Free Republic

The lockdowns to prevent the spread of coronavirus seem to be having some beneficial, if not unintended, side effects. More people are getting into the woods and finding out nature provides. There’s evidence that more people are turning to hunt to put meat in the freezer, largely driven by concerns over protein shortages at the local grocery store. Hunting license sales are up. States are taking innovative approaches to help get new hunters into the woods and people are committing themselves to provide for their own needs to weather future events. There’s a role for experienced hunters to play, too....

Lake Meredith park rangers have reported the body recovered from the bottom of Lake Meredith on May 6, 2020 is identified as Ryan Kennedy. Kennedy had been missing since December 15, 2019 when he was attempting to cross the lake after a successful hunting trip. Lake Meredith National Recreation Superintendent, Eric Smith said Kennedy’s body was ultimately found with sonar after searchers found his boat a little more than two weeks ago. On Friday, May 1, Lake Meredith staff said they found and recovered a backpack and rifle adjacent to where the boat was found. The backpack and rifle were...

Compared to many other pursuits, turkey hunting may be the perfect outlet for outdoors enthusiasts who are paying attention to the current social distancing guidelines. While approximately 50,000 people hunt turkeys in South Carolina, it’s mostly a solitary pursuit. Although Lowcountry hunters with access to private lands have been taking advantage of the state’s turkey hunting season since March 22, the rest of the state and those who don’t have access to private hunting property can join in this week. The season opened on private lands in Game Zones 3 and 4 (basically the lower portion of the state) on...

snip: But today, that symbiosis is off kilter: Americans’ interest in hunting is on the decline, cutting into funding for conservation, which stems largely from hunting licenses, permits and taxes on firearms, bows and other equipment. Even as more people are engaging in outdoor activities, hunting license sales have fallen from a peak of about 17 million in the early ’80s to 15 million last year, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data. The agency’s 2016 survey suggested a steeper decline to 11.5 million Americans who say they hunt, down more than 2 million from five years earlier. “The...

A 104-year-old woman in Wisconsin has accomplished what many far younger hunters fail to do on their first hunting trip: Kill a deer. Florence Teeters, a mother of five, decided that the best way to spend more quality time with the family was to acquire a license to hunt deer. However, she didn’t just get the quality time with the family, she also made the most of the time by killing a deer on the first day of Wisconsin’s deer season.

Colorado has a bear problem. Pure and simple, we have too many bears.. When I was a kid growing up .. my brother and I spent a lot of time in the woods. We were hiking, backpacking, exploring, hunting and climbing around all the time in the high country. Never once did we see a bear. I clearly recall the first time I ever saw a bear in the woods, and I was 31 years old, in 1993. Not too long after that, I took over the outfitting permits in Marble, Colorado, and I remember one day when I saw...

In what officials are calling a bizarre incident, an Arkansas hunter was killed by a deer that he thought he had shot dead...Thomas Alexander, age 66, who lived in the area and was an experienced hunter, was sitting in an elevated deer stand during the state's muzzleloader season..."It appears he shot the deer and he had put his rifle down near the deer stand and walked down to check and make sure it was dead..."

For rabbits and squirrels, the most efficient and humane gun is a 12-gauge shotgun with number 6 shot. This provides the quickest and cleanest kills with the least chance of a wounded animal escaping to die a lingering death. It is by far the surest way to bring home dinner. The semiautomatic shotgun is popular, as it tends to mitigate recoil, while the pump shotgun can be had at very reasonable prices. While they hold more shells than a double, their rate of sustained fire is actually less than the fast-reloading double. WHILE .22 LONG RIFLE is the most popular...

They say a Rifle is only as good as its scope but my father never used a scope, did fine and still does fine after all these years. So perhaps choosing a rifle for big game in Alaska, or anywhere else, is really a just matter of choice. I don't pretend to be a rifle expert and don’t want to be. I just know that after spending 20-plus years in the Arctic and successfully hunting pretty much everything that walks the tundra up here, I know what works and has worked for me. So take my observations for what they're...

Since our Nation’s earliest days, hunting and fishing have remained enduring pastimes that are inextricably linked to the American experience.  For the first American settlers and Native Americans, hunting and fishing were a means of survival.  Today, hunters and anglers of all ages carry on these traditions in the spirit of rugged individualism to provide for their families and to show the next generation of Americans the splendor of the great outdoors.  On National Hunting and Fishing Day, we celebrate their stewardship of the natural world, their contributions to our thriving economy, and America’s abundant natural resources and beauty.Our...

