Outdoor Life — The Source for Hunting and Fishing Adventure

“Hunters these days ultimately hunt memories as much as meat to put on the table. Memories feed dreams, and hunters must have dreams to keep them motivated. When you lose your dreams, you lose your mind.”

-James Swan
In Defense of Hunting, 1994 [ Read Full Post ]

Nighthawk Custom is a small, innovative custom manufacturer of 1911 semi-auto pistols. I first saw their wares at a SHOT Show a couple of years ago. It’s good stuff. The samples I handled appealed to me in the same way that a Porsche 911 grabs the attention of the performance-minded automotive enthusiast. This car is not about ostentatious display—no wheel spinners, no garish cladding. Just sleek lines and the ability to outrun the competition.

So, if you’re a Porsche 911 owner, would you park it in the first available slot on the street? Of course not. Then why would you jam your custom-made model 1911 in some off-the-shelf injection-molded or leather holster? That’s the thinking behind Nighthawk’s premium Ostrich Companion full-quill ostrich holsters and magazine pouches.

Crafted with top-of-the-line materials and benefiting from the same strict attention to detail as its entire line of handcrafted model 1911s, the new holsters are designed to protect the semi-auto in high style. Available in a rich mahogany or deep black, the holsters are custom cut to fit Nighthawk Custom’s Government-, Commander- or Officer-frame sizes. Each holster is also reinforced stitched, ensuring years of reliable and comfortable use. $199.95

The Ostrich Companion magazine pouches are offered... [ Read Full Post ]

The Ruger Super Redhawk revolver chambered in .480 Ruger, specifically designed with the big-game sportsman in mind, is back. Production was suspended early last year to address a fired case extraction issue. After a complete analysis by Ruger engineers, it was determined that to provide easy and sure extraction, all .480 Ruger Super Redhawk revolvers, including the easy-to carry Alaskan, will now feature five-shot cylinders. They will also feature a Hogue Monogrip for added comfort. The Target Grey All-Weather version adds a low-glare matte finish preferred by hunters.

The .480 Ruger cartridge produces a muzzle velocity of 1350 fps, nearly one-third more muzzle energy than the standard .44 Magnum cartridge, but with substantially less recoil than the other big-bore hunting handgun cartridges. This cartridge, developed by Hornady, can be said to effectively “split the difference” between the powerful .44 Magnum and other super-powerful, heavier recoiling hunting cartridges.

–Slaton White [ Read Full Post ]

As you can imagine, we get all kinds of letters and weird items sent to the offices of Outdoor Life, many sent to no one in particular or addressed to odd departments which may no longer be a part of the magazine or in more instances that you would think, never did.

While cleaning my desk up the other day, I came across a letter addressed to the oddest office destination to never exist. It was addressed to Outdoor Life's "Fable Department." It was about two snakes that ate each other. Go figure. Not sure how this one wound up on my desk, but I don't recall ever running any fables in the magazine...Ever!

I'm still looking for Aesop to see if he's interested. [ Read Full Post ]

A suit filed in U.S. District Court last week is challenging the interpretation of Kentucky’s law aimed at preventing the spread of chronic wasting disease.

The action, filed by a Tennessee elk and bison ranch and a national deer farmers’ group, claims Kentucky’s law that prohibits the transportation of live deer and elk into the state is unconstitutional on grounds that it interferes with interstate commerce.

Kentucky, like several other states, also strictly prohibits the transportation of intact deer and elk carcasses across the state line by hunters when the animal was taken in a state where CWD is known to already exist in the cervid population.

Attorneys for Two Feathers Elk and Bison Ranch in McMinville, Tenn., and the North American Deer Farmers Association claim that Kentucky is the only state that strictly interprets its law to cover the intra-state transportation of live deer and elk.

Kentucky has yet to confirm a single case of CWD in its wild whitetail or elk herds.

Named in the lawsuit filed in Lexington District Court are Jonathan Gassett, the commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, and Karen... [ Read Full Post ]

Any time the business of hunting, angling, boating and the shooting sports is recognized in the mainstream corporate world, it’s a good thing for the future of the pursuits we cherish.

Earlier this week, John L. (Johnny) Morris, founder of mega-outdoors retailer Bass Pro Shops, was named “Innovator of the Year” by the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail trade association.

Morris was formally recognized by the NRF on January 15 during the association’s Annual Convention and Expo in New York City.

Morris opened the first Bass Pro Shops in his hometown of Springfield, Mo. in 1971, where the flagship retail facility remains today.

As an avid bass fisherman in the Missouri Ozarks in 1970, Morris said he was unable to find the fishing equipment he had seen while competing in bass tournaments there. He subsequently opened a room in the back of one of the liquor stores owned by his father and began selling new lures and innovative fishing tackle.

“I was looking for an excuse to stay close to fishing,” he said in a recent interview. “At the time, I was just trying to get the shelves... [ Read Full Post ]

If you’re a bow hunter, skier, diver, bicyclist, you likely won’t suffer being hassled when checking in your gear for an airline flight. Heck, I don’t have any trouble flying with firearms—you just do the usual show-and-tell at the ticket counter. But fishing tackle—oh, my. The TSA has pretty straightforward and not-too-draconian directives on fishing gear but individual airlines have the right to “improve” on the regs, and with one exception (American Airlines), it appears that the tackle-toting policies of our airborne carriers have been written by people who’ve been subjected to frontal lobotomies.

These regulations are also vague enough to allow individual interpretation by check-in agents who may be having a bad day or maybe dislike you on general principles because you’re going fishing.

Recently, Doug Olander, editor-in-chief of Sport Fishing magazine, one of Outdoor Life’s sister pubs, was slapped with a $100.00 surcharge for a Plano rod case he’s been flying with across the country and abroad, for years. A Delta agent at Los Angeles International examining Olander’s tube (in order to accommodate 7-ft. rods it was... [ Read Full Post ]