By Scott Bestul

The buck pictured here is a giant by anyone’s standards. Killed by Illinois bowhunter Shawn Bennett, the triple-drop tined monster reportedly scores 237” B&C. I have friends who are capable of looking at a photo like this and estimating the buck’s net/gross rank within a couple of inches. I, on the other hand, can barely get past my first reaction…Which is little more than a simple “Wow!”

By Dave Hurteau

First, “Shoot Me Down” is a new feature on this blog, so let me explain how it’ll work. I’ll post an opinion and an argument to back it up. And you, in the comments section, can either stand with me or shoot me down.

The person who offers the best argument for or against will be invited to do my job for me—I mean, to post the next “Shoot Me Down” opinion as a special (that means unpaid) guest blogger.

So here we go:

The .260 Remington Is The Best All-Around Whitetail Cartridge

A .308 necked down to .264, the .260 Remington is a light-kicking, flat-shooting, short-action cartridge whose high ballistic coefficients and sectional density make it very accurate and plenty deadly way downrange. (Snipers consider it an excellent “midrange” round, meaning out to 1,000 meters.)

By Dave Hurteau

So I’m here banging my head against the wall to see if anything falls out for this morning’s blog when Bestul sends me a charity email sporting pictures of this crazy, wood-pile hunting blind. Yes, that center slot that looks like logs flips up so you can shoot.

By Dave Hurteau

It happens to families everywhere. Little Johnny’s parents want him to play the bassoon, but Little Johnny wants to play the drums. You give your kid a grunt call, but they don’t stick with it. You try to explain that subtlety is a virtue, but they’re drawn to sheer volume. You know the grunt will be your kid’s constant companion eventually (and that it’s pretty much the only call you can give them to wail on right now without making your spouse hate you). But it’s no good. The grunt is the bassoon of game calls. No volume. No flash.