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North Haven, CT – O.F. Mossberg & Sons earns Outdoor Life’s 2010 Great Buy Award for their 500 Turkey/Deer Combo shotgun in the 2010 Gun Test. Mossberg’s Lightning Pump Action (LPA) adjustable trigger was honored in the Outdoor Life Innovations category as well. Mossberg’s LPA trigger is the first adjustable trigger of its kind for a pump-action shotgun.

The Outdoor Life 2010 Gun Test is an annual hands-on test of new sporting firearms. The testing of each gun includes shooting multiple factory loads using a variety of ammunition styles and weights. The theory is that if a gun can shoot a variety of ammo, that versatility wins extra points. The testers then check to see how the gun will perform in the field at the tasks for which it was designed.

During the testing of firearms, the evaluators take detailed notes on each gun’s balance and handling. They go over the geometry of the stock and the ergonomics of the trigger, safety, and any other mechanical features with a critical eye. After getting a good feel for the quality of the gun, it is then graded for price/value.

The Mossberg 500 Pump-Action Turkey/Deer Combo with LPA Adjustable Trigger received the “2010 Great Buy” award from Outdoor Life testers. The testers felt that the Mossberg 500 is a “Monster value in a hard-working utilitarian package”, a “Strong two-season gun” and “Loved seeing the blade-style trigger make its way onto a shotgun”, according to the comments by testers on outdoorlife.com. The 500 Turkey/Deer Combo features the LPA Adjustable trigger, Realtree® Hardwoods HD Green® finish, and a 24″ ported turkey and 24″ fluted/fully-rifled slugster barrels. The overall rating of the Mossberg 500 was three and a half stars out of four with an A in performance and an A+ in price/value.

The Outdoor Life Innovations honors are given for smart design elements on the year’s new rifles and shotguns. The innovations for 2010 are all worthy elements that enhance the firearms and offer clear benefits to the shooter. The Mossberg LPA trigger was honored this year in the Outdoor Life Innovations category. The LPA is a user-adjustable trigger that pulls from less than three pounds to seven pounds. This trigger has a creep-free trigger pull; the skeletonized lightning bolt trigger blade prevents the hammer from rotating and hitting the firing pin unless the blade is completely depressed. The testers at Outdoor Life state “The triggers on most shotguns are bad enough to make you weep. Mossberg’s user-adjustable LPA trigger, which broke at three pounds on our model, elevates mass production shotgun triggers from the Dark Ages.”

Tom Taylor, Vice President of Marketing and Sales comments, “We are honored to have the 500 Turkey/Deer Combo and LPA trigger systems selected by Outdoor Life’s gun testers. Outdoor Life is a well-known and highly respected publication that delivers only the best products on the market today and we value the opinions of their writers.”

Founded in 1919, O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc. is the oldest family-owned firearms manufacturer in America, and is the largest pump-action shotgun manufacturer in the world. Leading the way with over 100 design and utility patents to its credit, and standing as the first ISO 9001 Certified long-gun manufacturer, Mossberg is considered to be one of the most innovative firearms manufacturers in U.S. History.

For more information on commercial, special purpose, law enforcement and military shotguns, rifles and accessories, please visit their website at www.mossberg.com.

Contact: Kim Cahalan 309.944.5341 or kim@mediadirectcreative.com

WATERBURY, VT – On June 17, 2010, Jeffrey Vinton, 53, of Braintree, Vermont was charged with shooting eight songbirds that he claimed were raiding his strawberry patch.

Game wardens received a complaint that gun shots had been fired on several occasions from Mr. Vinton’s residence in Braintree. The complaints indicated the shots were occurring sporadically during daylight hours.

State Game Warden Keith Gallant responded to the residence after the next occurrence. There was no answer at the door, but spent shotgun shells were observed outside the residence. Five dead cedar waxwings were observed in the garden as well as one dead chipping sparrow. Two more cedar waxwings were located under a tree in front of the residence. These songbirds are protected by both state and federal law.

