The Hog Blog

Here’s a quickie for a Monday morning… 

It’s still a  little early, but for folks who enjoy shooting ground squirres, jack rabbits and such in the condor zone, it’s been a long, miserable search to find a lead-free, rimfire bullet for the .17hmr.  Last year, CCI released their TNT Green line, but personally, I never even saw it on a shelf or catalog.  I guess it was out there, but it slipped right by me.  From talking to several Hog Blog readers, it slipped by them too.

Well, here’s your chance to remedy that…

I have found (and purchased) the .17hmr TNT Green ammo online at RM Ammo.  They had a fair supply when I ordered, and according to their website, they still have 30 units left.  I’d never heard of RM until a friend turned me on to them, but the service was extremely fast.  It’s not super cheap, at $12.95/box, but that’s only a couple of bucks more than regular .17hmr ammo. 

If RM runs out, you can also find the TNT Green in stock at MidwayUSA.  They’re getting a little more for it, about $15.99/box or $145.99/brick (500 rds).   

As best I can tell, Cabelas and BassPro are not carrying this ammo yet, or at least it isn’t listed in their catalog.  You can check your regular ammo sources to see if they have it as well.

The lead-free, .22lr “Short Range” ammo from CCI is still not widely available.  I’d intended to take my test box out to the range this weekend, but it just wasn’t in the cards.  As soon as I get a chance to get this stuff into the field, I’ll let you know what I think about it.

So I’ve received a few emails from folks I met at SHOT wondering how things are going, and hoping, “by the way”, that I found the samples of their products satisfactory.  In other words, they’re wondering if or when I’m going to review their products.  A couple of Hog Blog readers are wondering similar things.  And it’s a fair enough question. ..

So my answer, in short, is that I don’t write reviews off of press releases and product labels.  I don’t sit and turn something around on my desk until I’m struck by the product review muse with some glibly positive commentary.  If I am going to review something, I intend to use it, try it as it’s intended to be used, and then I’ll write about it. 

For example, if it’s ammo, I will shoot it.  Ideally, I’ll use it on game, but at the very least, I’m going to see how it performs on targets and in my guns.  Is it accurate, does it chamber and cycle, and does it kill cleanly?  If it’s a knife, I’ll cut something with it.  How’s it hold up on a hog skin (if it can handle skinning hogs, it can handle anything)?  Does it keep an edge, and can I resharpen it easily? 

I’m not going to test optics by looking across the living room or out the back door.  I need to take them in the field, under real conditions.  I don’t have one of these high-tech testing labs either… I’m not measuring exit pupil or light gathering capacity.  I want to know if I can clearly see what I’m looking at.  How’s it handle rain, fog, or 100-degree heat? 

If it’s clothing, I’ll wear it… not just around the living room, but in the field.  Is it tough, waterproof, or whatever else it’s advertised to be?  Before review, I’ll read the book or view the video.  And so on…

Point is, all of this takes a little time and time is a precious commodity.  I’ve got a good-sized stack of things to go over, and some more that should be in the mail.  Included are the new, lead-free .22lr cartridges from CCI, some great new boots from RedBack (which I love so far), several hog calls (this is for you, Rex), a couple of books and videos, and some new “scent-blocking” clothing. 

There are a couple of exceptions to my rule, though… for example, some things are just great ideas that I want to share. 

One example is the “Shotkeeper“.  It’s a shadow-box designed to hold a photo from your hunt, with a special cutout to fit the shotgun or rifle shell used to make the shot.  You can get them for 2″x3″ or 4″x6″ photo sizes.  Simple, I agree, but it’s a really cool idea and a nice way to commemorate a hunt.  They also make a similar display, called the “Lurekeeper“, for fishing (a photo and a cutout for a special lure or fly).  I didn’t get a good photo, but check their site. 

So hang tight, as some reviews will be forthcoming over the next couple of weeks.  Others will take longer, but should be coming as my spring hunting kicks into high gear.

So, I’m doing some work from home this afternoon, and put the idiot box on to let the hunting shows play while I put PowerPoint slides together.  It’s pretty much the usual stuff on The Sportsman’s Channel, and I’m not paying much attention… it’s more like white noise (to me, quacking ducks, gobbling turkeys, and gunfire are white noise), and I only look up from time to time to see where and what they’re hunting now… or whenever an elk bugles.  (Can’t ignore that sound.)

I’m not sure what I was doing at the precise moment I heard the word “pig”, but of course that got my attention.  I looked up in time to see, of all things, a tattoo in process… and it was COOL!  (OK, if you don’t like tattoos just hold your water.  I don’t think he’s asking for your approval.)  It was kind of a tribal design of a hog, and if I’d thought of it first, I may well have claimed it for my own.  From the tat, the opening sequence jumped to hog hunting footage… charges, bow kills, handgun shots, and all kinds of stuff.   But best of all, there wasn’t a whitetail, a turkey, or a goose in the whole melange…  just hogs. 

