Outdoor Life — The Source for Hunting and Fishing Adventure

I was at the range the other day, mounting a scope on a rifle, when I started talking to a deer hunter next to me about eye relief. It didn’t take long for us to start trading stories about eyebrow cuts. He told me that years ago he inherited his grandfather’s Model 37 equipped with a scope that had only three inches of eye relief.

Obviously, his grandfather knew how to use it, but the first time this guy shot the gun--at that time he used only iron sights on his slug gun--the scope slammed into his eyebrow and opened up a nasty cut. Did he get any sympathy from his deer camp buddies? Nope. Just peals of laughter.

Years ago I was trying to fit a bargain-basement scope onto a new .270. No matter how much I fiddled with it, the scope didn’t quite provide enough eye relief. But because I didn’t want to spend any more money--or admit I bought the wrong scope--I pronounced the fit correct and pulled the trigger. Next thing I know, blood is pouring down my face. But did I call it a day? No. I decided I was going to make that scope fit. I... [ Read Full Post ]

In an industry made up of largely middle-class, middle-aged white men with a typically conservative bent and equally conservative, yet predictable look—khaki pants or jeans and flannel, Oxford or golf shirts depending on the weather or setting—Duck Commander Phil Robertson and his Duckmen really stand out. With long, wild hair and even more amazingly ZZ Top-like beards, these boys make the Geico cavemen look like clerks at a Birkenstock's Outlet. Put them behind the business end of a shotgun in their beloved Louisiana swamps and they bring duck hunting action to DVD like nobody else.

It's this look of untamed wildness that has made Duck Commander one of the most recognized brands in waterfowling. And if Willie Robertson has his way, it may soon be one of the most recognized looks in all of hunting.

Willie, a Duckman and son of the elder Robertson who founded Duck Commander in 1973, was in New York City last week with his lovely wife Korie to share the secret behind the beards and to tout his latest venture, Buck Commander.

Sitting in one of OL's... [ Read Full Post ]

Twenty-two-year-old Casey Heine may well have already peaked as a bowhunter. But that’s only because of what the Beaver Dam, Wis., man accomplished on the evening of Sept. 28 when he arrowed the biggest deer of his life—a massive 35-point buck! It’s a feat that he will likely never repeat as few hunters ever get to even see, much less shoot, a buck with so many points.

Heine told the local Daily Citizen that he was close to being run off of his stand by mosquitoes that afternoon, but by 6:30 p.m. he had his eye on a doe and fawn that he hoped would step from nearby brush. Suddenly, he heard something running along the fence line that bordered a bean field near his stand.

“I knew it was a nice buck,” Heine told the paper. “However, I only glanced at the horns once or twice while it was running toward me.” The monster, with a 4-point, cut behind the hunter’s stand and was heading toward the marsh where the doe and fawn were when Heine bleated with his... [ Read Full Post ]

I was exchanging e-mails the other day with Chris Ellis, who does p.r. for Timney Triggers. I’ve hunted with Chris, and during lunch breaks we often ended up talking about accuracy. Given that deer season will soon kick into high gear around the country I’d like to offer you his thoughts on deer rifle accuracy.

“1. Make sure the scope bases and rings are tight. I’ve seen shooters blame the scope, the rifle, or the ammo for poor shooting when, in fact, a loose mount was the culprit. If the scope moves during recoil or shifts while you travel in a truck, plane or ATV, the point of impact will shift. And that causes a miss. This just might be the most overlooked part of the accuracy equation, but it’s the simplest to check. [ Read Full Post ]

Dan Siudut, a trapper from Brentwood, New Hampshire, has captured hundreds of nuisance animals as a licensed wildlife control business proprietor, but even the experienced critter-catcher was in awe when he nabbed a beaver built like an NFL linebacker last week.

In fact, he caught a pair of enormous tree-chewing dam-builders with a combined weight of 153 pounds!

In responding to a call to remove beavers that kept chewing through a woman’s electric fence around a backyard pond, Siudut used submerged, conibear-type traps to catch 93-pound and 60-pound buck-toothed mammals.

That's right--93 pounds!

We can only imagine the two of them swimming together caused a wake like a river barge. (Photo by Eric Parry, North Andover Eagle-Tribune)

The trapper didn’t know offhand if he’d caught a record animal approaching the 100-pound mark, but he knew it was one humongous Castor Canadensis.

“It’s just obnoxious how funny and huge this thing is,” Siudut told reporter Eric Parry, writing for the North Andover (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune. “I didn’t even charge the woman for these because they’re so big.”

The professional trapper said he normally charges $50 for his services, sometimes more for coyote and... [ Read Full Post ]

Today’s challenge is to come up with ideas for “reasonable” gun control. We know that anti-gunners are always braying about the need for “reasonable” restrictions on our firearms in order to create a crime-free society. Restrictions like getting rid of those nasty barrel shrouds, those nasty .50 caliber projectiles, those nasty Saturday Night Specials, those nasty…well, you get the point.

The inspiration for this exercise is this post over at Of Arms & The Law about the alarm over the muzzleloader “loophole” in New York State.

Here are my two suggestions:

In the spirit of recent news out of California, I vote for mandatory micro-stamping on all bullet molds. You know, to track crooks who like to “roll their own.” (Lee Precision, I’m putting you on notice!)

My other proposal is for mandatory tattooing of all gun owners. This law would require that we put the serial numbers of all our guns on our forearms. This regulation should appeal to history buffs.

What other “reasonable” gun laws should we put on the books? Your turn.

John Snow [ Read Full Post ]

Last month I wrote about a bill that had been placed before Governor Schwarzenegger of California mandating that hunters must use non-toxic bullets when hunting in areas inhabited by condors. Now, it’s reported that Governor Schwarzenegger has signed the bill.

According to Safari Club International, “The law, called the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act (introduced by Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara), usurps some of the authority of the State Fish and Game Commission to regulate hunting in the State. The purported purpose of the Act is to protect endangered condors from lead ingestion. The Act mandates non-lead ammunition for big-game and coyote hunting in condor range. The Act defines condor range in an overbroad fashion using deer zones and highways in an area of south and central California.”

But worse than the very broad range this act effects is that it “requires completely lead-free ammunition, which does not currently exist, according to testimony given to the Commission.” By the way, according to SCI, “violations of the Act can result in fines of up to $5,000.” [ Read Full Post ]