By Chad Love

From the AP story:

The grizzly took Jerry Ruth by surprise, bursting from thick brush and biting his jaw almost completely off. On the ground and barely able to see, Ruth grabbed his .41 Magnum-caliber revolver and started shooting. The third bullet pierced the bear's heart and spinal cord, killing it from 25 feet. "I'm glad I was armed with a firearm and I'm glad I was able to shoot straight," said Ruth, attacked last July 19 a couple miles from his home not far from Yellowstone National Park. Ruth's gun quite possibly saved his life. It also provided fodder for a long-standing debate about whether a gun or bear spray is better in fending off a grizzly attack.

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By Chad Love

Is it just me, or is it a bad week to be a coyote? Either you're getting shot by elected officials or you're being run down by airport workers in trucks. It's enough to make a coyote say to hell with it and go find some celebrity's purse dog to snatch.
 
First, Texas Governor claims he shot a coyote while out jogging, with a laser-sighted .380, no less. From the story:
Perry told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he needed just one shot from the laser-sighted pistol he sometimes carries while jogging to take down a coyote that menaced his puppy during February run in an undeveloped area near Austin. Perry said he will carry his .380 Ruger pistol — loaded with hollow-point bullets — when jogging on trails because he is afraid of snakes. He'd also seen coyotes in the area. When one came out of the brush toward his daughter's Labrador retriever, Perry charged. "Don't attack my dog or you might get shot ... if you're a coyote," he said Tuesday. [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

The big drilling rigs that work in the deep water miles off the coast of Louisiana are attractive to both  gamefish and the anglers who pursue them. When these huge floating cities, known as "semisubs", set up in an area, the rig's superstructure and lights attract both. But offshore drilling is an inherently risky venture, and on the night of April 20 something went horribly wrong on the "Deepwater Horizon," a huge drilling rig fifty miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana.  [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

I found this video on Comedy Central comedian Daniel Tosh's blog. The post is titled "Riding a Whale." In it he writes:

"If fishing isn't exhilarating enough for you, you can always take it to the next level and ride on one of the slowest  animals in existence. That's what this redneck decided to do. And even a redneck who can't find the record button knows that videotaping a stunt and posting it online is the only way to prove it ever happened. Where they come from,  "whale riding"  is usually a whole different thing. But when a hick is out on a  boat, it becomes a cheaper alternative to renting a Sea-Doo. Faintly, at the beginning  of the clip, you can hear him say, "Hey, hold this  for me." We can be pretty sure that's a beer."

Does anyone else find it ironic that Tosh misidentified the whale shark as a "whale" while the  alleged "hick"  knew exactly what it was? It must be OK to ride a whale shark if you're a wealthy tourist who pays for it,... [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

A man's camouflage clothing and beard apparently contributed to his shooting death in a weekend hunting accident, Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker said Monday. Larry Gene Pendley, 54, of Vacaville was shot in the head Saturday morning with a 12-gauge shotgun on the opening day of turkey hunting season ... by Stephen Henderson, 50, of Fremont ...

... Pendley was on all fours and crawling through the brush. Henderson shot Pendley because he thought he was a turkey, also in part because of Pendley's long beard, Parker said. "It was one of those split-second decisions," Parker said.

Click here for the full story. [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

From the AZ Capitol Times:
Cities, counties and other governmental entities would be forbidden from restricting people’s use of knives under a bill winding its way through the legislative process.

The bill, S1153, would give the state sole power to impose regulation on knives. It was approved March 16 by the House Government Committee.

“We believe that knives are essential tools, tools that are used daily by millions of honest Americans,” said Doug Ritter, chairman of Knife Rights, an advocacy group that is pushing the bill.…

Ritter’s group is using Arizona as a launching pad for a national knife-law-preemption campaign.

“It’s a matter of fairness, a matter of civil rights,” he said.

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