By Phil Bourjaily

Thanks to high winds, high water, and one sneaky hen, this was as close as I was able to bring F&S senior editor Colin Kearns to an Iowa turkey last week. The target is a Champion Re-Stick turkey target and it is a small, slick improvement to the life of a turkey hunter, which can be hard (see high water, high winds and hen, above).

By Phil Bourjaily

Deadeye Dick asked an excellent question in a comment on the high velocity ping pong ball post: Do you have to relearn how to shoot when you switch to very high velocity loads?

Others will disagree but I will say no, you don’t have to learn to shoot all over again. I haven’t recalibrated my leads consciously or (as far as I know) unconsciously when I shoot high velocity ammo. Remington’s website says the difference in lead between their 1,675 fps Hypersonic and other steel is 11 percent — about eight inches at 40 yards. That would be on a true 90-degree crosser at 40 yards, and most makeable shots in the field occur at shorter distances and shallower angles. On, say, a 20-yard quartering target, the difference in lead between a super-fast shell and a normal velocity shell is negligible.

By Phil Bourjaily

A couple of times each fall I shoot double guns on pheasant hunts. I usually break out my Ruger Gold Label a time or two and I get to shoot some other people’s doubles, too.*  I am always reminded when I take a double hunting that shooting one is different from shooting O/Us and single barrel guns.

By Phil Bourjaily

I ran into one of my writing colleagues at SHOT Show and he invited me coyote hunting. I said thanks but I had never shot a coyote and wasn’t very interested. Coyotes are not made of edible meat and I give them a free pass, I told him.

He said “I don’t. I put them in a hole in the ground where they belong.”

That’s a common attitude, but in truth, coyotes get blamed for all kinds of crimes they don’t commit. I don’t how many times farmers have told me our low pheasant numbers are the work of too many coyotes, when in fact, our pheasant crash is the result of bad weather combined with too much intensive farming.*

There are good reasons to hunt coyotes: it’s challenging. Fur prices are up. In general, it’s good that we kill some to make the rest keep their heads down and so they maintain a healthy fear of man.