Funding a System of Conservation – B&C Impact Series

Members of the Boone and Crockett Club were key players in laying the groundwork for both conservation of game species and generating the funds to pay for it—a system that we still use today. 

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There used to be quite a bit of money in duck meat and plumage from wading birds. At the turn of the twentieth century, an enterprising killer could turn a pile of feathers or breast meat into a bag of cash. In fact, giant shotguns—called punt guns—were mounted to boats so shooters could blast hundreds of birds at a time. The meat would supply restaurants with cheap table fare, while the feathers were used to adorn the hats of fashionable ladies. The supply of birds over North American’s skies seemed endless. It wasn’t.

Early members of the Boone and Crockett Club worked to put an end to the wholesale slaughter of birds by pushing legislation like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918, which established federal control over the hunting of those birds. For bird populations, Club members had stopped the bleeding. Yet without a way to replace the birds that had been lost, it was unlikely populations would recover on their own. It would take more than laws. Restoration was going to take money.
Read more

Wildlife

Opening Day of Fishing Seasons Are A Rebirth

This weekend marks opening day of fishing season in many parts of the country. Today, Craig Springer shares some of the reasons why it’s such a special occasion for many anglers.

 

— Craig Springer, USFWS, Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration

April can be a cruel time of year in northern-tier states; it’s not quite spring, not quite winter. But it brings with it opening day of fishing seasons.  Welting sleet spit from gunmetal gray clouds or a sunlit bluebird sky—no matter the weather, anglers of all stripes are out on the water when trout, walleye or other sport fish species come into season, open for fishing after a winter-long hiatus.

Opening day of trout season is a cultural phenomenon, said Tim Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC). “It’s deeply historic. Opening day has a long happy history,” said Schaeffer. “It’s almost carnival-like—it’s a rich tradition in Pennsylvania.”

Opening day is of course, one day out of the year.  From a fisheries management perspective, preparing for opening day is a yearlong process, according to Schaeffer. The PFBC operates 14 state fish hatcheries, eight of which raise trout—3.2 million brook, brown, and rainbow trout are stocked by the agency each year in Pennsylvania.

“Hatcheries run 24/7/365,” says Schaeffer. “It’s a constant cycle of work. Field biologists contribute to that cycle; their assessments determine where to stock and what habitat concerns need addressed. Conservation officers work with our biologists to I.D. stocking locations.”

Rod and gun clubs and sportsman’s groups in Pennsylvania also figure into the whole affair, contributing another 1 million trout from about 150 cooperative nurseries statewide before and after opening day.  “Anglers are deeply invested in conservation,” noted Schaeffer. Read more

Fishing

Mossberg International SA-410 Product Safety Recall

Mossberg International, Inc. (“Mossberg”) has recently discovered a potential safety issue with certain Mossberg International Model SA-410 Shotguns which may lead to personal injury and/or damage to the shotgun. Mossberg is voluntarily initiating a product safety recall to protect the safety of its customers because if a user prematurely releases a shotshell while loading or unloading, the unretained shotshell could potentially contact the Bolt Lock Button inside the loading port and detonate.

This Recall Notice only applies to the Serial Numbers of the SA-410 Shotguns listed in the SA-410 Shotgun Recall Webpage linked to this document. If your SA-410 Shotgun is among those listed, please do not load, fire, or use your SA-410 Shotgun and contact us immediately to arrange to have your shotgun upgraded free of charge, using the following steps:

Step 1 – Contact us at immediately by email at SA410Recall@Mossberg.com, or by calling +1

(203) 230-5300 (Monday through Friday, from 8:00AM to 4:30PM EST) and indicate you are

calling regarding the “SA-410 Recall.” Alternatively, you can contact us or by mail at Mossberg International, Inc., P.O. Box 497, 7 Grasso Avenue, North Haven, CT 06473. Please make sure to include the serial number of your SA-410 Shotgun, which is located on the non-loading port side of the shotgun receiver.

Step 2 – After you contact us and we confirm that your SA-410 Shotgun is subject to this recall, we will mail you an upgraded trigger group that you can easily replace yourself. Alternatively, if you are uncomfortable with replacing the trigger group yourself, we will mail you a prepaid shipping label with instructions so that you can return your unloaded shotgun to us for an upgrade, free of charge. If you do choose to return your SA-410 Shotgun to us we will make every effort to return your SA-410 Shotgun to you as soon as possible.

