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All,   I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss the anti-law enforcement trend I've been seeing a lot of recently in threads here on TGO.  The heart of the matter is that with almost 20,000 members we have a diverse community, and these threads are affecting the sense of community that both our staff and our core members work so hard to sustain.  As such, I'd like for people to be careful in expressing their opinions, and check their motivations when it comes to posting topics about interactions with law enforcement.    Here is a short list of guidelines that we'll be following:   If it's not happening here in Tennessee, then I'm not sure it needs to be posted here.  An open carrier getting the "harassment" they were seeking by officers out in Seattle isn't news.  On the subject of open carry getting questioned/harassed/detained by law enforcement.  I have no doubt that these people believe in what they're doing.  Ideologically, I agree with them to an extent - in that I think I should be able to carry where I want in whatever manner that I choose.  That said, discretion is a highly underrated virtue, and that's something that seems lacking in these stories.  As a general rule, these threads aren't really newsworthy.  They're sideshows with cops doing their jobs.  Do some of them stumble through it?  Yes.  Do some of them display a more aggressive attitude than necessary?  I don't know.  Maybe?  You decided express your first amendment rights through the second amendment - you're making a statement with a deadly weapon.  You should probably expect law enforcement to be on edge in 2013.  All that said, if you want a place to post open carry stories - again if it's not in Tennessee - go over to opencarry.org or any of the other places that'll give you all the response you seek. We do encourage legitimate discourse - especially when it's local.  I can't give concrete guidelines, but we'll be asking staff to use their discretion in making these judgment calls. For those members that only seem to be here to have a platform to voice their anti-government stuff, don't be surprised when we give you the opportunity to find another place to have those conversations.  This is a gun board.  While we like to talk about a lot of stuff, content needs to have at least a tangential connection to the firearms community. I understand that not every case is black and white, and that there is some room for disagreement.  This is exactly the reason we have selected the moderating staff we have.  If we shut down one of your threads, feel free to PM one of us about it.  Our moderating team is always happy to back up our reasoning, and we have reopened  threads in the past.  Give us a good reason to reopen a thread, and we will.   There are things that concern all of us.  The increasing militarization and paramilitarization of law enforcement should be concerning to everyone.  The growing surveillance state is a problem.  Bring good discourse and we can discuss big issues.   But, there are a few people on here with personal axes to grind.  I'm sorry.  This just isn't the place for that.  Are there some bad cops?  Sure.  Are there some that just come to work and dial it in?  Sure.  Are there people who do that where you work?  You bet there are.  I bet you wouldn't appreciate being lumped in with them.    There are a lot of members of law enforcement on this site.  A lot.  Stop to think about it, and you'll realize quickly that the vast majority of them are on our side of the issue.  They see good citizens able to protect themselves and their families as making their jobs as police officers a lot easier.  There really are people who want to take your guns.  Your average cop walking a beat isn't one of them.   I know that a lot of people are stressed right now.  We're 4 years nine months into an 8-year administration that really does hate us as a group.  There are a ton of new shooters out there competing for ammo right now.  Did you know that a little over one in four legally purchased firearms in America has been bought in the last five years?  Scalpers aside, there's a lot of competition for ammo out there right now.  I know people aren't shooting a lot, and that in and of itself is stressful.  This is a time where we need to pull together as a community, not fracture it.   I'm going to leave this thread open so that our community can discuss it.  I'm specifically putting it in general chat before moving it to announcements so that it can be discussed.  Subjects like this are tough, and we recognize that.  There isn't a firm rule that can be set.  Yet, we simply ask that people think about what they post, watch your tone and check your motivations for doing so.    We appreciate everyone's support in this matter.

Here we go again. When will people realize it just doesn't matter?   Yesterday it was a gun in DC(a gun free zone for all intensive purposes)   A few months ago it was a pressure cooker in Boston   On 9/11 it was 4 commercial airliners   In OKC it was a few hundred pounds of plant fertilizer.     At some point you would think people will realize we will never be safe. These events will continue to happen for the rest of our lives.

So you want to get into deer hunting? I have noticed on this board every year, several of us who would like to start hunting or even get back into it. I thought I would compile a few things together to help. Below is a getting started guide and to keep it from getting too boring, I have included a few stories that have occurred over the past 19 years of my hunting career. I took me several hours to try and make this a good piece so I hope you learn something and it provides value for you! As a new hunter, the details and tips can be overwhelming at first. For me personally, with anything, I tend to suffer from analysis paralysis. Don't feel like you have to get it all figured out before you go on your first hunt. What's important is to be Legal, Safe and to just get out there and enjoy creation. You need to be legal before you hunt: You need to take a Hunters Safety Course. Not only is this required by law but even those knowledgable will learn things in this class that you would not have previously known. These are things that will keep you and others safe and make for a more enjoyable hunting experience. You will learn things like, how to cross a fence, and different safety precautions with gun/bow/black powder, and especially treestand safety. You need a hunting license. You will need a Big Game License and to purchase the Gun license. There are certain exceptions to this such as if you are hunting on direct family land or a caretaker of land. You will also need the 094 Antlerless Deer permit. See TWRA website for more details. For deer hunting, you need blaze orange during gun season. TN law requires the use of 500 inches of blaze orange. A vest and a hat satisfy these requirements. You need to have written permission from the landowner allowing you to hunt said property. Lastly, you need to have a center fire rifle with expandable bullet (no FMJ). Game wardens do not have a sense of humor. So be legal and you will be able to enjoy your hunt. Moral and Ethical Responsibility: Know the limits of you and your rifle. Practice with your rifle and find out what your limit is. If your rifle has a scope, make sure it's sighted in and properly mounted. There are a plethora of YouTube videos detailing proper scope mounting. Even if someone gives you a rifle and says the scope is true, don't take their word for it, you find out for yourself. You are going to take this animal's life so when you decide to pull the trigger, you do it in the most ethical and humane way possible. The pain you feel after you have wounded an animal is far greater than the excitement of making a clean kill. If there is even a single doubt, don't pull the trigger. Most of the shots we take here in Tennessee tend to be around 100 yards and in due to our topography and amount of woods we have. Currently there is a trend for hunting at long range and to do so requires a specific skillset. If you are just starting to hunt, I'd highly recommend staying away from longer shots (250+ yards) until you figure out your ethical range. Hitting steel at long range is different than trying to hunt an animal. Sighting in your scope: There are a couple different ideas here. A lot of people will sight in at 100 yards and if you are hunting typical TN land that will be plenty sufficient. However, another idea is to sight your rifle in at "Maximum Point Blank Range". Google that term and you can find a calculator to help you figure this out. The idea behind this is you can be in the kill zone of a deer from 0 yards out to the Maximum Point Blank Range without having to dial or hold over. This maximum range will be different depending on bullet choice, caliber, and velocity but I'd say typically it's about 250-300 yards. Make sure you have a plan to have the deer processed so the meat won't go to waste either. If you don't like deer, it's so easy to find someone who wants it. I have done this several times and it is always appreciated by everyone I have come across. Tennessee has a program called Hunters for the Hungry which you can donate your deer to. Talk to your processor about this. More on field dressing later. Also, in effort to treat animals with respect and dignity I want to share this story. I was hunting as a kid. At this point in my life, I actually started to not shoot everything I saw and was holding out for a big buck. It was at the end of my hunt when I heard some footsteps. I looked up and saw a small doe. I really enjoyed watching her get closer to me and I didn't even raise my gun because I was not after a doe. As she came close, I realized she was only using 3 of her legs. She turned broadside to me and I saw where a hunter had previously shot her in the shoulder. It was broken, rotten, her leg was dangling underneath her, there were maggots already moving around in the torn up meat/flesh. I immediately raised up my gun and put her down. I was so thankful for that little doe. I was so honored and proud to be the one that helped out her quality of life. It really hurts me inside to think of how nature would have taken care of that deer if I hadn't of. So always, always, always, make good ethical shots. How to stay warm: It is important to stay warm while hunting. Keep in mind, opening day of gun season is in November and runs through the first week in January or so. Freezing and shaking in the deer stand is not much fun, and you may not look forward to hunting the next time! When you are sitting still in the deer
stand, it’s not movement that will be generating heat, it’s your metabolism. This is why some people tend to be warmer/colder under the same conditions. A common misconception people tend to think is that clothing produces heat, but it doesn’t. It’s your body that produces heat, and the best clothing is able to retain the heat your body produces. Never ever wear cotton. That goes from head to toe! Cotton does not transfer moister, it absorbs it. This will make you wet and cold as well as lead to chaffing and blisters. The best way to stay warm is with layering. This is started by a base layer, which is form fitting and next to the skin. The base layer is literally THE most important part of your layering system and the reason is this...moisture transportation. You will get hot walking to your stand, when you get hot you sweat, when you sweat you are wet, and when you are wet and its cold, you freeze. I use Under Amour Cold Gear for my base layer and it does great at moister transportation but honestly, I think there are other base layers out there that can insulate better. When getting a base layer, you can get anything thin like silk, or thick like some expedition weight stuff. The insulation you choose is a personal thing. The next layer you need is an insulating layer. A good insulating layer will have a lot of "loft". The more loft, the more heat retention. I wear a pair of thick fleece pants and a fleece jacket. The last layer is your camo. Your camo may have insulation built in it already so if its warmer, you wont need the fleece pants, if its cooler, you can combine your middle layer along with your insulated camo for added loft and warmth. It’s a good idea to have waterproof/resistant camo for obvious reasons. Its worth the extra cost but you don’t need GoreTex ($$$). Also, make sure when you get camo you get camo that is quiet! Compare a deer jacket with a duck jacket and you will know what I am talking about. This is especially critical when bow hunting. The sound of clothing rubbing together...as subtle as it may be to us, is not a natural woods sound and will spook deer. You will also come across clothing that controls your scent, they do this with a built in layer of carbon and some of the new stuff now utilizes some sort of antimicrobial chemical. They work and they are nice but also very expensive and in my opinion/budget, not necessary. Don’t get too confused about camo pattern. They are all VERY advanced and good. The idea is to match the camo as closely as you can with your surroundings but don’t stress out about it. After all, you're wearing blaze orange right? Where camo patter comes into play is really in bow/muzzleloader season and in other types of hunting, especially turkey hunting. Like, it wouldn’t really be good to wear turkey camo (with lots of green) in the dead of winter and vis versa.