Then the show title pops up… PIGMAN – THE SERIES!

I had to pop over to the website to see what this was all about.  Here’s the program description from the site:

Known throughout the outdoor world for his relentless pursuit of wild hogs, Brian “PigMan” Quaca will burst onto the Outdoor Television scene January of 2010 as host of “PigMan, The Series”, which will focus on his quest of the wild boar hog and other dangerous big game animals throughout the world. “PigMan, The Series” will also take you into the lifestyle of the Texan, giving viewers an inside look at the outrageous personality of this wild card outdoor TV host. Viewers will be taken throughout the Midwest for whitetail, the mountains of Utah for Monster Elk and across the border to Mexico chasing whitetail and wild pigs. “Pigman” will also take viewers hunting dangerous game to the Middle East and Australia and other places rarely captured on video. You’ll watch as the PigMan puts his life on the line, carrying his bow and rifle into the untamed Dark Continent where he pursues the most deadly animals in the world eye to eye. “PigMan” will be like no other show on outdoor television today…we just hope the Outdoor World is ready.

OK, so it sounds like hogs aren’t all he’s gonna hunt, but man, look at that itinerary!  The Middle East, Australia, and who knows where else?  It’s the tv show I’d have made if I could make a tv show… maybe without quite the level of histrionics I saw on this episode of the show, but then again, that over-acting seems to be the name of the game out there. 

So I’ve only seen this one episode, and to be honest, I wasn’t crazy about the whole thing.  I won’t sit and critique it here, but overall, and as a series, I think it’s one I’ll be tuning into again!

I realize that even though the Ethics Roundtable is going pretty well, I haven’t been posting all that much the last couple of weeks.  I really need to go hunting. 

There’s a lot going on out there in the world of hogs and hunting, so how about we take a quick look around to see who’s doing what?

First of all, my friend and fellow Skinny Moose blogger, Moose, has been covering the recent upswing in feral hog stories back in North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  According to this article, the Eurasian hogs that have been there for decades are now being supplemented by feral hogs, which may or may not have been released by hunters.  They’re being blamed for significant damage to the Smoky Mountain ecosystem, and the park system folks are trying hard to come up with a solution.  Moose also had another story earlier about more hogs in the Tarheel State, this time in the central part of the state.  They’re spreading fast!

Down in South Carolina, feral hogs have been around for a while, but the State is apparently ready to do something drastic, at least with the animals living on one of the coastal islands.  According to this article in the Myrtle Beach Sun Times, the State will be bringing in hunters to control the population of hogs on North Island, a small barrier island on the ocean side of Winyah Bay.  Barrier islands are generally small, delicate ecosystems that provide nesting and shelter for many sea birds, sea turtles, and other creatures.  I can see where a burgeoning wild hog population would be unwelcome there.

“Feral hogs have continued to multiply on the island, causing destruction to the landscape and native plants, jeopardizing the nesting success of ground-nesting birds as well as sea turtle nests scattered along the beaches of (the island),’’ said Jamie Dozier, wildlife biologist with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

DNR officials hope the hunts can put a major dent in the hog population and help preserve the island. The hunts are part of an overall hog removal project on the Yawkey Wildlife Center. The agency will allow three, two-day hog hunts with dogs to take place on North Island only in February. The weekend hunts are scheduled for Feb. 12-13, 19-20 and 26-27 from sunrise to sunset only. North Island is only accessible after crossing Winyah Bay by boat and contains 1,410 acres of uplands and 1,703 acres of marsh. 

So all you SC hunters, here’s an opportunity to get in some hog hunting, fill your freezers, and help out the environment all in a weekend or two!  Step up!

Heading all the way over to Texas, a quick glance of recent news stories about wild hogs and boar shows a stack of articles like this one, all clamoring about the continued spread of these animals across the state.  The tone is almost always the same:

Feral hogs root and trample for acorns and other food, sometimes taking out large areas of crops or pasture. They are omnivorous and will also eat eggs, particularly those of ground-nesting turkeys, as well as small animals. The hogs are blamed for more than $52 million in losses to agriculture in the state each year, and are also blamed for water quality problems.

They can pass along diseases like brucellosis and pseudorabies (not related to rabies) to other wild and domestic animals. Tests conducted for the Texas Animal Health Commission show that about 20 percent of the hogs tested carried pseudorabies and about 10 percent carried brucellosis.

These concerns are very real, and have led Texas to allow some pretty harsh measures to control the spread, including night hunting and even aerial depredation.  The war is on!