If you have already sold or transferred your SA-410 Shotgun, we request that you please contact us by email at SA410Recall@Mossberg.com, or by calling +1 (203) 230-5300 (Monday through Friday, from 8:00AM to 4:30PM EST) and provide us with the name and contact information for the person or entity to whom you sold or transferred it so that we can notify them of this recall.

Firearms

CCRKBA Asks: 42,000 Traffic Deaths in 2021-Should We Ban Cars?

Contact: Alan Gottlieb (425) 454-4911

BELLEVUE, WA – Alarming new data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows 42,915 people were killed in traffic accidents last year, so the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today suggested a crackdown on automobiles.

“Maybe we should ban cars,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, sarcastically. “After the CDC reported more than 19,000 gun-related homicides in 2020, there was a renewed push to ban certain types of firearms as the solution. No sensible person could honestly believe that placing new restrictions on cars, or guns, would result in a dramatic reduction in tragedy.”

According to the NHTSA, last year’s traffic fatalities were up 10.5 percent over 2020 when 38,824 people were killed and even more over the 2019 count of 36,096. Gottlieb noted far more people died in car crashes than were murdered with firearms in 2020, and it is likely the pattern will continue for 2021. FBI crime data for 2021 will be released in September.

“If you apply the same rationale to cars that gun prohibitionists apply to guns,” Gottlieb suggested, “politicians would be demanding Draconian restrictions on cars and people who drive them. There would be efforts to ban ownership of any vehicle that could cruise along at more than 70 miles-per-hour. We would prohibit young adults from owning cars with automatic transmissions, and there would be efforts to ban big engines with more than six cylinders. Read more

Gun Control

REDARC’s New Product: Pure Sine Wave Inverter

LONSDALE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA – REDARC, the leading Overland authority in power management adds to its off-grid power solutions with the launch of Pure Sine Wave Inverters to the North American Market.

No more sacrificing luxury. Take your home appliances wherever you go and discover power and convenience like you’ve never experienced before with REDARC’s Pure Sine Wave Inverters.

With REDARC’s line of Pure Sine Wave Inverters, you can use your electrical devices while off-grid or on the open road and get the same type of 110-volt power you get at home. A Pure Sine Wave Inverter produces a unique sine wave, ensuring a smoother, more efficient running of household appliances, including laptops, coffee machines, power tools, heaters, microwaves, children’s toys, kettles, CPAP machines, e-bikes, cameras and much more.

Not all inverters are created equal. Cheaper inverters try to imitate a sine wave by ‘chopping off’ the corners of a square wave, creating a modified square wave. Appliances running on a modified sine wave need more power and will produce more heat. Read more

General

iSportsman: JBER Tragedy A Reminder For Us All

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA?— On May 12, a soldier at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) died of injuries sustained in a bear attack on May 10 while working in a JBER training area. Staff Sgt. Seth Michael Plant, 30, an infantryman from the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment was a dedicated servicemember who lost his life in an untimely tragedy.

iSportsman, having worked with JBER for many years and proud to have supported many men and women who dedicate their life to the service, would like to extend our condolences.

This week we sat down with bear safety expert Kim Titchener of Bearsafety.com and Recsafewithwildlife.com to discuss the best outdoor practices when it comes to bear incidents and encounters. Our interview can be found on www.iSportsman.com and www.iSportsmanarx.com. Reminders of the article release can be found on our social media pages, such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About iSportsman: iSportsmanTM is the leading recreational program management tool by ASciS Solutions in the nation. serving as the enterprise-level provider for the U.S. Army’s and U.S. Air Force’s hunting, fishing and firewood permit sales programs, as well as providing services to the U.S. Marine Corp, Army National Guard, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks & Tourism. ASciS has been delivering SaaS and customized solutions to meet the needs of large-scale recreational programs for more than 12 years and currently manages permit sales, access control, reporting and more for more than 10.6 million acres of forest, fields, trails and waterways across the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. Visit isportsman.com for more information.?

Wildlife

Michigan: Conservation Boosted on Imperiled Habitat

The NWTF recently secured $358,000 in funding, thanks to a generous grant provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources via the agency’s Wildlife Habitat Grant Program.

