Theodore Roosevelt’s World’s Record Cougar

The following is from the Boone & Crockett Club

Colorado 1901

Theodore Roosevelt is the only U.S. president with his name in the Boone and Crockett records. And as far as we know, he’s the only hunter to kill a World’s Record with a hunting knife.

On November 6, 1900, William McKinley was elected the 25th president of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt would serve as his vice president until McKinley’s assassination on September 14, 1901. Before being sworn in as vice president, Roosevelt needed an adventure and a little fresh air, far from politics and the East Coast. In January 1901, he left for Meeker, Colorado, to chase cougars for five weeks. He was heading to the White River between Coyote Basin and Colorow Mountain.

Because Science

Roosevelt insisted his hunting expedition was in the name of science. After all, he was collecting cougar and bobcat specimens for Dr. C. Hart Merriam, head of the Biological Survey, now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. To be fair, Roosevelt did turn over the spoils of his hunt to the Biological Survey, including 14 cougar specimens. Dr. Merriam was pleased. “Your series of skulls from Colorado is incomparably the largest, most complete, and most valuable series ever brought together from any single locality and will be of inestimable value in determining the amount of individual variation,” Merriam wrote.

For his Colorado hunt, Roosevelt chose local hunter and houndsman Peter Goff to guide him. Goff and his dogs were well-known in the tracking business. After 16 years of chasing cougars, Goff had roughly 300 lions to his name. “This was always Roosevelt’s secret as an outdoorsman; he had a genius (and the money) for finding the best hunt guides available for every expedition,” writes historian Douglas Brinkley.

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Goff and Roosevelt (right) stand over the first of 14 cougars taken on the trip.

While riding through the pinyons and canyons by horseback, Roosevelt enjoyed watching the hounds work. In writing about his hunt in With the Cougar Hounds, he describes the dogs as he would an old hunting buddy, enamored with the quality of their training, unique personalities—and, of course, their ability to climb trees and latch onto their quarry.

The Hunt

One of the first set of tracks ended when Roosevelt thrust his knife behind the shoulder of the smallest cougar of the hunt. The dogs had subdued an older female cougar that weighed just 47 pounds. As the dogs latched onto the lion with their powerful jaws, Roosevelt finished it. He writes Read more

Hunting

Federal Custom Shop Introduces Six New Turkey Loads

Federal Custom Shop offers expertly handloaded ammunition, built to order with the highest-quality components. It has recently added six new turkey-load options to its overall TSS shotshell lineup. Custom Shop loads are for hunters seeking specific loading options not available in factory-loaded ammunition.

The six new loads are two 3-inch 12-gauge, 2-1/2-ounce in No. 7 and 9 shot options; two 2-3/4-inch 12-gauge, 2-1/4-ounce in No. 7 and 9 shot options; and two 3-inch 28-gauge 1-11/16-ounce in No. 7 and 9 shot options.

“Launched in the fall of 2019, the product line in our Federal Custom Shop continues to grow,” said Federal Shotshell Product Manager Josh Vickers. “This year, we have added several options of Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) with hefty payloads to deliver maximum pellet counts. These are the types of ultra-heavy payload shotshells that we can’t load on our factory machines effectively and efficiently. They really can only be built as handloads, so we are happy to offer them as Custom Shop offering.”

The Federal Ammunition factory is located in Anoka, Minnesota. Its online Custom Shop is a separate, secure room within, featuring a state-of-the-art reloading workshop focused on the utmost attention to detail, quality, and care for each hand-loaded round. An elite group of the Federal’s most experienced employees was selected to work in the Custom Shop. Using the best components available, these expert engineers handcraft this ammunition to order. Each round is hand-checked, then cleaned and inspected, before being packed in Custom Shop packaging and shipped out. Each box of Custom Shop ammunition is signed by the Federal employee who hand-loaded it. Read more

Ammunition

Federal Custom Shop Introduces Eight New Centerfire Rifle Options for Big Game Hunting

Federal Custom Shop offers expertly handloaded ammunition, built to order with the highest-quality components. It has recently added eight new options to its overall product lineup. Custom Shop loads are for hunters and shooters who cannot find specific bullet options in factory-loaded ammunition on the retail shelf.

The new loads are Barnes Tipped TSX 6.5 PRC 120-gr, Hammer 6.5 Creedmoor 121-grain, Hammer 6.5MM PRC 121-grain, Fusion 284 Win. 140-grain, Trophy Bonded Tipped 284 Win. 140-gr, Hammer 7mm PRC 131-gr, Barnes Tipped TSX 7MM PRC 140-grain, and Barnes LRX 300 WSM 200-grain

“Launched in the fall of 2019, the product line in our Federal Custom Shop continues to grow,” said Federal Centerfire Rifle Product Manager Eric Miller. “This year, we have added several options of bonded or all-copper bullets that our customers have been asking for. This includes Hammer bullets, which are a brand of high-performance, solid copper projectiles designed for hunting and manufactured to have a unique terminal performance, so we are excited to see how well they do in our Custom Shop loads.” Read more

Ammunition

Magpul Expands Hunter Lite Stock Line with Ruger American Short Action Variant

Magpul is continuing to grow in the outdoor space with its extensive collection of hunting stocks, the newest being the Hunter Lite-Ruger American Short Action for the Ruger American rifle; the Hunter Lite is compatible with both Gen 1 and 2 rifles.

