Field & Stream — The World's Leading Outdoor Website

This question came up on another gun blog when someone mentioned that they had seen a rifle of mine for sale, and another blogger asked about the gun—a 7x57—and inquired if I was still alive. Far from taking offense, I see this as a reasonable question, and will attempt to answer it as best I may.

On the one hand, I am very old. I can remember before television. I can remember when actual music was played on the radio. When I was born, there were still a fair number of men alive who had fought in the Civil War. I can remember when people believed what our government had to say. Obviously, that is a long, long time ago and does not argue well for my survival.

On the other hand, someone is writing this stuff and it sounds like me. And, in a week I’m going way up to northern Maine to freeze my nasty bits and not see a single one of the six deer that are left in that state. That sounds like something I would do. Last week I dropped enough at Cabela’s and Brownell’s to finance Cruella Pelosi’s health care package for a month. That’s definitely me.

And... [ Read Full Post ]

Now about those sex ads. You know, the ads in the back of our print edition that tout various male-enhancement products. Some people complain about them. Others just smirk. But what if some of those things turned out to be great fishing products?

Here’s an example. Suppose you’re fishing a headwater creek for little brook trout and keep a few for dinner. The minimum legal size is 6 inches, but you’ve inadvertently kept a 5-incher. Uh-oh, here comes the game warden. Quick! Slip that little brookie into the pocket-size vacuum device and with a few fast pumps you’ve turned that trout into a legal fish!

The potential here is just wonderful. Need some bigger plastic worms or maybe a few larger dry flies? No problem. There are some pills that supposedly increase the size of certain things. So maybe you could dissolve a couple of tablets in water and then soak your size 14 Light Cahills overnight. By morning, they’d be size 12s or maybe even 10s!
Other products have a different application. There’s an aftershave lotion that  supposedly will make females more affectionate. Well, hey....my steelhead flies could use a little more love. There are lots of female steelhead in the river,... [ Read Full Post ]

Our friends over at Moldychum.com have launched a non-scientific yet intriguing poll they plan to hand over to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in conjunction with TU. 

“We’d like to demonstrate to the state just how important wild fish are to those of us who spend time chasing these magnificent fish,” said Eric Rathbun, chief editor of Moldy Chum and founder of Reel Pure Inc. “I can’t speak for everyone who fly fishes for steelhead, but catching a wild fish is a unique experience, and one that I certainly prefer.”

Personally, I agree with Rathbun, although I'll catch hatchery plants of any species if forced to. Especially ones dropped from airplanes...  I will say that wild fish no matter the size or location seem to...

[ Read Full Post ]

A note to all you Gun Nuts: The photo below (and three more, which you can see by clicking here) came into my inbox attached to the following caption:

"For those of you who load your own ammunition...
 
A guy came into our department the other day to ask a favor. He had a Smith & Wesson Model 629 that he wanted to dispose of after a mishap at the range. He said there was a loud bang when he tested his new load and the gun smacked him in the forehead, leaving a nice gash. When the tweety birds cleared, this is what he saw..."

Rather than comment on these photos myself, I decided they were serious enough that they deserved something intelligent said about them, so I sent them to my friend and ace pistolsmith John Blauvelt. Here's what he had to say.  --David Petzal

Begin forwarded message:
From: JC Blauvelt
Date: October 30, 2009 8:09:43 PM EST
To: Dave Petzal

Subject: BANG

Dave, Well you asked for it. I hope you find this useful. Thank you for the opportunity.

A graphic reminder of the art of home pressure testing. What I see... [ Read Full Post ]

So I’ve recently become a pick-up truck owner. I've only had SUVs in the past, but given the nature of my hobbies, I finally decided that a pick-up was more practical in many ways. I only had one problem: I couldn’t stand laying rods in the bed with them hanging over the tailgate. I’ve just seen too many sticks get snapped or lose guides that way. So I began to tinker.

