The pellets you see here make up the content of a pre-production sample of Federal’s new Prairie Storm pheasant loads,  a lead version of their Black Cloud.  The normal looking shot is copper-plated 4s. They are mixed with “Flitestoppers,” which are also 4s but have rings around them that look like Saturn, or like WWI helmets. The white stuff is buffer, which helps the pellets keep their shape as they go down the barrel.

Both pellets and the buffer are loaded into ... [ Read Full Post ]

There are wildlife photographers and then there are National Geographic wildlife photographers. Even in today's real-time, caught-on-tape video-dominated culture the photographers of NG just keep capturing still images and stories with the power to awe. Images and stories like this



Besides highlighting the exceptional clankers one needs to be a NG photographer, it shows - in dramatic fashion - how little we really know about animal behavior: how they process information, what they feel, how they think, what emotions they are or aren't capable of. [ Read Full Post ]

From a Southwick Associates Press Release:
In an October 2009 survey, Southwick Associates asked anglers and hunters which type of organization they trust the most for accurate information regarding fish and wildlife conservation. The results of the monthly AnglerSurvey.com and HunterSurvey.com poll show that state fish and wildlife agencies are considered the most trustworthy source of conservation information among hunters and anglers.

Of the 2,771 anglers surveyed, 54.4 percent reported state fish and wildlife agencies were their most trusted source. Of the 3,378 hunters surveyed, 50.7 percent agreed.  The second most trusted source, with 25.1 percent of anglers and 29.5 percent of hunters, was sport-fishing and hunting non-profit conservation groups.

Other options included federal agencies, outdoor television, and outdoor print media. Who do you trust most? [ Read Full Post ]

Trail cameras are, for hunters, becoming so ubiquitous that we often don't think about their potential for other uses. I certainly never did until my son said he wanted one for Christmas, not for hunting, but to record all the various wildlife that travels through our rural back yard.
 
I thought it was a great idea, and in the broader context I thought it had real potential to get kids interested in the outdoors. But as I was perusing the excellent Southern Rockies Nature Blog recently I discovered a link to a teacher who had already figured that out. [ Read Full Post ]

From AOL News:
A 2-year-old girl whose temporary abduction sparked an Amber Alert in Maine on Monday is now safe at home again -- thanks to a passing hunter. . . .

On Tuesday afternoon, said WMUR/News 9, a hunter named Michael Grant was tramping through a wooded area not far from Milton, N.H., when he saw a familiar truck. Grant recognized both the make and license plate from television news reports. . . .

"I walked up to [the truck] and told [the driver] that I knew he was the gentleman [authorities] were looking for," Grant told WMUR. "[I] pretty much told him he had one of two choices. He could turn himself in or I could turn him in."

After a long, emotional conversation, Grant said, he persuaded [the man] to surrender to police. [ Read Full Post ]

In the never-ending debate over the impact of non-native species, there are invaders many of us have come to accept and even revere (the ringneck pheasant, Huns, chukars) and there are invaders that are almost universally reviled (the snakehead, kudzu, zebra mussels, Texas Longhorn fans).
 
But according to this interesting piece in Slate maybe invasive species, both "good" and "bad" really aren't such a big deal, after all. [ Read Full Post ]

One of the very nicest features of AyA guns (which I wrote about a month ago, here), were the safety buttons. I liked them so much I took a picture of one. As you can see, they stick up high where you can’t miss them and they practically grab your thumb like Velcro thanks to the sharp hand checkering on top. They snick off easily with a mere flick and are easily among the most positive safeties to operate that I have ever tried.

That brings me to the subject of safeties good and bad: a good safety comes off easily so you don’t even have to ... [ Read Full Post ]

My oldest brother got into the field trial game while he was still in college. At the time, he drove an old Buick Skylark sedan my father had graciously passed down to him. On the weekends when I was lucky enough to tag along, I remember waking before sunrise, shoving the crate in the Skylark’s back seat (and wedging a 4x4 underneath it so it sat even), loading the yellow Lab inside, and taking off for the trial. Once there, I didn’t notice ours was the only car in a sea of trucks and trailers—no doubt my brother did.

