OutdoorHub
Michigan’s First Teal Season in 50 Years a Success
For the first time in 50 years, Michigan duck hunters had an opportunity to start duck hunting well in advance of the usual opener this fall. Michigan duck hunters enjoyed an early teal season the first week of the season and by all accounts, the experiment was a success.
Early teal seasons have been a longstanding tradition across much of America, but the special hunt was canceled in the Upper Midwestern states---known in federal waterfowl parlance as “production states”---five decades ago. Lobbying by Southern states, which were concerned about the incidental mortality to non-target...
Why Every Shotgunner Needs a Rangefinder
Rangefinders have become part of the standard kit for big game hunters, especially bowhunters. They take the guesswork out of range estimation leading to more well-placed shots and speedier kills. Win, win, and win!
Hunters using slugs for deer and turkey hunters were some of the first shotgun sportsmen to open up their daypacks to range-finding optics. In those pursuits, rangefinders play the same role as they do in the rest of big game hunting. However, smart wingshooting hunters find many uses for rangefinders, too, particularly in waterfowl hunting.
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New Discovery Show Forces Rival Senators to Team Up to Survive
Discovery's latest reality show seems to be the age-old answer to the problem of solving partisan inaction among America's legislators: sending one senator each from both the Republican and Democratic parties to hash out their problems on a deserted island. Of course, they will also have to work together if they want to stay alive. That is the premise of Rival Survival, a show that stranded Senator Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) and his colleague Senator Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) on the remote island of Eru in the Marshall Islands. For six days and nights, the pair had to team up to find...
Video: Divers Encounter Massive Ocean Sunfish
The ocean sunfish, or mola mola, is a strange creature that more closely resembles an alien than other fish. With its oddly symmetrical body and truncated shape, the mola mola is actually one of the largest fish in the world. In fact, it is widely considered the heaviest bony fish and can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. Not bad for something that lives of a diet that primarily consists of jellyfish.
To get a sense of how big the sunfish really are, take a gander at the video below. Erik van der Goot said he and his friends were diving near the island of Gozo on the Maltese archipelago when they...
Missouri Bill to Designate Captive Deer as Livestock Fails
Missouri's fight over the status of captive deer may have finally come to an end this week after Senate Bill 506 was killed in the state House on Thursday. The bill, which would have designated captive deer as livestock and transfered oversight of the animals from the Department of Conservation to the Department of Agriculture, was vetoed by Governor Jay Nixon back in July. Just hours after the Senate voted to override the veto, the House decided 108-52 to let Nixon's decision stand. The...
Hidden Pitfalls in Washington Ballot Measure Could Criminalize the Average Shooter
An upcoming ballot measure pushed by gun control groups and bankrolled by billionaires could turn gun owners and shooters into criminals in unexpected ways.
The ballot initiative, I-594, an 18-page compilation of changes to Washington State's firearms laws, could have widespread effects on every firearms transfer and even lead to possible future confiscation according to the National Rifle Association (NRA).
"Initiative 594 is a universal handgun registration scheme...
NRA Freestyle’s ‘NOIR’: I’m Seeing Double
In NOIR Episode 10 "I'm Seeing Double," LaSorte takes his transformation into the shooter athlete a little too seriously. Okay, way too seriously. Being a shooter athlete is all about versatility, and firearms can be used in so many different ways; that’s why Colion started a freestyle course.
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Mossberg MMR Hunter
Almost no one will argue that the modern sporting rifle is not only the most popular rifle platform in history, it’s also the most versatile. In a period of 10 years, I’ve gone from not quite "getting" the AR-15, to being a dyed-in-the-wool AR-phile. There are currently seven in my gun safe and there are four extra upper receivers on the shelf, including one precision match rifle.
What makes AR-15s so great is that they're both accurate and easy to shoot. It rules the roost in 3-gun competition, dominates NRA High Power, and is a force to be reckoned with in long range tactical...
Video: Deer Rescued from Tiny Gap
Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Rescuers from the UK-based Wildlife Aid Foundation were called out to recover a young deer that managed to fall into a 12-foot gap between a shed and a brick wall. The crack was only 10 inches across, but volunteers were able to lasso the deer back to safety.
"It was so narrow that no one could have got down to the deer. After much consideration and discussion, a risky but ingenious plan was formed," Wildlife Aid wrote in the YouTube video's description. "There was only one chance to get this right; had it gone wrong, the deer would, almost...
Scientists Say Coral Trout Are Great at Picking Predator “Teammates”
Knowing who you work well with and the best time to put a plan into motion are pivotal parts of teamwork, yet only two species have both those abilities: humans and chimpanzees. Now scientists say that coral trout, also known as leopard coral grouper, possess the same level of intelligence when it comes to teamwork.