What’s being done?  Well, many things as I’ve called out here before.  I know it’s a hot topic in a lot of places, and a lot of folks are talking.  There’s a Wild Pig Conference scheduled for April, in Pensacola, Florida… another state that’s currently “under seige” by feral pigs.  Here’s what it’s all about:

Damage caused by wild pigs is one of the greatest concerns to wildlife biologists and managers today. Wild pigs have the potential to cause ecological and economical destruction far surpassing any other invasive exotic vertebrate. The adaptive and prolific nature of these animals along with their capabilities for widespread devastation places their management as one of the top priorities for wildlife scientists. The International Wild Pig Conference is the only forum in the world that provides federal, state, and private stakeholders a venue to discuss biological, financial, and social implications specific to wild pig subsistence in our ecosystems. The conference will assemble experienced managers as well as those new to the wild pig industry in a professional, educational atmosphere.

(NOTE:  If any magazine editors or wealthy benefactors are reading this right now, I could sure use a sponsor to cover my costs to attend this conference.)

That’s about it for right now.  I’ve got some hunts coming up soon, so maybe I can finally get back to what I love… and write about something more fun than ethics debates or lead-free ammo!

Well, the ethics discussion has certainly taken on a life of its own… or rather, regained the life it previously had.  There’s nothing particularly new about this conversation, but there is much to learn, and often the learning isn’t so much in the words folks are writing, but in how we think about them and how they impact our actions. 

I’ve gone a bit astray from the original roundtable idea.  When I suggested the running conversation, the idea was to read one another’s points and ideas, and then post our extended comments to our own blogs.  This would keep the conversation from bogging down in a single comment string on one site, and would enable the conversation to reach a much wider array of readers.  It would also allow the discussion to take different directions, as folks could build off of ideas spurred by someone’s point. 

Recently, with two posts over at the Fair Chase Hunting blog, I got pulled directly into the conversation in the comments, and failed to continue it here on the Hog Blog.  The first was Eric Nuse’s original response to the roundtable idea, What is Hunting – A Philosophical View, and in it he lays out the ideas presented in a paper he wrote following a retreat that must be similar to Galen Geer’s “symposium” (the post that sort of kicked all of this off). 

Eric’s post generated some pretty good discussion, including a few comments that I think made the perfect illustration of how personal the concept of “ethical hunting” can get… and how quickly that personal definition excludes other hunters’ methods and motivations.  But even better, it offered the opportunity to begin to differentiate “ethics” from aesthetics… both in semantic terms and philosophical. 

The second was a follow-up based on that initial discussion, wherein Eric tries to separate the notions of Ethics Versus Preferences, which I consider the keystone of my own position as well.  At some point, preferably early in the discussion, we have to learn to separate the “I” from the picture, before we start trying to apply definitions of “right” and “wrong” to the larger community.  The conversation also illustrated how convoluted the discussion becomes, and pretty much ended up with the idea that we need to simplify the issue… although exactly how to simplify becomes a tricky question in itself. 

Oddly enough, or maybe not so oddly, Galen put up his own post to a similar ends… the discussion gets unwieldy with so many esoteric ideas, so maybe we should start with a simple idea.  His suggestion was to begin with this idea:

If we agree that the key to being an ethical hunter is full use of skills and allowing the game to fully use their natural ability to survive then the outcome is ethical hunting. If we can accept that premise does this become a functional foundation to build on?

 I’m not sure if that idea simplifies anything or not, but it is a starting point.  The complexity becomes a question of definining a “full use of skills”.  What does that mean?  Is it a justification for the new, untrained hunter to hunt over bait inside a high-fence enclosure?  Does that then mean that there is no justification for an experienced hunter to do the same?  While I can sort of see the logic there, I think that it is a vague differentiation that would be lost on non-hunters (not to mention that it’s a logical leap and a value judgement with which I disagree).  But maybe it’s as good a starting point as any. 

But to the idea of simplicity… to the need to simplify… 

As these conversations have dug deeper and deeper, I am brought back to what I consider a critical question.  What is the objective of this discussion?  If there were to be a singular, definitive outcome, what would it be? 

I’m not saying it’s a pointless use of our energies to simply debate on the academic level.  Great ideas are being generated and expanded, and maybe some preconceptions are being challenged.  I think some folks might realize that the ideas of “fair chase”, “ethics”, and “morals”, are bigger than any individual perspective.  These are good things, and if that’s all we get out of this exercise, then I can deal with that. 

But it seems that we’re digging pretty hard for something more substantial… I’m just not clear on what that is. 

One of my reasons for asking this, maybe belatedly, is because we must understand that if we start to really dig for truth, we’re going to have to tip some sacred cows.  Hunting is not a “noble sport”, no matter how we couch our justifications and arguments (and there are some strong ones).   We can wrap it in pretty concepts and grandiose ideals, but it boils down to recreational killing… blood sport.  This is the reality that I think we’re trying to reconcile here. 

And I just keep wondering… to what ends?

