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I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult...

As the new hunting season begins today, animal rights activists are threatening to disrupt meets as "observers", as well as joining hunts undercover. The saboteurs will film constantly using new telescopic lenses so hunts can be monitored from a distance. They will also use hidden cameras in clothing and time-delay devices dotted around the countryside. (edit) Hunting was banned in 2005 but since then the number of people taking part in the sport has continued to increase, with 50,000 mounted followers expected this year compared to 40,000 in 2004. This year there are expected to be a further 50,000...

Archers will take to tree stands in Colvin Run Mill Park and Colvin Run Stream Valley in coming weeks to reduce the area’s burgeoning deer population, which poses a threat to motorists, hikers, flora and fauna, Fairfax County officials said. The Fairfax County Police Department’s Animal Control Division, working in conjunction with the Fairfax County Park Authority, began allowing select hunting groups into the wooded park areas on Nov. 16. Archery hunts also will be held at Laurel Hill Park in Lorton. Officials estimate the county is home to about 25,000 deer, or 60 per square mile, which is roughly...

'Passionate response' at meeting leads to closure of park site Planned deer hunts in two Fairfax County public parks are riling animal-rights advocates and residents who say the county's new bow-and-arrow deer-culling program is inhumane and dangerous. Starting before dawn Monday, a handful of archers from Suburban Whitetail Deer Management of Northern Virginia, a nonprofit volunteer deer hunting group, went to the Colvin Run Stream Valley and Colvin Run Mill parks and hunted deer from 20- to 30-foot-high deer stands. It was unclear how many were killed, said Eric Huppert, a founder and president of the deer hunting group, but...

AUXVASSE - Bernie Breer, 67, died when his friend accidentally shot him after deer hunting off Route B in Callaway County. Breer was one of three hunters accidentally shot during the opening weekend of dear season. Breer's friend accidentally shot him while taking his gun off his shoulder. "The firearm discharged and hit the victim in the stomach area," Missouri Department of Conservation officer Tom Stother said. Officials reported hunters in Adair and Macon Counties were accidentally shot while deer hunting during the weekend. Last year, a total of five people were accidentally shot during all of deer season. None...

A neighbor's complaint has one lifelong hunter shaking his head after the police spoke with him about a deer hanging from a tree in his front lawn in Bow. Every year since he was 13, Henry Ladd Sr. has hunted deer, moose, bear and whatever else the forest provides. And each year, like clockwork, Ladd has hung the catch in front of his home, where it was gutted and drained of blood before the meat was cut.

Investigators, neighbors, friends and family of 14-year-old Justin Butler are trying to make sense of the tragic events which took his life. Adding another layer of heartbreak for his family, Monday night, Crook County Sheriff deputies arrested Justin's cousin, 21-year-old Brandon Hornseth. "Everybody's in shock, you know and he's such a young man, I mean these things happen in town, they don't happen out here," says Meloni Platt, who lives down the road from the Butler Ranch. Justin was found dead in an RV early Sunday morning, with a gunshot wound to the head. He was on an elk hunt...

Steven MalangaKilling Field Autumn 2009 Environmental groups’ view of the animal world sometimes resembles Disney’s Bambi, with owls and rabbits mingling peacefully and Man lurking as the only predator, aided by his evil servant the hunting dog. A good example is the National Wildlife Federation, which wants to reintroduce wild animals into the suburban and urban enclaves from which development has expelled them by encouraging homeowners to develop “healthy and sustainable wildlife habitats” on their properties. The NWF has even produced a television program—Backyard Habitat, shown on Animal Planet—in which experts advise homeowners in places like Chicago about how...

Proving that you’re never too old to hunt, 90-year-old Delores Wilhelms got her buck for the second straight year. The Wisconsin granny connected on a 9-point buck earlier this month using a crossbow. Last year, after sitting out hunting for years after her husband passed away, Wilhelms’ neighbor, Ron Haessly, helped the woman return to the woods. She was successful in her initial return to the woods taking a buck with her crossbow then as well. The feat earned Wilhelms a write-up in the pages of Outdoor Life. Meanwhile, across the country on Oct. 8, another grandmother, Doris Baumann, who...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin wildlife officials need wolf watchers. The Department of Natural Resources is planning training sessions in November and December for volunteers willing to locate and count gray wolves and other carnivores. More information is available on the DNR's volunteer tracking Web site at http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/mammals/volunteer. The trackers will have to conduct at least three surveys in blocks of central and northern Wisconsin forests. So far this year 174 volunteer trackers have surveyed more than 8,000 miles. They have detected more than 367 different wolves.

