cover the carpeted floor with something to protect it for a year or so. Half inch particle board would likely do the job, maybe doubled in an area where he planned to do hefty free weight training. Or just ban the larger barbells to the barn.
Or a more civilized look might be achieved with some of the snap-together flooring planks or tiles that could cover the existing carpet and protect it for the duration but still be quickly and easily removable, and more easily damp-mopped.
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Post by Russ Koon on Oct 9, 2020 8:15:27 GMT -5
All I've heard them actually accused of is "allegedly planning" armed insurrection and "having said some things" indicating their intent.
Was it the Thought Police who made the arrest?
Jo Jorgensen looks better by the day.
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Post by Russ Koon on Sept 25, 2020 11:53:25 GMT -5
Looked into reports of hog activity east of Bedford about twenty years ago. Found one landowner who would allow me to hunt his place, and went down there to scout it with my younger brother a few days later. We walked a mile or so on his place, and discovered a spot where the hogs had apparently been rooting in one of his fields, and another place where they had been feeding on acorns and rooting in an area with several oaks, but nothing freshly done.
That was in the late fall. Life interfered and we didn't get back down there to follow up further for a couple years. In the meantime the farmer who had given his permission had passed on, and the new owner didn't want anyone hunting on his place.
A good friend and hunting buddy killed a couple near Spencer, sometime around that time, but he was a neighbor to the landowner where he hunted, and couldn't get the invitation extended to others. He said the hogs in his area had pretty much only been there a few years and then apparently moved on, which seemed to be typical of the fringe areas of their core areas. He had taken two, and had been given another killed by the landowner, and said in his opinion the smaller ones were much better eating. His first one was about eighty pounds and was the best of the three.
Heard of a few guys who were taking a lot of them at night, especially one fellow who used a mule to get around on safely while hunting and packing them out.
Haven't followed up on any hog activity since as all the later activity I heard about seemed to be further away and less intense. Still seems like something I'd like to pursue, although now I'd pretty much need to access an area by canoe and would probably hunt it by establishing a bait site and taking a treestand. Long hikes at night and long drags with heavy game are probably not in my future. I'd still like to try it with my bow, but a more realistic approach now would likely be my ML or 12ga. Or maybe that other noisy contraption I won't mention here that I bought a couple years ago but still haven't hunted with 8^) .
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Post by Russ Koon on Sept 22, 2020 18:13:40 GMT -5
I haven't been out in the mornings to compare this year, but I have noticed that when I'm shooting the bow out at the conservation club, I can normally expect to see four or five squirrels crossing the drive repeatedly to get to the row of hazelnut bushes and the cornfield across the drive from the woods. I've been there earlier in the afternoon also, but they usually seem to appear around five pm. Three grays and two fox squirrels. Took the time to check the evidence where I saw them most active, and there's sign of them in both the corn and the hazelnuts.
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Post by Russ Koon on Sept 19, 2020 11:57:43 GMT -5
Good advice above. I would add that it's very handy to also have a few short lengths of light rope like paracord or the imitation paracord that comes in 50 foot lengths and only costs a couple dollars at Wally World. I pretty much always have at least one of those in pocket or pack. If you're hunting in hilly country, a couple lengths of such cordage can hold your deer's legs in place on a hillside while you work.
A couple of good sized zip-lock bags are also good to hold the heart and liver, and the tongue, and keep them clean while you drag the carcass out of the woods.
Personally, I always leave the ribs connected and just reach up into the chest cavity as far as I can to cut the esophagus and large blood vessels to free the heart and stomach. If you choose to do it that way, you do need to use some caution using a sharp knife in close quarters to your other hand where you can't see exactly where you're working. I've never nicked myself, but some folks seem to have problems in that area.
I have hunted mostly in hilly terrain, and have found a drag rope to be the next best thing to a wheeled cart, and in some cases even better, depending on the brush and obstacles encountered. My favorite is a 3" wide by about 5 1/2 foot long "Forearm Fork Lift" furniture moving aide, but any strip of sturdy cloth a couple inches wide and close to six feet long should get it done as well. Leaves your hands free to use a couple hiking poles or quickly acquired walking sticks to help get over the hills.
And a headlamp is way handier than any flashlight when you're field dressing or dragging in the dark.
Good Luck!
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Post by Russ Koon on Sept 16, 2020 13:45:40 GMT -5
So many mistakes, so little time and space.
A couple of my more memorable ones...
One of our fifteen or so trips to ND, my good friend and hunting partner had gotten together on the trip planning and had coordinated on the preparations to an extent that was unusual for us. We were feeling very good as we left my driveway in the wee hours for an early start on the 20 hour drive. About eight hours later, as we sat in a restaurant alongside the interstate in Minnesota, the subject of our licenses came up. Uh-oh! As soon as he mentioned the word license, I realized that that both our ND licenses that I had ordered and received were still sitting in an envelope on the top of my refrigerator, where I'd placed them a couple weeks before for safekeeping so as not to misplace them in the shuffling of gear and supplies when loading for the trip!