 Deer see blacks, whites, grays and recent research has come out saying that they can see certain blues as well. So that’s why you can wear blaze orange while hunting without them being spooked. Socks: The layering system applies here too. Thin base layer and a thick pair of wool socks. I wear SmartWool and will not consider any other brand! Reason being....I HATE cold feet. There are substitutes to SmartWool socks and they work great, but I am picky and have personally chosen that brand as my hunting sock. They do not stretch or itch, they wick moisture very well and last forever. But you will also pay $25 for 1 pair. Again, other socks are great and would accomplish the same thing for much less money but I personally choose SmartWool. HotHands also make footbed warmers and toe warmers. Those things can be worth their weight in gold! I’d snag a couple to keep in your hunting back just in case.
 Gloves: You can get thick gloves but thick gloves make it very hard to operate your gun with. For example, its impossible to be able to tell exactly when your trigger is about to break/fire. If you are going to be shooting a lot (duck hunting), you would likely just keep your shooting hand glove off and keep it warm in your jacket pocket until you are ready to shoot. Make sure whatever gloves you purchase are waterproof. I have a pair of gloves for when its warm and a pair for when its super cold but pretty much every time I shoot, I take the glove off. They make gloves with reduced insulation in the trigger fingers and they work nicely. Also, I take hand warmers with me and stick them in my gloves and that works great for me. I will talk more about those in a second. Boots: In my opinion, the best all-around boots to buy are rubber insulated boots. They are incredibly durable, completely waterproof, inexpensive, they come insulated and the best part is that they cover your scent! Just tuck your pants down into them and hike on to your stand. The downside is that they don’t breath (which is why it prevents your scent from leaking out of the boot) and they can be uncomfortable walking long distances. The best most popular hunting
boot (rubber and neoprene which does transfer your scent) are Muck Boots. They are light, super warm and comfortable but also very expensive. Scent control is so incredibly important and will be discussed later. I wear a pair of Red Head 800gr Thinsulate rubber boots from bass pro. I think they are like $60-80. HotHands: These are those little packets that once opened, produce a lot of heat. Go ahead and buy several. Those things can be an absolute life saver and improve the quality and quantity of time in your deer stand. My dad told me a story about a time he was hunting where he got so cold, it took all his strength and about 30 minutes to fish his keys out of his pocket, unlock the door and get the car started. It really scared him how frozen his hands were. So not only are these HotHands a luxury, they can also save your life. Scent Control: So this is one of the more important topics here. Deer are prey in the woods. God has given them their number one defense to predators and that is their nose. If you observe a deer in the wild and they keep lifting their head up pointing their nose in the air, they have caught wind of something they don’t like. Now, as a new hunter and seeking advice from others, you will hear stories of people pissing out of their deerstands, smoking or dipping while hunting, wearing the same clothes as the day before and somehow, they got a deer within 20 yards and they get the kill. They are telling you this, trying to convince you that their anecdotal evidence is better than actual research. Let me tell you how wrong they are. Do they see a deer every time they go out? No, they don’t. They may blame it on the location, or the food not being right for the deer just yet or this that and the other. Here is my main point, and it’s a good one, you will never know the amount of deer you don’t see by practicing poor scent control. I guarantee as sure as you are reading this and the sun rising tomorrow, if you practice poor scent control, you will miss deer. Where should you start when controlling your scent? At the bare minimum, you need to have purchased scent-neutralizing spray. There are several different brands out there. I use Scent-a-way because I was able to find a combo pack with a lot of stuff in it. Dead Down Wind is probably the best out there but they should all be sufficient. Now, if you want to take scent control to another level then you should have scent free soap, scent free deodorant, scent free laundry detergent and the scent free spray. There are other items out there such as toothpaste, gum, lotion, gold bond type powder and who knows what else so you can get crazy with it if you want but even I don’t go that crazy. You are going to be fighting a losing battle with your scent. The scent free stuff helps keep our scent at bay for a period of time but eventually, we will pick up and release other odors. Now that you have all your scent free stuff, how do you stay scent free? You might think this scenario would keep you scent free: Wash your clothes the night before in the scent free stuff, take a scent free shower the morning of, put on your hunting clothes, get in your car and drive to your location. There are a few problems with that scenario though. After you washed your clothes, where did you put them? Did you put them in the laundry basket where there have been clothes contaminated with sweet smelling regular detergent? Was this basket in the kitchen where food smells could have been absorbed? Did you lay them out on the sofa where you can/dog sleeps? What about when you got out of the shower? How did you dry off? Did you use a towel you washed in Gain detergent? What about when you put your clothes on and got into your car? Was your exhaust running while you were packing up? Have you eaten or smoked in your car before where they would be lingering smells? Did you have to fill up with gas before you left? If you are still with me, my point is why go to all the trouble to be scent free if you leave out important details that could make a difference in the field. So really walk through what you will do to remain scent free. It gets easier, I promise! My routine is I wash and dry my clothes scent free, store in plastic scent free bag, take a shower the morning of with scent free stuff, dry off with a scent free towel I washed with my camo, put on my scent free travel clothes that I also washed, then when I get to my hunting location, I change into my scent free hunting clothes. Some other info: arrive in plenty of time to walk to your stand slowly. Walking too fast will cause you to sweat which will cause you to stink. You never want to walk to your stand with the wind at your back. If its in your face, or at your side, depending on how you are walking to your stand and where you will be hunting you should be good. So you never want to hunt with the wind in your face. Even if you have done all the right things, the deer can still pick up on you. Cover Scents: I like cover scents. So not only have you made every effort you can to neutralize your scent, you can also cover up your scent. Make sure you choose natural scents to your area. If you have no pine trees at your place, then don’t use pine scent. If you have no apple trees at your place, then don’t use apple scent. You also don’t want to use predator urine for obvious reasons. I usually have some earth scented wafers that I attach to my pack and hat. Then I spray the bottom of my boots with doe pee. I have seen many deer walk across the same path I walked without picking my scent up. This system works great! Hunt the wind: Make sure before you set up a stand, take a look at the wind and figure out which winds would allow that stand to be huntable. You do not want the wind to be blowing your scent to the deer so always have the wind in your face or to your side depending on where you setup is. To throw in another layer of confusion for you, the wind is also important when walking to your stand. You don’t want your scent blowing into a bedding area where you will be hunting just on the edge of. The deer will pattern you and will stay away. Opening day of deer season last year had me pretty upset. I had my spot picked out. We had patterned the deer knowing that they will come out of this certain spot about 40 yards north of where my stand was but the morning of the hunt the wind was from the south, blowing my scent where the deer were going to come out of. So I went to option 2 and hunted where the wind was in my favor. By choosing not to hunt out of my first option, I kept my scent away from that area and therefore would not educate the deer that I am trying to hunt there. Where should I hunt? There are two types of property you can hunt legally, a public Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and Private Property. Make sure you do plenty of research or make a phone call prior to hunting in a WMA. There are often restrictions as to where you can hunt and what you can use to hunt. Some WMA’s are bow hunting only. WMA’s can be pretty frustrating as well because you will likely run across people and people will run across you. To be successful hunting a WMA, you need to go where other people don’t. You need to find the nastiest woods/shrubs/crap you can find and hunt just on the edge of it. Private property is nice because you likely won’t run into anyone else. There also won’t likely be a whole lot of hunting pressure so you will see more deer. Private property can be family land, land of a friend or even land that you lease. The downside to private property is that it can really get expensive. Don’t be afraid to get creative when trying to find property. You may be surprised if you offer to help out around the land for a weekend, or offer a portion of your meat you harvest to a land owner and how that might help you gain access. Always let them know that you are an ethical hunter and will take care of the property. Last year, I had a friend that used to hunt a lot but since moving up to Memphis he hasn’t had any access. Anyways, he offered to help out at my land putting up deer stands and in turn, I let him harvest a doe. So, it works! What should I hunt out of? TREE STANDS There is a direct relationship between stand comfort and
seeing/shooting deer!

