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Generally speaking, it’s a shame we can’t--in the words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson--take the past decade, pound it into a goddamn bottle, and set it adrift in the China current. But in the world of rifles, by and large, it’s been nothing but good news. Herewith, the most significant developments of 2000-2010, not in order of importance.

1. The transmogrification of the AR-15 into a bona-fide sporting rifle and an industry unto itself.

2. Hornady’s emergence as a major player and a major innovator in the ammunition biz.

3. Ten years ago, I thought that sporting optics had reached a state of perfection beyond which it could not go. Boy, was I wrong. [ Read Full Post ]

And how do we know the geese were “mutilated”? Because it says so in the newspaper. Here are the headlines:
Chicago Sun-Times: Four Canada Geese Mutilated in Naperville
Chicago Tribune: Naperville Investigates Slashings of Canada Geese
Chicago Daily Herald: Naperville Cops Say Mutilated Geese Were Dumped By Hunters

Read the above stories closely and you’ll learn that not only were the mutilations likely carried out by hunters but, far worse, by “serial hunters.” Still, the most shocking detail lies in precisely how the animals where defiled--and I have to advise caution here: Their breasts were missing!

What kind of sick bastards . . . ? [ Read Full Post ]

As a citizen and voter, I expect a minimum level of common sense and pragmatism from the people elected to represent me. After so many years of bitter disappointment, I have no idea why.
 
For example, my home state of Oklahoma has the dubious honor of having the largest state budget deficit in the nation. A reasonable person might assume our elected representatives are at this very minute hard at work trying to solve this urgent problem. A reasonable person would be wrong.
 
Two Democratic state lawmakers want a sales tax holiday on the purchase of guns. Sen. John Sparks, and Rep. Wes Hilliard, of Sulphur, have introduced Senate Bill 1322, also called the Second Amendment Weekend Sales Tax Holiday Act. It would set a sales tax break on handguns, rifles or shotguns starting at 12:01 a.m. on the third Friday in August until midnight the following Sunday. Oklahoma is facing a revenue failure for the current fiscal year and expects to have 20 percent less to spend next fiscal year due to declining state revenue.

"I thought it was a perfect way to reduce the barrier to exercising our Second Amendment rights and saw no reason... [ Read Full Post ]

Congratulations to all of you who participated in Fly Talk's Caption Contests in 2009... we had fun.  You can count on us doing many more in 2010 (and giving away more prizes).

So, without further ado, the winner of the last contest in 2009, who wins a Bass Pro Shops "The Strike" Xbox game, is ... [ Read Full Post ]

Like to put yourself in this picture? I don’t post many hero shots on this blog, which would be a little unseemly and there aren’t all that many of them to begin with. But there’s another point to this big Manitoba pike I took on a fly rod some years back.

As many did (and still do), I grew up reading various fishing books and outdoor magazines, including this one. I distinctly remember seeing photos back then of Tom McNally, the late, great outdoor writer, holding up big Canadian pike that he’d taken on streamer flies. And I thought to myself often: Someday, I’m going to do that.

It took me a lot of years to get there, but eventually I did and caught the fish and got the photo I’d dreamed about for so long.

You can, too. As the old year ends and a new one begins, take a look ahead. Even if you don’t travel to some exotic fishing destination, somehow, somewhere in the new year you’re going to catch a memorable fish. A bigger than usual bass or maybe a redfish. Salmon, steelhead, or trout, or perhaps even a giant... [ Read Full Post ]

From an AP story in the San Francisco Chronicle:
A Nevada couple letting their SUV's navigation system guide them through the high desert of Eastern Oregon got stuck in snow for three days when the GPS unit sent them down a remote forest road.

On Sunday, atmospheric conditions apparently changed enough for their GPS-enabled cell phone to get a weak signal and relay coordinates to a dispatcher, Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger said.

"GPS almost did 'em in and GPS saved 'em," Evinger said. "It will give you options to pick the shortest route. You certainly get the shortest route. But it may not be a safe route." [ Read Full Post ]

A friend of mine asked me to write something about Warren Page, Field & Stream’s shooting editor from 1947 to 1972. So be it.