Special Agent Pat Bosco of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assisted Warden Gallant with interviewing Mr. Vinton. Mr. Vinton said he had shot the birds because they were eating the strawberries he had planted in his garden.

Killing a federally protected songbird is illegal, and each violation carries a fine of $256.00 and restitution of $50.00 for each bird killed. Mr. Vinton has until August 11, 2010 to answer the charge of Taking Songbirds in Violation of Regulation in Orange District Court.

July 13, 2010

Michigan Deer Harvest Decreases Nine Percent in 2009

Michigan hunters harvested about 9 percent fewer deer in 2009 than
they did in the previous season, according to Department of Natural
Resources and Environment wildlife biologists.

Hunters killed an estimated 444,047 deer last year, down from 489,922
in 2008, according to the DNRE’s annual mail survey.

Hunters killed 5 percent fewer antlerless deer and 14 percent fewer
antlered bucks in 2009 than in the previous season.

Overall, hunters purchased about the same number of deer hunting
licenses last year as they did in 2008. An estimated 686,392 hunters
went afield in 2009, a one percent decrease from the previous season.

Forty-three percent of hunters reported killing at least one deer last
year, a 4 percent decline from 2008.

Hunter success was down most significantly, about six percent, during
the traditional Nov. 15-30 firearms season. Success was about one
percent higher during the state’s archery seasons, something wildlife
officials think might be attributed to liberalized rules for using
crossbows.

The complete harvest survey is posted online at
www.michigan.gov/dnrhunting.

By Glen Wunderlich
Outdoor Columnist
Member Professional Outdoor Media Association

Wildlife food plots are a great way to provide essential nutrients to deer and other animals throughout the year. The concept is a simple one: we feed the animals and they feed us. Our sites have a mix of perennial legume plants (clover and alfalfa) and annual plants, for which we are now preparing.

Already, the clover plots have been fertilized in the spring and have been mowed several times. It’s a beautiful, springtime sight to find the green plants emerging after a long and snowy winter. Deer no longer have the brassica roots to feed on, as they did all winter. Those that remain have rotted, and although their remnants will provide essential elements to the next season’s plants, they no longer have value as a food source. Ah, but the legumes are there for the taking.

However, since deer are browsers and not grazers, varied plant species are the best way to hold them on your site, while giving them a balanced diet. That’s why we have planted brassica mixes over the years alongside the perennial plots. Brassicas include members of the mustard family: radish, turnips, canola, kale, rape, rutabaga, etc. and when planted the first of August, can carry the deer through a harsh winter. The brassica plot also affords a hunter some hot late-season action, when cash crops have been harvested.

This season, I thought it would be worthwhile to mix in some soybeans into the brassica planting in a few weeks, so I picked up a 50-pound bag of RoundUp ready soybeans. Soybeans contain about 45 percent protein and can be broadcast with a hand spreader and pushed into the ground with a cultipacker, which is all the equipment we have. The idea is to have green, young, succulent forage leaves for browse instead of actual beans – all this, when spring-planted beans are turning brown.

When I began reading the label on the soybean bag, the precautions jumped out like utility pole to a drunk driver: this seed has been treated with seed protectants…Treated seeds exposed on soil surface may be hazardous to birds, fish, and other wildlife. Cover or collect spilled seeds. Forage may not be grazed for 30 days.

I don’t season my food with poison and I’m sure the wildlife wouldn’t eat it, if they knew better. I really didn’t want or require RoundUp ready beans, because I had no intention of spraying for weeds after germination. But, since the local elevator didn’t have any untreated soybean seed, I settled for the chemically altered variety – that is, until I became aware of the precautions. I returned the bag of soybeans and exchanged them for buckwheat.

Buckwheat is a good choice for weak soils; it will grow just about anywhere. It germinates fast and is a natural herbicide, which suppresses other plant growth and builds up poor soil by bringing up minerals from deep below the surface. And, deer love the stuff. One note of caution, however: it disappears when the first frost hits it. Therefore, it is only good for a very short period of time, if used as an attractant at a bow site. Typically, it is disked under and then replanted with other desirable food plot mixes which take advantage of the minerals brought up by the buckwheat plants. But, it sure is fun while it lasts.