I prefer to hunt out of deer stands for 3 major reasons: they help keep your scent high and away from the deer’s nose, they give you a great view and until deer learn (from being shot at or scent) to look up, they
won’t likely spot you. Below are the type of stands and their advantages/disadvantages:


 1. Climber Tree Stands Climber stands are useful because you don’t have to haul in other equipment such as climbing sticks or ladders. Also, you are not limited to a height you can hunt. As long as the tree is straight and clear of branches you can climb as high as you need to…. And as long as you are being safe! On the other hand, these stands can be loud, cumbersome and not allow adequate cover by branches or limbs.
 The biggest advantage of these type of stands is their mobility. 2. Hang-On Tree Stands Hang-on, also referred to as lock-on, stands should be set up ahead of time and they provide you a quiet and quick set up on the morning of a hunt. On the downside, moving your stand takes more work than a climber stand, and they take some work to install them on the tree.
 3. Ladder Stands Most ladder stands weigh from 50 - 150 pounds or
more. This can be quite heavy when you add in the weight of your other
gear. If you don’t plan to move your stand very often, or you don’t
need to carry it very far, this stand is a good option with the safety
and convenience of an attached ladder. Be sure to follow installation instructions precisely for safety purposes. I like ladder stands because they are very safe and sturdy. Also, they come in both 1 and
 2 man versions which really help make hunting more fun with 2 people up in them. 4. Box Hunting Stands: Box stands are the Cadillac of deer stands. They are often made out of plastic or fiberglass and provide shelter and warmth. One of the biggest downsides of a
 box stand is that you can’t move it from one spot to another. A
 big advantage though with these is they are inclosed and will help
 keep you warm! You can even put a propane heater in there and be 
toasty!

 5. Freestanding / Tower Stands These types 
of elevated stands are best for areas with few trees to support your
 stand. Some freestanding structures are permanent. Others are portable. Unfortunately, most portable tower stands are a pain to move
because of their bulk and weight.
 6. Ground Blinds: The advantage....free! They make pop up style camo
ground blinds (tents) or you can build your own using the things that are around you such as branches and grasses. Again, the downside to
these is a limited view and your scent is right at deer level.


