Jury Finds California Gun Owner Not Guilty in Federal Conspiracy Trial

SACRAMENTO, CA – A federal jury in Sacramento has found gun owner Ulysses S. Grant Early IV not guilty of conspiracy to make a false statement on a federal a firearm record known as an ATF Form 4473. The lengthy criminal trial, which lasted four weeks, successfully concluded for Early after more than two days of jury deliberations and two years of legal wrangling.

Early was represented by civil rights attorney Donald Kilmer of San Jose. The Calguns Foundation, a gun rights group based in Roseville, provided resources and support for his legal defense.

According to evidence presented during the trial, Early purchased a Sturm, Ruger & Co. model LCP handgun from a Roseville, California police officer in May of 2010. Under state law, a Ruger LCP can only be purchased new directly from a gun dealer by an exempted person, such as a law enforcement officer, since the gun is not included in the Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale maintained by the California Department of Justice. But the state’s handgun restrictions allow individuals to sell or transfer their “off-Roster” handguns to others, as long as the seller and buyer follow all other laws. The Calguns Foundation maintains that California’s handgun roster and microstamping regulations are unconstitutional in an unrelated civil lawsuit. Read more

Gun Control

How to Dial in Your Deer Gun

By Glen Wunderlich

With relatively moderate temperatures still with us, it’s best to get your favorite deer gun sighted in properly while conditions cooperate. By procrastinating, you may be relegated to testing during cold and windy days, which can end up being a total waste of time and expensive ammunition.

 

While it may be true that wind can be present in hunting situations, you certainly don’t want to adjust aiming points relative to any substantial crosswinds, when they probably won’t be the same later. It’s best to select a calm day for testing; any adjustments necessary during a hunt should be made afield based on the conditions that day, instead. Crosswinds cause substantially greater deflection of a given projectile than do headwinds or tailwinds. So, if you must sight in with the wind blowing, line up your target directly downwind or upwind, if at all possible.

 

A six-inch target will provide a necessary margin for error for deer-sized targets, even though the actual kill zone is larger. Orange squares with the black outlines are good for scoped guns and plain black circles or squares are best for iron sights, red dot sights.

 

Start with a clean, unloaded gun ensuring there is no oil or grease in the barrel by running a dry patch through it. Make sure everything is tight – especially scope bases, rings, and stock screws. Use a good, solid rest at the forend and butt stock. Sandbags work well, but it’s best to place your hand on the forend and rest it on the sandbag to simulate hunting conditions. Small bipods can make for a steady front rest when target shooting but may not produce the same results afield, unless you’ll be hunting with one.

 

At 25 yards, shoot three shots and find the middle of the group. (If you are missing the paper completely, move in to about 10 feet. A single shot will usually be enough to let you know which direction to go.) Remember, at 25 yards to make adjustments at four times what you would at 100 yards.

 

For most guns, you are ready to move the target to 100 yards, if you are dead on at 25 yards. Don’t change anything and shoot another 3-shot group at 100 yards, find the center of the group and adjust to your chosen elevation at 100 yards. Even with a conservative 6-inch kill zone target, “Point-Blank Range” can be maximized by having the bullet or slug impact somewhat high at 100 yards.

 

The Point-Blank Range of any gun is the distance at which a hunter can hold right on the center of the kill zone and be able to hit within the vital zone. This means, if you set up your gun properly, you won’t have to guess whether to hold high or low on the deer, or how much. Just aim for the center of the vitals. Some hunters make the mistake of sighting in dead on at 100 yards, when longer shots are possible during a hunt.

 

Here’s an example: A 30-06 with a 180-grain spire point bullet going 2700 Feet Per Second (FPS) at the muzzle, with a 100-yard zero puts the bullet 3 inches low at 175 yards. Using the 6-inch kill zone, 175 yards becomes your limit without ambiguous holdover, because the bullet will fall to the bottom of the vitals by aiming at the center of the kill zone.

 

However, if the same cartridge is set for a 215 yard zero, the bullet reaches its peak of 3 inches high at 130 yards and is 3 inches low at 255 yards. As long as the deer is no farther than 255 yards, can aim dead center and take him out cleanly. Just by changing the zero, 80 additional yards are gained.

 

Shotguns are relatively slow in comparison – even with the fastest modern sabot offerings. The best bet is to get to the range and test at various ranges with your gun and loads, because there are just too many variables to rely exclusively on charts. Whatever you choose to shoot, just make sure the bullet/slug never gets higher or lower than 3 inches when holding dead on.

 

Once sighted in, shoot from various positions and with rests you may use in the field. As long as you can keep 9 out of 10 in the six-inch circle, you are shooting within ethical standards. If you are unable to do so, being ethical demands you to restrict your shots to a maximum range that allows you to do so.

 

When finished, don’t clean the gun’s barrel, because a clean barrel may change your point of impact. Just unload the gun, wipe off the exterior using a light protectant, and store it safely and it will remain ready for hunting.

