These are the 50 best trail cam photos of bears, bobcats, and other great critters (everything but the deer) from last year's trail cam contest.
Gun Nut Phil Bourjaily got to spend a day touring the facilities (and testing the rifles) at the Rock River Arms factory. Check out his photos here.
![]() | Recipe: How to Cook Braised RabbitUse this French style rabbit recipe for early fall hares |
![]() | Squirrel Hunting TipsTake better shots when stalking squirrels |
![]() | Bobcat Takes Down Mule DeerCheck out these photos of a bobcat viciously attacking a mule deer... |
![]() | Squirrel Town, USA: Hunting the Cajun PassoverThe old man waited for me at the end of the dock, where he'd been pulling... |
Hunting for Fly-Tying MaterialIf it's hunting season, then it must be time to start thinking about... |
![]() | Five Good Small-Breed Bird Hunting DogsFive examples of great small breed hunting dogs |
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 ]
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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On Tuesday, October 27, two coyotes mauled 19-year-old Taylor Mitchell on a hiking trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia, Canada. Although Mitchell was hiking alone when the daylight attack occurred, two nearby hikers heard the commotion and called 911. Officers responded in time to shoot one of the coyotes. Airlifted to a Halifax hospital, Mitchell died of her injuries the next day.
Mitchell, a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award nominee, leaves behind grieving family and fans, a shocked wildlife community, and a public wondering whether coyotes are animals to fear.
The consensus among wildlife professionals is that a fatal coyote attack on a human is a freak occurrence. “If I had to guess what animal would be responsible for a fatal attack in eastern Canada I would have guessed black bear, never coyote,” says Mike O’Brien, the Nova Scotia DNR’s Manager of Wildlife Resources. O’Brien says coyotes first appeared in Nova Scotia in the 1970s, and there have been very few attacks on humans since that time. Incidentally, eastern Canada’s coyotes are significantly larger than their western relatives, often weighing well over 40 pounds, perhaps due to interbreeding with wolves.
“It’s very abnormal,” says Ron Andrews, Iowa DNR Fur Resource... [ 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 ]
Sometimes you read something that - to be perfectly honest - leaves you feeling hopeless and doomed. Something so depressing it makes you want to throw up your hands, shout "to hell with it all!" and head straight to the nearest bar. Something like this, from the LA Times.
The latest figures from Nielsen have children's TV usage at an eight-year high. Children's health advocates warn of adverse effects.
More than an entire day -- that's how long children sit in front of the television in an average week, according to new findings released Monday by Nielsen.
The amount of television usage by children reached an eight-year high, with kids ages 2 to 5 watching the screen for more than 32 hours a week on average and those ages 6 to 11 watching more than 28 hours. The analysis, based on the fourth quarter of 2008, measured children's consumption of live and recorded TV, as well as VCR and game console usage.
"They're using all the technology available in their households," said Patricia McDonough, Nielsen's senior vice president of insights, analysis and policy. "They're using the DVD, they're on the Internet. They're not giving up any media --... [ 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 Dawson News & Advertiser:
An 11-year-old Dawsonville boy who was shot in the head when his gun accidentally discharged in the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area on Friday has died.
John Wayne Corcoran was transported by air to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite following the incident, which occurred just before 6 p.m. He died at the hospital later that night.
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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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A couple of months back, the Savages took me on a prairie dog hunt and the evening before the shooting started I was handed a new version of the Model 12 Series Varmint in .223 to sight in. I did so, and what I saw 100 yards away in the fading light caught my interest—all five shots went in one ragged hole. Could this, I wondered, be the long-sought factory rifle that would break the ½-moa mark?
So when the hunt was over, I asked Savage for a loaner so I could beat on it at length with a variety of ammo and, after a suitable delay they gave me one with 600 rounds through it, also in .223. Now, before I tell you how I did, I should describe the rifle.