 The most important point to think about in choosing a deer stand is to research which stand provides a safe and effective hunting strategy for your hunting area. A deer stand can be the critical element to harvesting that buck of a lifetime. Where do I set up to hunt? If that isn’t the million-dollar question then I don’t know what is! This is where you can easily get caught up in some complicated deer hunting theories but don’t worry; I will break this down for you. Three main things motivate deer: Food, Water and Shelter (bedding). The best of these to set up on is food! Food may be a fruit tree dropping fruit like Persimmons, or an Oak tree dropping acorns (white oak acorns are much preferred by deer than red oaks. Red oaks have more acidity in the acorns and they taste bitter to the deer). Food may also be man-made, such as a food plot or agricultural plot. Deer are edge animals. They like to walk along the edge of anything such as a field, a tree line, a fence, row of pines up against hardwoods, anything like that. There are also natural and man made funnels that the deer will travel down. Those are the best spots to hunt. How long should I hunt? 
 As much as possible!! Try to be in your stand 30-45 minutes prior to shooting time when it is still pitch black dark and stay as long as you can stand it. Let me tell you this. Deer pattern hunters. They hear the 4 wheelers crank up early, then they hear them again around 9 or 10 o’clock. Then they hear them again around 3 o’clock and then again just after dark. Can you take a guess as to when you think deer are most active (in legal shooting hours)? If you answered 12pm, you would be correct! Not only do they know this is when the hunters won’t likely be in their stands, but deer are nocturnal and likely have been feeding all night. So they bed down for several hours and then they wake up again and are hungry…around noon. I try to get in my stand as early as possible, and then leave sometime around 1-1:30pm. Don’t get me wrong though, deer are still VERY active in the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset and I call that “magic hour�! The 15 minute rule: This is a rule I made up for myself and I will fill you in on my best kept secret. I call it my 15 minute rule. What this is, is that when I decide that its time to leave, to the point I am sick of being in my stand and I start packing up my things. I stop and hunt for 15 more minutes. This has resulted in seeing numerous deer! I learned this because I cannot tell you, how many times I saw deer when climbing down my deer stand. Anyone who hunts is nodding their heads in agreement right now. One time while hunting a few years back it was one of the last days of the season. As my luck would have it, there was a beagle or some sort of hound that had gotten loose and was barking and howling his head off behind me. Let me be the first to tell you, deer hate dogs! Some people use dogs to hunt, wearing out the deer and finally killing them when the dogs have them surrounded and exhausted (I hate this). So if you hear a dog chasing deer, your hunt is basically ruined. I listened to this dog get close and get far and get close and get far for like 20 minutes. I was so angry I could have performed the 3 S’s on that dog (shoot shovel and shut up). So after 20 minutes I gave up and climbed down my stand and the second my foot hits the ground, that dang dog scared up one of the biggest bucks I have ever seen about 20 yards away from me. He froze and stared at me, I stared at him and then he took off, never to be seen again. So that is one of the reasons why I created the 15 minute rule. The 15 minute rule only works for morning and afternoon hunts, not evening hunts because the law only allows you to hunt 30 minutes after sunset. It would be to dark then anyways. Moon Phases:
 In your pursuit of knowledge of deer hunting, you will hear people talk about what the moon phase will be prior to a hunt. The presumption is that hunting after a new moon (pitch black dark) will lead to increased deer activity and hunting after a full moon (big white and bright) will result in not seeing anything. So since deer are nocturnal, they will feed more and longer overnight with a full moon and not move around the next day versus if there is a new moon, they can’t see as well and won’t feed much and come daybreak, they are ravenous to get food. I don’t place much (if any) value in moon phases. Here is why: Deer’s eyes are designed to see in the dark. They can see in pitch black dark nearly as well as they can with a full moon. Also, even if it were true, I don’t know about you, but have you not stuffed yourself at a buffet so hard and then wondered why you were hungry again 4 hours later? Don’t get caught up in it. Because what it does is give you a bad attitude and from my story below, we know what the result of a bad attitude is…mistakes being made and opportunities being missed. Have the mental toughness of a hunter: I don’t know about your mental toughness but mine can be pretty weak at times, especially hunting. When you get into your head that the deer you spooked will be the only one you see today, or since you haven’t seen a thing then you will continue to see nothing and you might as well leave, or you get frustrated for whatever reason, STOP. Try to turn that weakness around into a positive attitude. Here is an example and another mistake/s that I made while hunting to prove my point. It was the opening day of bow season a few years ago. I had set my climbing stand up a week earlier and I knew where it was. I had gotten there in plenty of time so I was not rushed. I put on my camo, sprayed down again with scent spray and reached for my safety harness. This is where the first problem occurred. For some reason, I could not for the life of me, figure out the strap and buckle system of this harness!! I have used this harness a hundred times before but something was screwed up with it and it took me 20 minutes to figure it out. There was no way I was not going to hunt without it, so I either had to figure it out, or I go home. So finally I get it figured out and I am PISSED because all that extra time I had was now out the window. So I start walking to my stand and I lost track of where I was and spent the next 20 minutes trying to find my dang stand. I thought maybe someone had stolen it and I cannot begin to tell you how angry I was! Eventually I found my stand, after I worked up a HUGE sweat, after I tracked my scent all over the area I was planning on hunting. So I climb up in my stand, the sun is peaking up over the hills and I pull out my cell phone and start firing away angry text messages to my dad to keep him up to date with what’s going on with my hunt. I kid you not, during the middle of my texting tirade; I got busted by a huge doe. She was within 15 yards and I never knew it. Now that obviously did not help my mood at all, but I learned an important lesson and that’s to ALWAYS no matter what, maintain a positive attitude. Had I calmed down when I got in my stand, the hunt would have gone much differently. I am in my stand. Now what? Be still, be quiet and be patient. You wait for a deer to come. Just as the human eye is attracted to movement, so is the deer’s. Every move you make needs to be slow. I struggle with this and it has resulted in some spooked deer. When I am in my stand, I take this time to soak in the beauty and vastness of God’s creation. I take this time to pray, read the Bible and watch nature do what natures does. This is the reason why I can enjoy every hunt and why I don’t have to kill something to feel successful. You can leave all of your struggles at home and watch how the rest of nature tends to move on in simple fashion. Here is a free tip for you. When using binoculars, do NOT put them up to your eyes and rotate your head/body while scanning the environment. Instead, pick out a spot with your naked eyes (sort like a grid pattern) pull up your binoculars, hold them still and move your eyes around that spot you picked out. Left right up and down. Then after you have looked at that area, move to the adjacent areas and do the same thing. The reason why this is important is first of all, you reduce your chances of not spotting a deer. You won’t always have a deer standing broadside out in the open for you to easily see. A lot of times they are bedded down or in thick cover and you will only pick up on ear movement or a flash of antler. The other reason why you use binoculars in this way is to limit your movement. Deer will see you moving around up in your stand while using your binoculars incorrectly. I would like to re-emphasize safety here for a moment. If you ever think falling out of your stand won’t happen to you, then you are dangerously teetering on the edge and you won’t get a warning when you start to fall. Always wear a safety harness. There are even lifeline systems that allow you to be 100% attached to the tree from the moment you take your first step, all the way up, and all the way back down until you unhook. Hunters fall out of their stands for several reasons. Climbing up and climbing down, equipment malfunction, poor decisions or falling asleep just to name a few. The closest I have every come to falling out of my stand was when I was hunting as a kid down in Mississippi. I had just climbed up to my hunting height using a climber and safety harness. As I was turning around my stand shifted and nearly sent me over the edge. Let me tell you, it happens quick! Where to shoot a deer: Shot placement on a deer is anywhere that will provide quick humane kill without damaging or spoiling meat. That means two places for me. Either the heart/lung or the neck. The advantage of a heart/lung shot is this: The target is bigger and it provides a quick and humane kill. The other location is the neck. Now although that might sound a bit untraditional or barbaric, consider this: if you hit, it’s a clean hit and if you miss, it’s a clean miss. You don’t risk wounding the deer making a neck shot. The other nice reason for a neck shot is it bleeds a ton. So if the deer runs, there is a blood trail that even a blind man could follow. You can do a Google image search for deer vitals so you know where to shoot them. What you don’t want to do is shoot them in the gut or legs etc. Quick Tip: It is much harder to shoot a deer walking or running than it is to shoot one standing still. So how do you stop a deer in its tracks? Make a noise! Noises can be whatever you choose to make. Most hunters prefer to mimic a buck grunting. Some whistle, some yell “hey�and 9 times out of 10, that deer will stop in its tracks and look directly at you. They are masters at pinpointing sounds so make sure you are ready to fire the second they hit the brakes. After the shot and in the stand: So you have your first deer in front of you, your heart will be exploding out of your chest. Even after 19 years of hunting, I STILL get so excited to have wildlife in front of me! About 30% of the deer I have killed have dropped in their tracks, the other 70% have hauled tail into the woods up to 75 yards or so. Just because a deer runs, doesn’t mean you made a poor shot. I have not been able to find any rhyme or reason as to why some deer drop in their tracks and some run off. So, you place your crosshairs behind the shoulder and slowly squeeze the trigger. What next? You watch, you listen and you wait. Use land marks (trees, branches, bushes, dark spots, light spots anything) to remember where the deer was standing when you shot. Watch the deer run off and make a mental note of where you last saw the deer. Secondly, you listen. You listen for the sound of the deer running off so you get an idea where it was headed even after you last saw it. The other thing you want to listen for is the sound of a “crash� when the deer collapses into the leaves. The last thing and the hardest thing you need to do is to wait and there is a very important reason as to why. Often times, even after the deer crashes down, the deer still take its time to expire. If you get out of your stand before that deer is dead, then you will bump that deer further into the woods making recovery much more difficult. So you should always wait at least 15-20 minutes after you shoot before you go look for it. After the shot and on the ground: First, don’t lose your common sense! Follow all safety procedures to climb out of your stand. What you will want to do after you get down is to go to where you shot the deer. Look for signs of blood on the ground, or around knee level on trees, grasses or branches. When you see blood, that usually means you made a great hit. Now I don’t always do this, but on longer recoveries, I take out toilet paper and tear off the squares of it and place it next to the blood I see every so often. The reason why this is a good idea is because it gives you a visual clue as to where the deer may be heading or if you lose the trail, it helps you get right back to where you last saw blood. But the idea is to walk slowly and watch for the next drop of blood and follow the trail. Look up every now and then and see if you see the deer. Sometimes I have darn near tripped over my deer because I had tunnel vision on the blood trail and didn’t realize I had walked right up on it. Also, you may want to call in a buddy or two to help you look. One of the best reasons to hunt is comradely of being with other people. If you don’t find it the first night, don’t give up. Look for it the next day too. Field Dressing: After you find your deer, take some pictures! You will always regret not taking a picture and you will never regret doing so. The important thing now is to get the deer field dressed (or gutted). The reason why you need to gut the deer quickly is because the gut juices will spoil the meat. It also makes it easier to haul the deer out of the woods and lift it up on a 4-wheeler or something. You always hear there is more than one way to skin a cat, well gutting a deer is pretty much the same way. Some people like to hang them up first, others like to gut them on the ground. How you do it is up to you. The best way for you to learn is to have someone help you. If you don’t have someone to help you, your processor may do it for you and as a last resort, there is always YouTube! What you don’t want to do is pierce any of the guts with you knife because that will cause fluids to leak and will spoil your deer. I try to have my deer field dressed within an hour of killing it. Making Mistakes: There will be a time, actually several times where you make mistakes in the woods. Hopefully they are mistakes that just cost you an animal and not your life. Making mistakes are a good thing because you tend to learn better from making mistakes than you do from just reading about somebody else’s. For example, I was turkey hunting a few years ago was walking down a hill trying to get to a spot where I thought would be productive when a gobbler fired off like a tornado siren within 100 yards of me. So I immediately stopped in my tracks, found a tree, settled in and started calling. This bird was so “in the mood� that I could have farted and had him respond back! He came in like a ton of bricks and I just knew he was going to be a dead bird. Well the bird came in but I could never see him. He stayed at the top of the hill I just walked down and he eventually got spooked and left. I knew somewhere inside of me that I should not have set up on the hill because turkeys don’t like to go down hills, but it took me making that mistake in order to learn from it. Don’t beat yourself up when you make mistakes, or maybe you think you make mistakes but aren’t even sure if they were mistakes! A successful hunt to me is one were I can go out, enjoy the nature God gave us to enjoy, learn something new and walk away safely. It doesn’t always have to end in a trophy kill. There will come a time/s when you miss a deer. It can be pretty humiliating depending on the scenario. If you miss a deer at 300 yards that’s not a big deal, but if you miss a deer at 5 yards you feel like an absolute idiot. Well let me go ahead and confess, yes, I have missed a deer at 5 yards before. It the grand scheme of things, missing a deer is not a big deal. It happens. Spend and afternoon watching The Outdoor Channel and you will see people who make their living hunting miss deer. It happens! I hope that when you miss, it’s a clean miss and not a miss that wounds the animal. 

