Category: Hunting

Ruger® Kestrel® 5700 Elite

BOOTHWYN, PA.— Kestrel Ballistics is proud to announce the release of the new Ruger Kestrel 5700 Elite, the world’s most complete ballistics calculator custom designed for Ruger enthusiasts.

The new 5700 Elite, the ideal shooting tool for stretching your reach, helps you to experience the same long-range accuracy of a typical custom-built rifle at an off-the-shelf price. This exclusive model comes with a library of pre-measured Ruger rifles and commonly available match-grade ammunition, Easy Mode for simplified target set up, storage for up to 30 different gun profiles, and 10 stages with 10 targets each. Read more

Hunting

Special Boone and Crockett Club Judges Panel Confirms New World’s Record Rocky Mountain Goat

MISSOULA, Mont. (January 13, 2023) – After convening a special judges panel today at the Wild Sheep Foundation’s 2023 Sheep Show in Reno, Nevada, the Boone and Crockett Club announced a new World’s Record Rocky Mountain goat. Justin Kallusky’s British Columbia billy officially scores 60-4/8 points, eclipsing the previous World’s Record by three points. Each horn measures well over 12 inches.

“This new World’s Record is truly a sight to behold,” said Mike Opitz, chair of the Special Judges Panel. “A Rocky Mountain goat of this caliber is a true testament to continued conservation efforts and one tough hunter.”

In 2019, Justin Kallusky and a friend were hunting Rocky Mountain goats along the Stikine River of northwestern British Columbia (B.C.). The Stikine is big water with steep canyons, loved by whitewater kayakers and hunters looking for adventure. “On that hunt, I told my friend there’s a goat over 12 inches in this spot,” Kallusky says. “It’s really good habitat.”

He returned in 2022 to see if his prediction would pan out. When he first spotted this billy, it was in an odd position. “It was bedded facing uphill and stuffed up under a rock to hide from the sun,” Kallusky says. The only thing they could see was a big goat butt, he adds. After four hours, the goat finally stood up, but something looked slightly off. “I asked my friend, ‘Why does his head look so small?’ I knew it was a good billy, but not until I walked up to it after the shot did I really understand.”

Kallusky with his Rocky Mountain goat taken near British Columbia’s Stikine River. The previous World’s Record was also taken near the Stikine River in 2011 by Troy M. Sheldon.

Kallusky, a do-it-yourself backcountry hunter from B.C., went on his first sheep hunt with his uncle when he was 15. Growing up, he was always drawn to the outdoors. While other kids watched Saturday morning cartoons, he would watch hunting shows. Now 42, Kallusky works as a lineman at BC Hydro and hunts every chance he gets. He wasn’t expecting to find the biggest Rocky Mountain goat in the book. “I’m not a trophy hunter by any stretch of the imagination,” he says. “I’m out there for the experience.”

After a hunter kills a Rocky Mountain goat in B.C., they are required to have it inspected by a provincial inspector. The biologist took one look at the goat and said Kallusky needed to talk with Grant Markoski, a local Boone and Crockett Official Measurer.

When they met, Kallusky thought Markoski was going to have a heart attack. “I pulled this goat head out, and this old boy almost had a jammer,” Kallusky says. “He put his hands on his head and started walking around in circles.”

Markoski has been a Boone and Crockett Club Official Measurer since 1991. During his three decades of service, he’s measured quite a few goats, though nothing prepared him for this billy. “When I saw this thing, I could not believe it,” Markoski says. “It was so much bigger than anything I’ve ever seen. When you see it, your jaw will drop.”

The Importance of Records in Big Game Management

When you enter your trophy into the Boone and Crockett system, you aren’t just honoring the animal and its habitat. You are participating in a data collection system that started in the 1920s and was refined by Club members in 1950. Today, there are nearly 60,000 trophy records. By establishing a records database more than 70 years ago, the Boone and Crockett Club established a scientific baseline from which researchers can use to study wildlife management. If you’re still on the fence about entering your trophy, we encourage you to read Why Should I Bother to Enter My Trophy. To the best of our ability, we ensure that the trophies entered into the records were taken in accordance with the tenets of fair chase ethics. Despite what some may think, the Boone and Crockett records are not about a name or a score in a book—because in the end, there’s so much more to the score.

About the Boone and Crockett Club

Founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887, the Boone and Crockett Club promotes guardianship and visionary management of big game and associated wildlife in North America. The Club maintains the highest standards of fair chase sportsmanship and habitat stewardship. Member accomplishments include enlarging and protecting Yellowstone and establishing Glacier and Denali national parks, founding the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuge System, fostering the Pittman-Robertson and Lacey Acts, creating the Federal Duck Stamp program, and developing the cornerstones of modern game laws. The Boone and Crockett Club is headquartered in Missoula, Montana. For details, visit www.boone-crockett.org.