We should be ready to plant the first of August, as long as neighbor, Bucky, is able to fashion some new maple wood bearings for the antique cultipacker we picked up last fall.

Food plots may require some cash and plenty of labor. But, they’re a labor of love that reaps their own rewards.

Department of Natural Resources and Environment wildlife biologist John
Niewoonder has been named Wildlife Biologist of the Year by the Midwest
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

A habitat biologist who works out of the Flat River State Game Area in
Ionia, Niewoonder recently spent 18 months leading a work group and
conducting public meetings that lead to Michigan’s first comprehensive
statewide deer management plan, which he wrote. Niewoonder accomplished
the task while performing his daily duties as a habitat biologist in
three counties.

“John is well deserving of this award as he has clearly gone above
and beyond the call of duty to complete this assignment,” said DNRE
Wildlife Division Chief Russ Mason. “To create a new management plan
for our premier game species while fulfilling the responsibilities of a
full-time position illustrates his outstanding work ethic.”

“John is the kind of biologist that everyone in our profession
aspires to be,” Mason added.

Niewoonder, who joined the DNRE as a habitat biologist at Pte. Mouillee
in 1998, said he was “very surprised” by the award. “It’s nice
to be recognized,” he said.

Niewoonder lives in Greenville with his wife and three children.

After reviewing the record of Elena Kagan, including public statements, written documents and her testimony this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) – the trade association for the firearms industry – is opposing her confirmation to the United States Supreme Court.

Though Ms. Kagan’s record on Second Amendment-related issues is sparse, what’s available is troubling. While serving in the Clinton Administration, Ms. Kagan played a key role in developing anti-gun policies and strategies. Specifically, we know Ms. Kagan helped draft a presidential directive that suspended imports of semiautomatic firearms. Records also indicate that during this period Ms. Kagan met with plaintiffs’ attorneys involved in municipal lawsuits against members of the firearms industry.

As a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, Ms. Kagan made clear that she did not support a challenge to the D.C. gun ban. Demonstrating that this belief had not changed, Ms. Kagan, as solicitor general of the United States, refused to file an amicus brief in the landmark McDonald v. Chicago case – a case that reaffirmed that our Second Amendment rights do not stop at state and city borders.

In her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, then Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said that she considered the Second Amendment to be “settled law.” It wasn’t until after she was confirmed that Justice Sotomayor let her true views be known as she ruled against the Supreme Court’s earlier decision (Heller) by supporting Chicago’s unconstitutional handgun ban (McDonald), thereby disregarding “settled law.” Similarly, Ms. Kagan, during her testimony this week, parroted Justice Sotomayor’s response, skirting the issue, when she said that the Second Amendment was “settled law.”

Earlier this week NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane, commenting on the McDonald decision, noted, “Today’s decision marks the beginning of a new era of civil rights litigation as laws and regulations that infringe upon and violate the individual right of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms, protected by the Second Amendment, are challenged.”

Understanding this, it is clear that the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court decisions were not the finish line, but the starting point of America’s fight to preserve and protect the Second Amendment. With a 5-4 ruling in both cases and a litany of challenges to restrictive firearms laws and regulations sure to be seen over the next few years, it is imperative that a Supreme Court justice not merely recognize the Second Amendment as “settled law,” but actually rule accordingly. Based upon Ms. Kagan’s record, we have no reason to believe she will.

For these reasons, NSSF is encouraging senators not to confirm Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court.
Contact:
Bill Brassard, Jr (203) 426-1320 or bbrassard@nssf.org

Bismarck, N.D.–The 56th edition of the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey, released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service, revealed wetland conditions and duck populations well above their long-term averages.

The headline numbers: The total-duck population across the traditional survey dropped slightly to 40.9 million from last year’s 42 million, mallard numbers were steady at 8.4 million, scaup numbers rose slightly to 4.2 million and the northern pintail population bumped up 9 percent to 3.5 million.

