By Chad Love

California will most likely be a totally lead-free hunting environment by 2016 if a bill recently introduced in the California Assembly is eventually passed, according to this story in the San Diego Union-Tribune: 
On Tuesday, the California Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife will hear AB 711, a bill introduced in February by Assemblymember Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood). If passed and signed by Gov. Brown, AB 711 will take AB 821, which banned the use of lead ammo in the state’s condor range, and extend the lead-free zone to the entire state. The ban on lead ammunition for hunters likely will happen, probably as soon as the 2016 hunting season following a two-year grace period to allow California hunters to use their remaining lead. All of us who hunt may as well get used to paying 40 to 50 percent more or higher for quality, non-lead ammunition. [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

As I think I’ve mentioned, Bestul and I are writing a book called The Total Deer Hunter Manual (this is a preliminary image of the cover, as you can see). And as writers often do, we are working on the introduction last. Now, the intro itself we’ve got under control. But on the same page, we want to include a sidebar with a list called: “10 Ways to Know You Are Deer Crazy.”

For example, off the top of my head:
[1] A full-body deer target lives on your lawn so many months of the year that your neighbors think it’s yard art.
[2] You read the word “does” as doze even when it means duz.
[3] You can turn any topic into a discussion about deer: Talking to your wife’s lactation consultant you say: “Why a whole year? A whitetail fawn is done suckling after six months...”

You get the idea, right? So we figured, for this sidebar, why not ask the deer craziest among us—namely, you? Tell us one or two ways to know you are deer crazy, and if we pick yours to use in the book we’ll send you a free copy. Have at it.
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By Chad Love

This is what the end of life looks like if you're a small bird and a goshawk is after you. The BBC filmed this jaw-dropping footage to see what happens when a goshawk extends its talons in flight to snatch prey. And if you like this video, here is some amazing slow-motion footage of a goshawk navigating what seemed like impossibly narrow paths through obstacles and small openings. [ Read Full Post ]

By David Draper

As I mentioned Monday I’m the new owner of an infrared grill from Saber. Though I’ve had the thing for more than a month, the hulking, shiny beast sat untouched for weeks. It was so new and shiny that I hated to get it dirty. Plus, I was a little intimidated by the thought of grilling at such high heat. Finally, this past weekend, I screwed in a new propane tank and fired the thing up. [ Read Full Post ]

By Ben Romans

Michigan DNR pilot Bill Green and biologist Roger Mech on a forest health flight. Photo: David Kenyon/Michigan DNR.

Flying through the skies in single-engine planes over roaring forest fires, skirting treetops scanning the dense forest for poachers and illegal baiters, seeing wildlife from a vantage point most only view through photographs—it's all in a day's work for the five pilots with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources air division. They're the DNR's eyes in the sky, responsible for the health of wildlife and its habitat as much as for keeping outdoorsmen from breaking the rules, and saving their lives if they get in a jam.

Known mostly for detecting and monitoring wildfires, these hybrid law-enforcement and natural resource officers survey wildlife, aid in search and rescue operations, and spot violators of baiting, spotlighting, and off-road vehicle regulations.

A pilot's view of a wildfire in progress. He circles a fire, looking for ground routes in and out. Photo: Neil Harri/Michigan DNR.

Wings Over Wildfire

Less than a century ago, spotters in fire towers were the front line of defense against forest fires. Though this system was reasonably effective in the Rocky Mountain peaks,... [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

As venues for literary non-fiction go, it doesn't get much better or more prestigious than the New York Times Magazine. Recently the magazine published a truly beautiful essay about hunting, penned by our own Bill Heavey.

From this story in The New York Times:
As the buck rises from its bed in the underbrush 40 yards away, every cell in my body decides to attempt a jailbreak. I’m in my hunting stand, 24 feet up a tulip poplar, where I’ve been concealed for four hours waiting for a deer to pass. And this one has been right in front of me the whole time. I would like to come to my feet, but my legs are shaking too hard.

[ Read Full Post ]