 Accessories: Well this list can be exhaustive but I will narrow down the accessories that you should have with you. Lumbar Pack/Fannie Pack: I have used one of these for most of my 19 year hunting career. They are great because they hold a lot of gear and are quick to access and remove. I don’t find backpacks are useful unless you are going to be traveling for miles such as on an elk hunt or something. Backpacks are bulky and hard to access. Tow Line: In your hunter safety course, you will learn to never take your gun or bow up with you as you climb your stand. Always have a tow line to where you can attach it to your gun/bow before you climb up and once you are safely settled in, then pull up your weapon of choice. Also, and this is obvious, don’t attach the tow line to your trigger guard. Toilet Paper: As discussed before, this can be used to mark a blood trail but is also excitingly useful when you get the urge to “go�. Also a lot of times your nose will drip when it’s cold out, so it’s nice to have something soft to wipe your snot off with. Knife: You should always have a knife with you. You can use it for a thousand things not the least of which is field dressing your deer! I use a Buck Zipper and have absolutely loved it. It has a great gut hook on it, rubberized handle (Don’t carry anything with a plastic or wooden handle because when blood gets on it they get slippery) and it stays sharp. Binoculars: Binoculars are not a “must have� item but they are nice to have. I have found that it helps make my hunts more enjoyable being able to glass animals as they come and go. Zip Lock Bag: I put my toilet paper in here as well as my cell phone. Both are not very useful when wet! Snacks: Always have some snacks with you. Eating helps speed up your metabolism and can help keep you warm. Also, as mentioned before, there is a direct relationship being comfortable and seeing deer while hunting. Recommend me a rifle: Sure thing! I love spending other people’s money for them! We all know the caliber war will continue forever but I have found what I think is the rifle that fits for nearly every person and/or scenario. That is a .243 Now, let me explain to you why I think this is the perfect caliber for the deer. A .243 is a fast and flat shooting gun. If you sight it in at 2.2� high at 100yards you will be in the kill zone of the deer between 0 and about 330yards without having to hold over or adjust elevation. The 243 is a very capable round. I watched a hunting show where a guy shot a Boone and Crockett buck at 364 yards and it dropped in its tracks using the 243. The other big reason why I like this caliber so much is because the rifle is very light weight with little recoil. So this would be a great gun to give to your son or daughter or even as you get older you may not want a rifle that beats you to death. Like I said, this rifle will work for 98% of the scenarios you would want to use it for. Now, the only downside is that you won’t want to use this rifle for anything much larger than a deer. If you are going to shoot Elk, Caribou, Moose, Bear or the like, you will want a larger caliber. There are a TON of great calibers out there and everyone has an opinion. The truth is, deer are not that hard to kill. Anything from 243 on up will be just fine. Personally, I hunt with a .270 Teach someone to hunt: Hunting is a sport decreasing in popularity and that is a problem. People growing up these days don’t even appreciate or know where their food comes from. Also, there are people out there who are enemies of pleasure and don’t like it when people can provide for themselves. In the age of desensitization with violent video games and movies, hunting is a real way to teach others about life and death. Properly mentoring a new hunter can teach them to value what we have been provided on this earth and to be good stewards of such. Don’t wait to mentor someone else. There will never be a time you feel like you “made it� far enough along in hunting knowledge to where you feel like you can finally mentor a new hunter. Take whatever knowledge you have and take them hunting. They won’t know what you do or don’t know and they will have the time of their life. The next best thing to getting your first deer is watching someone else get theirs! Summary: Well I think I have covered the most important topics and hopefully have answered your questions in regards to getting started. If it is still a little confusing to you, remember this, there is no better teacher than nature. Go find yourself a spot to hunt and sit out there. You will learn something each time you go! A lot of the above material is useful for all types of hunting as well whether it is squirrel, turkey, duck or dove. If you have any questions, feel free to ask here or send me a PM. Keep me updated on your success!! For More information regarding foot plots, deer management, and hunter management strategies visit www.qdma.com For great educational and hunting videos, visit www.growingdeer.tv ~ Slappy

Got hired, wife texted me wile I was in class this afternoon...maybe the economy is getting a little better. Now a Corrections Officer for XXXXXX County.  Hapay Hapay Hapay.....doing the happy dance...its ugly you don't want to see it.