These days my dog rides in her crate in the back of my Jeep. But occasionally my wife allows Pritch in the front seat and, honestly, she behaves like the world’s most chill co-pilot—looking, sniffing, and enjoying the ride. And my good friend and fellow F&S contributor, T. Edward Nickens, says his Lab, Biscuit, always rides shotgun…even when Nickens is pulling carpool duty. Dog in the front seat…three girls in the back. Nickens and I both know it's not the safest mode of canine transport, but the up-sides of smiling dogs and red-light face licks are sometimes... [ Read Full Post ]

As their one condition of taking me to me Italy and putting me up in absurd luxury, Beretta asked that I not release any of my own photos of the A400 until this week. I was allowed only to use their pictures, which didn’t show what the gun looks like. But the embargo is over, and here’s me, with the A400 at the Lonato Shooting Club, in front of the dino foot photo backdrop. Also, here are a bunch of  European gunwriters photographing the A-400. The guy in the sunglasses, stubble and striped shirt is a Russian gunwriter, by the way.  As a rule, we gunwriters are not a fashion-forward group,  but no one told this guy.

Anyway, as you can see here The Xplor looks -- in my opinion --   modern without being ugly. The receiver is anodized to a gray-green color just to be different (Browning, of course, offered red, green, brown and silver receivers for the odd but awesome Double Automatic 50 years ago, so that’s not a completely new idea). 

The A400 is light and handles well, at least in a limited test. I only had a chance to shoot about 25... [ Read Full Post ]

We all know there isn’t much love lost between hunters and anti-hunters, but nobody wishes anybody any real harm—except when some crazy anti-hunter does wish us real harm and a newspaper has the poor taste to print his wish. Then it’s the hunters, in this case the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who take the high ground.

From the NSSF website:
Shameful is the word that comes to mind for the Burlington Free Press and its decision to print a reader's anti-hunting letter. . . . that was written in response to the Vermont paper's story about the opening of moose hunting season. . . .

Here's the letter:
Take a Few Hunters Along with the Moose
On this beautiful day we learn that about 1,251 hunters are taking to the woods with legal permits to "pursue prized quarry." Certainly the members of various humane organizations do not approve. I suggest that before the next annual killing season, other residents be awarded legal permits to kill hunters who will be out to kill these beautiful, non-destructive animals. Or the government could just rule out all this primitive killing.

The NSSF asked for an apology and got one, as well an... [ Read Full Post ]

Over the weekend I helped out at a Pheasants Forever Mentored Youth Hunt. PF, I should mention here, is my favorite of the single-species groups because they spend all their money locally, do good habitat work, and support youth hunting and shooting of all kinds. Anyway, it was my job to run three groups of kids through some shooting instruction before they went hunting.  I’ve done this before, and I learn more from watching the kids shoot than they learn listening to me.

This weekend’s takeaway: slow down to speed up.

Since the kids were going to shoot flushing birds, I had them start from a safe field carry position, then call pull, and mount and shoot. Naturally, all of them wanted to throw the gun up as fast as possible.  The kids would whip the gun up, then have to readust their faces on the stock, then find the target again,  and shoot.

Move slowly, I told them. Push the muzzle toward the bird like you’re trying to stick it with a bayonet and raise the gun to your face smoothly.

I expected them to start hitting targets better. What I didn’t expect was that they would start hitting targets faster.... [ Read Full Post ]

I’m partial to my whistle. It’s a hand-me down from my older brother, who bought it in 1986. It has tooted for two Labs, one Golden, and now for Pritchard. It’s an Acme whistle with a pea, and the human teeth marks on it prove it has seen some good times and bad. But I often wonder if I should be using something bigger or newer or just plain different.

To get an answer I called my friend Steve Snell, owner of Gun Dog Supply. Snell owns 13 dogs (a mix that includes retrievers, pointers, and brittanys) and keeps six whistles in his truck. “And I always have two whistles on me,” he says. “Because one day I actually shut my whistle in the gate of the pickup.” Here’s what he had to say about your choices:

Distance and Volume: You need to ask yourself in what type of situations you plan to use your whistle. A retriever trainer who will be working on long blinds needs a whistle that has the power to carry, such as a Roy Gonia. A flushing dog trainer doesn’t need a whistle that... [ Read Full Post ]