"Our results show that, like chimpanzees, trout can determine when a situation requires a collaborator and quickly learn to choose the most effective one," lead author Alexander Vail told Read more »
Study: Urban Deer Hunting Reduces Chance of Lyme Disease
It should come as little surprise to many hunters that Lyme disease and other deer-related illnesses have a direct correlation to the number of deer living near a residential community. Scientists with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's Wildllife Division recently published a study that found urban deer culls were highly effective at slowing the spread of Lyme disease. According to the study, researchers surveyed the residents of Mumford Cove and Groton Long Point in Connecticut...
Washington Bowhunter Survives Black Bear Tree Attack
When veteran hunter Jerry Hause, 60, went out bowhunting on Washington's September 1 season opener, he expected a quiet day in the woods with his son and perhaps a chance at some elk. What he did not expect was getting into a scuffle with a black bear while hanging off a tree branch.
“I was thinking, ‘If it gets me out of this tree I’m a dead man,'" Hause told The Daily News.
The encounter occurred while Hause was driving elk toward...
Washington Sharpshooters Eliminate Sheep-killing Wolf Pack’s Alpha Female
Federal sharpshooters working with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) killed their first wolf late last month, but wildlife officials just recently announced that the wolf appears to be the Huckleberry pack's breeding female, or alpha. Named after the nearby Huckleberry Mountain, biologists say that the pack of six to 12 wolves have been terrorizing ranchers in southern Stevens County. The pack is believed to have killed at least 24 sheep since mid-August and injured several more, prompting local ranchers to round up their flocks in temporary holding pens.
Most of the...
Freshwater Mussels Deserve Some Love, Too
Kind-hearted people who try to rescue or rehabilitate wildlife often get kicked, pecked, or bitten for their good intentions.
Don’t despair. If you want to help a native species that won’t hurt, juke, or otherwise humiliate you, consider giving some love to our country’s native freshwater mussels; or as most folks call them, “clams.”
Mussels won’t say thanks, but at least they won’t force you to play host to their young until the whelps can fend for themselves in a few weeks. No, mussels force that obligation onto fish, but more on that later.
Be assured, you don’t...
Total Cost of 2010 BP Oil Spill to Gulf Anglers Estimated at $585 Million
A recently published study by the University of Florida and the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences found that recreational anglers may have lost up to $585 million from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. According to the press release from the university, that number is calculated from lost fishing opportunities, travel costs, canceled...
Park Service Proposes Ban on Predator Hunting Methods in Alaska Preserves
The National Park Service (NPS) recently proposed a ban to three specific hunting methods in Alaska. NPS officials say that these practices, which include baiting for brown bears, hunting wolves and coyotes in early summer, and using lights to harvest black bear sows and cubs in their dens, were illegal under state law until relatively recently. If implemented, the new proposal would ban these hunting methods permanently at the federal level from the state's 10 national preserves.
"These are not the Alaska hunting practices I...
Panera Asks Customers to Leave Guns at Home
Panera Bread, a popular bakery-cafe chain with more than 1,800 locations across the Untied States, became the latest company urging customers to abstain from bringing firearms into their stores. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America announced the development on Monday in a press release on the organization's website, praising Panera CEO Ronald M. Shiach for the company's decision.
“We are thrilled that after months of...
Virginia’s Small Elk Herd Prospers
Elk have had a long and rocky history with the state of Virginia, especially following a long period of expiration, restoration, and expiration again. The latest attempt to bring the species back to the state, however, has some conservationists hopeful. Located on a 2,000-acre parcel of land within Buchanan County, a small herd of about 90 elk continue to prosper. Leon Body, Virginia district chair of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), told the Bristol Herald Courier that he believes...
Video: Anglers Record Illegal Muskie Kill on Detroit River
A video making the rounds on social media appears to depict a man on the Canadian side of the Detroit River catching and then callously killing a muskie well under the minimum length limit. Dane Alexander, an angler who observed the incident along with a fishing buddy while pursuing muskie themselves, then confronted the alleged muskie killer.
When asked by Alexander why he killed the fish, the other man replied that he "sport [fishes] for fish that they're killing." Understandably concerned, Alexander and his companion inform the man that his kill was illegal, and that they'd be informing...
Video: Bear Cub Discovers the Joys of Golf
As has been said before, bears are inquisitive creatures. While traveling through a golf course with his family, one black bear cub decided to take some time and learn more about the game. And by "learn" we mean "do some kind of circus act on a golf flag and hog the hole for vacationers."
Ever had your golf game interrupted by a bear using your flag as a backscratcher?
According to the video's description, this footage was taken at Fairmont Hot springs Resort in Montana.
http://youtu.be/kMkWuXk11Uk...