Doesn't sound like they're caving to anyone. Sounds to me like they're tired of being used as a pawn in the attention whore game of idiots strapping a long gun on and getting coffee. They aren't for or against, but the Kwik's of our crowd have pushed them over the edge where it is no longer about guns or gun rights. Sounds to me like they don't want to be pawns in the game.

You can see the same persons constantly bashing cops and LEO in general . I get tired of it  looking at it. I wont even read half of it anymore because some of it so ignorant and dumb. Thank you for addressing this issue

I will never understand why when something like this happens people always look to blame someone else.  It's like some kinda instinctive response.  Either it's the gun, video games, poor mental health care, a vast consipiracy by liberals/tea party/NWO/FEMA/godlessness/mil ind comlex/blah m'fing blah.   You know, one thing I've noticed about all that is the folks who always seek to blame someone else have an agenda regarding whatever they are saying caused the incident in the first place.  How effing selfish is that to make whatever tragedy that comes up all about yourself or your agenda?  Standing on the graves of the fallen to prove your weak a$$ agenda.  Shameful.  Maybe, just maybe, we can just admit that evil people exist and there ain't a damn thing you can do about it until that evil identifies itself with violent action.  That is how it is, how it has always been and how it always will be.

I've seen a few posts and heard from a few folks that want a TGO gun but are reluctant to build it alone. I'm a firearms instructor with 7 certifications and have taught many build classes including AR, AK, 1911, etc. I always teach AR builds from the smallest part all the way up, it takes anywhere from 2-6 hours with most new people needing 4-6 hours including some basic instruction for maintenance and cleaning. I have a large set of armorers tools, spare parts, instructions, diagrams, etc. so would be willing to coordinate a build class in middle TN area if needed. It's a lot of fun and we've even had a lot of kids, women, elderly folks join in and they usually do better than the "experienced guys"... so don't hesitate to try it if you are on the fence. How often do you get a chance to build your own TGO AR?

I'm just about to think they should go ahead and pass confiscation. Then, for once, all their fear for the AR-15 will be real.

Well, my initial take is that the guideline is largely hazier than the "no denigration of public figures by twisting their names around" directive (not enforced), or the original "no gouging in the Trading Post" proviso (dropped), but not quite as hazy as the "no proselytizing regarding religious matters" admonishment.   No offense, but saying "I can't give concrete guidelines, but we'll be asking staff to use their discretion in making these judgment calls"  sounds in the vein of Kathleen Sebelius making ongoing decisions about Obamacare, so I guess you'll have to pass the bill for us to find out what's in it. ;) ;)   - OS

  I guess I'll have to fight with you Christians, since I already know the language and all. ;)   - OS

In regards to your point about "just getting it out there" and retracting later ... check out the CNN screen shot below ... if they're selling AR-15 shotguns in VA then I'm packing up tonight and heading to VA to get me one of these AR-15 shotguns.

Everything old is new again. Anyone who has been around these parts a while should remember how this issue has come up a couple times before. It appears to me that while y'all are giving a general notice that this is becoming an issue again, you may be using a softer touch than in times past. I appreciate it as I think it provides direction and yet still allows for open discussion. In the past when this has become an issue the subject of LE/.gov misbehavior was pretty much verboten as a subject. The way I am reading this guidance is that this question should be asked: Does the thread foster productive discussion regarding LE/government policy and how it effects the population at large or here in TN, or does it serve no real purpose other than to paint LE in a negative light? If the latter is the case than it isn't a useful topic.

  At the end of the day, I don't really care one way or the other about this rule because I don't typically bash cops and I don't start bashing threads so it won't affect me, but the same sentence could be used for many threads on TGO.     But, it's too easy and not at all fair to the dialog to paint all gays with a flaming homo, liberal brush But, it's too easy and not at all fair to the dialog to paint all muslims with a crazy jihadist brush But, it's too easy and not at all fair to the dialog to paint all democrats with a "they are driving this county into the ground brush"......ok, I got ahead of myself a little on this one, but I think you get the idea.   :pleased:    It seems a bit arbitrary to me that this is the only topic being addressed.  At the end of the day, I think this is a place where people want to spend time because they can discuss these items.  I would argue that one of the reasons many like to discuss these types of items here is because we do have such a large membership and we enjoy the verbal debate with people whom for the most part we know where they stand and in most cases respect enough to agree to disagree.    It's the Staff's call to how they want to handle it, but it should be applied across the board, not just to "bad cops".

  How can "no concrete guidelines", and "staff using their discretion in making judgment calls" be anything but "arbitrary"?   - OS

  That annoys me to no end.

Thank you TGO, 99% Of the people I work with are great honest folks who would give their lives up for someone they do not even know.  Unfortunately the old saying that it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch is true.

Folks, Eric makes a great point in the post above, as well as TMF's post on "evil".... .  We live in a dangerous world... A world that is rapidly changing for the worst, i think, proving the Darwinist's among us wrong.  We are getting worse, not better; we are getting more technologically advanced; yet more barbaric...    In this country of late it seems we've demanded that, at best; the outliers of society; and, at worst; the insane, unbalanced and the "evil" among us be mainstreamed and given access to places where they would have never been able to in the relatively distant past.... We've deliberately demanded that barriers be applied to see to it that the propensity for this sort of thing is not found in back grounding and profiling potential employees, nor considered when reviewing their actions once hired.  There is no doubt in my mind that the military establishment ignored Nadal Hasan; my bet is that they ignored this guy as well.... .     I say, in the most reasonable kind of way (...it's not kind, because it simply cant be...), if you have a job in the military-industrial complex; you had better keep your life insurance current or keep a weapon handy (....or both...)... We are allowing the folks who may work beside you to be just as dangerous as any battle-hardened jhadist or criminally insane nut, all to give honor to the "god of tolerance"... This grotesque, insane philosophy will not change until there is a house-cleaning at the top of the political class, their advisers, academia, and many in the military-industrial complex...   If i wuz in any location that wuz decreed to be "gun-free"; i would be lookin for another job... If i wuz servin in the military on active duty; i would be thinkin about why i wuz there and wonderin about whether Uncle Sam's social engineering objectives and goals were those i could live with...  I say ya could be in a potential combat zone in the office or the barracks and ya could find yourself unarmed.... I find that unconscionable and un-american....   God deliver us from the fools who believe this is the way secure military, sensitive gubmt installations, schools,or anywhere else, for that matter....Sometimes i think that we are the insane ones cloaking these nincompoops with the authority to order these insane policies to be implemented for "the collective good"....   leroy

If you go before a judge and jury with the defense of I did not know what the law was, or I did not know it was against the law.  You won't get very far.  How are citizens supposed to be accountable for knowing all the laws and law enforcement is not.  Just an observation.

Home grown jihadists (ex cons).  Bets, anyone?   Damn to hell the military brass that won't allow their own troops to carry self defense tools.  Especially these days.  Every member of the armed forces should be, at minimum, pistol qual'd and at least allowed to carry, if not required. 

