Dangerous Wading: A Reminder to Fish Safely

I like to wade fish but whether I’m prowling a headwater rivulet or a brawling tailwater my gear now always includes a CO2 powered PFD belt and a wading staff. Yours should, too. Here’s why:

I used to think I was indestructible and fished like it. Depending on one’s theological standing the fact that I survived years of on-the-water carelessness can only be attributed to God’s protection of fools and foolish behavior . . . or stunningly good luck.

Then one afternoon while trout fishing alone on an East Tennessee tailwater my divine safety net and/or luck nearly ran out. I was fighting a rainbow on a 5-weight and a light tippet when the water began to rise, which I chose to ignore. By the time I’d brought the fish to hand, the river had jumped from mid calf to mid thigh. The dry shoal I’d crossed to reach the strip of seam water that had surrendered the trout was now foaming with whitewater.

I started toward the south bank, beyond which my truck was the only vehicle in the parking lot. Working one’s way downstream and across a strong and rising river is akin to a siren song. The current lulls you into thinking it’s your friend. 

The moment you realize you have lost your footing is surprisingly serene. There’s simply a tipping point when you’re no longer connected to the river. This serenity quickly vanishes as one is tumbling downstream, scrambling for a toehold and desperate for a breath. Beneath the surface the world becomes a muffled, echoed distant roar; soothing in a disquieting sort of way. There’s nothing else quite like it that I’ve experienced. The river has you and you know it. 

This particular stretch of water forms a dogleg right hemmed by a long, narrow island that’s visible only at low flow. Debris being washed down river, including tumbling fishermen, is pushed toward the south bank. It’s a spot that can easily upend inattentive canoeists. 

When tumbling downstream everything happens in slow motion. Even panic slows down. Then you’re suddenly swallowed by shadow. The water becomes dark. The panic spikes as your leg touches a rock. A hand shoots free from the water and hits a root that provides a handhold. Then, somehow you’re on the bank, a 5-weight Orvis still clutched in your right hand, the river flowing by passive and dark in the bright afternoon sun. 

Divine protection—or luck—has again extended a hand. A lesson has been learned. Buy a life belt. Carry a staff. Use them. Fish safe.

Gun Lab: Weatherby MK V Arroyo Review

http://cf.c.ooyala.com/MwaGc2dzqKzZQ_13WiHG_kg_UdirOtg5/Ut_HKthATH4eww8X...

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This rifle seems custom-made for the open country where we conducted the test. Chambered in .257 Wby., and offered with a sub-MOA accuracy guarantee, it is an ideal gun for antelope and mule deer.

See the full Gun & Optics Test here.

The bolt on ours was a bit sticky, but the weight of the rifle and its accuracy made it, in the words of one judge, “a kick in the pants” to shoot. The iconic look of the stock, coupled with the flashy camo, makes the Arroyo visually appealing. Like all Mark V rifles, it has a bit of cachet, thanks in part to the $2,800 price tag. You can be sure that not everyone in camp will have one.

Critical ATV and UTV Care for Longer Vehicle Life

 Photograph by John Hafner

Once you’ve spent your hard-earned money on an ATV or SXS, you want to be sure you take care of it. Here are a few random tips to help you preserve your investment. Getting to know every part of your hunting rig is important, and even if you’re not the one doing the maintenance on your machine, you need to know how the terrain and riding conditions impact the health of your ride.

1. Air Filters
The air filter on your machine is the breathing inlet for the motor. If the air filter gets clogged, the amount of air is reduced and the machine will run rich. This means more fuel than air is entering the engine and you stand a chance of fouling the spark plug. The sealing surface of your air filter is subject to leaking, and making sure the filter is properly seated in the housing is critical to clean air entering the engine. Even fine dust can wear on the engine’s internals and will eventually kill your investment.

2. Belts
Belt driven machines are more common today than in years past. The belt that puts the power from the motor to the transmission needs to stay dry and cool. If you ride in deep water and the transmission slips, be sure to first remove the machine from the water and then drain the CVT box. Most newer belt drives have drains on the bottom rear of the CVT box. A wet belt slips and will burn wear spots on the sides of the belt. This will eventually lead to belt failure. 

3. Axle Boots
CV axle boots are subject to many obstacles along the trail. These boots protect the constant velocity joints for the front and rear axles on independent suspension machines. If these boots get torn, you will eventually ruin the joint. Mud, water, and trail trash will find their way into the joint and grind it to pieces. Always keep an eye on the axles and boots to prevent unexpected damage.

 

Can the Crossbow Save Hunting?

This 12-point Ohio buck was taken by OL reader Norman Troyer in November 2014.

One of the biggest concerns in the hunting industry is a declining number of hunters. We are losing hunters faster than we can recruit them. In spite of an occasional uptick in hunter numbers, we’re losing ground—ground we can’t afford to lose. But one bright spot is the expansion of crossbow seasons across the country. State after state is making it legal to hunt with a crossbow and it is helping.

Probably the single largest contributing factor to the decline in hunter numbers is the aging of America. One hunting industry insider, who happens to be a buddy of mine, has studied trends in crossbowhunting and how it’s impacted hunter recruitment and retention. He shared the following info with me:

A quick look at hunting license purchases by age shows a rapid drop off in license purchases around the ages of 50-55. Bowhunters hang up their bows, on average, a full ten years earlier than all hunters combined. If we are to reverse the overall trend, we must retain hunters longer. Hunting (especially bowhunting) is a young man’s sport in a country that is steadily growing older. The percentage of people older than 65 in the U.S. grows every year and will continue to increase through the first quarter of the 21st century.

Crossbows are one of the best hunter retainment tools ever invented. After legalizing crossbow hunting in 2003-04, Georgia took a hard look at the crossbow’s impact on hunter participation. What they found was a real eye opener: 47 percent of new archers using crossbows were older than 50, and bowhunting participation for crossbow hunters as extended 20 years compared to compound bow users. Or to put it another way: Crossbows were extending the age at which hunters hang up their camo! They also found that approximately 46 percent of new archers using crossbows were older than 50. Are crossbows becoming the hunting method of choice for senior citizens?  State after state is reporting similar results for crossbows extending the number of years hunters remain afield.

Next we look at the recruitment side of the disappearing-hunter equation. Industry studies report that at least 4 percent of all gun hunters will participate in crossbow hunting the first year it's legalized in the state where they hunt. Granted, it may not be recruiting new hunters to hunting, but it is introducing gun hunters to bowhunting. Back in the 70s, Fred Bear popularized modern bowhunting with his famous “Be a Two Season Hunter” advertising campaign. And now the crossbow is doing its part.

We all know of physically challenged bowhunters who would never know the thrill of the hunt were it not for the crossbow. I also know men, women, and kids who started bowhunting with a crossbow. I once had an assistant who couldn’t draw more than 22 pounds using a compound. She took up the crossbow and, two weeks later, she shot a 200-pound wild boar. She couldn't legally bowhunt with a compound, but she was still posing with her first kill thanks to the crossbow. Now that’s recruitment.

The list of recruitment and retention achievements continues to grow, yet some bowhunters continue to fight them. Isn’t it time we started to look at the big picture of declining numbers first and self-interest second? At least 32 states have seen the light and are acting in the interest of the common good of wildlife and hunting.

After all: what’s good for hunting is good for the bowhunter. 