More good news: Most of the breeding grounds are today even wetter–in some cases much wetter–than when the surveys were flown in May, which will promote re-nesting and increase brood survival.

As was the case in 2009, the real news is buried in the fine print, which showed a continuing shift in breeding-duck numbers from Canada to the U.S.

Part of the reason was an all-time record 2.9 million wetlands on the U.S. side of the region, with 2.3 million of those in the eastern Dakotas. Wetlands are what attract nesting ducks. and the U.S. has never been wetter.

Prairie Canada was wetter than normal, led by a 21 percent year-over-year increase in the pond count in southern Saskatchewan. Yet despite being 34 percent wetter than its long-term average, 72 percent fewer pintails and 18 percent fewer mallards settled in Saskatchewan than its historical average.

Once again, the U.S. picked up the slack. More total ducks settled on the U.S. side of the breeding grounds–13.9 million in the Dakotas and eastern Montana as compared to 10.6 million in the prairie portions of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba. “That’s pretty remarkable when you consider that two-thirds of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) exists on the Canadian side of the border,” says Delta Scientific Director Dr. Frank Rohwer of Louisiana State University. “Delta has been saying for years that Canada is broken, and the latest survey numbers once again bear that out.”

The U.S. side of the region attracted 1.4 million pintails compared to just 592,000 in prairie Canada. Last year was the first time ever that more pintails settled in the U.S. than in prairie Canada.

Other stunners included 4.2 million blue-winged teal in the U.S. to 1.9 million in prairie Canada and 3 million mallards in the U.S. to 2.6 million in the prairie provinces.

Under normal conditions, those results would be cause for celebration, but the good news from the U.S. was offset by concerns about ongoing losses of the habitat that attracted those ducks in the first place.

“We heard from a lot of duck hunters who told us the recent season didn’t live up to their expectations after the great wetland conditions last spring,” says Delta Senior Vice President John Devney. “The best explanation is the ducks that settled in the Dakotas and Montana a year ago weren’t as productive as they were in the 1990s because there was a lot less nesting cover than there was in the ’90s.

“The Dakotas have lost close to 2 million acres of grass since 1999–that’s more than 3,100 square miles–and another 2 million acres of CRP are scheduled to expire by 2012.

“Research conducted by the Service showed that upland-nesting ducks need large blocks of grass to produce at population-expanding levels, but we’re losing Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and native prairie acres at an alarming rate. Not only are we losing grass, but also the high-quality wetlands embedded in those acres.

“The take-home message is that the U.S. side of the region carried Canada during the wet cycle of the 1990s, but if the U.S. keeps losing habitat, who’s going to pick up the slack?”

Rohwer, who is currently involved in research projects in northeastern North Dakota, says nest success in low-grass areas this spring has been extremely poor–less than 5 percent, which is well below what’s necessary for the population to expand. “If we keep losing grass, that doesn’t bode well for duck numbers,” he says.

Waterfowl hunters across the continent have expressed concern about what impact the BP oil spill will have on the estimated 5 million ducks that will begin arriving in the Gulf of Mexico less than two months from now.

“The oil spill is an environmental disaster that could affect ducks and duck hunters for years to come,” says Rohwer. “We have no experience with this kind of disaster, so it’s impossible to predict what will happen.

“It would appear that diving ducks like scaup, canvasbacks and redheads will be most at risk because they sit in the coastal bays where there has been a lot of oil in recent weeks.”

Rohwer says it’s possible large numbers of dabblers could also be affected by oil, but calls that a worst-case scenario and only should occur if a tropical storm pushes oil into the freshwater portions of the marsh where dabbling ducks are typically found. “There’s no way to know if ducks will move around to avoid the oil,” Rohwer says. “Ducks have no experience with oil, so they may have little predisposition to avoid it.

“The bottom line is while we need to find ways to mitigate the damage caused by the Deepwater spill and ensure the long-term viability of coastal wetlands, we can’t ignore the challenges ducks face on the breeding grounds.

