By Phil Bourjaily
Although I think about guns a lot, and I read several of the Harry Potter books to my younger son at bedtime, I just never even thought about whether Harry should trade his wand for a pistol. It definitely didn’t occur to me to write down those sentiments in some detail and post them on Facebook for the entire Internet to ridicule.
By David E. Petzal
In the blog post of April 27, 03sprg was outraged that I would review a $5,000 German pump-action, and demanded that I and others of my ilk be required to post a list of all the freebies we get in return for saying nice things about peoples’ stuff. I think I’ve done this before, but maybe it’s time to do it again.
By David E. Petzal
A shooter who doesn’t handload is like the guy who is invited on a date by Ms. Elisha Cuthbert and says, “Thanks, but I’d planned to watch MMA reruns tonight.” In other words, you’re missing out on something, and one of the somethings was the opportunity to hunt with Barnes X-bullets, which are deadlier than anthrax, or Sarin, or tac nukes, and heretofore were loaded only in a limited number of calibers, and only by Federal, I believe.
By Dave Hurteau
This is Whitetail 365, so let me say first that when I barged into the wooded creek bottom, I sent a doe and fawn careening through the skunk cabbages. There. The sun was up. The tom wouldn’t stay on the roost for long. So I shot down the slope, hopped the creeklet, scrambled up the far side, and called. Too late. He barked at eighty yards and incoming.
Go to Hot Tip: When Turkey Hunting, Load Your Gun
by Dave Hurteau
Among the myriad things wrong with the world today, high on my list is the fact that the deer hunter is no longer a mainstream cultural hero. He was once, and you don’t have to go all the way back to Natty Bumppo to find him. Meanwhile, vegetable eaters world-wide have not just a hero, but a superhero—a strangely captivating weirdo from New Jersey singing the virtues of carrots and celery and turning children soft in several languages on You Tube. A bad dream indeed. Here he is in English:
Go to This is a Job for Captain Venison!
by Dave Hurteau
It’s not as personal a question as it sounds. And I really should phrase it: Will you be a nose jammer this fall? What is a nose jammer? I admit I just sort of made that up, figuring that someone who uses Nose Jammer to jam noses can himself be called a nose jammer.
by David E. Petzal
About the Video: Nosler’s newest big-game rifle is the design of the founder of the company, as explained by rifle sales manager Shawn Finley. It’s wood-stocked, accurate, and gorgeous.
by David E. Petzal
About the Video: Pennsylvania-based E.R. Shaw has been around for nearly a century, and while they’re best known for rifled-slug barrels, they make terrific rifle barrels, too. Shaw’s Vice President of Marketing, Rex White, talked to me about when it’s time to re-barrel your gun.
by Scott Bestul
My friend Josh shot a very nice buck during this year’s late muzzleloader season. It was a buck he knew well, from numerous trail camera photos and several encounters over the last couple of seasons. Josh’s buck was a fine, mature animal and one that any hunter would be proud to tag.
by David E. Petzal
About the Interview: The Bear Rifle is a .325 WSM thumper that can handle a lot more than bruins. I had a chance to discuss this gun and Savage’s new direction with Bill Dermody.
by David E. Petzal
About the Interview: Dan Winkler and his partner Karen Shook are America’s foremost makers of “buckskinner” knives. Now, at the request of Special Ops personnel, they’re making tomahawks and knives that are for use in modern combat.
By Dave Hurteau
Has this shown up in your mailbox yet?
If not, it should soon. In this, the February 2011 issue, F&S delivers its “State of Whitetail Union,” featuring what we see as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the modern whitetail boom. Scott Bestul and I will be posting excerpts and related material right here in the days and weeks ahead. But for now, we want your opinion.
Using this format…
The Good: What you see as the best thing about today’s deer hunting
The Bad: What you see as the worst thing about today’s deer hunting
Go to State of the Whitetail Union: We Want Your Opinion!
Join Gun Nut Phil Bourjaily and Associate Online Editor (and tactical gun fanatic) Dave Maccar on the range in Nevada to get a look at some of the new guns at the 2011 SHOT Show in action.
by Dave Hurteau 
And we have a winner.
But first let me again shower you with compliments. (I hate to do it, but it’s important to our advertisers that you keep coming back.) For the second time since I started these things, an astounding 20 percent of contestants guessed within roughly 5 inches of the actual total gross score of our four bucks. Think about that for a second. Now think about how easy it is be to 5 inches off any single buck. Also, it has to be said that mwmrtn is a buck-scoring freak. For three constests in a row now, he has been within 5 inches of the actual total score—well within, including one stint as a finalist (tied for best overall guess.)
Now to the bucks:
Go to Announcing The Buck-Scoring Contest Winner!
by Phil Bourjaily
At the pre-SHOT Shooting day we saw lots of guns, most of them black, and tactical. We’ll have more video from that event soon but in the meantime, here’s a look at Ram’s Outdoorsman pickup which has some cool features like locking gun storage in the sides of the bed. Forgive the audio, which is a little out of synch, but we wanted to get this up and start our SHOT coverage right away.
by Dave Hurteau
Earlier this month, I posted a link to a story by the Illinois Outdoor News reporting that Andrae D’Acquisto, former owner of Lone Wolf Treestands and current owner of Lone Wolf Productions, which produces Whitetail Addiction TV, had pled guilty to hunting without a valid Illinois hunting license and habitat stamp, and that in the plea agreement, baiting charges were dropped. You may remember that I promised you more information. I wanted to hear from D’Acquisto, as well as from a warden who was on the scene. On Thursday of last week, I received a statement on D’Acquisto’s behalf from Lone Wolf Productions, and on Saturday morning I spoke with Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police Officer Rich Logsdon, who worked the case.
