Here’s a good rumor to chew on. Will Idaho be home to one of our major gunmakers?  Much as South Dakota attracted gun and ammunition makers like Dakota, Black Hills, Corbon, A-Square and others, Idaho is actively courting the firearms industry. It is, after all, an extremely gun-friendly state, and it doesn’t hurt that it offers tremendous outdoor recreation as well.

Idaho is considering a new industrial park built specifically with gunmakers in mind, with possible features including – get this --  a mile-long underground range. According to this story, Idaho is competing with Tennesse and Texas for one particular maker about to change address – either Ruger, S&W or Remington – according to this story:

I have no inside knowledge of which of the three companies named is planning a move, so you are free to speculate. But think about it: your Model 700, your Model 77 or your Model 29 could come with the words “Made in Idaho” stamped on the barrel.

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In a tangentially related story, one Idaho company has made the unusual decision to switch from making semiconductors to shotguns. Advanced Precision of Meridian, Idaho, having lost a big semiconductor client, is going into the shotgun business in partnership with Legacy Sports of Nevada, importer of Verona and Escort shotguns and Howa rifles.

According to Legacy CEO Gene Lumsden, Legacy will import half the parts from Turkish maker Hatsan, who makes Escort shotguns, with the other half being made in Idaho, where the guns will also be assembled.

There will be a pump first, then a semiauto, both geared to the LE/military market with the first guns to be made by November.

The October 2009 Popular Mechanics  “Self Reliance Issue” is all about fending for yourself: surviving emergencies, living off the grid, as well as just being generally handy. One feature, “The Soul of an Old Machine” profiles do-it-yourselfers who prefer to fix and maintain old stuff rather than replace it. It includes a sidebar called “Tomorrow’s Classics,” listing four tools which, if given a modicum of care, will work for you and for your children. They are:

Channellock 421 Pliers

Stanley Powerlock Tape Measure

Troy-Bilt Garden Tiller

Remington 870 Shotgun

The 870 copy reads:

“Harry S. Truman was president when the 870 was born. Since then, millions of the no-fuss pump guns have been purchased to hunt everything from doves to deer. A little light oil on the breech bolt and a good scrubbing with No. 9 solvent are all it takes to make this smooth slider last for generations.”

First of all, kudos to Popular Mechanics for giving the 870 its due as a tool for the ages. Second, I am sure this list could be much, much longer.

So, the floor is open for nominations for classic tools that are indispensible, easy to maintain, and will last forever. Although guns and outdoor gear are obviously more than welcome on this list, any tool of any kind is eligible. My wife’s KitchenAid stand mixer would make the cut, for instance: it’s 22 pounds of steel, made in the USA since 1919, iconic, unbreakable and virtually maintenance-free. There’s one. What else?

Hunting season started exactly the right way for me this year. I tagged along with my son John and my friend Mike (pictured below) for an evening hunt on opening day of our youth deer season. Mike had graciously invited John to sit in his bowstand and take first crack at his best spot.

I realize many hunters dislike Iowa for its $500 non-resident tags, and I don’t blame them in the least, but we do have a great youth deer season that more states should copy.  Rather than make our kids hunt in the cold, crazy December gun season, the state opens youth season opens before any other deer seasons begins. Youth hunters are the first ones in the field and their season runs for 16 days. If they don’t fill their tag, it’s good in any of our other gun seasons. The weather is pleasant and overall success rates run very high – about 50%. Since he started at age 12 (he’s now 15), John has hunted a total of five days and shot three deer, including one big enough to cost me the price of a skull mount. Not surprisingly, he loves deer hunting. Seasons like this one are a great way to recruit new hunters and every state should have one.

If you were wondering, the gun in the picture is a 20 gauge NEF/H&R Ultra Slug. It is one of the great firearms bargains of any kind: it lists for $307 with a laminated stock, and a mere $249 with plain hardwood. It shoots as well or better than guns costing many times more and the heavy barrel helps keep slug recoil manageable. Sighting this one in for John’s hunt, I put five Remington AccuTips into 2 ½ inches at 100 yards.

One AccuTip was enough for this buck. The slug went in one side, out the other, and destroyed both lungs on the way through. AccuTips are impressive slugs and as expensive (12.99/five) as the Ultra Slug is cheap.

We don’t usually address conservation in this space but the way I look at it, shotguns aren’t good for much if you don’t have birds to hunt with them.

Back in the early 80s, when fencerow to fencerow farming was devastating pheasant populations, I can remember going hunting with my cousin one day. It was right at the beginning of the whitetail population boom, and all we saw that were a couple of hen pheasants and dozens of deer. “The limit ought to be three deer a day and one pheasant a year instead of the other way around,” Shaun said.

A few years later, the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program came along, turning millions of acres of cropland into grass. Pheasant populations rebounded. When the prairie droughts of the late 80s and early 90s ended and rains came to the Midwest, wetland basins in idled grass fields made excellent waterfowl nesting habitat and duck populations came back as well. The strong fall flights of the last 15 years have been due to rainy weather and CRP.  We are actually “exporting” ducks to Canada as explained in this Delta Waterfowl Press release.

CRP is not perfect – it has not met its potential to improve bobwhite habitat, for instance – but it has been great for farmland wildlife and much better than intensive row-crop agriculture, which is where we seem to be headed once again. In the last five years, 4.2 million acres have gone out of the program, and there is a potential for another 21 million acres to go back into production over the next five years.

With the future of the program in doubt, the USDA is holding a public comment period through the rest of this month and into October as detailed in the this Pheasants Forever release.

Take a minute to voice your support.