“Loss of CRP and native grass in the Dakotas, and the loss of wetlands and low productivity in Canada, are suppressing our fall flights. We need to keep the focus on the breeding grounds.”

Contact:
Delta Waterfowl Senior Vice President John Devney at 888-987-3695

By Glen Wunderlich
Outdoor Columnist
Member Professional Outdoor Media Association

With the Supreme Court’s historic decision this past Monday, gun owners will have the law on their side when confronting onerous city and state gun regulations, such as has been the case in Chicago. With a claim that firearms violence was of such great proportion in its city, Chicago’s lawyers argued that the handgun ban struck down two years ago in Washington’s District of Columbia shouldn’t extend to the states. What these policy activists fail to acknowledge is that the very laws preventing firearms for self defense in the home may be the primary cause of their own excessive murder rates. Mounting evidence continues to show that where gun bans exist, crime soars – and, the evidence is overwhelming.

For example, in England, where handguns were outlawed in 1997, deaths and injuries from gun crime increased 340 percent from years 1998 to 2005. And, when in 1983, Chicago banned virtually all handguns, it began to reverse a trend which showed murder rates falling from 39 to 22 per 100,000 in the 8 years before the ban. After the ban, when the rest of the country experienced a 31 percent decrease in its murder rate, Chicago’s murder rate fell below what it was before the ban in only one of 17 years!

In the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department’s crime data, an interesting and predictable decline in homicide rates (different than murder rates, because it includes all killings – justified and otherwise) is reflected. Through year 2008 (during the gun ban), the lowest homicide count was 169 in year 2006. In years 2007 and 2008 the count was 181 and 186, respectively. In the very first year after residents were allowed handguns in their homes, the homicide rate in year 2009 dropped to its lowest to level in the past 20 years (and, probably well beyond that) to only 143. This year, through the first six months, only 59 homicides have been recorded, making for an annual projection of approximately 120 homicides.

But, empirical evidence such as this never stops the likes of people in the gun ban crowd like Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, which supports the strictest of gun control laws. “People will die because of this decision. It is a victory only for the gun lobby and America’s fading gun industry”, she remarked. First of all, the gun lobby gets its clout from its millions of members – American members. And, if the gun industry is fading, as she claims, well then, I guess the firearms manufacturers haven’t gotten the memo yet, because they are all posting record profits.

Back-door efforts by governmental authorities will continue to be pushed, as will the meaning of weasel words such as “reasonable”, as in gun laws. The cost of guns, ammo, and gun-related taxes will continue to escalate as a means to control them by left-leaning politicians in spite of documented records.

The argument is no longer about facts and evidence; its about political activism and the original intent of the Constitution. And, that’s what was so telling about this opinion – another 5 to 4 decision with originalists on one side and those working for “fundamental change” on the other – including Obama’s newest pick, Sonia Sotomayor. There’s only one way to insure that the scale of “justice” is not tipped any more to the left and that’s to vote for a president that honors the Constitution, rather than for one who despises its limiting powers to government. I pray that it’s not too late.

From The Journal of Wildlife Management

Deer populations are declining in the southeastern United States, and coyotes may be contributing to this decline. Although cause-and-effect studies have not been conducted, the expansion of the coyote’s range and its increasing numbers have coincided with the decline in deer. Wildlife management policies, such as limiting hunting of deer or manipulating habitat to ensure greater fawn survival, may therefore need to be adjusted.

A commentary in the June issue of The Journal of Wildlife Management discusses the changing numbers of deer and coyotes in the southeastern United States and the lack of studies examining the issue. Hunting “harvest” was the primary source of mortality in the deer population into the mid-1990s, but a new source of mortality among deer is evidenced by the declining population.

Between 1997 and 2006, the deer population in the state of South Carolina decreased by 36%. Some restrictions on hunting, such as targeting male animals only, were imposed starting in the year 2000. While hunting harvest numbers have declined, the overall population has continued to decline as well. Large-scale habitat changes, including the establishment of pine plantations, also may have affected deer populations. But it is the growth of the coyote population that mirrors the decline of deer.

