By Philip Bourjaily

I once mentioned to a southerner that in Iowa where I live, mourning doves are protected songbirds.* “Ain’t worth livin’ there,” he said. Every year, on September 1, I think he might be right. Unless I manage a trip out of state, I am stuck on the sidelines for the biggest opening day of the season, rooting for all of you who are lucky enough to live where doves can be hunted.

By Philip Bourjaily

Today we have a test with no wrong answer.

Most introductions to shotgunning begin with the “master eye” test. You hold your arms straight out at eye level, fingers up, palms out, hands overlapping, leaving a small hole between the hands  through which you sight a faraway object. Then you pull your hands back, keeping the object in sight, until they wind up over one eye or the other. That’s your master eye. If you pull your hands back over the other eye, the object you were looking at disappears. You can also keep you arms extended, sight the target with both eyes, then close one eye then the other.  The object will seem to jump sideways out of sight when you close your dominant eye. Try it.

By David E. Petzal

On December 19 of last year, I boldly predicted that former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress would avoid doing prison time for illegally carrying a Glock and shooting himself in the leg with same. I also quoted a judge friend of mine (a merciless man whose personal heroes are Jack Ketch and Isaac Parker) as saying that although there are ways around felony charges, this happened in the Kingdom of Bloomberg, and there was no way Plaxico was going to skate.

By David E. Petzal

The Remington Custom Shop in Ilion, NY has, over the past 30 years or so, turned out pretty guns, very accurate target rifles, and tactical rifles, but serious, high-grade working rifles were not on the menu. This all changed a year ago when the company brought in a product development manager named Carlos M. Martinez, who is a rabid hunter. Quicker than you could say “major investment in new machinery for the shop in Ilion,” there sprang forth a line of very earnest high-grade working rifles.