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Just recently, a small town near Chicago voted to repeal arduous gun laws in the build-up to a new Cabela’s store opening in the area. Now, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and Chicago Mayor Richard Daly want to undo it all. They have endorsed a bill in the state house that closely resembles the recently expired federal assault weapons ban. Without citing any facts (maybe because they don’t exist?) or giving a logical argument, the pair is trying to deliver a major blow to lawful gun owners. The language of the bill calls for an end to sales of “semiautomatic assault weapons,” .50 caliber rifles and ammunition, magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and so-called “assault weapon attachments.”
The Illinois State Rifle Association has joined with gun makers in taking a very public stand against the legislation.
Though some authorities around the country have denied the expansiveness of the mountain lion’s range, more and more sightings are proving that the big felines have spread across the land. The latest run-in with a cougar occurred in a Los Angeles suburb, where a two-year-old, male lion slept under bushes in a small neighborhood.
The cat was tranquilized and removed, but not before a nearby school went into lockdown mode, fearing for the students’ safety.
Looks like the movie that all outdoorsmen want to talk about, but few will see, is starting to affect the psyche of anglers. Charlie Meyers, an outdoor columnist at the Denver Post, has a funny column up about how the movie has changed the tenor of his fishing trips. Now whenever he goes for an overnighter on the stream his wife gives him a funny look, and it’s not because he forgot to take the garbage out. Give it a read.
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You know your town might have a crime problem when the local NBA franchise, in this case the Philadelphia 76ers, unveils a program to swap firearms for pairs of basketball tickets. The operation began Wednesday and will run for one week. Keeping in line with other gun swaps, this is a “no-questions-asked” trade. Police are only looking to get weapons off the street, not pursue criminal investigations.
This is nothing new, precincts throughout the country still rely on these programs, if anything, as a publicity stunt. Gun-rights activists should be especially wary of Philadelphia’s latest effort because Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson told reporters he would be “happy if law-abiding citizens turned in their firearms, too.”
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Hunters received a colossal black eye when Dick Cheney shot his companion during a hunting accident. The press predictably went into a feeding frenzy, and every day we’ve been treated with copious amounts of nasty press, bad jokes and outright idiocy. One re-occurring question is: how could this happen? How could anyone be so careless so as to shoot his hunting pal?
I understand precisely how it could have happened. Hunting accidents will not go away. Some forms of hunting are more dangerous than others, and I understand that turkey hunting has the worst safety record of all. Upland bird hunting is especially perilous for obvious reasons. There can be chaotic moments when flying birds present all sorts of targets, requiring the shooter to make split-second decisions.
I was almost involved in an accident 40 years ago that duplicates the Cheney incident. I was hunting woodcock with two buddies in a dense alder thicket. We all wore orange hats, and we called out frequently or whistled to signal our location. I was in the middle of a thicket, and my companions were on either side of me. At one point, a bird got up and my buddy to my left knocked it down. He walked up in front of me to retrieve it, and I assumed he went back to his position beside me since he walked off in that direction. He didn’t. At that time we entered a stand of thick cedars, and I didn’t know he was walking directly in front of me. A bird got up, I shouldered my gun, and was tracking it when suddenly I saw orange directly behind the bird. It was my pal. I jerked up the unfired gun and realized I could have shot him. I sat down on a log with the shakes and took awhile to compose myself.
What About the Beer?
Having said that I understand how Cheney’s accident could occur, I cannot abide with the beer he drank at lunch. I heard one argument that the accident occurred several hours after he had the beer, but do we know if he went hunting shortly after lunch? Whether he did or not, the consumption of alcohol anytime one is hunting or about to hunt is absolutely a bad deal. I don’t believe there are laws that say you can’t hunt with alcohol on your breath, but this is a matter of hunting ethics and safety, which is, of course, the primary reason we don’t drink and hunt.
Now then, I’ve had more than a few beers in my life, and I still enjoy a libation around the campfire when the guns are cleaned and put away. I’m not on a pulpit here, just expressing my disappointment. The Vice President should have known better. He should have stood by the moral code that all of us hunters subscribe to. And to add fuel to the fire, he was cited for not having the proper bird stamp. I can understand this, too, because nowadays most states require stamps for just about anything that runs, flies or crawls. But he should have been diligent enough to at least have had someone check for him.
This will blow over, though I’m not sure where Mr. Cheney’s political career will go. At the very least, I’d like to see him apologize to America’s hunters.