Whitetail Deer: How to Grow Big Bucks on Small Tracts of Land

Can you take 80 acres of never-been-improved land—or 60, 40, or even 20 acres—and turn it into a big-buck hunting paradise? The answer might surprise you.

And the question itself isn’t so far-fetched. It happens every summer and fall: a diehard hunter, or maybe an inspired group of longtime hunting buddies, decides it’s time to pull the proverbial trigger and buy a chunk of land earmarked specifically for hunting. For this discussion, let’s consider the working budget isn’t huge, so we’re talking about a modest tract of land that has never been optimized for hunting. What does it take to pull this off? And is it worth the expense and trouble?

Reality Check?
I took that exact scenario to the doorstep of avid deer hunter and author Steve Bartylla, who, at age 50, has been managing lands for hunting more than half his life. Bartylla began with a reality check, explaining that those landowners looking for slam-dunk hunting success need to consider precisely where they buy their parcel, and know intimately their personal goals. Bartylla warned that on a smaller tract—and even on many larger spreads—you can easily be a “victim” of a low local deer population, and/or intense local hunting pressure. Small tracts can struggle mightily under either one of these obstacles. If both exist, you’ve got real trouble.

Conversely, Bartylla explained, the ideal spot for your tract is an area that holds both good numbers of deer, and consistently churns out the type of top-quality bucks you seek. And yes, these tracts do exist. Of course, everyone has different goals and dreams, so Bartylla advises knowing exactly what you want—and doing a good bit of boots-on-the-ground research—before plunking down your cash.
“I would get out and knock on lots of doors, talk to people in the area as you meet them, and get a feel for the area,” Bartylla advises. “It sounds great to simply check the Pope and Young records for the county you’re in, but that can be deceiving. There are an awful lot of good old boys with 180-inch deer hanging in their barns and garages who’d laugh at the thought of paying money to enter a deer in a record book. As an example, I managed a property in northern Missouri in an area that had just one entry in the Pope and Young records—but I killed a record-book buck every year I hunted there, for several years. In certain areas it’s cool to enter your deer in the record book, in others it’s considered the most ridiculous thing [imaginable].”

How Your Impact Can Help
Once you’ve found your parcel, take heart in the fact that you will indeed be able to optimize the land to attract more deer, and create high-percentage stand sites. And if you transform and use it correctly, there should be no worries about overhunting.

“Most people think that with a smaller tract one of the downsides is that you won’t be able to hunt it much, but that’s not true,” Bartylla said. “You can actually hunt the heck out of your property, if you do it in a low-impact manner. By this I mean the deer should not hear, see, or smell you. And that’s where habitat improvement comes into play. You can design a property that will offer very high-odds stand locations that are also low-impact.

“One of the most critical things to look for is good access,” Bartylla continued. “Access is almost never set up for deer hunting, but typically, for farming or logging. Edge access is ideal. An example would be a square 40-acre parcel with a road around the perimeter.  This gives you the ability to access half of your property, under any wind direction, without ever having your odors blowing into your property.

“You also must learn your new ground. Find out what the deer need—the best local food, water, and cover, and where deer can go to feel safe, find comfort, and breeding opportunities.

“Some properties are more transition zones, some are primarily food sources. You need to figure this out, then play to your strengths. Can you produce a property that a decent number of deer will use as a core area? Can you offer deer a complete package of habitat needs? If you own a smaller property you’re never going to make it so deer will never leave it, but you can absolutely get them to spend a disproportionate amount of time there.”

Make the Most of What You Have
Bartylla offered an example of a fairly typical small-tract scenario:  Imagine a good bedding area on land adjacent to one side of your property, and prime feeding on neighboring land on the other side, while yours offers neither option.

“This is a classic transition property, and your goal would be to have deer ‘stage’ on your property—have them linger there as long as possible—while traveling between the preferred bedding/feeding areas,” Bartylla notes. “A small food plot or two might be one answer. Also, you might find while walking the property that deer are crossing through it using 12 major trails. Through habitat improvement, you might fairly easily make it so deer will eventually cross through at just four locations. And so your odds of hunting success have just gone way up.”

Bartylla explained that many new landowners don’t realize that major land transformations can be accomplished in just one day, and affordably, with help from heavy machinery.

“Many people think it’s out of reach, but I regularly hire bulldozer operators to come in and work for about $100 per hour, and so for about $800 you can literally transform your property in just one day. Most people put their food plots in the ‘easiest’ places, without thinking about access. And sometimes the answer is to clear a bunch of trees.

“Many new landowners drop the ball; most are great at making habitat better, but are not thinking about how to make better hunting sites,” Bartylla continued. “So you need a thorough plan that reverses that misguided approach. Every single one of your improvements should result in creating the type of deer flow through your property that results in low-impact, high-odds locations. The reason is, you’re going to have a very limited amount of prime opportunities over the course of the season, and you want to take advantage of as many as you can. Low-impact, high-percentage stands are great, but finding natural examples is actually pretty rare.”

What and How to Plant
No article on managing smaller parcels would be complete without advice on food plots, and Bartylla has some strong opinions.

“When it comes to planting, my best advice is one word: diversity. There is not a single food source out there that is a favorite all year. Every source has peaks and valleys, so I like to offer a little bit of everything.

“One thing I do a lot, is to ring the outer five to 10 yards of a plot with clover,” Bartylla advises. “Most plantings don’t do well with shade from the surrounding forest, but clover thrives in shade. I like to plant the inner portion to brassicas, and when they get about three inches high, I top-seed with 100 pounds of three parts cereal rye, one part oats. So now, at this one location, you’re ramping up the variety of food choices. Upwind and within bow range of the best stand site, I also like to plant six apple trees: two that produce in early season, two in mid season, and two that produce fruit later.  I also like to add a water source—nothing more than an oversized mud puddle will work—and you can also buy a water trough and bury it to the lip. You’re doing all these things to stack the odds in your favor.”

Some Final Tweaks
Is your food plot work done after determining size, location, and forage? Not quite, Bartylla says.

“Next you should consider going into the woods adjacent to your plot, and for a 5- to 10-yard band around it, I like to hinge-cut all the trees, just enough that the trees will fall over, and a good percentage will continue to grow,” he explained. “That will provide good thick cover, and you’re also opening up the canopy to help your plot thrive. As a finishing touch, I like to leave a forest opening 20 yards upwind of that prime treestand location to funnel deer into the plot, and right into range. Now, your odds of success at that site just went way up.

“From my experience it takes two to five years before the hunting starts peaking at a newly managed property. You’ve got to be patient, but the results will typically be well worth the wait.”

For more hard-won tips from Steve Bartylla, you might want to pre-order his new book, Landowner's Guide to Deer Management and Habitat Improvement, available from Amazon.com in 2016.

Gun Stories of the Week: Walmart to Stop Selling AR-15s and Similar Semi-Autos

TOP STORY
Seattle's 'gun tax' punishes law-abiding citizens for criminal violence

The NRA, the Second Amendment Foundation and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, along with two gun owners and two gun shops, sued the city of Seattle on Aug. 24 in King County Superior Court over its adoption of a so-called "gun violence tax," a tax on firearms and ammunition designed to help offset the financial toll of gun violence.

The lawsuit calls the tax legally unenforceable because Washington State prohibits local governments from adopting laws related to firearms unless those local ordinances are specifically authorized by the state.