As the name implies, the goal with the Hunter Lite line of stocks is to keep weight to a minimum; the Hunter Lite stock for the Ruger American comes in at 2.5 pounds – 25% lighter than the standard Hunter stock, and it’s 25% narrower, too.

While the stock cuts weight, it doesn’t cut features. The stock works for both right- and left-hand shooters thanks to a reversible inlet insert. The aluminum V-bedding block – the bedrock of the stock – is another way weight was slashed, though the block still uses reinforced steel pillars to prevent compression and deformation while shooting.

Adjusting stock fit and adding accessories is simple, too, and keeps the weight down thanks to the polymer components. The buttstock uses removeable half-inch spacers for LOP adjustment, and snap-on cheek risers for comb adjustment, while the forend features M-LOK attachment points, as well as integral sling swivel studs for use with a variety of slings and bipods.

Other features for the Hunter Lite include an enlarged trigger guard for comfortable use with gloves and easy access to the ambidextrous magazine release. The forend of the Hunter Lite is compatible with barrel profiles up to Medium Palma. Read more

Firearms

Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation Files Brief Defending Second Amendment Rights at the Supreme Court

The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation filed an amicus curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court in a case challenging Hawaii’s concealed carry laws under the Second Amendment. This is the second time in the last week that SAF has urged a court to invalidate a law under the Second Amendment.

Hawaii does not respect the right to carry firearms. Between 2000 and 2018, the state issued just four concealed carry licenses. Things changed in 2022, when the Supreme Court declared that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry a firearm outside the home. After that, Hawaii—along with New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and California—passed “default private property” or “vampire rules.” Under these rules, people exercising their right to carry a firearm need to get express permission from the open establishment before they can enter.

To justify its default rule, Hawaii is relying on classist hunting “qualification” laws that were a result of European feudalism. The brief explains that “early British game laws … were originally made with a view of taking the arms out of the hands of the common people, or at least with a design of rendering them in-expert in the use of them.” The colonial governments attempted to import these wealth qualifications to the United States. Hawaii and the other states that have adopted the default rule argue that these qualification laws establish a tradition of banning firearms under the Second Amendment.

As the brief points out, however, “America’s early settlers promptly rejected their mother country’s legacy of conditioning the right to take game on wealth and birthright.” And after the Revolution, courts referred to these qualification laws as “productive of tyranny” and “contrary to the spirit of our institutions.”

“We filed the brief to make sure those classist hunting laws that were rejected openly by the courts for 150 years remain in the past,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel for SAF. “Those laws were never part America’s hunting heritage. They should serve as cautionary tales, and no more.”

Animal extremists already bully sportsmen. We do not need to be bullied by gun control extremists working to take away our firearms. The Sportsmen’s Alliance is fighting against those who are working to crater our heritage and traditions. Read more

Gun Control

Judge Agrees with SAF, Declines to Halt Florida Bear Hunt

Two weeks ago, SAF filed a friend of the court brief urging a Tallahassee court not to halt Florida’s first bear hunt in a decade. Last night, the court agreed with SAF. The bear hunt will begin on December 6, as scheduled.

The same legal tactics were tried, and similarly failed, during Florida’s 2015 bear hunt.

From the bench Judge Dempsey said, “That 2015 hunt was found constitutional under the rational basis test, and this hunt is significantly more conservative than that hunt … both in number of bears that could be harvested, as well as the timing, when it’s a little less likely for more female bears to be killed.”

“This is a great win for hunters and science-based wildlife management,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel for the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “The court considered the science and the fact that the Florida Constitution gives the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission exclusive authority to manage the state’s wildlife. It then held that the Plaintiffs were not likely to succeed on the merits. We couldn’t ask for more.”

The bear hunt is scheduled to begin on December 6 and will end on December 28. Read more

Hunting

SCI & FWC Victorious in Protecting Florida Black Bear Hunt

Safari Club International is proud to share that a Florida court has denied a temporary injunction to stop Florida’s highly regulated black bear hunt. SCI’s legal intervention in Florida has helped secure the future of this important hunt, which will begin to manage Florida’s expanding bear population and reduce human-bear conflicts and vehicle collisions.