Where do I start with this? For those of you that don't know, I am the manager at Stones River Hunter Education Center. I will try to keep my personal opinions about this type of thread to myself and just state facts. Lets start out with numbers. Stones River Range is only open Friday, Saturday and a half day on Sunday. In 2011 we had 15,992 shooters use this facility. That is an increase of 12.5% from 2010. 2010 was up 12.5% from 2009. How do these numbers compare to other ranges in the area? Cheatham Range has about 2500 shooters a year and opens every day at noon till sunset. Montgomery Co. Shooting Complex has about 5000 shooters per year and are open the same days as Stones River. John Sevier in Knoxville has about 4500 shooters per year and are open more than Stones River. Bartlett Range has about 2200 shooters per year and is open more than Stones River. Add all those up and Stones River is busier than all of them put together. What about safety? I challenge every person that reads this to go to what ever range you go to and just sit down and watch what everyone else is doing. Without a doubt you will see someone do something that is unsafe. Stones River has been open for nine years and we have had one person seriously injured and that person shot theirself. I HATE RULES. I HATE ENFORCING RULES. I wish I could tell everyone to goto the range and just use common sense. But common sense is very uncommon. Therefore to be fair to everyone I enforce all the rules here equally to everyone. Whether it is me or an RSO the rules are enforced. I think what we are doing here is working. We have an increasing number of people including women and children using this range. That is because they feel safe here. A range without rules is a range doomed to fail. It is only a matter of time. Look at Cheatham, no supervsion and a thirteen year old boy is shot. It took twenty years but it happened. How many close calls do you think have happened there before this? Let me go through Nashville Slim's important details as he calls it. 1) We only take cash or check no cards. This is true. We check in a person to goto the range about every 70 seconds. Sometimes we do it faster. We have the ability to take cards but it is so hard to do and time consuming. This is what happens when you put government in charge of something. Private business has had this figured out for years. So we don't take cards. Again, look at the numbers I think what we are doing is working. 2) We do not sell ammo. It is not the range's intent to compete with local business. We send alot of people to the local gun stores to buy ammo. We do sell two very simple targets just for those that come to the range and don't bring their own. We do this as a courtesy to the shooters. It is not our intent to make money on targets. 3) We do not rent guns. The state considers guns to be a very sensitive item and they don't want to rent guns. Again support local businesses and buy a gun. Everybody needs one, two or ten. 4) We do inspect every weapon every time to make sure the gun is unloaded and the barrel is clear. If TSA stopped checking bags and a bomb blew up an airplane people would want TSA back checking bags. Why do you complain about us checking guns? We have found dirt dobber nests, plastic bullets, muzzleloaders that have already been double charged, etc, etc, etc in guns. These guns are nothing more than a bomb that is going to blow on the range. This is why we check guns. We do require guns to be in a case but you can have as many guns in a case as the case will hold. 5) We do no allow concealed carry on the range. We do not allow shooters to draw from a holster on the range. Why you ask? Would you like to be in the lane beside someone doing double cross draws from shoulder houlsters? Or someone trying to get a .38 special out of their wasteband without sweeping the line? I can go on and on here. NO CONCEALED WEAPONS. 6) We allow you to have water on the line. We are in TN where the summer heat and humidity is miserable. You need something to drink then. EPA doesn't want any food, drink or tobacco on gun ranges because of the possibility of lead ingestion. We allow water against EPA rules. We don't allow sugar drinks on the range because I don't want to clean up the mess when you spill it. 7) We only allow one target per lane on the pistol range. The rifle range can have multiple. The reason for this is simple. If you post a taget off to the side of the provided backing and place your target at 5 yards and the person in the lane next to you has his target at 17 yards you will shoot thru your target and hit his. I know this has boogled some of your minds but that is the way the angles work. We only use push pins( we provide them for you) at Stones River because the shooter has to pickup their taget frame and move it to change the distance they are shooting. If we allowed staple guns the frames would get full of staples and they would cut the shooters hands up. This rule is to protect the shooters. 8) We need volunteers. You think you can do better come and help out. Otherwise don't complain about how someone else who is volunteering their time so you have a place to a safe place to shoot treats someone who is complaining about everything. 9) This is a rifle and pistol range not a shotgun range. If you want to shoot a shotgun here, bring slugs. 10) Yes we are extremely busy, just look at the numbers. To date our one day record is 216 shooters in one day. We have had as many as 502 shooters in one 3 day weekend. An average weekend is 325 shooters. 11) We are located 8 miles from Mt. Juliet, 4 miles from Lavergne and 6 miles from Hickory Hollow. There are two Academy Sports, Dicks sporting goods, at least three privately own gun stores and a WalMart store with 8 miles of the range. I can't tell you how many restraunts are in that area. Too many to count. I guess some people just can't be pleased. I have a suggestion for anyone that does not like the rules at Stones River, go somewhere else. Go to Cheatham range. There are no RSOs and you can shoot while people are down range and they can shoot while you are down range. Better yet, buy you some land and build your own range then you can do whatever you want. Just look at the next thread about Royal Blue range. Every rule we have is for a reason, to keep you safe while you are here. Do you want this range to close? Why can't you be appreciative in the fact that a state agency has seen the need for people to have a safe place to shoot and that it is provided to you for a minimal fee and there are people willing to volunteer their time to keep you safe? I am at Stones River Range most everyday it is open. I will be glad to talk in person to anyone about this range. I have been here for eight years. I have attended the NRA range school and consider myself to be one of the most knowledgeable people in the state on gun ranges. If you have a suggestion come see me but don't think you can just make a statement and walk away. Be prepared to give facts for your comments and be prepared and open to what I have to say in return. Don't leave here and hide behind a computer to make critical comments. We are always open to suggestions. @ mikegideon Please stop in sometime and introduce yourself. I would like to meet you. @ JWC It has been discussed to give people that buy hunting and fishing licenses a break on range fees. But the idea behind that is to get more people to buy licenses to increase revenue. I agree with you. Hope this helps clear up so many misconceptions. SRHECMANAGER

[quote name='Nashville Slim' timestamp='1353854708' post='850403'] On the other hand; If this range were a private business, it would be out of business in a matter of weeks. The "Customer" experience was pretty awful. [/quote] A few more facts... All the RSO's are volunteers, and get no compensation for the hours they work All the RSO's are shooters. Stone's River is the busiest range in the state, and gets lots of newbies, doing lots of stupid stuff. It is the best facility I've been to in the state I'm on my third annual membership there. If it was a private business, they could pay a staff, and maybe even open the 50 yard range. I almost always go on Fridays, and have had quite a bit of time to talk to some of the RSO's. That place gets insane on Saturdays and Sundays because of the large volume of shooters. With all that insanity, they manage to keep the place pretty safe.

Couple of my friends and I decided to make the drive to Georgia last week and visit as many of the film locations we could find. We managed to see a bunch of them. Some of the locations are off limits like the farm house which is privately owned, the prison is actually a studio set and the rock quarry is owned by the city of Atlanta and is posted. Other than that we seen a bunch. It's cool cause some of the locations are far apart but seem like they are just around the corner on the series and some are really close but seem far away in the series. We did visit "Woodbury" which is actually Senoia, GA. It was pretty fun driving the back roads of Georgia looking for these places. They have an app called GA walking dead tours and it's a do it yourself help guide. The town of Senoia is actually home to a bunch of different films and TV shows. We plan on going back soon and finding the new season locations and some we missed. In these pics I took a pic and combined it with either the scene pic from the movie or a pic that represents what it is. If you have seen the show you will know most of them. http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377955205429_zps97ecbaa4.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377996529299_zps84621ee0.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377996456966_zps8379e9a7.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377996415678_zps4b4cb508.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377996415678_zpsdfdf0546.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377995812996_zps596ec840.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377995656880_zpsfa6ea842.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377995415753_zps2bf9382e.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377994637659_zpsf5ea872a.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377994423355_zpsd0c92b2e.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377994143389_zps71d91692.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377990001880_zps9554e65d.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377982982894_zpse4ce0c9c.jpg http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc340/bean962/PhotoGrid_1377982935360_zpsa5e4cc7c.jpg

This is an old video and many probably have seen it but I love hearing it so thought I would post it here. Seems fitting.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdFBwJCuRgc

Ever wonder if you could make a neck sheath out of a door matt and some cat-6 wire? I always wondered until today. Turns out you can! sent barefoot from the hills of Tennessee

Yep, and we should start by making an example with Alexander in the Primary.