"The ordinance serves only as a piece of propaganda, because the ordinance's mandates are legally unenforceable," the lawsuit said. "The state of Washington has the exclusive right to regulate the sale of firearms in Washington, and cities may not enact local laws or regulations related to the sale of firearms."

The Seattle City Council unanimously approved a sales tax of $25 on each firearm sold and a 5-cent tax on each round of ammunition (two cents for .22 caliber) sold. The council calls it the “Gun Violence Tax.” Seattle’s Mayor Ed Murray signed the legislation, spurring the gun rights groups to file the legal challenge.

A companion measure also requires gun owners to file reports if their weapons are stolen or lost. The lawsuit does not challenge that reporting requirements.

City Attorney Pete Holmes maintains the tax falls squarely under Seattle's taxing authority. He said the state Supreme Court has never interpreted whether the state's general pre-emption of local firearms ordinances includes taxing gun or ammunition sales. 

The lawsuit does not challenge Seattle's measure on 2nd Amendment grounds, but pits the state's 10th Amendment pre-emption purview against a municipality's 14th amendment regulatory authority.

Among its justifications for adopting the tax, the Seattle City Council cited an Urban Institute study that claims gunshot wounds cost the American taxpayer half a billion dollars a year because most victims are either uninsured or on public insurance like Medicaid, which means that the hospital costs get passed on to the taxpayer.

The Urban Institute's study was based on 2010 statistics, when hospital costs from firearm assaults totaled $669.2 million. About 73 percent of that amount came a combination of uninsured victims ($193.8 million) and those on government insurance ($294.2 million).

"The bulk of those costs come out of the public's pockets," said Sam Bieler, a criminologist, who co-authored the report for the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center.

But those numbers also confirm an inequity in requiring those who legally own firearms and legally purchase ammunition to pay for injuries created by criminals, writes Frank Miniter on Forbes.com on Aug. 25.

Miniter said the legal battle in Seattle highlights two views of gun owners and gun crimes. In one view, the nation's 100 million legal gun owners are "mostly law-abiding people whose constitutional right to bear arms can and does make America a safer and freer place," while others, "such as those who voted for this Seattle tax, see gun ownership as a problem and gun owners as complicit, whether intentionally or not, in arming criminals."

But there are clues in the statistics that indicate the Seattle "gun violence tax" is targeting the wrong people, Miniter writes. 

According to a NSSF survey, 14 percent of urban households have at least one handgun, 31 percent of homes in the suburbs have at least one handgun, and 27 percent of homes in small towns have at least one handgun. Most gun violence is committed with handguns -- 76.6 percent of murders with guns were committed with handguns between 2006-2011, according to FBI crime statistics, and most were committed in inner cities by criminals who did not legally possess the handgun.

"As you move from cities to the suburbs, the rate of handgun ownership doubles even though gun violence is primarily a problem of inner cities," he writes, noting gun control proponents do not make the distinction between where these crimes occur and who is committing them, using these statistics "as an excuse to advocate nationwide bans on handguns and popular rifles."

"Rather than spreading bad policy into areas with little gun violence, wouldn’t it be wiser to spread what’s working?" he asks. "Doesn’t the gun-violence rate in inner-cities morally rebuke the anti-gun policies? Seattle’s city council and mayor have bought into the idea that law-abiding gun owners are central to the problem and so should be forced to pay for gun violence."

Miniter says what is unfolding in Seattle will have national ramifications. Two Democratic Congressmen -- William Pascrell (D-N.J.) and Danny Davis (D-Ill.) -- have proposed the “Gun Violence Prevention and Safe Communities Act,” which would nearly double the 11 percent tax on handguns, while raising the tax on ammunition from 11 percent to 50 percent, to generate revenues for urban programs to reduce gun violence. 

"Requiring gun owners to pay for gun violence, which more often occurs in places with the nation’s strictest gun laws, is obviously counterintuitive and unfair, Miniter writes. It is akin to taxing vehicle owners for the crimes of drunk drivers. Does punishing law-abiding behavior for the acts of criminals really make sense?"

For more, go to:

Should Gun Owners Be Taxed For Gun Violence? Some Say Yes

MOST AMERICANS WANT MORE BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR GUN SALES

Gun violence costs taxpayers $500 million

NRA sues over Seattle's adoption of "gun violence tax"

Sound Off for August 25th: Should Seattle's gun tax stay or go?

'No matter how they wrap it, it's still gun control'

Gun ban lobby’s response to Seattle lawsuit ignores letter of law

NSSF Threatens Costly Lawsuit If Seattle Mayor Ed Murray Approves Gun & Ammo Taxes

Murray signs Seattle gun tax; Detroit top cop has better idea

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RETAIL INDICTMENT
Walmart to stop selling AR-15s and similar semi-autos

Walmart said on Aug. 27 that it will stop selling "military-style" semi-automatic rifles, including AR-15s because of, according to Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg, "slumping demand."

The move was not a surprise. Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon had indicated the world's largest retailer and the nation's largest seller of firearms and ammunition might do this in a June 23 interview with CNNMoney.

"Our focus in terms of firearms should be hunters and people who shoot sporting clays, and things like that," McMillon told CNN. "So the types of rifles we sell, the types of ammunition we sell, should be curated for those things."

When asked at the time if he would curtail sales of semi-automatic guns, McMillon told CNN, "Yes. We want to serve people who hunt and fish and we want to have a great sporting goods department."

Despite Walmart's claim that "slumping demand" for AR-15s and semi-autos fostered the decision, firearms sales have been strong this summer. The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted 1.6 million background checks in July for all gun sales, not just semi-automatic weapons. That's up from 1.4 million total checks in July of 2015.

While background checks aren't a direct indicator of gun sales, since they are not required for some sales at trade shows and between individuals, they are a good barometer for the market.

AR-15s have been used in mass shootings including Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., and gun control advocates have long been fighting to restrict the sale of these weapons.

Walmart made the announcement on the same day that a man wielding a handgun murdered two television journalists on live television in Virginia, but the retailer did not mention the shootings.

For more, go to:

Walmart to stop selling AR-15s and similar guns

Walmart Halts Sale of Assault Weapons

Walmart To Stop Selling Assault Rifles, Other Firearms Used In Mass Killings

Wal-Mart to Stop Selling Military-Style Guns After Demand Drops

CONFIRMED: Walmart Stops Selling AR-Style Rifles and “Personal Protection” Shotguns. Responding to Church Lawsuit?

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STATE ROUNDUP
Virginia Governor calls for stricter gun laws after reporters murdered on TV

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe called for tighter gun laws in response to the deadly shooting of two Roanoke, Virginia-based TV journalists during a live broadcast on Aug. 27.

“There are too many guns in the hands of people that shouldn’t have guns,” McAuliffe said during an interview with WTOP TV. “There is too much gun violence in America,” he said, adding that he has long advocated for strengthening gun background checks and that it should be made a priority.

McAuliffe’s comments followed the shooting of 24-year-old WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and 27-year-old cameraman Adam Ward, who were killed during a live on-air interview in Smith Mountain, Va.

Footage of the murders, which quickly spread throughout social media, shows Parker interviewing a woman at Bridgewater Plaza about economic development and tourism — interrupted by gunfire from a lunatic later identified as former TV reporter Vester Lee Flanagan, who reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound later that day.

The shooting quickly captured national attention -- with presidential candidates like Martin O’Malley, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Scott Walker and Ted Cruz all sending their condolences to the victims’ families on social media.