Golf, too? If there was one sport you'd think might be immune from the liberal slant that has invaded too much of sports reporting, it's golf. The fairways-and-greens guys are known for generally being Republicans. But out of the blue [green?] on a Golf Channel show this afternoon, host Brandel Chamblee took a cheap shot at Dick Cheney with a rather nasty hunting reference. Chamblee, who before retiring from the PGA Tour had one win in 370 career starts, was discussing with co-host Rich Lerner the putting woes of the affable Jason Gore . . . View video here.

Girl, 12, is youngest Minnesotan to kill moose October 23, 2009 Nicollet, Minn (AP) — A Minnesota wildlife official confirms that a 12-year-old girl is the youngest Minnesotan to kill a moose in the modern era. Department of Natural Resources spokesman Lou Cornicelli says Kelly Holmin of Nicollet achieved the distinction earlier this month. The bull moose had a 58-inch antler spread. Kelly bagged it Oct. 13 on the Gunflint Trail. She and her father endured a cold week of wind and snow before they saw the 1,100-pound moose about 75 yards away. Kelly dropped it with a single shot.

Scott O'Konek shoots his bow 300 days a year, dreaming that someday in the woods somewhere in Minnesota a white-tailed buck of memorable proportions will stride beneath his tree stand. For O'Konek, 29, dream and reality blurred last week at Camp Ripley when a 32-point buck -- bearing perhaps the largest non-typical rack ever taken by archery in Minnesota -- ambled toward him. Forty-four yards from O'Konek's perch, the statuesque whitetail stood a moment, shaking snow from its back as leaden skies drizzled rain. This was about 9 a.m. during the first of two special Camp Ripley archery hunts.

LIVINGSTON, Mont. -- A hunter attacked by a grizzly bear in southern Montana also had the misfortune of being shot in the arm by a companion trying to stop the attack. The incident last Saturday resulted in the bear being killed, the attacked hunter surviving and no charges against the companion for shooting his friend. Park County Sheriff Allan Lutes says his office looked into the shooting of the hunter and found no negligence, with the other hunter trying to save his friend and killing the bear. "It doesn't point to anything but an accident," Lutes said. However, the U.S....

To begin know it is said amongst the knowledgeable North Carolina is sprinkled with a number of “sweet spots” where a fellow can stand in an open field and box the compass in four opposite directions (North,East,South and West) for a few hundred yards and find himself under four conflicting sets of hunting regulations........... The leading (current) contender for complete Alice-In-Wonderland-Mad-Hatter “the law is ours to know and yours to find out” bureaucracy is DUPLIN COUNTY.......

A good example of just how treacherous modern hunting has become. Regulation trumps common sense and everyone is guilty until proven innocent. Two fathers and their sons went hunting in Brinnon on Saturday, but after legally downing an elk with a muzzleloading rifle, they found themselves staring down the barrels of guns pointed at them by uniformed officers of the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe. "The whole thing was handled way wrong," said Don Phipps, who shot the elk. "I've never had anyone pull a gun on me in my whole life. I didn't understand it."

NEWTOWN, Conn. — With the U.S. Supreme Court slated to hear arguments Tuesday in the United States v. Stevens, No. 08-769, the National Shooting Sports Foundation encourages the court to support the First Amendment rights of all media to show images of hunting and fishing. The case centers around a 1999 federal statute used to prosecute a Virginia man on animal cruelty-related charges that because it is so broadly written could similarly be used to prosecute anyone who publishes images of hunting or to prosecute retailers for stocking and selling books, DVDs or art depicting hunting scenes. "The National Shooting...

The question of boys and hunting keeps coming up at our house, and again the other day when the boys walked off the soccer field after a game. "Can we have a dog?" asked one of my eighth-graders. The other twin loves to play with dogs, too. He's kind with them and calm, and dogs and little kids like him. For now, though, he refuses to do what is necessary. "I'm not going out with a bag and pick up the you-know-what. It's not happening. Not gonna do it," he declares, and in this, we believe him. But his brother...