[ Read Full Post ]

First off, I appreciate everyone who took the time last week to send in reports of the rut activity (or lack thereof) in your area. It is always fascinating to me to see how sometimes-small regional variations can make a huge difference in the level of rutting behavior that hunters witness.

Here in the upper Midwest, we are brink of an explosion. For the most part, the full-bore chase phase has not begun. But the bucks—including some of the mature deer—are getting very active. They are on their feet, roaming their core areas, hitting rubs and scrapes and looking for that first estrous doe. My good friend Mitch Hagen was hunting in southern Iowa over the weekend and reported several large bucks “shadowing” does. This is a fascinating behavior to me; the doe is clearly not “in” yet, but the buck senses she is getting close. The buck does not dog her or chase her, but simply follows and keeps track of her movements.

Mature bucks are highly adept at noting the signs of a soon-to-be estrous doe. He’s been down the breeding path before and can recognize whatever signals she’s sending... [ Read Full Post ]

As their one condition of taking me to me Italy and putting me up in absurd luxury, Beretta asked that I not release any of my own photos of the A400 until this week. I was allowed only to use their pictures, which didn’t show what the gun looks like. But the embargo is over, and here’s me, with the A400 at the Lonato Shooting Club, in front of the dino foot photo backdrop. Also, here are a bunch of  European gunwriters photographing the A-400. The guy in the sunglasses, stubble and striped shirt is a Russian gunwriter, by the way.  As a rule, we gunwriters are not a fashion-forward group,  but no one told this guy.

Anyway, as you can see here The Xplor looks -- in my opinion --   modern without being ugly. The receiver is anodized to a gray-green color just to be different (Browning, of course, offered red, green, brown and silver receivers for the odd but awesome Double Automatic 50 years ago, so that’s not a completely new idea). 

The A400 is light and handles well, at least in a limited test. I only had a chance to shoot about 25... [ Read Full Post ]

From the News Herald:
A Florida Fish and Wildlife officer’s attempt to use a 5-foot live alligator during show and tell Friday at Breakfast Point Academy ended with the critter on the loose in the woods near Pier Park. . . .

[A]fter the show, the officer placed the gator in the back of his truck and left in an attempt to return the animal to the wild. But the creature apparently got anxious and decided to return to the wild early, [FWC spokesman Stan] Kirkland said. . . .

“It’s green, it’s 5 feet long and it was last seen on the lam,” Kirkland said.

Officers do lose animals from time to time, Kirkland added.

“It’s probably happened. It’s not something we hear about,” he said. “This just happened to be viewed by half of Panama City Beach. We appreciate all those calls to the media.” [ Read Full Post ]

From The State:
So far in 2009, the number of South Carolinians wanting to pack heat nearly has doubled over the previous year as people worry about violent crime and feel threatened by partisan politics.

As of mid-October, 28,197 new concealed weapons permits have been issued this year by South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division.

It's an annual record that already has surpassed the 14,630 new permits issued in all of 2008 and by far outstrips all previous years, according to SLED statistics. [ Read Full Post ]

Robert Ruark, writing in his journal about some particularly good African trophy that he had hammered, noted that it was “…collected, but not earned.” He believed, as many hunters do, that there should be a certain amount of work you put into bagging an animal or else you don’t really deserve it. This is a nice sentiment, but of course it is nonsense. You expect to have to work, and if you do work very hard and get something good as a result it is more rewarding, but that’s as far as it goes. Despite our touching belief that hunting is a matter of skill and perseverance, a lot of it is sheer dumb luck.

[ Read Full Post ]

Amateur trainers (myself included) often worry most about the holy trinity of gun dog problems—water shyness, gun shyness, and bird shyness. Oodles of manpower have gone into making sure pups never show any of these dirty traits. But often overlooked is a problem that’s more common than all three...a lack of a desire to retrieve. And like most problems encountered in the gun dog game it’s often the result of poor training practices. (For a point of focus we’ll zero in on dogs that are roughly 6 to 8 months.)

[ Read Full Post ]