McAuliffe is a strong gun control advocate. He previously served as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005, was co-chairman of President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, and was chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. His first run for office was in the 2009 Virginia gubernatorial election, when he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. 

For more, go to:

Terry McAuliffe calls for stricter gun laws after Virginia shooting

Slain gun instructor’s kids petition to ban children from machine guns

State gun control bills face uphill battle from lawmakers

California: Scotts Valley City Council rejects gun shop law

Group aims for 2016 Maine vote on gun sales background checks

Bloomberg Spends $764,232.35 Buying Oregon Background Check Bill

State law takes aim at cities’ and counties’ gun bans

Editorial: Guard center attack stirs another debate on gun laws

As gun-carrying permits reach historic levels in Minnesota, related crimes remain in check

Gun control groups fault NRA training for Indiana National Guard

FL: Gun rights groups urge fines against city leaders on preemption violations

Illinois: GROUP PROTESTS GUN RULES AT SUBURBAN MARIANO'S

New York: GUN CONTROL PROPONENT: WOMEN TOO WEAK TO CARRY GUNS FOR SELF-DEFENSE

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IN THE COURTS
Missouri Supreme Court applies ‘Strict Scrutiny’ to ban felons from gun possession

The Missouri Supreme Court on Aug 26 issued an opinion in the case of Missouri v. Merritt, upholding the state’s ban against felons possessing firearms—affirming that the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms does not preclude state legislators from limiting the rights of convicted violent felons, or those duly adjudged mentally infirm by a court of competent jurisdiction, from possessing firearms.

The ruling short-circuited an attempt by gun control advocates to challenge Amendment 5, a 2014 law that strengthened Missouri’s Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, with 61 percent of state voters approving the measure. The amendment states that Missouri citizens have an “unalienable” right to keep and bear arms and that any “restriction on these rights shall be subject to strict scrutiny.”

Amendment 5 also states that, “nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the general assembly from enacting general laws which limit the rights of convicted violent felons or those duly adjudged mentally infirm" from possessing a firearm.

In an Aug. 27 press release, the NRA said the ruling quashes gun control advocates fear-mongering and "dire predictions of the chaos the provision would supposedly unleash," noting some knee-jerkers claimed the amendment could have “potentially deadly consequences” and might allow “some of the most dangerous individuals, including convicted drug dealers and gang members, to legally carry firearms.”

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control umbrella group, Everytown for Gun Safety, was, as usual, among the chorus at the fiddlefest, incorrectly stating Amendment 5 will "call all state and local public safety laws into question, threatening even the most basic laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of felons and domestic abusers.”

According to the Missouri Supreme Court's Aug. 26 ruling, “The felon-in-possession law, which bans felons from possessing firearms, with no exceptions other than possessing an antique firearm, is sufficiently narrowly tailored to achieve the compelling interest of protecting the public from firearm-related crime. Therefore, it passes strict scrutiny.”

Marcus Merritt was federally convicted in 1986 of felony distribution of PCP. He was then charged in January 2013 with unlawfully possessing a revolver, a shotgun, and a .22 caliber rifle as a convicted felon.

He was subsequently convicted of violating a Missouri law which states, “A person commits the crime of unlawful possession of a firearm if such person knowingly has any firearm in his or her possession and … such person has been convicted of a felony under the laws of this state, or of a crime under the laws of any state or of the United States which, if committed within this state, would be a felony.”

In resolving the case, the court applied the prior version of Missouri’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms, because that was the one in effect at the time of Merritt’s possession of the firearm on November 7, 2012. Nevertheless, it also found that the use of the prior amendment was not relevant to the standard of review to be applied to Merritt’s constitutional claim. 

This was because the Missouri Supreme Court had previously held that in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McDonald v. Chicago characterizing the right to keep and bear arms as fundamental, cases that arose after McDonald under Missouri’s right to arms would be subject to strict scrutiny.

For more, go to:

Missouri Supreme Court Applies Strict Scrutiny to Gun Case

Missouri Supreme Court Backs Gun Owners over Bloomberg in Court Ruling

Gun rights amendment upheld by Missouri Supreme Court

Survival Skills: 3 Ways to Test Your Survival Team

For our ancestors, being exiled was one of the worst punishments that their group could dole out. Surviving alone in harsh conditions was usually a death sentence—a long, slow, painful death sentence. And whether it surprises you or not, nothing has changed about solo survival in thousands of years. You won’t last long if you’re alone. We seem to instinctively know this, just as our forebears did. It is for this reason that many people (naturally) band together to form groups or teams. These may start out as neighbors or family members having conversations about what they’d do in a crisis situation, but as the team relationship evolves—it will either become a more serious partnership or it will dissolve. One way to find out the devotion and mettle of everyone involved is to put your team to the test. Here are a few ways to do just that.

1. Go on a survival campout
A “bug out camp out” is just the thing to see how well your group gets along while working as a team to make camp and perform the chores of survival. If strenuous hiking is involved to get to your camp site (and it should be), this will also provide a gut check for each person’s fitness level. To enhance the trip, the team leader could plan some “surprises” along the way, a theme or scenario to define the camp out, and even place tests and challenges throughout the weekend—all designed to help the team bond, find weak points in the team, and strengthen them. 

3. Have a “lights out” weekend
This test uncovers the group’s patience and ingenuity. Turn off the main electrical breaker and water at the host’s home. Have your team spend the weekend working through the challenges of “off-grid” living in a home designed to be “on-grid”. This is when things get real. You’ll have to haul buckets of water (from somewhere) to flush the toilet. You’ll have to get creative with cooking to feed the group. You can even consider home security issues during the weekend. One security angle could be that your group keeps a low profile, and the host’s neighbors don’t realize there’s unusual activity in the home. This weekend could be a scenario-driven event (like an EMP) or something more general, based on the concerns of the team. 

3. Train together
Nothing strengthens a survival group like doing some survival training. At my survival school here in Virginia, I am seeing an increasing number of students taking classes as a group and even booking me for private classes just for their team. These classes are a great opportunity to pick up new skills, test oneself, and see how well the group functions (or doesn’t). Whatever training you take, invite your whole group to strengthen and diversify the skill sets of each member. Shooting classes, medical training, survival courses—every class you take as a team gives you more skills, more confidence and makes you better prepared to face the unknown.  It also builds a stronger team.

What do you do to test yourself and your team? Please tell us your ideas by leaving a comment.  

Riding Access: 7 Keys to Building a Great ATV Trail

Earlier this month, the Indian Creek Valley ATV Club in western Pennsylvania teamed up with Outdoor Life’s Open Country program to build new riding trails on private land leased to the club. What we learned, besides that building trail is hot, sweaty, satisfying work, is that there are necessary steps before the first face-slapping branch is cut. Here are seven considerations that should go into every ATV trail.

1. Planning
Before we began cutting trails at the ICV ATV Club, Al Sain had done his homework. Using topographical maps and GPS coordinates, Sain, the club’s secretary and ramrod, began plotting a new trail through the Pennsylvania woods using reflective tape to identify the course. By actually walking the course, Al had a chance to design—and later amend—the trail, and his final layout was designed to maximize the available land.

“I knew where we wanted the trail to begin and end, but as I walked through the woods I could visualize where the trail should go,” Sain says. Bearing in mind that this was a green-level trail (the easiest to navigate), he avoided difficult obstacles and designed the course with new riders in mind. Planning also helps prevent mistakes that have to be fixed later, and Sain says that working ahead of time helps keep trails organized. Instead of a spiderweb of short, straight trails that keep running over themselves, Sain’s club prefers to lay out trails that are longer and lend themselves to simpler trail maps.