I immediately went to the pay phone and called home, and the wife verified that indeed they were there, almost six hundred miles from us. I asked her to please get them into the mail as quickly as possible for general delivery to the post office at Bowman, ND, since we hunted about twenty miles from there and usually spent part of our first day out in the area in the local grocery store anyway. That worked out well, and we only missed the first day of hunting due to our licenses being in the mail, and we slept in that morning anyway recovering from the 12 hour drive and spent most of the rest of the day driving around and checking out other nearby areas where we wanted to explore and setting up camp.
Then there was the time I found a well-used trail crossing the tiny stream at the shallow end of a lake I had permission to be on. It looked like it would be a perfect spot for an ambush if I was sitting in my canoe, hidden by some cattails, as the deer were coming back on that trail that led to the bedding area just uphill from the lake. But it would need a breeze from the east to be perfect. Knowing that an easterly breeze would be an unusual one to depend on, I figured the next best thing would be a completely calm morning. With everything prepared for the hunt, I was carefully watching the weather forecasts and a few days later, a day with zero wind at dawn was predicted!
Next morning I was really hyped as I was up and ready early, and only a little concerned as I left the driveway in a thick fog. OK, it's foggy, but that should burn off quickly or be blown away with the first little breeze. Got down the dirt road to the edge of the lake, got the canoe off the top of my old Scout and quietly eased it into the water, well before dawn. Still couldn't see where I was going, but the lake is only about twenty acres and I'd fished it enough to figure I would recognize almost any bit of shoreline I could see, so I began paddling slowly in the general direction of the shallow end, as best I could with dead reckoning.
I suppose I should have foreseen the aimless circling that resulted. A compass would have been very handy, but of course I hadn't expected to need one, so hadn't brought one. I did eventually bump into a shore, and followed it very closely with the slight visibility increasing as the fog went from black to gray with the dawn. And after a while I found the little stream that fed the lake and nestled into the cattails just as I had envisioned. But I still couldn't even see the other end of my canoe! Oh well, maybe the deer will still be coming....and sure enough, hadn't been sitting there in the fog more the n half an hour or so when I could hear them crunching the beechnuts I had seen in the creekbed and could hear their hooves making tiny splashing noises as they crossed the stream at a walk. Sounded like they were not more than maybe ten feet in front of my canoe. Still couldn't make out even a vague shape of tan in the solid gray. Couldn't count them exactly but estimating based on the sounds, there much have been about a dozen of them pretty much single file.
It was about an hour later that the fog finally burned off enough for me to cross the lake to my put-in spot.
I've said many times that I know how Wiley Coyote feels. Our best laid plans seem to often work out with similar results.
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Post by Russ Koon on Sept 11, 2020 9:01:27 GMT -5
I did chew on some old ones that were tough, but still edible. That's pretty much when I started trying other recipes like baked squirrel, for those older athletes.
But I was really surprised once when the wife and were bowhunting together and camping down at the strip pits. I had shot a big old fox squirrel with my bow while he was on a limb not too far over my head. I figured as soon as I picked him up that we'd be lucky to be able to cut the gravy when we fried that old boy. But we were camping and didn't have the gear for anything much different than the usual treatment, so we fried him as normal, in a cast iron skillet over a small open fire. But when he was pretty nearly done, the wife changed things up by pouring about a half cup of water in the skillet and putting the lid on it, and moving it to the edge of the fire to simmer for about twenty minutes or so.
That old rascal was as tender as a young fried chicken!
Later tried a few times to repeat the process at home on some older squirrels, but never seemed to get as dramatic results as we did that time. Softened them up some, but never found the right combination of time, temp, and water, I guess. Or maybe it has to be in a cast iron skillet with a good fitting iron lid, to get the full steaming effect.
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Post by Russ Koon on Sept 8, 2020 12:21:35 GMT -5
I used to make it point to visit a couple of pear trees on the Camp Atterbury property when I hunted there, more just for fun than to actually hunt over them, as they were in the open and everyone else knew about them, too. They always showed plenty of sign of deer visits.
You might want to also consider hazelnut bushes. Our conservation club planted thirty or so of them about seven years ago and they all survived and thrived. I can't recall how long it took to produce nuts, but it seemed pretty quick, maybe two or three years? I've never checked the leaves/twigs for browsing, but have watched the snow for tracks have seen a good bit of activity in late season. The squirrels are enjoying them right now, but there are plenty of nuts to go around, even when some of us members gather a hatful once in a while to take home. They have never needed anything after planting. Might be another option.
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