By David E. Petzal
I read The New York Times because I’ve been doing it since 1958, and because there’s a terrible fascination in watching it decline from what it once was into the sad thing that it is now. The Times has never been one to pass up a shot at the gun industry, and in the January 15 edition was a piece entitled “Tucson Shootings Add to Glock’s Notoriety,” by a Andrew Martin. Mr. Martin is no lightweight. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, and is co-holder of a Pulitzer Prize. His field of reporting is finance.
The article is a brief history of Glock and a review of alleged fiscal wrongdoing by members of the company. It was about what you would expect until it got to this sentence: “Made mostly of molded polymer, as opposed to metals, Glocks were lighter than other handguns and could carry more rounds.” Here is what should have followed, but didn’t. I can’t imagine why.
By Dave Hurteau
I have another Knight & Hale Pack Rack Rattling System to give away. I have another goofy photo. And the post I originally had planned for today fell through. So let’s just get right to it—which if your deer season is over, like mine, will give you something hunting related to think about over the long, cold weekend.
by Dave Hurteau
In my Christmas post, I forgot to mention something else I got for the holiday (a little belatedly): 6 inches of fresh snow. Besides the Hunter Dan Hanson Buck, it was just the thing I wanted—because when the last deer season ends (which ours did about 10 days ago), there’s nothing like a new blanket of snow to jumpstart your scouting for next fall.
by David E. Petzal
“Oh judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason.”—Barrack Hussein Obama (1)
“How’s that hopey-changey thing workin’ out for ya?”—King Louis XVI of France (2)
“His writing is devoid of fantasy.”—Ragnar of Ragweed Forge (3)
Where the hell was I? Oh yes: Do you need the Leupold CDS?
The answer is, it depends on how you hunt. If you never shoot past 300 yards and you’re getting 2,700 fps or better, no. If you do take the occasional long shot, the CDS will make all the difference. A case in point:
by Dave Hurteau
And now, the third buck in our scoring contest. On the frosty dawn of November 5th in southeastern Minnesota while hunting with friends Scott Bestul and Mark Stimets, I heard crackling hoofsteps in the crystalline leaf litter behind me. This fine buck in the photo below was trotting right to my bow stand. Reflecting, however, on the many, many Midwestern giants on my wall already, I lowered my bow and I coolly shooed the buck in the direction of Mark’s stand. And like all mature whitetails, it did exactly what I expected it to. Mark arrowed it at 20 paces. For whatever reason, he has forgotten to thank me.
Go to Buck Scoring Contest, Round III
by Dave Hurteau
Okay folks. Here is the second buck in our scoring contest. My friend Jim Meader arrowed this deer in November not too far down the road from my place in east-central New York—a fine, fine bow buck for this part of the country. Below is a look from two different angles. Now, the question to you is, what is its gross score?
To recap: You are playing for a new Rinehart RhinoBlock archery target. To win it, you must guess the gross B&C score of each of the four bucks I post here (click here for last week’s) and keep track of your guesses. Fractionals will count. When I post the final buck, I’ll ask you for your grand total. Whoever is closest wins the target. If there’s a tie, we will have a tiebreaker buck
Go to Buck Scoring Contest, Round II
by Phil Bourjaily
This video should bring back memories for more than a few of you. Nothing quite matches the excitement – or the sound — of a kid opening that long box on Christmas morning. Happy Holidays!
By David E. Petzal
A few mornings ago, despite wind gusts of 30 mph, I took my Nosler 6.5/284 to the range to check its zero so that I can go to Maine and freeze for a week. The first shot, out of a clean barrel, went precisely where it should. I mean, precisely. The second shot went through the hole made by the first. I let out a senile cackle of pure joy, packed up my stuff, and left. Treasure moments like these. They make up for all the times when your bullets are flying everywhere but where they should.
by Phil Bourjaily
Occasionally we run items in this space that fall under the heading of “don’t try this at home.” I think we can all agree that bullet catching stands at the top of that list. The first clip shows the Great Throwdini becoming the only person to catch a bullet, a knife and an arrow.*
The bullet catch is a dangerous** illusion that magicians have done for years. Usually the bullet is “caught” in the mouth and there is trickery involved. The bullet catch here looks real. True, Throwdini doesn’t pluck the bullet out of the air but it would take a lot of nerve to stand motionless while someone shoots a bullet into a metal cup in your hand.
by David E. Petzal
A while back I attended a class given by Peter Kummerfeldt, the former chief instructor of the survival courses given at the Air Force Academy. It was one of the most fascinating hours I’ve ever spent, and one of the things Mr. Kummerfeldt talked about was not losing stuff, because at the least it can inconvenience you, and at the worst it can kill you.
As Dave DiBenedetto pointed out last week in the “Man’s Best Friend” blog, there are other hunting seasons going on right now besides deer season – not that you would know it to look at this site. For instance, it’s duck season in Iowa. While everyone else is up in a tree I get to play in the mud. The green wing teal have arrived as they do every year in early November. They are, perhaps, my favorite waterfowl species.
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