5-year-old boy's kill: gator 20 times his size By CINDY HORSWELL Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle Sept. 30, 2009, 9:52PM 1 2 Michael Paulsen Chronicle At age 5, Simon Hughes is no stranger to hunting. His first big trophy — a 12-foot-6, 800-pound alligator, may be hard to top, though. There are hunters who go a lifetime dreaming of that big kill. Then there's Simon Hughes, who helped nab a beast of an animal on an East Texas hunt — while still in the first grade. The 5-year-old boy from Goodrich was part of a hunting crew that recently killed an...

ROCK HILL Part of the walking trail at Rock Hill's Cherry Park was closed Friday after an owl attacked two people in the park earlier this week, according to city officials. "There is an owl and it has been acting aggressively," said John Taylor, a supervisor with the city's Parks, Recreation and Tourism department. Earl White, 71, said he was attacked Tuesday morning on his daily walk about 6:45 a.m. "I saw something flying opposite me, and then I was attacked," White said. "It got me by the head." White reported the attack to park officials. "It scared the daylights...

FOND DU LAC - The deer a Fond du Lac man bagged has people talking all across Wisconsin. Hunters call the buck unbelievable, a freak of nature. "For anybody to shoot a fair chase animal like that is incredible, it just doesn't happen," Duffy Munson with Dutch's Trading Post said. But on Sunday it did for Wayne Schumacher. The avid hunter is now finding fame on the heels of a 30-pointer. "There had to be 250 people that came through looking at it yesterday," Schumacher said. "One would call the other one, after they saw it they would call the...

Some big-game registration stations, upset over a $4 fee increase to tag bears, have stopped providing the service in Maine. For many years, store owners charged hunters $1 to register animals, pocketing the money. The Legislature added $4 to be sent to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife... Hunters cannot keep an unregistered bear, deer, moose or wild turkey at home or any place of storage for more than 18 hours...

A Moose Hunter is considering himself lucky to be alive after being attacked by a rabid wolf. Rodrick Phillip, age 35 of Kongignak, was hunting on the Kuskokwim River when the predator made a surprise visit to his camp.

A legally blind woman has bagged a bear in the Upper Peninsula.Villa tells WLUC-TV her "limited sight" only allows her to "see the difference between light and dark" and "silhouettes of people."

Former Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio) waxed nostalgic about turkey hunting trips in his first post-prison release, lamenting that as a convicted felon, he can't carry a gun. Traficant called into the NewsRadio 570 WKBN "Outdoor Icon" show on Saturday morning, where he reminiscent about his turkey hunting trips with the host, Denny Malloy. "I want you to know, those were some of the best times in my life," Traficant told Malloy. "I think the hunters provide a very valuable service to our environment," he added. But Traficant said that he cannot hunt right now, though, because of restrictions on firearms...

After two seasons of chukar hunting that could best be described as grim, chukar hunters have reason to be encouraged. It appears that chukar numbers are on the rise. Surveying the highlands along Brownlee Reservoir on August 26, wildlife biologist Jake Powell counted nearly 900 chukars in the 12 square mile survey area. That translates to 73.7 chukars per square mile, double last year's dismal count of 37.8. "It's encouraging news," Powell noted. "We found 106 groups of chukars distributed across the entire survey area with an average group size of 8.3 birds." In contrast, the 2007 and 2008 surveys...

Louisiana will waive sales taxes on purchases of firearms, ammunition and hunting supplies Friday, Sept. 4 through Sunday, Sept. 6. The so-called "Louisiana Second Amendment Weekend Sales Tax Holiday" was authorized by the state Legislature and will become an annual event.

Which of the following two people do you believe? Levi Johnston... "She says she goes hunting and lives off animal meat -- I've never seen it. I've never seen her touch a fishing pole. She had a gun in her bedroom and one day she asked me to show her how to shoot it. I asked her what kind of gun it was, and she said she didn't know, because it was in a box under her bed."... or Chuck Heath? "She started shooting a gun when she was eight and shot her first animal when she was ten. It...

Here is a video report on a cat that limped home with a 13-inch arrow through his head. The Vet was able to remove the arrow which had just skinned the skull and the cat is recovering. The local Humane Assoc. is offering a $500 award for an arrest of the person responsible on a charge of animal cruelty. (Watch Video)

For a great many rural folk, big game hunting season is a high point—often the annual high point—of their involvement with firearms. In some locales, the big game in question may be a moose or an elk, or even a bear, though the latter is certainly not the favored meat for the larder. In most of America, though, big game hunting means deer season! It might be a big Western mule deer. It might be one of those cute little Texas blacktails. For most of my own life, and still, the likeliest quarry was the Eastern whitetail. They all taste...