The hunt, approved by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) in August, was put at risk when anti-hunting groups filed a lawsuit to overturn the decision. After plaintiff Bear Warriors United sued to stop the hunt, SCI immediately moved to join in the case to protect the state’s first black bear hunt in a decade.

SCI and Florida’s wildlife management authority have fought this lawsuit with the facts. Florida’s bear population is healthy, and the FWC’s approved hunt is conservative and backed with sound science. Ultimately, the court recognized the FWC’s right to rely on a regulated hunt as a wildlife management tool and recreational opportunity. The court also agreed with SCI’s arguments that the plaintiff failed to provide credible evidence against the hunt. With these successful arguments, the season will proceed as scheduled on December 6, 2025.

Although this ruling is a major victory, anti-hunters are still attempting to undermine the hunt by purchasing tags with no intention of using them. The FWC has only allocated a conservative 172 black bear tags for this year’s hunt. All of them will be needed if Floridians want to stem the rising number of human-bear conflicts and the 300-plus vehicle strikes the state sees every year. Florida’s black bear population continues to grow rapidly, leading to more dangerous encounters, including a fatal attack this past summer. SCI urges Floridians to recognize the urgency of this hunt and to continue supporting science-based wildlife management to maintain the state’s ecological balance.

“Hunting plays an essential role in maintaining animal populations and conserving wildlife around the world,” said SCI CEO W. Laird Hamberlin. “The fight for legal black bear hunting in Florida perfectly crystallizes this fact, which is why SCI is one of the only organizations deploying money and time to tip the scales in the fight to defend hunters’ rights in the courtroom. SCI’s premier legal defense team will always be first in line to thwart radical and frivolous anti-hunting litigation.” Read more

Hunting

Federal Ammunition’s Black Pack Rebate Returns for Black Friday

Federal Ammunition is proud to announce the return of its Black Pack rebate program. Just in time for Black Friday and the upcoming holidays, customers can purchase qualifying Federal Black Pack ammunition and receive a $7.50 rebate per box.

“Back for Black Friday, the Black Pack rebate gives customers a great way to stock up on dependable, high-volume ammunition,” said Federal’s Senior Manager of Trade Marketing Bart Biedinger. “Whether for range days or gifting, Black Pack ammo is a great value—and this promotion makes it even better.”

Rebate details include buying a minimum of one (1) qualifying box of promotional Federal® Black Pack™ ammunition and receiving $7.50 back per box. A maximum rebate of $100 per person or household applies to the program. Read more

Ammunition, Promotions

New Daniel Defense MK18 .300 Blackout Two-Toned Finish 1 of 200 Series

Custom & Collectable Firearms proudly presents the two-toned Daniel Defense MK18 pistol. Now, for the first time, this MK18 is chambered in .300 blackout exclusively for CNC Firearms! Sold through Orion Wholesale, this remarkable MK18 is one of only 200 sequentially engraved AR’s in a limited collector’s series.

This MK18 features a full FDE finish paired with a RIS II FDE Picatinny quad rail and B5 Systems Coyote Brown pistol grip and trigger guard designed to improve ergonomics and overall weapon control. The two-toned MK18 comes equipped with an SB Tactical SBA5 pistol brace and a 10.3” barrel, combining exceptional performance with unmatched collectability. Every firearm comes with a Custom & Collectable Firearms challenge coin and a certificate of authenticity signed by the owner of Custom & Collectable Firearms.

Learn more about this series at www.cncfirearms.com. Follow us on Instagram or join our email community to be the first to know about our latest releases. Read more

Firearms

Hornady’s 12th Edition Handbook of Cartridges and Reloading

Hornady Reloading® believes that data and instruction are critical to productivity when it comes to reloading Hornady ammunition. When at the reloading bench, Hornady Reloading has the perfect gift for every shooter. This holiday season, make shopping simple with the Hornady 12th Edition Handbook of Cartridges and Reloading— the one gift that’s sure to hit the mark.

With data for over 400 cartridges across over two dozen calibers, the 12th Edition Hornady Reloading Handbook of Cartridge Reloading is the most comprehensive resource ever produced for reloading Hornady bullets. Every reloading enthusiast will love the latest volume of this superb resource as a holiday gift.

The newest Edition of their famous handbook introduces groundbreaking bullet lines, including the CX®, ELD?VT®, and Sub?X®, alongside expanded data for proven favorites such as the ELD® Match, FTX®, SST®, and more.

Reloading propellants have been updated and expanded, with popular new powders like Winchester’s StaBall Match, StaBall 6.5, and StaBall HD, all included with a wide range of cartridges, making them perfect for any rifle reloading enthusiast.

To complement the new powders, the 12th Edition includes many new cartridge additions, including the 22 ARC, 22 Creedmoor, 6mm GT, 25 Creedmoor, 7mm PRC, 338 ARC, 400 Legend, and others. Read more

Ammunition
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