While I am sometimes disturbed by trends I see in law enforcement or by the actions of an individual officer, I have the utmost respect for anyone who chooses a career of public service. Particularly in a field where they risk life and limb on a daily basis.    It has been my experience here in TN that every LEO that I've dealt with has been professional, courteous and fully supportive of second amendment rights. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I haven't met them.    So, from the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every one of you who have made the choice to serve as an LEO, Soldier or first responder of any stripe. I've seen the good work you do and I appreciate the sacrifices you and your families make for your community and your country. God Bless each and every one of you.

I don't know which of you guys is wackier.   Everyone knows you use indoor/outdoor carpet for neck sheaths.

Cool pics. I am sure some of you more informed members will enjoy the technical aspects. Me? I just think it's awesome to look at!   enjoy!   http://kuulapaa.com/home/highspeed.html    

Take the memory cover off, remove the memory chips and reinstall them. That looks like a memory error.

Negative. They're still widely used by the Army with thousands of them being carried in Afghanistan. I'm talking about straight up A2s; no fancy quad rail or flat top. Just the standard A2 they had when I first joined and M4s were stuff that only cool guys had.

  Who do you know that slowly boils a frog to death?  Pretty twisted pasttime right there.   It's funny, the last time I heard this argument was from a private from 1st ID explaining it in a much, much different context.

  It's like the Westminster dog show with boobs, and the unbelievably strenuous eye exercise of trying to detect the imprint of vaginal lips through a bikini bottom.  Other than that, I'm not quite sure what people get out of it.  At least Robin Meade went on to become an anchor whereas the majority of these things are simply advertising themselves to get married to a rich businessman or politician they wait around all day to come home and service like drinky girl in a S. Korean bar.   My daughter is being raised to look down upon these things as opposed to place these objects on a pedestal.

  Yep, MSNBC has of course hit it hot and heavy all of prime time. And a secondary rant on violent video games, to which he was addicted also, seems.   Btw, now it seems he used his own access card, still had legitimate access. Which is quickly turning into a background security check fail, since turns out he has had two arrests for gun related incidents.   Still no confirmation why he was discharged from Naval reserve, and there are also unconfirmed reports he has lost his job as subcontractor with Hewlitt Packard, so if that's true it's a double security fail, as shouldn't have had access.   - OS

I thought the 4473 lists receivers as "other." They are neither pistols nor rifles. is that not correct?

Fuck that fucking cunt.

What she should be asking is why the hell isn't there someone at a military installation capable of shooting back.

How did this happen? Don't criminals know where you can and can't have a gun?

If Obama is Muslim, I would say he is about as much Muslim as most people are Christian, which is not very much.  It has always been my belief that Obama is too much of an elitist and egotist to believe in or worship anything but himself.  Obama's god is Obama.

Sad news. I wish I could drop everything and search every time an alert is issued. sent barefoot from the hills of Tennessee

What worries me is moderator discretion without any concrete rules established.  For example,  I had one of my posts edited and was publicly dressed-down for the use of two incredibly mild pejoratives (McLame and Grahamnetsy) several months back.  I got really ticked-off considering the rest of the forum was loaded with pejoratives, and some were very tasteless, but nothing was done.  Will the same thing happen under the new proposals?  I would think so.  I could easily see how certain moderators might misconstrue a poster's intent in a post and edit or delete their post, or even worse, boot the poster.  I respect and understand how you have to stand behind your moderators, but this can be very tricky, especially if it is applied with impartial treatment across the board, which I don't believe it can be considering we do have cliques/favorites within the community.  Also, moderators are just like everyone else; they can make mistakes too.   In regards to the anti-LEO stuff, it doesn't really bother me.  This community is very diverse.  We have some that are anti-LEO, some bleed blue, others are anti-government, and we have some who believe more government is the answer to all of our problems.  Regarding other issues such as religion, we have some that are devout Christians, and we have some that defecate themselves even mentioning Christianity.  We also have moonbats, dumbasses, smartasses, and plain ol' jackasses as well.  Any regular contributor knows who these people are, and most of us know that you will never convince these people that their line of thinking could be wrong.   Do I find content insulting or offensive at times?  Of course I do.  However, I realize that the person who is being antagonistic is just some guy/girl sitting behind their keyboard whom I will probably never meet, more than likely they are full of it, and they have absolutely no influence over my life.  Some might say this creates discord, but I would say that they need to get thicker skin because not everyone is going to agree with you, and some may do it in a tasteless manner.   Ultimately, you are going to do what you want.  This is your forum of which, I am a guest, and my opinion holds very little value.  Even though I disagree with your intent, I will do my best to play by the rules, even though they aren't very clear to me.  Assuming these rules go in effect, I would like to suggest that any reprimand, unless it is an egregious violation of the TOS, be made through a PM.  In my mind, it is much more professional, and it can go a long way towards diffusing any ill will that a poster has towards the TGO staff.

I could see them doing that if it was something significant or of a historical value, but they would've been better served going to Sam's Club and getting a free pretzel on their way out.   So much hoopla about that site, it's sort of a self-sustaining prophecy... It's like the Kim Kardashian of religious buildings

I think that you will find those that are buying custom receivers are not using anything else from a regular 10/22 to complete the build outside of the magazine. People may get rid of everything but the receiver, but I don't think you're just going to find a receiver sitting around and if you do, most people probably have plans for it. You may be better off to sell all of your extra parts and then put that money with whatever you think it would take to buy a receiver and just buy a new or used complete gun. I am confident you will not find a receiver for less than $150. It just doesn't make sense to sell them for less than that. You can buy a new complete rifle for just over $200. This is my KIDD SuperGrade. Only stock part is the magazine.

  I suspect some old timers at ATF giggle with how cowed a percentage of the gun community still is due to some of their strong arm tactics in the past.   And it does indicate to me a lingering culture of thuggery to not publicly admit settled law by the frigging Supreme Court until almost 20 frigging years after the fact. That's of course just my humble opinion, officer. ;)   - OS

yes. The rubber backing from the mat will hold like a hair in a biscuit. sent barefoot from the hills of Tennessee

That won't stop the liberals from using this as an excuse to ban them. They're busy banning high capacity mags up in New York yet the majority of gun deaths are from small caliber, low capacity crap pistols.

  While I can't speak for JayC, I believe you are misinterpreting what he is saying.  I don't think he is anti-LEO or anti-government.  I do, however,  think he is for limited amount of both entities, which I agree with.  What we have now just isn't working, and it will never work because the model has been proven to be a failure.  The question now becomes, do we want to continue down the same path where government incessantly grows, puts each and everyone of us further in debt with no means to repay, and have our liberties slowly stripped from us, etc...?  The obvious answer should be a resounding, hell no.  If we are to change, why not change to a model that did work for this country?

If we are going the naturally fueled route then I'll be doing a lot of movement on Big John. Our plan is to bug in, but being able to move heavy loads like water, fire wood, large amounts of gear or food via horsepower will be invaluable. Tapatalk ate my spelling.