2. Terrain
One of the first steps in establishing a successful ATV trail is having a thorough understanding the terrain. This varies from one location to the next, but the key is to maximize the experience for riders while maintaining a safe and easy-to-maintain trail system. In areas like southwestern Pennsylvania, there are abrupt elevation changes that provide a lot of up and downhill travel, but steep areas require diversion ditches and constant monitoring to quickly address erosion problems before they become a major problem. Flat ground provides easy travel, but rainwater collects on flat ground and creates large mud holes that continue to grow as passing machines eat up more of the soft mud. The key to establishing a successful trail is to utilize the terrain in the best way possible. At ICV, for instance, hillsides with large rocks become black-level advanced courses and provide challenging obstacles that require a high level of expertise and slow progression. Hillsides are always protected from erosion, but on flat areas water is diverted from some trails into mud holes to provide challenging courses for riders that aren’t afraid to get dirty.

3. Runoff management
Runoff is a major problem on ATV trails, especially in areas like southwestern Pennsylvania where steep slopes and abundant rainfall tend to erode paths. Heavy rains will quickly carve ruts in trails, and in areas where there are a lot of rocks, the soil will be lost and a jagged, tire-shredding stone will emerge. To help control runoff, Sain and his team utilize diversion ditches that cut across areas where rainfall would likely wash away the trail, channeling the damaging water across the trail and down the mountain.

“Some riders want to know why we put ‘bumps’ in the trail, but they are actually our diversion ditches and they are critical to properly maintaining trails.”

4. Speed of travel
“Everyone wants to go fast on [ATVs], and that causes problems,” Sain says. “For starters, speed is dangerous. In addition, it reduces your ride time.” To remedy this, the ICV trails snake their way through the terrain and require riders to take the time to navigate around rocks, through standing trees and over fallen logs. By doing so, these trails prevent excessive speed, which can damage trails and result in injuries to riders. The nearly half-mile trail that we cut meandered through a patch of woods, providing a very navigable yet challenging and scenic trail. In addition to limiting rider speed, these serpentine trails make the most of the available land—instead of straight, high-speed runs, riders weave through trees and around rock piles.

The easiest way to cut trails is by using a bulldozer or other heavy equipment, but these trails are usually wide open and straight, encouraging high speed. The members of the ICV ATV club cut their trails by hand, making them narrower and allowing much more flexibility when it comes to adding twists and turns that mitigate rider speed.

5. Difficulty
Not everyone who owns an ATV is ready to cross boulders and ride steep inclines. For that reason, the ICV ATV club divides their trails according to the level of skill required to navigate the terrain. Green trails are the simplest—fairly level and free of tough obstacles that can quickly overwhelm new riders. Intermediate trails are labeled with blue markers, and they present more challenging rides yet they aren’t exclusive to expert riders. These trails frequently cross rocks and uneven ground, though they are free of really challenging obstacles that demand a high level of rider skill. Black trails are the toughest, providing expert riders with a real challenge in the form of steep inclines and declines and obstacles that would overwhelm and endanger new riders. Signs at the entry and exit points of each trail indicate the skill level required so new riders don’t accidently end up over their heads.

6. Accessibility
Great trails provide easy access to riders and offer ample space for parking and unloading and loading of vehicles, so before construction begins it’s important for any ATV club to set aside ample land for these purposes. Originally, the ICV ATV club members had to park in an area that was away from their trailhead, and riders then had to travel some distance before they reached the trail system. Recently, thanks to cooperation from local landowners, the club established a parking area that provides plenty of space for lots of riders and is located only a few hundred feet from the trails. Additionally, trail maps provide clear directions through the entire property and make it easy for new members to find trails that are on-par with their skill level and to access scenic overlooks and picnic areas within the club’s 850 leased acres.

7. Teamwork
Cutting and maintaining trails requires teamwork, and having members who are willing to lend a hand makes it possible to improve existing trails and create new courses. I was on a team of five as we cut a new trail at the ICV club, and the work would have been overwhelming for one person. Our group worked quickly, though, with various members assigned to cut limbs, remove large trees with a chainsaw, trim weeds, and remove debris by hand. In a little less than three hours we had opened a new trail that meandered nearly a half-mile through the woods, and when you consider that the club is home to over 36 miles of trails, you can quickly see the level of member cooperation required to develop an extensive trail system.

Have you planned and constructed ATV trails? If so, leave a comment here so others can learn from your experience.

Preseason Shooting Drills: How to Really Zero Your Rifle

This target on the left shows a nice group, but the rifle isn’t zeroed. After adjusting the point of impact (right), the author got the gun shooting exactly where he wanted it. 

This is the second post in a series on preparing for big game season. To see last week's post on dry firing drills for trigger control and proper form, click here. Stay tuned for another installment next week.

 

What, exactly does it mean to zero a rifle? When most shooters zero their gun they put some shots downrange, getting a group, then adjust their scope and shoot again to confirm the point of impact. If the shot is one inch high at 100 yards (or whatever they’re trying for), they call it good. But this, however, does not mean the rifle is zeroed.

 

To properly zero the rifle you need to know where your bullets are going to impact, within the capabilities of the rifle you and ammo you’re using, every single time you pull the trigger. This, of course, assumes minimal error based on input from the shooter, which is why we try to zero from a bench and off sandbags and rests.

 

First, let’s back up. Say you’ve shot five-shot group that you’re happy with, meaning that you didn’t yank, flinch, or otherwise cause one of the shots to go astray. Figure out where the center of that cluster is and use it as your reference point. That point—whether a bullet hit there or not—represents your rifle’s zero.

 

Make the appropriate adjustments to get that virtual point of impact where you want it to be.

 

Now, whether you zero dead on at 100 yards or zero higher is up to you. Both have their merits. A dead-on zero at 100 allows for precise use with scopes with hold-over reticles—I’m talking mil/mil and moa/moa reticles, not the more generic type of ballistic holdover reticles that many companies make. Those reticles often have their own instructions for a given caliber and are an approximate representation of how the bullet will fly. Frankly, I’m not a huge fan of these types of reticles because for longer shots, which is what they’re purported designed for, because their reference points are an approximation of a ballistic curve and for long shots you want to know exactly where that bullet is going to hit. 

 

Zeroing high at 100 yards—usually between one and three inches—can be very useful, as it gives you the ability to hold dead on an animal out to very respectable distances without worrying about holdover. Depending on the cartridge, this technique will give you a point-blank zero out as far as 200 to 300 yards. You’ll need to use a ballistic calculator to figure out the exact distance, but once your point blank zero is established it takes a lot of thinking out of the equation during your hunt.

 

In fact, I’m using this technique myself for a hunt I’m headed on next week. I’m going for a grizzly in Alaska and I’ve zeroed my .375 Ruger 2 inches high at 100. The 250-grain bullet exiting the muzzle at 2,900 fps will drop about 6 inches at 300 yards. So any bear out to 275 yards, I can just hold on the middle of the chest and know my zero is good—though to be honest I plan on getting a lot closer to the bear than that before pulling the trigger.

 

But all of this calculation is for naught if you don’t know where that bullet is going to hit when your rifle puts its first cold shot down range and if you don’t respect the size of its groups on paper.

