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By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily
In my travels throughout this great, wide, and wonderful land, people always ask me “What about Hillary?” as though I have some kind of inside information which they don’t. Shooters, it seems, are more worried about Hillary than they are about avian flu, global warming, and the end of oil combined.
So what do I think? I think she will get the Democratic Party nomination. She has far more money and far more determination than anyone else, and will steamroll the opposition. If the election were held today, I think she would stand a good chance of winning. A lot of people really don’t like her, but then a lot of people really didn’t like W, and he got re-elected handily.
If she is elected, she will make gun owners wish her husband was back in the Oval Office. She does not like firearms and she does not like us and she is much meaner and more vindictive than Bubba. She will sign every gun law that comes along, and scream at Congress for more.
She will also unleash the BATF, which, being a Federal agency, is naturally sensitive to political pressure. Under President Bubba, it revoked thousands of FFLs and... [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
Ninety-two-year-old Art Hawkins, who helped lay the foundation for the waterfowl surveys that have been used for 50 years to set annual duck regulations, collapsed and died while on a walk last Thursday. Hawkins helped design the wood duck box that has aided the return of that species. Colleagues remember him as "a legend in waterfowl management."
http://www.startribune.com/466/story/301865.html [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
Using her now recognized scientific talent, 18-year-old Shannon Babb of Highland Utah discovered that the carp in nearby Spanish Fork River were struggling to survive due to pollution, and she is now working with local officials to help the fish. And the carp, it turns out, have paid her back handsomely, as Babb's work won her the $100,000 first prize in last night's Intel Science Talent Search.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/15/education/15intel.html?ex=1143090000&en=47dbaa9da4501bbd&ei=5070&emc=eta1 [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
The White House has long been eager for the Cheney shooting story to die, and indeed the late-night television jokes have largely fizzled. But a minor-league hockey team in Las Vegas, who will give fans orange vests reading "Don't Shoot, I'm Human" at an upcoming game, still considers the incident "just too juicy" not to take full advantage of.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7002773139 [ Read Full Post ]
By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily
A couple of days, ago, a colleague was quizzing me on the difference between factory rifles and the semi-custom guns that cost a lot more. “What sets the high-priced machinery apart?” he asked.
Two things, I told him. First, you don’t see the flaws in a $4,000 rifle that you do in a factory rifle. As an example, take the .325 WSM Browning A-Bolt I bought a few weeks ago. It’s certainly not a bad gun, but the barrel is too long for the fore-end, there are gaps between the stock and the barreled action that a reasonably gaunt weasel could dive into, and the trigger was not adjustable, which meant that the rifle would be limited to a decent, but not good, trigger pull. Also, some of the parts, notably the trigger, are pot metal. I don’t mean to pick on Browning, but this is pretty typical of what comes out of the factories.
If you want to spend a whole lot more money and get a rifle from Charlie Sisk or Ed Brown Precision or New Ultra Light Arms or Mark Bansner, you don’t see things like this. There are no gaps, no pot metal, no triggers needing adjustment or replacement,... [ Read Full Post ]
By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily
This blog is supposed to be about sporting firearms, but the responses to my ravings of March 9 were so interesting that I am compelled to follow up.
On the Trapdoor Springfield: As one reader quite correctly pointed out, our soldiers did well with the Model 1873 at the Wagon Box fight. They did well with it on many other occasions as well, including Little Bighorn, where we tend to forget that troopers under the command of Frederick Benteen won their part of the battle. The truth is that you could have armed Custer’s men with AK-47s and they still would have lost. Two hundred and fifteen against 2,500 (or many more) is bad odds. But still and all, the single-shot rifle was an outmoded tool even during the Civil War.
On the M-14. During my 6 years in a green suit I was both an armorer and a cadreman, and got to see a lot of trainees shoot the M-14. By and large, they didn’t do very well. Most of them had never shot a rifle before, and it was simply too much gun. But the M-14 is a very good rifle, and tuned up, it can really shoot. That’s why... [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
Last year the House of Representatives passed a bill that would drastically change the Endangered Species Act and has opponents worried that critical habitat will be opened to development and that crucial science will be shut out of the decision-making process. Now, as the legislation moves to the Senate, some 5,738 scientists have sent the lawmakers letters expressing their opposition to the House's proposed changes.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060313/NEWS01/603130325/1002/NEWS [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
For folks opposed to drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--or on any federal lands--here's at least one reason why. The story linked below reports the largest oil spill ever seen on Alaska's North Slope, and now efforts to clean up the crude have stalled because of wind chill factors of 70 below.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031400157.html [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
Just in case you've been eating fish caught outside of chemical plants--whether they be in Minnesota or not--here is perhaps a reason for you to stop doing that.
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=119550 [ Read Full Post ]
By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily
One of the things my Navy-officer uncle brought home from World War II was an M-1 carbine (one of the most useless firearms ever issued to the military, but that’s another blog) with a hammer and sickle carved in the stock. The hammer and sickle, you may recall, was the symbol of the now-vanished Communist Party, and I always wondered why an American soldier, sailor, or Marine would cut such a thing into his weapon.
My uncle could shed no light on it; the gun was not issued to him and he never did say whether he found it or traded for it. And that carbine is probably still out there somewhere, its mysterious symbol forever unexplained.
All this was brought up by my trip to the Las Vegas Knife and Gun Show in February, where all sorts of old guns were on sale. Unless you have less imagination than the beasts of the field, you can’t pick up an old gun—especially a military one—and wonder who carried it, and what became of the man, and what trail the gun took to end up on your hands on this day in this place.
Fine guns—there were some gorgeous old Winchesters there—have their own... [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
Few events have charged inshore saltwater sportfishing like the recent comeback of striped bass. But now, an epidemic of mycobacteriosis--known as wasting disease--is threatening Chesapeake Bay stripers and taking researchers by surprise. "We used to think that if you got hold of fishing [regulations], all your problems would be solved," Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologist James Uphoff told the Associated Press. "But now all these ecological problems crop up, and we don't understand them."
http://wjz.com/local/local_story_070151036.html [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
Seventeen-year-old hunter Spenser Wigsten of Spencer, NY, was up late watching television when he heard his cat screaming outside. He found the feline cornered by a coyote, which suddenly turned on Wigsten, scratching his neck and chest. The intervention save Charlie the cat, and for his trouble, Wigsten will receive a total of 13 rabies shots.
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060310/NEWS01/603100343/1002 [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
About 100 endangered jaguars currently live in Mexico and are known to travel as much as 500 miles. The big cats once routinely roamed New Mexico, but none have been seen in the Land of Enchantment for 10 years--until now. Here's the full story.
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/40595.html [ Read Full Post ]
By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love
From USA Today:
"Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who spearheaded the Bush administration efforts to open up federal lands to commercial uses, announced Friday that she is leaving her post after five years."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-03-10-norton_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA [ Read Full Post ]