Free Republic

Ask the guys at the annual Shawnee Squirrel Hunt in Southern Illinois, and they will tell you that there is no finer pastime than squirrel hunting - and no finer group of people than the hunters who attend the Shawnee hunt. The Shawnee Squirrel Hunt, based at the Pine Hills campground in the Shawnee National Forest in Union County, was begun 10 years ago by Dan Kilgrove, who posted the hunt on the forum at Rimfirecentral.com. A decade later, the hunt has a core group of hunters who try to attend every year and who welcome newcomers to the annual...

Outdoor writer Jeffrey L. Frischkorn recently publicized discussions at the Ohio Division of Wildlife to open deer hunting to firearms other than certain handguns, shotguns and muzzle-loading rifles. From the article: As for the future of deer management in Ohio, that is a subject under review, said [Mike Tonkovich, the Ohio Division of Wildlife's deer management administrator]. The biologist is in the process of sending out a random survey of all licensed Ohio hunters. One of the questions being asked is whether hunters would support an antlerless-only muzzle-loading season in October. Also being explored is whether to liberalize the regulations...

More youth hunters will have the opportunity to participate in the 2011 youth goose hunt in southernmost Illinois, which is shaping up to top 2010 for hunting opportunities and a fun-filled banquet, according to one of the organizers who helped to make last year's event one of the biggest and best hunts in the history of the hunt. Designated as a goose hunt, ducks may also be harvested, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The hunt itself, which will be held in Union and Alexander counties, is set for Dec. 28, with the banquet held the evening before...

Investigators still have no motive, witnesses or suspects in the slaying of a powerhouse Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen but details in an initial coroner's report reveal that the shooter appears to be an expert marksman. Chasen, 64, who represented A-list movie stars and promoted some of Hollywood's top films, was driving home Nov. 16 after attending the premiere party for the movie "Burlesque" when she was gunned down. According to the preliminary coroner's report, which is now under security hold, "there were three apparent gunshot wounds to the right side breast/chest area.

PARIS (AP) — The French government said Thursday it will conduct a fourth search for the flight recorders of an Air France jetliner that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris 18 months ago. All 228 people aboard Flight 447 died, and families of some victims have demanded that France not give up the hunt for the flight recorders — and answers about what caused the plane to plunge into the ocean during a large thunderstorm on June 1, 2009. Transport Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet and Junior Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said a fourth search...

MILAN Aug 29 (Reuters) - At least 18 mushroom-lovers have been killed in accidents while hunting for their favourite fungi in the mountains and forests of northern Italy. Mountain rescuers say eager mushroom seekers are abandoning safety procedures as they don camouflage and hunt in darkness to protect coveted troves, la Repubblica newspaper reported on Sunday. "There is too much carelessness. Too many people don't give a darn about the right rules and unfortunately this is the result," Gino Comelli, head of the Alpine rescue service in northwest Italy's Valle di Fassa, told the newspaper.

Visualize a huge (7-12 foot) alligator coming to the top of the water thrashing and rolling. A man has a hold on the line that the hook and alligator are on. These alligators are ranging from 500- 1,000+ pounds. The fight between man and alligator is breathtaking to me.

CAMP RAMADI – American and Iraqi Soldiers have been working together since March to ensure the safety of residents and military forces by identifying and clearing roadside bombs throughout Anbar province. Over the past four months, engineers from Company A, 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Advise and Assist Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, have conducted training and route clearance operations with the 1st Iraq Army Division’s 2nd Iraq Army Bomb Disposal Company. The Soldiers of Co. A have participated in 30 training events and 23 bilateral route-clearance operations with 2nd IABDC. The training has focused on route-clearance fundamentals to increase...

The Thursday in March 1980 when the American brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt, seeking to corner the silver markets, were unable to meet a margin call on their futures contracts. The brothers were two of the fourteen children of the Texas oil magnate H.L. Hunt, who was the richest man in the United States when he died in 1974. Bunker and Herbert started investing in silver as a hedge against inflation and by 1980 it was estimated that they held one-third of the world's supply of the metal. When silver prices slid, the Hunt brothers failed to meet...