Hunters purchased nearly 2,600 wolf licenses Monday, the first day they went on sale in Montana. The sales occurred on the same day U.S. District Judge Mike Molloy of Missoula heard arguments from animal rights and environmental groups seeking to block hunts in Idaho and Montana. Idaho's hunt started Tuesday as Molloy took the arguments under consideration. the slower sales — compared to the 4,000 sold on the first day licenses were available in Idaho — might have been due to the uncertainty of the court decision. If the hunt is halted before the season starts, holders will be refunded...

A capias has been issued for the arrest of Corpus Christi residents Raymond “Ace” Walker, Garratt W. Harris and Paul Isaac Bueno for allegedly killing nine deer on the Walker Ranch and dumping the deer in the Nueces River. “The three men could have been charged with 27 Class A misdemeanors (3 counts times nine deer), but we decided not to ‘throw the book at them’ because they confessed,” said Clay Pipkin, Live Oak County game warden. Walker, Harris and Bueno were charged with waste of game and hunting at night, both Class A misdemeanors, for allegedly killing nine deer...

Battle lines between sportsmen and anti-hunting extremists seem to be hardening with each passing day. Frighteningly, it looks to get worse as a major anti-hunter is on the verge of setting up residence in a federal office with the power to block pro-sportsmen regulations for years to come. Cass R. Sunstein may not be a household name, but make no mistake, in academic and legal circles he is a rock star. His nomination by President Obama to serve as the head of the powerful Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), otherwise known as the "Regulatory Czar", appears on track...

The elk in New Mexico are big and beautiful — a hunter's dream, a landowner's nightmare. Property owners across the state long have complained about wildlife overrunning their private land and destroying crops. But the problem is boiling over in the Sierra Nacimiento in northern New Mexico, where ranchers say they're being ignored and wildlife managers aren't doing enough to curb the damage or compensate them. Some frustrated property owners say they are considering a last resort: shooting the hungry animals. "We enjoy the elk. We don't mind the elk being around but we cannot feed the elk. If it...

Starting today, hunters can walk into any license vendor in Idaho and buy a tag to kill a gray wolf. Vendors such as Daniel Stephenson, owner of River of No Return Taxidermy in Salmon, Idaho, expect robust demand. "In our area, there're lots of [wolves] and they're not a real popular thing for deer and elk hunters," Stephenson said. "So everybody wants a chance to go get one." The Idaho Fish and Game Commission approved a plan August 17 to allow up to 220 wolves to be killed by the public this coming fall and winter. Licensed hunters will be...

The U.S. Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments in U.S. v. Stevens on Oct. 6. NSSF alerted conservation, sportsmen and outdoor media groups to this case previously and filed an amicus brief with the court. The case centers around a 1999 federal statute used to prosecute a Virginia man on animal cruelty-related charges that could similarly be used to prosecute retailers for stocking and selling books, DVDs or art depicting hunting scenes. In the 2004 case, the defendant was initially convicted, but the decision was later overturned by the Third Court of Appeals as a violation of the...

Come September, hunters in New Jersey will have a new weapon to shoot — one that has been around since the Dark Ages.   Ramsey Outdoor salesman Paul Haines displaying a crossbow, which can shoot an arrow at more than 400 feet per second.  The mechanized crossbow can now be used by all when the fall bow season opens Sept. 12. Once feared by armored cavalry as far back as the Crusades, the crossbow is the state's newest weapon in a battle on two fronts: a declining number of hunters and a growing deer problem, particularly in suburban areas. "If it...

It was a humble Christian man, adopted as Kentucky's own, who was known to French Field Marshall Ferdinand Foch as “the first soldier of America” and known to General Pershing “as America's greatest doughboy” (a nick-name American soldiers of that generation picked up during the dusty marches of the Spanish American War). Until Pershing selected Samuel Woodfill as one of three American soldiers to be honored at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1921, Woodfill had lived in the same obscurity his name and story would return to generations later. At the time, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner...