Sept. 9 (UPI) -- A Georgia hunter set a new state record when he bagged a 700-pound, 14-foot-long alligator on Lake Eufala. Derrick Snelson said he could tell there was a big one on his line when he was hunting last week on the lake in Quitman County and it took him and four others more than five hours to land the reptilian behemoth. "It was just unbelievable. I really can't describe it. You need to see it," Snelson told WSB-TV. Experts said Snelson's catch, which weighed in at 700 pounds and measured 14 feet long, is a new Georgia...

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is launching a new ad as part of an effort to pressure Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to take up gun reform legislation. The progressive outside group will go up with the ad in Kentucky this weekend, where it will appear on Fox, MSNBC and CNN. "Our ad makes clear Mitch McConnell is out of step with Kentucky voters, even gun owners. He's corrupt and in the pocket of gun manufacturers who have spend hundreds of thousands to elect McConnell," Adam Green, the co-founder of PCCC, said in a statement. In addition to running...

When they were first introduced to the national hunting community, these novel methods for bringing in bucks were considered unconventional at best, and harebrained schemes by most. Now deer hunters everywhere use these tried-and-true tactics. We take a look back to when these trusty standbys were still considered downright bizarre. RATTLING - The brush-country hunters of Texas and New Mexico were crashing antlers together for decades before the trend caught fire in the rest of whitetail country. Although native hunters likely developed the technique, legend has it that an old market hunter accidentally discovered the phenomenon: "He was coming to...

Two weeks before I started my teaching career, my mentor teacher asked if I had any questions. I replied, "I don't know enough to know what to ask." It was true; I had never student-taught, so without being in the classroom I had no idea what to expect, nor did I know what needed clarity. The same goes with hunting. The more you hunt, the more you establish a hunting program. How you prepare. What you take. How you handle adversity and the amount of risk you tolerate. Then there are the specific logistics pertaining to the quarry. You’ve hunted...

FOUR POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND BEFORE HEADING UP FOR BLACKTAIL DEER - I'm not one of those dudes who have been hunting for 30 years. I don’t have a ring of racks in my garage or an elegant mount in my living room. I don’t have epic stories of 400-yard shots. My hunting career is littered with chaos. I shot my first deer in the leg. I was with my high school basketball coach and his daughter. She put one through the neck of a fork-in-horn at 150, and then dropped a 4-point at 250 to set up my...

Sen. Cory Booker wants Democrats to go bolder on guns — and says they’re playing into the hands of the National Rifle Association and the corporate gun lobby by rejecting bolder ideas. “For Democrats to play into the hands of the corporate gun lobby, and just letting them define what the realm of possible is, it’s so defeatist to me,” the New Jersey senator told me during an interview this week. “At a time with the levels of carnage in our country, we don’t need people who are defeatist in their thinking about what’s possible.” Booker, who is running for...

THE CLOCK'S TICKING ON GETTING DOWNED GAME COOL – ARE YOU PREPARED? In my opinion, the ability to properly care for wild game in the field is one of the most important tools a successful hunter needs in his toolbox. If you’re serious about hunting and putting quality meat in the freezer, you need to know how to care for the animal once you have it on the ground. While there are several different ways to field-dress wild game, the suggested steps to preserve and care for the meat are essentially the same. Regardless of your hunting skill level, any...

Hunting corn country several years ago with Mike Krei, then a field rep for the National Rifle Association, we were working a draw for pheasants when one exploded from cover. Using a 20-gauge over-and-under, Krei fired twice and missed, after which I swung my 12-gauge side-by-side Beretta into action. My first shot missed, but then the ring neck sailed straight away at maybe 20 to 25 yards away, and my final round – a high-base 2¾-incher No. 6 – launched out of my fixed full choke barrel and the bird folded in a cloud of feathers. Krei proved repeatedly that...

Whether you Write about it, Record it or Photograph it, Documenting your Adventures Helps you Cherish them all the more. The bear’s wet hide and piercing eyes are still burned into my memory. The way he rushed us only to stop just a few feet away is a constant reminder of how close we really came to having a "big" problem. Then there was the way he tore our raft apart the night before, leaving ragged pieces of rubber scattered on the gravel bar in front of our camp. What great memories of an incredible hunt on the Wulik River!...

The 6.5 Creedmoor rifle cartridge has been around for a while now and very popular among long range competitive shooters. This caliber is also effective for hunting as well. As a matter of fact the 6.5 is gaining rapid popularity. With its mild recoil and long range accuracy this caliber can compete along the lines of other long range cartridges such as the .308. Anyhow, the 6.5 isn't new. The 6.5 caliber has been around since 1891. Orginally, produced for the Swedish military, hunters in Europe quickly found it to be great on game. Winchester came out with the .264...