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By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

For years now, whitetail deer managers in numerous states have been doling out doe permits, lengthening seasons, and expanding other regulations in an ostensible effort to reduce burgeoning deer herds. Well, Iowa may have finally gotten the job done, with a record harvest of nearly 212,000 deer. Whether this will make for stricter regulations next year—and how hunters might react to them—is yet to be seen.

Which begs the question: Are you willing see herd numbers dropped to healthier levels if it means fewer opportunities for you during future seasons?
Click here for the story [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily

Note from the editors: David E. Petzal is spending the weekend shooting, taking apart, evaluating, talking about, dreaming about, and possibly even sleeping with the year's latest guns and shooting gear at the 2006 Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is one of the largest gatherings of gun nuts in the country; while there he'll rub sore shoulders with more than 37,000 industry professionals from around the world, probably irritating many of them. After much grumbling about how technology is destroying the fabric of our moralilty, he's agreed to send us these reports from the show floor.

Winchester Wildcat:
Increasingly, American gunmakers are turning to eastern-bloc countries for their low-priced models, and this Russian-built .22 rimfire will sell for about $212. It looks oddly like the old Moisin-Nagant military rifle, but it's a very nice .22 bolt-action that offers a lot regardless of its price. The ones I shot were accurate, well made, had good trigger pulls, and worked without a hitch. Shoot this one and you can practically feel the hot breath of the Cossacks. ... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

During the heat of last fall’s rut, South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks biologist Greg Wolbrink responded to a call from a local farmer informing him that a pair of fighting bucks had gotten their antlers stuck together. When Wolbrink arrived, it was pretty obvious which buck won the battle, as you can see in the dramatic photos linked below. Click here to see the pictures on the Montana Outdoors blog [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

This coming fall, waterfowl hunters will have a wider variety of legal nontoxic shot to choose from, including newly approved tungsten-iron-copper-nickel, iron-tungsten-nickel, tungsten-bronze, tungsten-tin-iron. The real question, however, remains to be answered: Will any of them be any more affordable than the current options. Will you pay for them if they aren't? If not, what would be a reasonable price? Click here for the Fish and Wildlife Service press release [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

Texas is already a hot hunting destination for whitetails, turkeys, and wild pigs. But if that’s not enough variety, you may soon be able to take a gator from the Lone Star State, too. Since the animal was removed from the federal Endangered Species List in 1987, its population in Texas has swollen to an estimated quarter-million, and now a new 3-month gator season is in the works. Here are the details. Click here for the story [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

It was the last day of Tennessee’s Youth Deer Hunt, and Marissa Webb of Crossville was hoping to bag her first deer. When several does moved into gun range, she raised her Marlin .30-30, took aim, pulled the trigger . . . and took her first two deer. Here’s the story. [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

Last week we ran a link reporting that a Quebec woman named Diane Guillemette had hauled a 507- pound Greenland shark through the ice of Saguenay fiord north of Quebec City. The catch has gotten so much media attention that Guillemette has achieved some degree of recent fame. The downside, however, is that fisheries officials have now gotten wind of the story and may fine Guillemette for not having the proper permits to catch a shark. Click here for the story

Thanks to J.R. Absher at the Outdoor Press Room for posting the link on his site. [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily

Now it’s getting interesting. According to the February 1 edition of the New York Post, the National Rifle Association, operating behind the scenes, has succeeded in quashing Diana Taylor’s nomination as head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Ms. Taylor is New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s girlfriend, and it was done, sayeth the Post, as retaliation for Bloomberg’s recent attacks on the NRA.

Bloomberg, in his second-term inaugural speech, took on not only the NRA, but lawmakers who roll over for the gun lobby (meaning Congress), saying: “It shows the power of one advocacy organization and, I would argue, the cowardice of people who succumb to their pressure.”

But now comes the really interesting part. Bloomberg spent $77 million just to get re-elected, and his total worth is estimated at between $5 and $9 billion. If he should become angry enough, he could buy the votes in Congress and have Article II of the Bill of Rights repealed, or he could buy the NRA.

Buying Congressional votes is no trick at all. Everyone does it. Bloomberg could probably do it with what he carries in his wallet. As for the NRA, how much is it worth?... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

Honestly, what's up with killer snowmobilers? In early January, we ran a link about Canadian snowmobiler Anthony Norris who after running over a moose several times, jumped on the poor beast's back and killed it with an ax. Now, after an outraged Grand Rapids community raised a $2,000 reward for their capture, Dale W. Guyer, 20, of Coleraine and Gabriel W. Hill, 19, of Bovey have been charged with intentionally running down and killing a deer with their snowmobiles. Click here for the story [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

Somerset, New Jersey--The Fly Fishing Show wrapped up it's sixteenth Somerset event on Sunday, sending home 200 exhibitors, 9,000 visitors, and several thousand pounds of fur, feathers, and fly tiers. This is an enormously entertaining event for a fly fisherman, but it's no place to take anyone with an abiding fear of insects. Witness Paul Whillock's incredibly realistic "Flies As Art", exquisite reproductions of anatomically correct stoneflies, mayflies, caddisflies, even a frighteningly accurate praying mantis. These things will fool any trout if you're callous enough to toss one in the water. Of course, this may not be saying much, as the intelligence of trout has recently been called into question. But they've also fooled U.S. Customs agents, who, citing federal animal import regulations, confiscated Whillock's luggage the first time he tried to bring his work into the states. For more on Whillock's "Masterclass Flies", check out his web site here.

This show is about as close to a trout stream that a cash-strapped, Manhattan-stranded outdoorsman can get in the month of January. Like many... [ Read Full Post ]