Ammunition, Firearms, Hunting

Oculus® Pro Team HD Binoculars are value priced, mission-critical gear

As a hunter, there’s certain gear you feel naked in the woods without. Gun and ammo, bow and arrows, a good sharp knife – they go without saying. And once you hunt with the new Oculus® Pro Team HD 10×42 binoculars, they will be a permanent addition to your mission-critical-gear list. You won’t feel “dressed to go hunting” without them.Oculus® Pro Team HD Binoculars are value priced, mission-critical gear

High-quality binoculars extend your hunting day to its full legal limits. They’re essential safety tools for positively identifying your target. And if you’re after a monster buck or bull, “good glass” is the only way to precisely judge trophy quality. Yet what likely holds you back from acquiring the quality optics you need is the price tag. The Oculus® Pro Team HD 10×42 binoculars obliterate that obstacle by incorporating the highest quality components at a price less than you probably spend on licenses for one season.

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Hunting, Wildlife

4 New Crossbow Models Added to Barnett Core Family

The dictionary defines crossbow as a “medieval weapon,” but there is absolutely nothing archaic about the four new models in Barnett’s highly popular Core line of crossbows. These weapons are designed for the value-minded hunter who refuses to compromise on performance.

All four of the new Barnett Core crossbows feature lightweight composite stocks and CNC Machined 7/8-inch Picatinny rails-the military standard for mounting scopes. They also have “finger reminders” for shooting safety and pass-through foregrips, plus the company’s proprietary CROSSFIRE String and Cable System.

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Archery

Rock Island Armory Shipping New Single Stack .22 TCM Pistol Family to US

MS / FS Versions of 1911 TAC II and 2011 Tactical Pistols Chambered for .22 TCM will include 9mm combo kits

October 28th (Las Vegas, NV) – Leading 1911 pistol manufacturer, Rock Island Armory began US distribution this October of four new additions to their .22 TCM 1911 family.

The four new firearms chambered for .22 TCM include:

• Midsize 1911 TAC II – 10 capacity (.22 TCM)
• Full-Size 1911 TAC II – 10 capacity (.22 TCM)
• Midsize 2011 Tactical – 10 capacity (.22 TCM)
• Full-Size 2011 Tactical – 10 capacity (.22 TCM)

First debuted at SHOT Show 2014, each of these firearms retail for less than $830 and ship with a 9mm conversion kit along with one magazine that accommodates .22 TCM and 9mm rounds.

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Firearms

Latest round of Asian carp eDNA sampling on Kalamazoo River produces zero positive results

The Department of Natural Resources today announced that the latest round of Asian carp environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling on the lower Kalamazoo River in Allegan County produced all negative results.

Earlier this month the DNR and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced a single positive eDNA result for silver carp – a species of Asian carp – within the river, discovered during water sampling efforts conducted this summer.    Read more

Fishing

In Major Setback for Anti-Hunting Efforts, FWS Rejects Attempts to Stop Lion Hunting

Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rejected the claim that the African lion merited listing as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.  After a long and comprehensive review of the species status, which included information from the foremost lion researchers in the world, the FWS concluded that the African lion simply is not on the brink of extinction and did not merit listing as an endangered species.

The FWS concluded “[s]port-hunting was not found to be a threat to the species at this time.” This conclusion is a blow to the anti-hunting rhetoric put forward by organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States and International Fund for Animal Welfare. The FWS’s conclusion contradicts the assertions made by these anti-hunting organizations in the petition they filed with FWS to have the lion listed as endangered. The on the ground facts and the science simply did not support their position.

“By rejecting an endangered listing, the FWS has officially recognized the reality that the African lions are not actually on the brink of extinction.  More important, today’s decision will likely help further the cooperative efforts of the African nations, and the many organizations and individuals who are working to study and ensure lion populations are sustainable today and into the future.” said Safari Club International Foundation (SCI Foundation) President Joe Hosmer. “Given the outstanding efforts of African governments in creating and maintaining protected strongholds for a large majority of the lion population, it is doubtful that the Service will be able to defend its conclusion that the lion is threatened with extinction in the foreseeable future.” Read more

Animal Rights, Poachers

New Funding Encouraged for Non-Game Species

GW:  I find this proposal to be a sincere approach to the manner in which funding by animal-rights groups has been decimated through frivolous lawsuits by gaming the system.  Equal Access to Justice reforms have been stalled by Democrat leadership in the U.S. Senate by Harry Reid and will never happen, because his animal-rights supporters count on the money to fuel anti-hunting drives across the country.  “…Goals and actions [include] identifying and developing new sources of dedicated, long-term funding for federal, state, and tribal fish and wildlife agencies to support conservation and hunting…”

MISSOULA, Mont.- Four Boone and Crockett Club members are serving on a panel charged with developing new funding mechanisms for conservation. The goal is bridging the funding gap between game and nongame species – a concept heartily endorsed by the Club.

The 20-member Blue Ribbon Panel on Sustaining America’s Diverse Fish and Wildlife Resources was announced at a recent Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies meeting.

Download Blue Ribbon Panel
brochure here.

The panel is co-chaired by Johnny Morris, CEO of Bass Pro Shops and regular member of Boone and Crockett Club. The panel also includes three professional members of the Club including Becky Humphries, Steve Williams and John Tomke. Read more

Animal Rights, Fishing, Hunting, Wildlife
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