 

Not every rifle is a 1-inch MOA rifle out there. Far from it. I test guns for a living and can tell you that a true MOA rifle—one that will print 5-shot groups every time with a given type of ammunition—is a rare beast. Most good rifles are 1.5 MOA rifles and plenty are 2 MOA or slightly worse. And this level of accuracy is just fine for most hunting. But you need to take into honest account the amount of dispersion your rifle exhibits at the range before taking it hunting. Just because a rifle might have once clustered three shots in a tidy 1-inch group doesn’t make it a 1-inch rifle.

 

Gather your data at the range and respect what it says. 

 

If there’s a type of ammo you’re interested in hunting with, invest in two boxes of the stuff. With those 40 rounds you should be able to collect five good 5-shot groups and have some ammo to spare. This data will tell you what you need to know—where your bullets are hitting and what your rifle’s honest performance is. It will also give you a chance to dial in your rifle so that the center of your groups is exactly where you want. 

 

Congratulations. Now, your rifle is zeroed. And from here on out, we’re going to move away from the bench and start drilling from the field positions you’re going to actually hunt with. See you next week.

7 Rules for Teaching Kids to Fish the Right Way

My friend’s father was as passionate a fisherman as anyone I’ve ever known. Worked hard. Fished harder. Taught others. For a half-century his weekends were packed with fishing trips. Rarely was he not on the lake. When his business success allowed he purchased a slice of lakeside property and his fishing passion burned even hotter. 

His son, now deep into middle age, doesn’t fish. I once asked him why. He shook his head with a wry smile that spoke volumes. “Dad wore me out with it with I was a kid.”

Fishing with youngsters (your own or others) is a balancing act. We want to do it. We need to do it. We must do it. But we mustn’t over do it. A few guidelines:

1. Kids need to catch fish
Sure, you and your buddy fished from daylight until dark, caught two bass and had a great time. But your 8-year-old probably will not embrace your “it’s-just-fun-to-be-out-here” angling enthusiasm as readily. A weedy bank where bluegill and other perch provide fast action is what you want. A local park lake will be a good starting spot. 

2. Size doesn’t matter
Everyone wants a 6-pound bass or 20-inch trout. For a youngster a 5-inch bluegill is a trophy. 

3. Keep it simple
Rod, line, hook, sinker, bobber and bait. A cane pole remains a basic tool. For the mechanically minded get a Zebco 33 (or 202) combo. There’s a reason they’ve been around, basically unchanged, for 61 and 54 years, respectively. 

4. Bait up
The design, manufacture, and marketing of lures is a multi-million dollar industry. Worms catch fish. Buy a box of worms. Better yet, help your young fisherman dig his or her own. 

5. Bring snacks
A hungry young fisherman is an unhappy young fisherman. 

6. Keep it fun
Sometimes kids want to catch to fish. Sometimes they want to chase butterflies. Sometimes they want to text their friends—iPads and cell phones aren’t going away, but they aren’t necessarily the enemy, either. Bring the toys along. 

7. Let the kid fish
The only rod needed is the one the youngster is holding is his or her hands. Your job is to untangle lines, bait hooks, remove fish and squeal as loudly as they do. 

Kids love to fish. Just don’t wear them out. Here’s a video to help you rig up.

Survival Skills: How to Signal For Help, Without Any Gear

Signaling for help is one of the unsung heroes in the world of survival. While it’s not as exciting to practice as other skills (say, fire starting), it’s something that you should at least think about regularly (if not practice). In its most basic form, signaling is your ticket to go home from a stressful and miserable wilderness survival scenario. If you can manage to attract help, and the good Samaritan is willing to help, you’re out of there. While we should always hit the backcountry with signaling equipment, namely a mobile phone, whistle, mirror, survey tape and permanent marker—you should be prepared for the possibility of losing all your gear. And it is for that scenario, that you need to know how to use things in nature (and even your own body) to create emergency signals. 

Audible Signals
These are the first signals you are likely to employ. Any person’s Knee-jerk reaction to an emergency is to call out for help, but that’s not your only option. Try several of the following methods and rotate them for variety.

—Yell
—Whistle (with your fingers, if you can)
—Clack stones together 
—Smack hardwood sticks together

Visual Signals 
These are the signals that your search and rescue team or a lucky bystander might spot. For fire starting (your number one choice in most situations), make sure you carry multiple fire starting methods in the back country, just in case.  Build three fires for an international symbol for “help”. These three fires could be in a geometric pattern (like a triangle) in a low area. You could also place the fires in a row, especially if you are on a ridge or beach.

—Fire (the light, smoke and smell of a fire can draw attention)
—Ground to air signals make with vegetation or other natural materials that are easy to move
—Ground to ground signals involving messages made from the placement of sticks or stones
—“Drawing” on trees with charcoal chunks or a similar writing instrument
—“Flags” made from any material you find or make that is a contrast to the natural environment. For example, use black charcoal to color strips of bark black and hang them up to create a trail or path.

Please tell us how you’d make your emergency signals by leaving us a comment.

Survival Gear: 5 Emergency Items You Should Carry in Multiples

If you were in the military, or know people who were or are, you’ve probably heard someone utter the axiom “Two is one—one is none." This phrase seems a little murky in the mathematics department, but it is spot-on when it comes to real life emergencies and the frequent effects of Murphy’s Law (you know, when bad stuff happens just because it can). The idea that one is actually “none” refers to your situation if you lose or break the one solitary item you needed, leaving yourself with nothing. By having more than one instance of an important thing, you’ve covered yourself for the eventuality that one item will be lost, damaged, or just stop working.

Simple stuff, but are we invested in our survival enough to actually make it happen? Here are five things you should carry in multiples, just in case you get in a bind.

1. Communications 
When things get tough, being able to communicate is a critical part of your game plan. This communication could be signaling for help if you get into trouble in a remote (or not so remote) area. Or communication could mean using a backup cell phone to call for help during a crisis. By only having one mobile phone, no matter how rugged it is, you’re asking for trouble. Next time you upgrade your phone, save the old one and chuck it into your glove box or your bug out bag. You’ll have to remember to recharge the battery once in a while, but it’s worth the trouble. Other handy communication items can be signal whistles and mirrors, flares, and anything else that could get you rescued.

2. Cash
While we could argue that money doesn’t and shouldn’t make the world go round, it still kinda does. You may have a mountain of money in a bank, but it would do you little good in certain scenarios. Keep a few bills folded up and buried in your wallet or purse, and order yourself to leave them there unless it’s an actual emergency. This will take some willpower, but it gives you the currency to pick up some supplies, buy some food, or pay for a ride if there’s ever a problem with electronic payment systems or the electricity is out. Cash is king!

3. Weapon 
I hope you never need either, but your every day carry weapon and it’s backup should be ready to go at a moment’s notice. We live in a volatile world and civility is a thin veneer that can be easily shattered in an emergency. Your go-to weapon (whatever that is) should have a backup. 

4. Light Source
Batteries go bad. This is just a fact of life. Electrics and light bulbs fail too. A light source could be a life saver in a dark and scary situation. Keep a backup light of some kind, and some extra batteries on hand. Make sure you can find them quickly and easily, even in the dark.

5. Fire Starter
Fire is survival. Plain and simple. It allowed our ancestors to expand across the globe and it protects us today from the cold, bad water, dangerous organisms in food, and so on. I carry three fire sources and heavily favor the ones that produce an open flame (butane lighters). These are cheap, don’t raise any eyebrows if you have to turn out your pockets, and they serve many uses. Matches and ferro rods can act as nice fire starting backups.