Large groups of bears are creating a nuisance for residents in Bethlehem, and the problem has gotten so bad the town is considering an ordinance. Officials said bears are rummaging through trash bins, eating and attacking farm animals and in some cases coming dangerously close to family pets. "I've been here for 15 years and never saw them until this year," said resident Bob Kimmerle. Kimmerle said he had to fire a gun in the air to scare a bear away after it ate two roosters near his fence. "He put his arm through and pulled them through,"

THE woman known as the Dingo Lady has died a month short of her 109th birthday after a life of shooting and trapping wild dogs on her mountain property. Nellie Bowley killed hundreds of the animals that attacked her cattle, goats and geese on the place near Killarney where she lived until two years ago when she moved into an aged care facility. Mrs Bowley bagged her first dog when she was 18 and went on to achieve nationwide publicity. She was in her mid-90s when she shot her last dingo – failing eyesight made it difficult to aim.

Just when you think you have seen it all along comes a blind man with a rifle! And he is the real deal!

The newbie shooter can become familiar with the operation and feel of his/her weapon without the distraction of flash or recoil or audible concussion. Long arms can be taught just as well with the aid of a device called a chamber insert. It is little more than a precisely milled tube in the dimensions of a .308 cartridge that is sized to accept .32 pistol cartridges inside. The assembly of pistol cartridge and .308 insert is then chambered in any .308 rifle.

Everyone needs to carefully study What-To-Do-In-An-Encounter-Of-The-Cop-Kind, especially gunowners........ To deal with an LEO in a non-hostile, non-threatening but completely assertive and completely correct manner is an art form and must be practiced before the real event. Learn to do it and do it well.

SYDNEY -- Thousands of camels in Australia's remote Outback could be killed by marksmen in helicopters under a government proposal aimed at cutting down the population of the havoc-wreaking creatures. First introduced into Australia in the 1840s to help explorers travel through the Australian desert, there are now about 1 million camels roaming the country, with the population doubling every nine years. They compete with sheep and cattle for food, trample vegetation and invade remote settlements in search of water, scaring residents as they tear apart bathrooms and rip up water pipes. Last month, the federal government set aside 19...

Wildlife officials say a bear was found feeding on the body of a 73-year-old woman who had been repeatedly warned not to give dog food to the bruins that live near her home north of Ouray. Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman ...says the woman was known to feed bears dog food and would not stop, even after repeated requests from wildlife officials. Sheriff's deputies investigating the incident killed an aggressive bear at the woman's home. A necropsy is planned for the 250-pound male to determine the contents of its stomach.

Thousands of camels will be shot from helicopters and turned into burgers in a bid to halt their trail of havoc across Australia. Marksmen plan to gun the animals down amid concern the thirsty dromedaries are barging into people's homes and ripping up their bathrooms looking for water. Government officials plan to wipe out 650,000 of the feral population in the remote Outback area of the country. The creatures were first introduced to Australia in the 1840s to help explorers travel through the Australian desert. There are now about one million camels roaming the country. They compete with sheep and...

The Constitution’s 1st Amendment is no more sacred to looney left Bolsheviks than any other provision they nitpick to death. While pornography may be protected in all it’s many facets, pictures of hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities might be subject to criminal fines and penalties sometime in the near future if the Supreme Court so rules in the case of United States of America v. Robert J. Stevens.

California's bear-hunting season begins Saturday and, as usual, opponents have emerged to take potshots at the Department of Fish and Game. Notably -- and predictably -- vocal is the wildlife protection group, Big Wildlife, which claims trophy hunting of bears "is scientifically indefensible, unethical and cruel." The DFG has and will continue to maintain that bear hunting, like deer hunting, is a necessary management tool and that its annual hunt quota of 1,700 adult bears does not jeopardize an estimated overall state population of 25,000 to 30,000 animals. A valid concern pertains to poaching, as there's a lucrative demand for...

<p>The California Fish and Game Commission has approved a "liberal" alternative set of regulations for the 2009-2010 season, which will allow a two-pintail bag limit for the first time in 12 years.</p> <p>The pintail breeding population, beleaguered in past years, increased by 23% in North America. That and the unusually widespread distribution of pintails, and a southerly shift in the distribution, led to a favorable regulatory outcome.</p>

Grand Teton National Park and the National Elk Refuge are encouraging hunters to voluntarily use non-lead ammunition during the upcoming elk and bison seasons. The park and refuge issued a joint release Thursday saying lead is an environmental toxin that can poison animals that eat carcasses shot with lead bullets. Officials say studies have found that lead levels increase in ravens and eagles