The Model 12 SLRPVDP is a lineal descendent of the Model 12, which won our Best of the Best award in 2006. It’s a single-shot with an oversized bolt knob, an H-S Precision Varmint stock with an aluminum bedding block (and three bedding screws), a special Accu-Trigger that can be set from 6 ounces* to 2.5 pounds, a 26-inch, deeply-fluted, extra-heavy 26-inch stainless barrel** and a ball-breaking weight of 12 pounds.... [ Read Full Post ]
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 ]
. . . and celebrates by giving you a chance to win a free 870 shotgun. Here are the details, from a company press release:
Remington Arms Company, Inc. is acknowledging a milestone of an American classic, the Model 870 pump-action, in the September 24, 2009, edition of USA Today® with a full-page ad thanking America and the millions of Model 870 owners for making it possible to reach the 10,000,000th production mark. In honor of this historic achievement, Remington is also sponsoring the "10 Millionth Model 870 Shotgun" Sweepstakes. . . .
To enter and view entry guidelines, log on at www.remington.com/10milu. Entries will be accepted online from 9/24/09 - 12/31/09 with ten eligible adult winners selected to receive a commemorative Model 870 pump-action shotgun, recognizing this milestone. [ 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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In 2006, then Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton awarded Shell subsidiary Royal Dutch Shell PLC three oil-shale leases on federal land in Colorado reportedly worth hundred of billions of dollars. Months later, Norton stepped down as Secretary and took a lucrative job with—who else?—Shell.
Under her watch, the department was knee-deep in scandals involving illicit sex, drugs, and obstruction of justice. Norton was never implicated in any of that, but now is the target of a Justice Department corruption probe.
Meanwhile current secretary Ken Salazar announced on Wednesday that he will terminate a controversial Norton-era oil-and gas-royalty program that has reportedly robbed taxpayers of millions.
Here are the latest headlines:
Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton is focus of corruption probe
Norton’s Job In Oil a Slip-Up
Trust and The Interior Department [ Read Full Post ]
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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We don’t usually address conservation in this space but the way I look at it, shotguns aren’t good for much if you don’t have birds to hunt with them.
Back in the early 80s, when fencerow to fencerow farming was devastating pheasant populations, I can remember going hunting with my cousin one day. It was right at the beginning of the whitetail population boom, and all we saw that were a couple of hen pheasants and dozens of deer. [ Read Full Post ]
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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If you’re like me, you think your pooch is the best looking gun dog in to ever grace a duck swamp, dove field, or rabbit patch. Now is your chance to prove it.
Today, Man’s Best Friend is launching a gun dog photo contest. Thanks to the good folks at Remington, the winner will receive a Model 1100 Premier Sporting 28-Gauge with a nickel receiver and gold inlays! Plus, it comes with a travel case. The gun is valued at $1,400. 
Here are the details: You have until ...
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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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From WCAX News:
A plea deal has fallen apart for a Georgia, Vt., man charged with manslaughter for a hunting accident.
Thirty-nine-year-old Timothy Madden has been awaiting trial for shooting his best friend [ Read Full Post ]
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 ]
Now is the time of year when a lot of hunters shoot their annual round of skeet to tune up. When they get to station 8, the last shots on the field, they encounter birds thrown seemingly right at them at a million miles an hour. They miss, then grumble that station 8 replicates no shot you would ever take in the field. I used to say the same thing until I learned how to make the shot. Now I love station 8. The video below is of me shooting from it.
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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 ]
From the Chicago Tribune:
Wisconsin residents age 10 and up can go hunting with mentors starting next month without taking a safety course beforehand.
Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday signed a bill supporters say preserves the state's hunting culture by making it easier for youngsters and others to participate.
Under the new mentorship program . . . the child and adult can have only one gun or bow between them and must stay within arm's reach of one another.
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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 ]
Even with the Yanks and Sox locked up in a critical four-game set over the weekend, all anyone wants to talk about on sports-talk radio is Michael Vick. Stuck in the car, I had to listen to a parade of analysts applaud Vicks’ new coziness with the country’s leading anti-hunting group—one after another explaining how Vick’s road back to the NFL and its fan’s good graces should include plenty of stops to publicly snuggle up with Humane Society of the United States and score some photo-ops with cuddly animals.
So this morning, to find out how animals feel about Michael Vick, I went to the HSUS website to read a statement by President and CEO Wayne Pacelle, who according to the site’s bio is, like few others, “in a position to speak for animals” (I’m guessing that Dr. Dolittle is one of the few others):
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