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If you subscribe to Outdoor Life Magazine, then you might have seen a small article I wrote a couple of months ago on the best dual-purpose dogs. I'd like to continue that discussion here on OL.com and get your opinions on the subject.

Just as Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders were all-star players in two sports, the dual-purpose dog excels in more than one hunting venue. It could be the waterfowl marshes and the upland fields, treeing bears and cats, tracking wounded big game in the morning and then cornering hogs in the afternoon or any combination of game, setting or habitat you can imagine. 

For what it's worth, I think these five breeds belong at the top of any list:

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We’re dying here, waiting on spring turkey season.

We're checking out the latest turkey catalogs. We're making plans to hunt as many states as possible around the country, starting in March. We're visiting outdoor shows. For now, we wait on what's to come.

It’s killing us. Yesterday I got out on my usual rounds just to see turkeys. Sometimes that’s enough. Sometimes that’ll keep you going.

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A Guest Blog By Gayne C. Young:

After my PH Eric Sorour and skinner Alfred had successfully helped me “stage” my zebra for a few shots it was time to head back to camp. With night falling and an hour long drive ahead of us it was a good idea to get loaded and get back ASAP (because even if Africa, that beer don’t drink itself). Yet once again, the zebra failed to cooperate. This time it wasn’t the weight; it was the girth.

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Like many other states currently dealing with sharp declines in historic bobwhite quail populations, Pennsylvania is looking at ways to help the species rebound to its former levels. And last week, the state Board of Game Commissioners took a rather drastic step toward that end, giving preliminary approval to a closure of the bobwhite quail season statewide beginning with the 2010-11 seasons.

South Dakota and Alaska are the latest states where bills have been introduced to exempt domestic manufacturers of firearms and ammunition from federal regulations while, in Arizona, a house panel voted last week to allow state residents make their own guns and bullets—and offer them for sale—without having to comply with federal regulations.

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President's Weekend is fast approaching and with it, two of the biggest coyote-hunting contests in the Northeast.

The 2010 Mosquito Creek Sportsmen's Association Coyote Hunt is slated for Feb. 19 to 21. A registration fee of $10 is required, but $8 of each fee is paid out to successful hunters. Joushua Simcisko claimed a check of $7,600 in last year's contest with his 50.95 pound dog. There were 3,800 registered coyote hunters last year. Thursday, February 18 is the last day to register. For more information, call 814-263-4510 or 814-263-4991.

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Guest Blogger—Gayne C. Young

It was the perfect shot, right where the stripes converge in a triangle pattern atop the forward haunch. 

The Remington .375 H & H Mag. pierced the skin and mushroomed through both lungs, causing the old zebra stallion to swirl forth in an explosion of dust and kicked up earth. Bucking from shock and the pain the old patriarch disappeared in his created storm only to reappear some twenty five yards away in a tangle of thick scrub where upon he finally succumbed and lay down. But while congratulations from my PH Eric Sorour and skinner Alfred whirled about me all I could think was, “Stupid horse fell in the worst possible place for a photo.”

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Meet Otis McDonald, 76, a retired maintenance engineer, grandfather, and life-long Democrat who wants a handgun for self-defense in case gang members break into his Chicago home—again.

But, Chicago says he can't have one because the city has a 28-year-old handgun ban.

And so, on March 2, Otis McDonald will become the "new face of the Second Amendment" when opening arguments in McDonald v. city of Chicago begin before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Sometimes here at the Outdoor Life Newshound, the blog just writes itself. And this week we have received an especially wonderful gift from a highly unlikely source—one of the country’s most radical environmental organizations, the Center for Biological Diversity.

Based in Tucson, Ariz., the Center for Biological Diversity has made a name for itself primarily as an environmental litigious entity. Over the years it has successfully blocked everything from public land timber sales to expansion of water projects in the West through creative use of lawsuits and the court system. Probably the single largest target of this sue-happy group is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which can hardly even utter the phrase “endangered species delisting,” without hearing from a bevy of briefcase-toting CBD lawyers.

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I cringe when I hear people talk about how to introduce a puppy to gunshots. Advice like "fire a shot over them while they're eating" usually comes out somewhere in the conversation. I don't know about you, but firing a 12 gauge next to me while I'm eating Fruit Loops would definitely get my attention but it would also make me apprehensive every time a gun came out.

Here is a logical progression of introduction that virtually assures your dog won't be gunshy.