Hunting, Wildlife

Barnett King Rat Slingshots

Tarpon Springs, FL – New for 2023, Barnett® introduces a full line of King Rat Slingshots sure to bring adventure to hunters of all ages. The King Rat series is rooted in David Barnett’s childhood and draw from over 60 years of hunting and adventure.

Barnett was founded in the early 1960’s by David Barnett’s Father in the industrial market town of Willenhall, West Midland, England. As a boy, David Barnett visited his father’s workplace, often after school, waiting to be taken home. For his seventh birthday in 1972, his father brought back from America a tubular band slingshot. The new contraption was so different from all the things he had seen from classmates and neighbors.

Mesmerized by the slingshot, he couldn’t wait to kill some vermin with the “Pocket Full of Power.” Armed with marbles, David Barnett set out amongst the overloaded trash bins in the backyards of the local buildings as he set his sights on the numerous Black rats that scavenged in the area.

“One day, I was in luck and hit one so square, it slid up against the wall and started screeching loudly, bouncing up and down until it finally froze still. As I walked over to it with the excitement of the kill, it started screeching loudly again, and to my horror, the ugliest and biggest Black rat I had ever imagined ran in and started tearing it apart, 10ft from me. Looking at me with a bald, fire-burnt red face, it hissed, unflinching and unafraid,” recalled David Barnett.

To this day, half a century later, he still remembers that day so vividly. It wasn’t long after that that the family business started to make slingshots. So, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Barnett and to try to put this “demon” to rest, David Barnett has decided to relive the excitement of a young boy’s adventures with slingshots with the new King Rat Slingshot designs. Read more

General, Hunting

Smith’s Introduces New Folding Bone Saw at Shot Show

Field Dress Big Game With Ease

Smith’s Consumer Products – the Edge Experts since 1886 – will introduce a new folding bone saw in Booth 10327 at Shot Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. This saw is designed to take the hard work out of field dressing any big game animal, saving you time and energy while out in the field. Its durable yet compact design is excellent for travel and packing light.

Smith’s EdgeSport 6” Folding Bone Saw is a great addition to any field dressing kit. This packable, lightweight folding bone saw is perfect for any hunting trip, no matter the conditions. It fits perfectly in a backpack or can be attached to a lanyard to ensure that it does not get lost. The saw’s 6” stainless steel blade is uniquely designed specifically for field dressing deer, elk, and moose, and is equally useful back in camp when cutting wood for a fire. Its sturdy lock-back design secures the blade in a working position during tough conditions. A durable TPE non-slip handle is essential for safety when hands are wet. This trustworthy and durable bone saw is a true game changer in the field or woods.

Key Features of the Smith’s 6-inch Folding Bone Saw Include:

    • Packable, lightweight, durable design
    • 6” stainless steel bone saw blade
    • Non-slip TPE handle with lock-back design
    • 7” overall length when closed, perfect for backcountry travel
    • Tether-ready lanyard hole

Smith’s 6-inch Folding Bone Saw (SKU 51366) is protected by a limited lifetime warranty and has an MSRP of $28.99.

Hunting

Nebraska mountain lion season ends with two females harvested in Pine Ridge

The 2023 mountain lion hunting season in Nebraska’s Pine Ridge closed Jan. 8 when the harvest sublimit of two females was met.

The season opened Jan. 2. Excellent snow tracking conditions likely helped hunters find success during the season.

In accordance with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s management objective, the harvest of mountain lions allows the population to remain resilient and healthy, while halting growth or moderately reducing the population size. Read more

Hunting

And End Run Around Second Amendment Foiled (For Now)

By Jim Shepherd

In 2017, following the Las Vegas massacre where a shooter used bump-stock equipped rifles to kill 58 people, the ATF was ordered by then-President Trump to regulate bump stocks.

And they did.

At the time, Second Amendment advocates argued the ATF’s abrupt about-face was beyond the scope of authority for a regulatory agency.

Last Friday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans concurred. Ruling the ATF had, in fact, short-circuited a required legislative process by redefining bump stocks as machine guns.

Defending their action, the ATF had argued that bump stocks allowed an otherwise semiautomatic rifle to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by “harnessing the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation.”

The “harnessing” was the reasoning behind their reversal of longstanding policy.

As my grandma was fond of saying “that soap didn’t lather” with the 5th Circuit.

Instead, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod explained in the ruling: “A plain reading of the statutory language, paired with close consideration of the mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm, reveals that a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machinegun’ set forth in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act.” Read more

Hunting

Modern Ballistic Apps for Shooters and Hunters

By Glen Wunderlich

Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA)

Years ago, Firestone produced a television commercial with these notorious words: Where the rubber meets the road. The phrase focused on the point where their tires were put to the test. Similarly, all ammunition has a parallel, as a projectile is launched toward a target. This phenomenon has many parts and understanding the mystical flight of a bullet is necessary to develop confidence at the range and afield.

