by David E. Petzal

One of the reasons for the decline and fall of the United States is, I believe, that the Draft was abolished. It had its drawbacks, but it also had a couple of advantages: It required that every able-bodied male serve their country for a while and, since a great many people had military experience as a result, the population as a whole had a pretty good idea of what the military was and did.

Today that’s very far from the case. One percent of our population* is fighting our wars, and there is a growing ignorance about the military and a growing alienation from it in our once-great land.

This was brought to light in an article in the December 18 issue of The New York Times about the growing joblessness among vets. In it, a Ms. Rachel Feldstein, who is Associate Director of a San Diego company called New Directions (which specializes in drug rehab and training for veterans) said the following:

“If you train someone to be a sniper, those skills are not necessarily skills that are transferable.”
[ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

A giant 550-pound blue marlin - perhaps angry about something they wrote - attacked the press boat at the 51st Annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament this week.

From this story on KHON2 TV:
Kailua-Kona is once again hosting one the top fishing tournaments in the world with some of the best anglers in the sport. But the biggest fishing tale so far happened on the press boat when a 550 lb. marlin went berserk and attacked. The 51st annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament is shaping up to be one of the most memorable in years with several monster marlins caught including one by the press boat. "I've seen some pretty wacky stuff but this still blew my mind," said photographer Jon Schwartz who was aboard the Chiripa when one of its lines snagged a 550 lb. marlin. "And this giant marlin starts going berserk and it was close the boat."Schwartz grabbed his camera and started shooting.

"And next thing you know it turns and it comes right at us, and starts *greyhounding* right at us and I'm trying to keep the... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

The Final Four is finally here! On one hand, you have Michigan State vs. Butler and West Virginia vs. Duke. On the other, it’s .270 WSM vs. .270 Win. and .30-06 vs. .308. And it’s all going down over the same weekend—almost like we planned it that way.



What we didn’t plan is to have all chalk in our Final Four. (I originally started this post with a rant about all this chalk.*) But, on the upside, what we do have is a true battle of the big guns (except that they are cartridges, not guns), in terms of seeding (all one- and two-seeds), popularity (no surprise there), bullet diameter (everything under .277 inches is out), and firepower (with two of the three most-powerful original rounds still in). So we should have a couple of barn-burners. Here are the contenders, as originally seeded: [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

Now things should get interesting.

It’s been clear sailing for the top seeds so far, as the .30-06 (1), .308 (2), 7mm-08 (3), and .30-30 (4) all advanced easily in the first round of Division II. Now, with only eight cartridges left standing, the matchups get far more compelling.

Those of you itching for an upset should be salivating over this round of play, with the .270 WSM facing the .25-06 and a pair of classics squaring off in the .308 vs .30-30 matchup—which should be an absolute barn-burner. Here’s a complete list of our Elite Eight, as originally seeded by SHOT Business contributing editor Christopher Cogley:

Division I:
(1) .270 WSM — By improving on the ballistics of the original .270, this could be the best deer round in the woods today.   
(2) .270 Win. — The standard bearer in deer cartridges. It is cheaper to shoot than the .270 WSM, but its ballistics aren’t quite as good.
(3) .25-06 — Gentler on the shoulder than the .270, but not quite as much energy or overall performance.  
(4) .243 — It’s small. But light recoil helps you put shots exactly where they need to... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

Last night, the NCAA college basketball Sweet Sixteen tipped off with Syracuse vs. Butler. Today, our own sweet sixteen gets started with .270 WSM vs. .260 Rem.

I am talking about the March Madness of whitetail cartridges. The Final Four of deer rounds. Bullet bracketology. (Okay, bullet-case-powder-and-primer bracketology, but you get the idea.)

We start with16 contenders for the title of Best Whitetail Round, which have been split into two divisions and seeded by SHOT Business contributing editor Christopher Cogley. We chose Mr. Cogley to help us because he is highly qualified and so I have someone to throw under the bus if necessary. His seeded selections (which you are free to take issue with, as my @$$ is covered) are: [ Read Full Post ]

By Philip Bourjaily

For this, my last post of the 00s, I had been trying for a while – and failing --  to think of an end-of-the-decade blog post. My “Eureka” moment came while cleaning up after cooking our Christmas goose. I heard the “tink” of metal falling into the kitchen sink. When I fished the misshapen pellet pictured above out of the sink I realized Hevi Shot is the most significant invention in shotgunning of the past 10 years. [ Read Full Post ]