Historically, coyotes were restricted to western North America, but during the last 20 to 30 years their range and numbers have expanded. They now live throughout North and Central America and along the East Coast from New Brunswick, Canada, to the US state of Florida. The Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina is one of the few areas where deer and coyote populations have been documented in recent years.

In the past decade, annual model estimates of the deer population and harvest have veered off-course. “Spotlight” surveys in the field show declining numbers rather than the continued growth that was expected. No decrease in deer reproduction has been found at SRS that might explain the lower numbers. Nor have increases been indicated in disease-related mortality or deer-vehicle collisions.

The coyote, however, is a known predator of deer, particularly neonatal fawns. Research is needed to determine the scale of the impact of coyotes on deer populations. While it may be a welcome method of deer population control in addition to hunting, the level of coyote predation needs to be understood.

Full text of the article, “Can Coyotes Affect Deer Populations in Southeastern North America?” The Journal of Wildlife Management, Volume 74, Issue 5, 2010, is available at http://www2.allenpress.com/pdf/wild-74-05-929-933.pdf

About The Journal of Wildlife Management
The Journal of Wildlife Management, published since 1937, is one of the world’s leading scientific journals covering wildlife science, management, and conservation. It is published eight times per year by The Wildlife Society. To learn more about the society, please visit: http://joomla.wildlife.org/.

LANSING, MICH — It was the news we all suspected was coming but dreaded to hear – a live Asian carp has been found past the barrier of the Chicago canals. Federal and state officials in Illinois confirmed yesterday that a live bighead carp was discovered by commercial fisherman in Lake Calumet, just six miles from Lake Michigan – this is the same area where a poisoning operation had been conducted recently that turned up no carp.

“Today was supposed to be a day of semi-celebration. Gabe VanWormer and I had just finished posting the first video on MichiganOutofDoors.com showing we were able to catch 30 different species of fish in 30 hours here in Michigan,” said Tony Hansen, Deputy Director of Michigan United Conservation Clubs. “We did that to showcase what Michigan has to offer and to raise awareness about the disaster waiting to happen if carp get past those barriers. The elation of a goal met and a project completed was dashed with the news that the carp have cleared the barrier.”

Perhaps more troubling than the fact that there is now concrete evidence that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineer’s electrical barriers are incapable of preventing the spread of carp and other invasive species is the response from the Federal Government and Corp of Engineers who, according to numerous media reports, have stated that they have no intentions of closing the locks because of this discovery.

“That’s ludicrous. DNA was discovered months ago and they did nothing. Now we have living proof that their barriers do not – and will not – work. And yet they continue to do nothing. That’s absolutely astonishing – what are they waiting for? The carp are past the barrier and will continue to establish populations past the barrier,” said Hansen. “The federal government must close off Lake Michigan from the Chicago River and canal system. And they need to do it immediately.”

Earlier this month MUCC and MichiganOutofDoors.com conducted a 30-hour Fish-A-Thon to raise awareness about the Asian carp issue. The event generated outstanding public support and media coverage as Tony Hansen and video producer Gabe Van Wormer attempted to catch 30 different species of fish in Michigan. The event was a success and the pair actually surpassed the 30-species goal.

Just yesterday, MUCC and MichiganOutofDoors.com also launched its 2010 gubernatorial candidate video forum, where each major party candidate for Michigan’s next governor answered an identical series of six questions, one dealing with invasive species. While there has been a significant amount of bi-partisan support from Michigan’s political leaders on the Asian carp issue, MUCC asked the question of each candidate so the voters of Michigan may get an idea of how our next governor will work to battle invasive species like the Asian carp.

MUCC, the nation’s largest state-specific conservation organization, has worked to stop the spread of invasive species in Michigan for many years. It will continue to coordinate efforts through its membership urging Federal leaders to create a hydrological separation between the Great Lakes Mississippi River system.

Contact:
Tony Hansen – (269) 420-9510
Dave Nyberg – (517) 346-6462