By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily

Fellow Americans, bloggers, and bitter gun clutchers: In the past tumultuous weeks, I have been asked:

"How does an educated man like yourself, a person of taste, culture, and intellect, a registered Independent since 1964, support the Republican ticket over the Democrat? How can you be a one-issue voter?"

Or, more directly: "Have you lost your f*****g mind?"

My friends, I am paid to write about guns, hunting, and politics as it applies to guns and hunting. My mandate does not extend further. Because of this, I'm a captive of circumstance. The Democrats nominated an atrocious pair of anti-gunners, and the Republicans nominated one neutral and possibly the strongest pro-gun candidate ever. All I can do is report on what they say; however, this does not mean I've ignored their other qualifications, or lack thereof. So, lest I be thought shallow and superficial, here is how I rank the four candidates, quite apart from firearms.

Overall, the situation was summed up by Carl Hiaasen, who said of another election that you could throw a net over a park bench and do better. In a time when we stand in greater peril than ever before, the men and women who really could do the job are... [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily

Former President Bubba did his turn in a duck blind, John Kerry embarrassed himself on a trap field, and Hillary turned into Little Miss Sure Shot, so I guess it was inevitable that Joe Biden would join this farcical parade. This past Saturday, in a speech at Castlewood, Va., according to a report by NBC’s Mike Memoli:

“The Delaware senator predicted that Republicans would seek to sway voters by threatening that Obama would take away guns. Biden, claiming to be a gun owner himself who likes ‘that little over and under,’ called that notion bogus.

“’Barack Obama ain’t* taking my shotguns, so don’t buy that malarkey,’ he said. ‘If he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem.’”

Joe Biden has an F rating from the NRA/ILA, and is on the short list of the Senate’s most rabid anti-gunners, so this came as something of a surprise, and raises a number of points:

The Republicans have so far not brought up the Obama/gun issue in a meaningful way. What are they waiting for?

I doubt if President Obama would try to take his Vice President’s shotguns. It doesn’t work that way. Bush did not take away Cheney’s Perazzi after the unpleasantness in Wyoming.

If President... [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily

Editor's Note: As the apocalypse looms and we all draw nearer to the edge of The Pit, here's a little bit of good news, and our thanks to blog regular "Jack" for sending it. --DP

David -
BIG NEWS in Ohio this morning.

Ohio Supreme Court strikes down gun ban in city parks. This is a great victory.

This case originated about 40 miles from my home.  The village of Clyde Ohio had passed an ordinance banning dangerous weapons in city parks after Ohio's state legislature adopted our concealed carry law.  The concealed carry law in Ohio included an explicit list of where weapons could be banned in Ohio.  Public parks were not on that list, but cities like Clyde, Toledo and others went ahead and banned them.

The Supreme Court of Ohio said Ohioans For Concealed Carry are correct in their assertions - government may not ban guns in parks.

Regards,
Jack [ Read Full Post ]

By Philip Bourjaily

I saw a ton of pheasants in South Dakota last week, and not just at the lodge where we hunted (on those places, managers are required to stock more birds than their clients shoot). Driving from Seneca back to Aberdeen, we saw lots of wild pheasants on the roadsides and in the fields. What I saw seems to match up with the forecast for almost all of the pheasant belt, which you can read on the Pheasants Forever website.  In a nutshell, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and northwest Iowa all have plenty of birds. Most of Iowa, including my part, was under ice and snow all winter and rain all spring. The Iowa DNR’s August roadside survey showed bird numbers to be way down in all but the northwest portion of the state.

The PF forecast goes on to give us the bad news for the future. Increased corn production, in large part for ethanol fuels, means thousands upon thousands of acres are coming out of CRP, which has been responsible for the pheasant populations of the last fifteen or twenty years. Like it or not, pheasants are basically wildlife on welfare. Government spending on CRP created the boom (as the... [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily

Back in the 1960s, I worked for a little magazine called Guns and Hunting, and one of our regular contributors was a nice old guy from South Dakota named Bert Popowski. Bert was a varmint hunt mostly, and in particular was hell on crows (in those days it was considered fun to pick a roost tree and dynamite it), but he also did a short rifle piece whose title and advice have stuck with me lo these four decades.

It was called, “Shoot off the Meat of Your Hand,” and I doubt we could use such a title today because of its unfortunate connotations of self-abuse. What it was actually about was this: Some rifles shoot differently when sighted in off a sandbag than they do when you hold them in your hand. As I’ve learned over the years, not all rifles are sensitive to what they’re resting on, some are sensitive a little bit, and some will shoot way off. It is your job to find out. When you think you’re on target, slide your hand under the fore-end and grasp it in a firm, manly manner. Then shoot three shots and see where they go. Shooting off your hand is... [ Read Full Post ]

By Philip Bourjaily

Let’s try something different here today. This will be the, “You might be a redneck gun nut” thread. We’re trying to come up with the most redneck thing we have ever seen on the range or in the field. If it’s not true, it has to be funny, and it has to top mine, which I actually saw at the range today.

You might be a redneck gun nut if:  you use two 40-packs of Pampers instead of sandbags when you sight in your muzzleloader. [ Read Full Post ]