Page, whose nickname was Lefty,  started at F&S at just the time that the great wildcatting epidemic began. Every gunmaker who could ream out a set of loading dies had a series of cartridges with his name on it. Page, being a technoid of the first magnitude, was heavily involved in all this, and as he put it, “I wore out the decimal key on the typewriter.”

Yet despite the deluge of wildcats, and the eventual cascade of new factory rounds that followed, Page was essentially a one-gun hunter. He used lots of different stuff, but the majority of his big-game trophies were killed with a single rifle—a 7mm Mashburn Super Magnum. Page got this rifle very early in his career—1949 or so. He called it “Old Betsy,” and used only one handload for everything, a 175-grain Nosler semi-spitzer bullet at 3,050 fps. Throughout her career, Old Betsy wore only one scope, a 4X Redfield with a medium crosshair, and with this combination, Page killed 475 head of big game of all shapes and sizes, at all ranges. He... [ Read Full Post ]

If you were good enough to get a new Leupold Mark 4® riflescope for Christmas than you were better than a lot of us boys and girls. Still, you’d better take a close look at your new toy. According to the company, there are some hard-to-spot fakes hitting the market:

Leupold® is issuing a customer alert to purchasers of products, particularly via Internet sales, in regards to bogus Leupold products that are apparently being illegally imported from the People’s Republic of China. . . .

Leupold employs serial number tracking for all its riflescopes, so if a customer finds a scope that is suspect, he or she can simply write down the serial number and call 1-800-LEUPOLD to confirm if it is indeed authentic.

[Most counterfeits] have “Leupold Mark 4” laser engraved on the bottom of the turret in a silver etch, while the black ring on the objective is etched in white and does not include the name “Leupold.” An authentic Mark 4 riflescope will always be engraved black on black and have the name “Leupold” engraved on the black ring. [ Read Full Post ]

From WLKY News:
Wildlife officials said no bears were killed in Kentucky's first legal bear hunt in some 100 years.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources blamed the lack of kills on a winter storm that blanketed much of the mountain region with snow.

Kentucky State Bear Biologist Steven Dobey said hunters simply couldn't get to areas where they likely would have been able to shoot bears. [ Read Full Post ]

A lot of us here probably started with .410s. The first gun I shot was a single-shot Beretta that my dad had cut down to fit me when I was quite young. I mostly remember shooting stationary paper plates and balloons blowing along the ground with it. For puncturing plates and popping ballons, a .410 is plenty of gun and they have practically no recoil. For anything else, it can be challenging. There’s just not much shot in a .410 cartridge making the pattern core small and the fringes weak. I waited until both my kids were big enough to shoot 20 gauge youth model 1100s (age 11-12) to start them out because I wanted them to think shooting was fun, not frustrating. [ Read Full Post ]

On Christmas morning Pritchard chased my in-laws’ cat through the middle of our family gift-opening session, nearly knocking over Grandmother and sending the cat scampering across the piano keyboard (playing notes with each step) and onto the tree. For a minute I felt like Clark W. Griswold. But we all survived. Hope you did, too.

With Christmas over and the new year fast approaching I’ve been working on my dog training resolutions. Pritch turns one year old tomorrow—gone are the puppy days (photo above), and here are the dog days. This year I’m hoping to truly refine her skills (and mine) on our way to becoming a finished dog. Here are some goals I’ve set for myself:

Don’t Repeat Commands: Recently I filmed Pritch in the duck swamp. While she performed great, the video footage revealed some errors on my part. I could hear myself repeating the same command over and over. This year I’ll try to say more with less—and mean it!

Train With a Plan: In addition to training more often I intend to set a goal before each session. This will help force me to plan what I need to work... [ Read Full Post ]

From Naplesnews.com:
Two decades ago, somewhere between 500,000 and 2 million wild pigs roamed the United States, according to Jack Mayer, a national expert on the problem.

Now the population numbers between 2 million and 6 million. In 1982, feral pigs were documented in 17 states. Today, they are found in 44. . . .

“They eat our crops. They root up our wetlands. They compete with our native species. They damage property. They run into our cars,” said Mayer. [They also eat sheep, goats, cattle, and chickens, he said.]

But even though more cities and states are confronting the spread of the pigs, no national strategy or program exists to corral what is a cross-border problem.

So what’s to be done? Check out the full article and tell us what you think is the best solution. [ Read Full Post ]