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We’ve gotten a tremendous response from our gun reviews at the SHOT Show. Here, our gear editor, John Snow, talks about the pros and cons of two big-game calibers, the .45-70 and the .450 Marlin in response to one commenter's question. Look for an exclusive gear blog to launch soon with plenty of gun reviews. "I'm planing to buy a 45-70 or a .450 Marlin, but I can't decide. I was wondering, can you shoot the new LeverEvolution ammo in a regular 45-70 and can you shoot regular 45-70 ammo in the new Marlin XLR?"
Lever Action Ammo
The .45-70 and .450 Marlin are both hard-thumping big game killers. It would be difficult to definitively recommend one over the other. The two calibers are kissing cousins, in regards to ballistics. They use the same bullets, though the .450 Marlin does have about a 100-200 fps edge in velocity for any given factory load. I doubt any animal would be able to tell the difference. Truth is, you won't go wrong with either.
You can put your mind at ease about using the new ammo in older lever actions or older ammo in the new XLRs - all those combinations will work together just fine. In theory you should see a slight advantage in the accuracy of the XLRs when shooting the LeverEvolution ammunition. At least that's what Marlin's engineers had in mind when they gave the XLR rifle barrels a slightly faster rate of twist. But as with any rifle you buy you should make a point of shooting as many different types of ammo through it as you can. The different levels of accuracy you'll see may surprise you.
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In case you didn't read the comments on Todd Smith's recent post "OL Editor Responds to Quail-Gate," take a look. Today, Smith replies to specific points made by Ron.
Ron, et al.— Thanks for weighing in on Cheney.
No, I wasn’t commenting on Mr. Cheney’s wealth, rather that the man has been hounded for nearly two weeks over this whole incident, which is still being dissected by the media.
In regards to getting the facts straight, an article by Steve Tuttle in this week’s edition of Newsweek speaks directly to the fact that reporters, particularly in the initial coverage of this story, really made some bogus errors.
In speaking with my contacts at the National Shooting Sports Foundation last week, I was told that they have fielded hundreds of phone calls from reporters wanting technical information surrounding this story. Not surprisingly, none of them have devoted any ink or airtime to speaking to the positive aspects of hunting, which is happily pursued by some 20-million Americans.
Your comment about a celebrity coming in the door and the facts fleeing out the back is right on. America has always been infatuated with the lives of public figures (particularly when they stumble). This is just another example.
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By Todd Smith
Since the news broke about Dick Cheney's unfortunate hunting accident in Texas, the media has been nothing short of ravenous. Reporters are having a field day, using this story as an opportunity to take cheap shots at the Vice President and the Bush administration. Give the poor man a break!
This is an unfortunate sporting accident. People are injured in sporting accidents (hockey, baseball, football) every day. What makes this story so irresistible to the press is that it happened to the Vice President and it involved a firearm. Is it news? Of course, and the press has an obligation to
cover the news. But reporters also have an obligation to get their facts straight.
Why does the press use words like "weapon" instead of "shotgun" or "firearm"? Because weapon sounds more sensational. Same thing with interchanging "buck shot" for "bird shot." Who's fact-checking this stuff?
What happened is a hunter's worst nightmare and we certainly wish Mr. Whittington a speedy recovery. But despite all our efforts to stress safety, accidents in the field do happen. I just wish the press would stick to the facts and leave the politics out of it.
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By now you've seen the reports on TV, you've heard the jokes from late-night comedians and you've probably watched reporters pretend like they know guns (some are confusing buck shot with bird shot). Though the real story involves the importance of hunter safety, as well as the condition of the victim, it seems that the news cycle is revolving around administration haters taking cheap shots at Cheney.
So, how is Harry Whittington doing? Not well. Today he suffered a minor heart attack when a piece of shot moved into his heart. Though it's been difficult to get a straight story with all the details of the shooting, it appears that Whittington was hit hard at 30 yards. Several pellets were lodged in his face and upper body. At the moment Whittington is in intensive care and expected to be in the hospital for up to seven days. Cheney was, of course, cleared of any charges of malicious intent, though he was found to be hunting without the proper bird stamps.
Hanback's Opinion
Our whitetail guru, Michael Hanback, offers his analysis of the incident and the media's handling of it on his blog, the Big Buck Zone. Take a look.
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Original Muck Boot Company—Longspur
By Will Snyder
The Original Muck Boot Company is entering a new market with upland and big-game hunting boots, a break from the usual molded chore boots the label is known for. At the top of the line is the Longspur, a leather and synthetic fiber boot that is built for long range hiking. A Swiss tongue wraps around the outside channel of the shoe, which gives the shin bone room to move. The leather pattern is also unique. Cut in triangular shapes, the leather offers support around the ankles, but doesn't require any breaking in, since the pattern follows the contour of the foot's natural motion. It goes without saying that the boot is waterproof and breathable, two standard features of the company's designs.
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