Please tell us what you carry in multiples, and why, by leaving us a comment. 

Hunting Gear: How to Buy a Backcountry Tripod

The second-most-asked optics question I get, right after “What’s the best cheapest binocular I can buy?” is “What tripod should I buy for backcountry hunts?”

It’s a good question, stemming from the realization that good optics can save time and steps in the big, rugged country of the West. The best optic for long-distance viewing is a spotting scope, but in order to get the most utility out of a high-magnification scope, it needs to be stabilized on a tripod. Hence, the question.

Tripods can be compact, lightweight, strong, or affordable. As a backcountry hunter, you get to pick any two of those attributes. There is really no model that mortals can afford that meets all four of those qualities, and the purpose of this post is to discuss the trade-offs of matching up various combinations of features to help you pick the best tripod for your budget, hunting style, and expectations.

The Manfrotto BeFree tripod, topped with a 50mm Minox compact spotting scope.

COMPACT AND LIGHT
So let’s look at the first combination of attributes. Both of these—packability and weight—are first-order considerations for serious backcountry hunters. The problem is that a light, tight tripod typically won’t be strong, and may not be able to stabilize the biggest 80- and 85mm scopes that have the resolving power to count age rings on the horns of bighorn rams or points on distant elk antlers.

A compact tripod should be able to be compressed to about 16 inches. But these typically have two-stage legs, which means that they are designed for sit-down viewing—they are not tall enough for a spotter to be able to stand. That’s okay for most of us, who know that the majority of backcountry hunting is spent on our bums, our eyes scrunched up to spotting scopes.

The lightest tripods will have legs made of carbon fiber instead of aluminum. Carbon can shave as much as half the weight of aluminum, but it’s typically more than twice as expensive, and carbon can flex under stress, such as the weight of a heavy scope or the sideways winds on an exposed ridge.

I’ve been testing a new carbon-fiber model from Manfrotto, a leading maker of tripods for photography and videography. The BeFree tripod has four leg sections, so it extends to standing height. With a simple ball head, it weighs 2.4 pounds and is rated to support 8.8 pounds. With a quick-release ball head, it retails for around $350. So far, so good. But when the flimsy legs are fully extended, the tripod flexes too much to stabilize a full-size scope. I’ve been using a compact spotter, and it performs well, but the 50mm scope isn’t my optics choice for a full-on backcountry hunt.

Also, the tiny controls on the ball head are hard to use, and will frustrate a hunter who does a lot of panning and scope adjusting.

The Outdoorsman's tripod mounted with a 3.5-pound Zeiss Victory spotting scope.

COMPACT AND STRONG
So let’s look at the next combination of attributes, a strong, stable tripod that can telescope down to a compact package. The trade-off is that strength travels heavy, and the best models have stout aluminum legs capable of stabilizing a big spotter like my 85mm Zeiss Victory, which weighs 3.5 pounds.

The gold standard of this type of tripod is the Outdoorsmans’ model. I have the medium version, which compacts down to just over 18 inches and weighs 2.4 pounds without the panning head. Here’s the hard part: the whole unit (tripod and head) costs $569, and you can add another $100 for the tall or compact-medium models.

Still, the Outdoorsman is solid, and won’t chatter or move even in stiff wind. The trigger-style panning head is strong, easy to use, and is infinitely adjustable. And this set-up is versatile. The Arizona company sells adapters to support a binocular and brackets to support a rifle for long shots.

The Swarovski CT travel tripod easily supports a full-sized Meopta spotting scope.

LIGHTWEIGHT AND STRONG
The best example of this combination of attributes is a full-size carbon-fiber tripod such as Swarovski’s CT Travel model. The three-stage legs extend to full height and compact down to about 20 inches, pretty bulky for a backpack. But the carbon legs are beefy, and the 3.1-pound unit (with the panning head) can stabilize a load of about 12 pounds. That’s plenty stout enough for even the largest spotting scopes.

Of course, there’s a trade-off (getting used to that theme here?), and in the case of the Swaro, it’s both price and packability. The tripod and head will set you back about $840, and the bulky unit takes up a lot of room, even when strapped to the outside of a backpack.

Note: The tripod pictured is not actually the Vortex Summit SS—it's a Nikon model similar to the Vortex.

AFFORDABLE AND ADEQUATE
This is the sweet spot for this category of gear, and probably the ideal is a light-enough, strong-enough, compact-enough, affordable-enough model like Vortex’s Summit SS. The SS part of the name stands for “super short,” and the Summit, which has five leg sections, telescopes down to a super-packable 14 inches. It is adequately light, weighing in at 1.8 pounds with the simple ball head.

If the Summit has a drawback it’s that it’s flimsy, rated at supporting only about 5 pounds. That means that a full-sized scope may not fully stabilize. But if you add weight below the center post (I make a habit of tying a roundish rock inside a jacket and suspending it from a hook on the post), you should be able to get away with scoping in all but the most strafing winds. The ball head, while compact and light in weight, is a little flimsy. I would consider stepping up to the 3-way panning head, which adds only a few ounces of weight to the package but tons of utility.

The argument in favor of the Vortex is its price. With the ball head, the Summit SS retails for about $180.

Gun of the Week: Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver

Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver, .455 Webley. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming. Gift of Olin Corporation, Winchester Arms Collection, 1988.8.2486.

A semi-automatic revolver? Okay, I promise I am not committing an egregious terminology faux pas. In 1895, there really was a recoil-operated, automatic revolver invented.

In the 1880s, semi-automatic technology was in its infancy. In 1885, Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher created the first successful semi-automatic rifle. 1893, the Borschardt C-93 semi-automatic pistol came into existence. And countless other variations on the semi-auto design surfaced.

In 1895, Lieutenant Colonel George Vincent Fosbery designed his variation on this budding technology. In essence, the gun is cocked by moving the action-cylinder-barrel assembly back with one hand or through recoil, much like a slide on a standard semi-auto. Once in place, a pivoting lever cocks the hammer and a stud follows the zig-zag grooves, revolving the next chamber half way to the firing position. When the assembly moves forward the stud completes the revolution. 

The Webley-Fosbery revolver was produced in from 1901 to 1915 by the English manufacturer Webley & Scott Revolver and Arms Co. It’s quirky to see two seemingly contradictory forms of pistol technology merged into one idea. Even if the concept only lasted a few years.

To see the previous Gun of the Week—a Hopkins & Allen XL3 Double Action Revolver—click here. Stay tuned for a new gun next week. For more information, check out the Cody Firearms Museum page here, or follow the Cody Firearms Museum on Facebook and Twitter.

Gun Dogs: 4 Crunch-Time Training Tips for Bird Season

You’ve picked your opening-day destination, purchased ammo, bought your license, and cleared your calendar. You’ve been busting clays for weeks to ensure you’re ready when that first bird towers into the sky. But what about your dog?

Trained or not, your four-footed companion could use a tune-up before that first hunt. Whether you’ve trained all summer or usually trust to dumb luck on opening day, be fair to your dog and begin a short a refresher course now.

Consider incorporating these activities into your dog’s daily regimen in the weeks before you head for the woods, marsh, or prairies.

