Amateur trainers (myself included) often worry most about the holy trinity of gun dog problems—water shyness, gun shyness, and bird shyness. Oodles of manpower have gone into making sure pups never show any of these dirty traits. But often overlooked is a problem that’s more common than all three...a lack of a desire to retrieve. And like most problems encountered in the gun dog game it’s often the result of poor training practices. (For a point of focus we’ll zero in on dogs that are roughly 6 to 8 months.)

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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 ]

Last week we speculated on Beretta’s new Xplor, a gun capable, we were told, of taking anything up to and including a dinosaur. Having just seen and shot the Xplor in Italy, I would amend that statement to read “up to and including a small dinosaur.” The A400 Xplor is a 3 ½ inch semiautomatic shotgun. It is  probably enough gun for velociraptors, but way too small for brachiosaurus or T Rex hunting, even with slugs.

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From the Chicago Tribune:

Illinois has landed the Professional Kennel Club's world coonhound championships, a 10-day event that had been held in Kentucky for nearly two decades.

While residents of Salem, Ill., prepare for the arrival of nearly 2,000 of the nation's best hounds later this month, business owners in Kentucky still are chafing that they lost an event with an economic impact of up to $3.5 million. . . .

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From a National Shooting Sports Foundation press release via PR Newswire:
A letter signed by [13 Republican] United States senators to Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar raising important questions about actions by the National Park Service (NPS) to ban the use of traditional ammunition in parks that allow hunting has drawn praise from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry.

In concluding their letter to Secretary Salazar, the senators were very clear as to what they wanted to see: "We request that NPS cease all actions to prohibit the use of lead products on NPS lands by private citizens and NPS personnel."

Check out the full release. [ Read Full Post ]

Since Pritch arrived I’ve been lucky to spend some time around top trainers. And I’ve noticed that while they all do things slightly different, they do share a common trait—the way they use their voice. Sure, they’re all using the same vocal commands, but it’s the inflection and tone in the pros’ voices that has caught my attention. A command is stern and sharp, and it lets the dog know the trainer means business.

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So I walked into the local sporting goods store a few weeks ago, not really thinking that I needed a Benelli, but there in the rack was a brand new black M2, marked as used. It was pristine, and the asking price was so low I figured if nothing else I could immediately sell it and make money. Right next to it was a next-to-new Legacy, one of Benelli’s higher grade models, also very – by Benelli standards – reasonably priced.

I asked the kid at the counter about the two guns.

“They’ve been test-fired only. Some guy traded them both yesterday in on a new Mathews bow.”

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Environmental awareness and sustainability are concepts the entertainment industry prides itself on promoting through movies, television and the publicity-driven gestures of self-absorbed celebrities. In this rarified A-list world, hunters, hunting, and hunting culture are almost never portrayed as ecologically important or environmentally sustainable. Instead, you get designer clothing lines spun from the silk of liberated, free-range worms. It’s no wonder the vast majority of Idiot America doesn't equate hunting with  environmentalism.
 
But maybe your average mindless consumer who thinks he's saving the planet with his solar-powered espresso machine thinks that way because there are organizations within the entertainment industry that make him think that way.
 
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From the Northland’s News Center:

Although Gary Lucia sustained a fairly deep bite to the head, he says it's the loss of his duck and friend, Boo–Boo that is the most painful.

Gary Lucia [who keeps pet ducks] has been a life long animal lover...

"The ducks started getting all upset and crazy and I seen the bobcat walking into the garage...and he was going after the ducks."

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I recently came across this press release, the relevant portion of which is quoted here:

Rabbit and Squirrel Hunting Seasons Open Sept. 5

Posted: August 25, 2009

Hunting opportunities for squirrels are excellent in Iowa because hunting pressure is low, says [Iowa's forest wildlife biologist Todd] Gosselink. [ Read Full Post ]

I've been blogging for Field & Stream for a year now, and to be honest it's grown a little stale for me. It's a lot of work to come up with a topic, a news item or a link every day and then figure out some way to make it relevant, thought-provoking or funny for the F&S readership.
 
You may not think so, but blogs are damn hard things to write and they often fail miserably. Sometimes the only reaction they get from you, the reader, is the sound of your mouse clicking to some other page. Other times you respond only to point out what an idiot you think I am. And you usually manage to misspell idiot in the process. More often than I care to admit I simply can't think of anything witty and I have to resort to that great suckhole of intelligence, Youtube. And let's face it, if you've seen one Youtube clip of some ignorant jack*ss and you've pretty much seen them all.
 
Quite frankly, I'm tired of thinking, and I want a job that doesn't require it. And I think I've found one ...
 
From the want ad on... [ Read Full Post ]

Pantyhose.  It's  one of those dark secrets real men just don't talk about.   But if you took x-ray glasses into half the duck blinds and deer  camps in this country you'd find more sexy stockings than you see at the  Moulin Rouge. Ultra-Sheer, nude, black, fishnet, lacy,   control-top, we've worn 'em all, skulking around the woods   worrying that our wives are gonna get really pi**ed if we get a  runner in  their L'eggs.
 
But no longer.  Because the time has come for...Mantyhose.
 
No,  seriously. It really has.      
 
From the press  release:
Hunters  Turn to Mantyhose for Relief From  the Elements: GRANVILLE/OHIO, USA – July  28, 2009 — When fall is  in the air and hunters take to the woods,  temperatures also begin  to drop. By the time deer season rolls around, it  can get bitter  cold after all those hours in a treestand. If you’re like  many,  you’ve worn your long johns under your Carhartts® in an effort to fend   off the chill. The trouble is, they can feel pretty bulky under  the rest of  your clothes—not to mention the trouble with clothing ... [ Read Full Post ]