KABUL, May 14, 2010 – Afghan forces and their international partners conducted several operations around Afghanistan last night and today, military officials reported. The operations resulted in numerous militants being killed, wounded or captured, and in the seizure of enemy weapons caches and stockpiles of drugs that provide financial capital for insurgent activity. A Taliban subcommander and other insurgents were killed, and two insurgents were captured, by an Afghan-international security force in Nangarhar province’s Surkh Rod district last night. The combined force was fired upon when approaching a compound where intelligence information had verified insurgent activity was taking place. During...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- State wildlife officials have created a special python hunting season to try to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout the Everglades. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says anyone with a hunting license who pays a $26 permit fee can kill the reptiles from March 8 to April 17 on state-managed lands around the Everglades in South Florida. The season is open for Burmese and Indian pythons, African rock pythons, green anacondas and Nile monitor lizards.

Government sharpshooters are taking aim at hundreds of white-tailed deer in the national park surrounding the Camp David presidential retreat in western Maryland. The move to reduce the deer population comes after nearly three decades of research and opposition from animal-rights advocates. Acting Park Superintendent Sean Denniston said the hunt in Catoctin Mountain Park began Monday afternoon and will continue most weekday afternoons and nights through mid-March. Large sections of the park will be periodically closed, he said. Park officials say the operation is intended to cull an outsize herd that has devoured so many saplings and low-hanging tree branches...

As expected, the slumping economy weighed heavily on voters. David Wilder, 56, of Burke said mounting job losses and, to a lesser degree, the debate over health care pushed him to vote for Hunt. "It's the economy, it's the stimulus, it's health care, it's the way the system is being run," said Wilder, a physician.

In recent days, Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell has contributed $90,000 and the Republican caucus in the senate has contributed another $90,000 to the state GOP party -- all of which is being spent on Steve Hunt's campaign for state senate in the 37th District next week. The money is being spent on mailers, phone calls and one internal poll, which shows Hunt leading Democrat Dave Marsden in the race to replace Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R) who was elected attorney general in November.

Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense....

Fellow Freepers, I just made an online donation to Steve Hunt. He is the Republican running for the 37th VA Senate, to replace Ken Cuccinelli who was elected as Atty. General of VA. Steve is a conservative, progun and prolife Republican. He is endorsed by VCDL and VSHL Pac. His opponent, Dave Marsden, is a democrat who just barely won re-election in Nov. as a delegate. Democrat Marsden lives outside the district, and to had to "get a room" to legally qualify to run against Steve Hunt. He is getting funding from leftwing groups like NARAL. I challenge my fellow...

CLINTON, N.J. (AP) -- In a wooded area up a dirt road off an interstate highway, Jamie Cap peers down the sight of his new shotgun at a target about 40 yards away. He adjusts the angle by nudging a toggle switch, then fires. An ear-shattering report echoes off the trees and nearby cars, and Cap is pushed back a few inches by the force of the blast. He turns and nods his head - the only part of his body he can completely control....

Jason Hunt transferred to Texas to be closer to his family. As a boy, Jason Hunt once had to wear silver caps on his front teeth. When he was too timid to smile, his sister, appealing to his love of video games, asked him to show his Ninja Turtle teeth. "He was so embarrassed and such a shy boy," recalled his sister Leila Willingham, 30, of Frederick, Okla. "That was the only way I could make him smile." In high school, Hunt refused to dissect a cat for a class assignment. He was so upset that his mother had to...

From Robocop to Terminator to Saturn 3, robots have had some bad press in sci-fi movies--particularly when given guns and assigned military roles. But that's all fiction. Here are two early prototypes of military bots that are really scary. Little Dog The first is a new version of Boston Dynamics astonishing, if incredibly loud, Big Dog robot. The original big beast is designed to be a semi-autonomous pack-horse to assist the soldier in the field--it can trot across almost any terrain, tackling the difficult surface conditions automatically. It even resists being kicked off-course.

This guy should be on an outdoor channel. He has many more serious videos with reviews of different guns. Especially Glocks.