1. Drill 'em. Every session, whether training or exercise, starts with a quick drill through some basic obedience skills. When the season starts, we continue this practice the moment the tailgate drops. My dog heels, gets a “whoa” command or two (you flusher guys can “hup”), and is called back with a “here.” It reminds the dog that hunting is work, and that I’m the boss.

2. Dust off rare commands. We often neglect what I’ll call “alternate commands” until hunting season. Whistles and hand signals aren’t really necessary in most training situations, but could be vital–even life-saving–in a bird field. Run through them a few times in the weeks before you head for South Dakota.

3. Re-introduce birds. I don’t care how much experience a dog has, if his last bird contact was closing day, I hope you carry a rabbit’s foot, cross yourself, and light a candle at church. Stage-manage a few flushes or points in the yard and training field. Use a checkcord for insurance. Your dog’s memory will be re-kindled, he’ll be starting on the right foot. Don’t forget to add gunshots–they can trigger disobedience as much as a rooster rattling into the air.

4. Ditto retrieves. We start on the training table, moving quickly from bumpers to birds, then blinds. We focus on fundamentals at every step so each pre-season execution is close to perfection. When you pile out of the truck, his memory is of a well-executed “fetch” instead of the sloppy one of closing day.

If you’re bringing a friend and his dog on that first hunt, you might invite both of them over in advance to re-introduce everybody, ideally on neutral ground. It will help minimize the sniffing-posturing and grab-ass (or fights) that can precede a hunt. (Among the dogs, at least.)

The early season is full of stress: travel, new faces, new places, altered daily routine, and a disrupted feeding schedule. Most stress is based on fear of the unknown. You can eliminate much of that for your dog, and thus for yourself, by re-acquainting him with these basics before you hit the field on opening day.

Seven Things to Know About Buck Rubs

Nothing fires up a bowhunter better than the first buck rub of the year. I get wide-eyed and crazy every time I see one. And, I start formulating game plans when I do. Below is what you need to know about buck rubs.

1) Why Bucks Rub Trees
I—nor do deer researchers—fully understand the communicative value of buck rubs. That said, we do know that bucks rub to remove velvet. It’s also common belief that bucks rub secretions from their forehead glands onto tree trunks as a form of communication within the herd.

2) Preferred Trees
I don’t know about all regions, but everywhere I’ve hunted, it seems most bucks prefer coniferous trees to rub on. Cedars and pines are top-choice timber for buck rubs. Maybe it’s the loose, flaky bark and softer wood. Maybe it’s the high-sap content. Your guess is as good as mine.

3) Orientation Is Important
Pay attention to the location of rubs. A single rub on a field edge was likely made after dark by a feeding whitetail. A line of rubs coming out of thick cover is a sure-fire travel route from bed to feed.

4) The Side Of The Tree
Take heed what side of the tree the rub is on. Rubs generally point in the direction a buck came from when he made it. Remember this the next time you come across a series of rubs. Most times, all of them face the same direction. Many rubs (but certainly not all) are made at night. Because we know this, we can observe what side of the tree the rub is on and have a general idea which direction that buck is bedding.

5) Look Left And Right
Look at trees and branches adjacent to the rub. Wider bucks will rub trees and scruff up surrounding vegetation as well. If an additional tree trunk 9 or 10 inches to the right is nicked up, it’s safe to say that buck could have a good spread.

6) Size Matters, Except When It Doesn’t
Both small bucks and big bucks can make small rubs. But only big bucks can make big rubs. My point? Don’t get too wrapped up in the size of the rub. Instead, get more excited over a rub that is higher up the tree. This is indicative of an older deer.

7) How To Hunt Them
Single rubs aren’t worth fussing over. On the contrary, a series of rubs are. A series of rubs is a good sign of a consistent travel route. But hunt them as quickly as possible. A buck’s behavior will change as food sources change. Wait for conditions to ripen and then camp out downwind of the rub line.

Video from Alaska: A Tough Hunt in Dall Sheep Country

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Every good sheep hunt is a mixture of sweat, pain, hunger, adversity, exhilaration, and awe, followed by more pain and suffering. This one was no different.

Not everyone will agree with me, but I believe that a person has not hunted until they have hunted sheep. I also maintain they are not sheep hunters until they’ve gone in unguided, depending only on their grit and sinew to find, kill, and pack out their ram.

I didn’t feel quite right taking to the mountains with no means of killing a ram myself, but I was happy to accompany my buddy Frank on his draw hunt. I got to watch Frank take his first ram last year on opening day, and being hooked for life, he was chomping at the bit to get another one on the ground.

For two days, we saw only ewes, lambs, and small rams, then the snow kept us tent-bound. When we finally got out, we encountered a wolverine, miles of steady rain, and then, when the weather lifted, a basin full of sheep.

Watch the video from our trip to get a virtual seat on the mountain, and experience a little bit of the pain, hunger, adversity, and heaping doses of awe and exhilaration that we did. Spoiler Alert: Frank killed a grand old ram, and I caught the shot on camera. Then the work started, with miles of grinding country under our very full packs. It was a trying eight days, but as with any good hunt, it ended way too quick.

Five Steps to Help Your Kid Enjoy the Dove Hunting Opener

 Photograph by Craig NYHUS/Lone Star News

Late summer marks the beginning of dove season, and across the country kids are receiving their introduction to the sport of hunting by sitting on a bucket at the edge of a grain field and maintaining an eye on the sky. But dove hunting can be extremely challenging, even for experienced shooters. Here’s how to give young shooters the best chance of success and help ensure that their first opening day is but one of many. 

1) Find a Gun That Fits 
Most kids get to have very little input on their first shotgun, but your child will benefit if you can involve him in the process. When you go shopping, keep in mind that a short stock and a lighter weight will help your child manage the gun better, and a gas-operated semi-auto will soften the punch of recoil. A 28-gauge gun is probably the best option, since it produces a more forgiving shot pattern than the smaller .410 and less recoil than its larger 20- and 12-gauge counterparts. Make gun safety the top priority at the range and in the field. 

2) Spend Time at the Range 
The best way to kill more doves is to break more clays. Practice crossing shots at the skeet range and, if possible, have your new hunter practice a few shots from a low-gun position so he’s familiar with the process of mounting, swinging, and shooting all in one motion. Spend a few Saturdays before the season opener at the local sporting clays course, and always be encouraging, helping him develop proper shotgun technique.

3) Do a Dress ­Rehearsal 
Take your child to the field about a week before the hunt and set him up in the same position he’ll be in on opening day. Have him treat the experience as though he is hunting, watching for doves, remaining still, and tracking the birds as if he is going to shoot. Spend no more than 30 to 45 minutes in position, just enough to give your youngster a view of the field as it will appear on opening day.

4) Give him the Best Seat 
If you’ve scouted your dove fields, you likely have an idea of where the birds will be flying. Use this knowledge to position your young shooter where he’ll be able to see the doves coming and have a clear shooting lane. By positioning a kid where he can see birds early, you’ll give him an extra second or two to get prepared, which can mean the difference between a hit and a miss. 

5) Prepare him for the Challenge 
Many kids go into the field with the expectation that they’ll bag a limit of birds quickly, making precise shots on even the toughest flyers. As all experienced hunters know, that just isn’t realistic. 

Don’t make the experience about counting birds. Instead, use your time in the field to enjoy each other’s company, explain how difficult dove hunting can be, and take the time to discuss the role of hunting in conservation. Tell him it’s okay if he misses and that you’ll come back again another day and try again.