The newly acquired funding allows the NWTF and partners in Michigan to restore and enhance imperiled oak ecosystems and other high-priority habitats, delivering conservation work on over 1,050 acres and totaling more than $550,000 in project costs over two years.

Once one of the most abundant ecosystems in the Midwest, oak savannas have dwindled drastically since European settlement and are now one of the rarest plant communities on the planet.

It is estimated that less than one percent of the oak savanna habitat that existed before European settlement exists on the landscape today.

But what does this have to do with wild turkeys?

Oak savanna ecosystems are characterized by large expanses of grasses and forbs such as wildflowers interspersed with oaks and covered in insects. The herbaceous vegetation provides excellent brooding and foraging for wild turkeys, and the oaks provide shade, important hard mast, and roosting habitat.

Simply put, more oak savanna habitat equals more wild turkey habitat.

However, wild turkeys are not the only species that depend upon this unique ecosystem. Read more

Wildlife

Typical Velvet Mule Deer Topping the Charts as New World Record

On Saturday, May 14th, Pope and Young convened a Special Panel of Judges in Ogden, UT for a potential World’s Record Typical Velvet Mule Deer. Bowdy Gardner’s Typical Velvet Mule Deer scored an incredible 218 2/8” and is now the largest bow-harvested Typical Velvet Mule Deer in North America. This amazing deer was taken and entered into the records program nearly ten years ago and is now recognized as the new world’s record after the original score was upheld by a panel of measurers.

Measurers present at the Special Panel were Larry Streiff, David Nielsen, Stan Zirbel, Pope and Young’s Director of Records, Tim Rozewski, and Pope and Young’s Records Chairman, Roy Grace. With a confirmed final score of 218 2/8” Gardner’s buck is officially the new Pope and Young World Record.

PICTURE
Pictured: From Left to Right: Jason Rounsaville, Executive Director, Larry Streiff, Roy Grace, Records Chairman, Stan Zirbel, David Neilsen, and Tim Rozewski, Director of Records. Read more

Hunting

Boat Launching Made Easy

— Frank Sargeant

I spend a lot of time these days on Lake Guntersville in northern Alabama, which has to have some of the busiest boat ramps in America during the spring, summer and fall bass tournament seasons. It’s routine for some ramps to have 50 to 75 boats launched in the first hour of daylight as anglers from all over the country come to the big lake for tournaments and for fun fishing.

The amazing thing about it is that the vast majority of this action goes off very smoothly and with minimal backup, because most of the guys who come here are hard-core veterans of hundreds of previous launches and they do what works best to keep the line moving.

It also helps that most of these guys are on the water for serious fishing, and there’s no alcohol aboard most boats. The ramp arguments and occasional fisticuffs that are becoming pretty common in coastal south Florida and many other places are rarely seen here.

Given that, as we approach the peak of the boating season across most of the nation, it might be a good idea to take a look at how it’s done right, with minimal damage to equipment or egos, and with no need for EMS assistance.

Launching and loading a boat is simple if you follow a few tried and true procedures. (Frank Sargeant photo).

First, of course, is to be sure your boat is ready to launch when your turn in line comes—drain plug in, tie downs released, motor trimmed up, bow line in place, key in the boat’s ignition, and all the stuff from the truck already moved to the boat.

Second, when your turn comes, back in just far enough to float the transom, again make sure you’re got a bow line on the bow eye, and then unhook the winch strap. Read more

Fishing

Michigan: Blue Lakes Fire 98% Contained

The Blue Lakes Fire in the northeastern Lower Peninsula is now 98% contained. As a result, all road closures in the fire area have been lifted. The stretch of the Black River that was previously closed has also been opened.

However, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources still is working to connect remaining gaps in the containment line and mop up within the fire area, which is northwest of Atlanta and spans Montmorency and Cheboygan counties. People who enter the area are urged to be cautious.

“If you are in the area, stay on roads,” said Kerry Heckman, DNR fire public information officer. “There may be hot spots or snags, which are trees that can fall over without warning. There may be smoke, and fire crews will still be working in the area.” Seeing smoke within the fire area is not necessarily cause for alarm and is to be expected.

The final estimate of the fire’s size is 2,516 acres. Estimates can change throughout the course of the fire based on input from fire crews on the ground and high-tech tools such as drones, which were used Monday. Read more

Wildlife
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