The science of ballistics, when expertly applied, can add to one’s ability to hit targets with consistent accuracy. The average shooter may look up available data from ammunition manufacturers’ websites, or simply rely upon what’s printed on ammo boxes. The trouble is that these figures are developed with long test barrels indoors and often have little resemblance to field-condition results.

Enter the chronograph – a sophisticated electronic device that measures actual muzzle velocity using one’s chosen firearm and ammo. Current prices start at $130 for basic units and go up from there. Even when ammo only cost an arm, it made sense for accuracy nuts to verify their own personal results; today, however, each squeeze of the trigger can be felt deep in one’s wallet. Having a chronograph can minimize unnecessary experimentation and the corresponding pinch in the pants.

Innovative technology has produced a couple of apps that go hand-in-hand with not only competitive shooters, but hunters alike. One comes from Lapua – producer of the finest bullets, cartridge cases, and ammunition for competitive shooting – with its new Lapua Hunt app available for download in Google Play and the iStore.

Lapua Hunt is the new digital solver for hunters that appreciate ethical hunting, accuracy, and safety. Merely add your own rifle and reticle, select the best ammo and game category, and you are ready to enjoy your hunting success harvesting game of all sizes.

Lapua Hunt’s calculator view allows you to determine wind speed and direction, shooting angle and distance. In addition, you may also input weather information, (i.e. temperature, air pressure and relative humidity) for further solving. Additional paid features allow cartography/map view, and the ability to setup a hunting team.

When you use the teams function together with all members in your hunting party (i.e. ‘team’), you can keep an eye on the exact location of all team members in the map view. Moreover, if any other hunter in the same area uses the Lapua Hunt app, they will be visible as ‘Unknowns’ in your map view as well.

In the app, there is the option to buy extra features for an annual cost. The Pro Hunter feature package includes all features that are available in the application and costs $19.99 per year.

Federal also offers two great apps that give hunters and shooters the modern tools they need to perform superbly in the field and on the range. Its “Ballistic” is the definitive ballistics calculator for iOS devices. This app calculates trajectory, windage, velocity, energy, lead, and bullet flight time for any valid range. Ballistic can compensate for atmospheric conditions such as temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, altitude and more.

With a library of more than 5,000 projectiles and factory loads, as well as advanced features including a mil-dot and rangefinder, GPS, atmosphere awareness, full-size charts, a precision target log and far more, Ballistic is a complete precision marksman tool. A comprehensive video tutorial is available at www.federalpremium.com by clicking on Our Apps and the free app is available through iTunes.

If you are going to the extent of employing either app, extreme accuracy is more achievable with known velocities derived from a chronograph, rather than reliance upon input from generic sources. In any event, it’s all out there and it’s your move.

Ammunition, Firearms, Hunting , ,

“North American Whitetail” Magazine’s New Year Issue Ushers in Massive Deer, Alpha Predators and Late Season Strategies

DENVER – North American Whitetail Magazine ushered in the new year with its December/January issue full of late season whitetail hunting content featuring big bucks, alpha predators and late season whitetail tactics and strategies to fill a tag.

The December/January issue includes:

  • Massive, Missouri Non-typical
    • Josh Heuser’s incredible Missouri non-typical is featured on North American Whitetail’s cover this month. This 36-point non-typical scores 263 2/8 gross and 254 3/8 net.
    • The Effects of Wolves on WhitetailsAn expanding wolf population in the Upper Midwest is leaving whitetail hunters with the reality of hunting America’s most popular game animal alongside a large predator. Contributor Dan Cole explores this phenomenon and its effect on the region’s hunting culture.
    • Real-World Tactics for the Late Season
      • From conquering the Southern rut to using science to stay warm, North American Whitetail provides readers with the best how-to tactics to use during the late season.

    For more information on subscriptions and content from the North American Whitetail brands, the industry’s leading authority on whitetails, visit: https://www.northamericanwhitetail.com

Hunting

Michigan: DNR Welcomes 12 New Conservation Officers

Class photo: Members of Recruit School #11 pose with academy and executive staff from the Michigan DNR Law Enforcement Division on the state Capitol steps Friday in Lansing. In January, the 12 probationary conservation officers – 11 men and one woman – will continue their training by rotating county assignments to receive real-life experience in handling fish, game, recreational safety, general criminal and other situations.

One of the most selective law enforcement academies in the state, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Academy hosted graduation Friday at the Michigan State Police Training Academy in Lansing, welcoming 11 men and one woman into the ranks of some of the most highly trained law enforcement professionals in Michigan.

Fifteen candidates initially were selected from nearly 400 applicants to be a part of Recruit School #11 – the DNR’s 23-week training academy that stared July 10. Read more

Fishing, Hunting
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