The other day I posted up a short bit on Montana’s “test balloon” proposal to ban lead shot for upland and migratory birds on all state-owned wildlife management areas.  The idea went over with the MT hunting community, appropriately enough, like a lead balloon. 

Anthony Canales, who some of you may recognize from past lead ammo discussions, has been working with the NRA and others to present a solid, scientific challenge to the lead-ban proponents.  For some reason, every time he posts to this blog he gets blocked, but Canales does still send me the occasional email to let me know what’s going on.  Apparently, the NRA has been actively (pro-actively?) involved in the MT conversation as well.  I thought his latest email was worth sharing:

Dear Mr. Loughlin,

Regarding your posting on the Montana FWP’s proposal for a requirement to use “nontoxic” shot while hunting upland game on the state’s Wildlife Management Areas-

1) NRA has been running a hunter and shooter alert on the issue for the past 2 weeks, encouraging hunters and shooters to write in to the “Surveymonkey” website entry form. In the past week our state MC’s started adding their “nonresident-hunter’s 2 cents worth” to that website, plus to various state FWP officials and their FWP Commission. The link we were also sending to Governor Schweitzer was included, but it apparently got “turned off” during the campaign.

You can see the contact information at my blog posting at:

http://tinyurl.com/yf6e3ga
I personally have been a nonresident deer and upland game hunter in Montana for a number of years now, and many California activists I work with own property, or hunt, in Montana.

2) I have spoken personally with Ms. McKee of the Billings Gazette, and who I believe is also the author of the Missoula paper article. She said her source on the California origin of a lead shot ban was some gunshop sales person in Montana who attributed the ban to California, and that it was a total ban to boot.

I explained that it was a regional ban, and only applicable to centerfire and rimfire under the various regs noted under AB 821 and DFG regs. I explained to her about the failure of the birdshot ban proposal in California, and passed on some science information we used and introduced into the public record during the comment periods and F&G Commission hearings last summer.

3) While your comments on “hunters coming together and providing a united front” being the reason why AB 821 was not defeated, I believe that it lacks the context as to which position would predominate as towards a united approach.

Some folks were agreeable as to concessions to prohibit lead. Other folks were knowledgeable as to the true status of the proposed alternatives. These are issues that you and I have discussed forcefully in emails, and to a degree have apparently “agreed to disagree” on for now.

As long as there is evidence of scientific mis-statement at the best, and knowing scientific misconduct at the worst on this issue, I cannot but say to you that I strenuously must disagree with a lead ammunition ban by political concession.

Please be assured that the information we placed in the public record is not the entire record on potential scientific misconduct on this matter.

Just a note to folks who may not have been around for some of the exchanges between myself and Mr. Canales…  our primary point of contention was not over whether or not there should be a lead ban (we both oppose it), but over the approaches and strategies being pursued. 

Mr. Canales also takes a more optimistic point of view that, by continuing to apply pressure and scientific proof, the CA lead ban will be overturned.  While I certainly would love to see that happen, and I support the efforts to that end; I have very little hope that it will come to fruition. I believe that the time and effort is better spent moving forward, and stopping the ban from spreading… both in CA and out. 

Fortunately, as you can see in the email, those goals are not mutually exclusive.

Some great stuff seems to be coming out of the running ethics discussions, as well as the spin-offs (intentional or not) from the two posts by Thinking Hunter, Galen Geer, in which he first describes the ethics problem and considers holding a “symposium” for discussion, and then goes into some thoughts about an approach to the hunter’s ethics problem. 

Arthur has put up a couple of good posts on his Simply Outdoors site, including this one.  Chad Love, the Mallard of Discontent, takes a run at it in his surly post about the SHOT Show and the proliferation of high-tech gadgetry.  And finally (in my list, not necessarily in order of appearance or relevance), there’s Eric Nuse’s considered response on his Fair Chase Hunting blog.  (I know this is a lot of links, but if you’re interested in the topic or conversation, it’s worthwhile.  Honest.  Otherwise, Holly, the NorCal Cazadora has mentioned setting up a new blog to collect these threads in a single location… great idea for a way to utilize our spare time.)

It is the comments on Eric’s blog that spurred my return to the topic, particularly those from someone named Shaun.  Shaun’s posts hold tight to what I consider the traditional argument for hunting ethics… that without a certain ethical ideal, what we’re doing is not really “hunting”, but simply killing.  I can understand that perspective, and even agree with it to a point.  But it also smacks of that elitist attitude that fails to take into consideration that every individual has their own set of values, and their own motivations for hunting. 

Is the person who hunts a high fence with a rifle a lesser hunter than the man who hunts the far outback with nothing more than a bow? And if so, isn’t the man who hunts with a rifle a lesser hunter than the one who hunts with a bow… or the man who hunts with a compound bow a lesser hunter than the one who hunts with a traditional bow?

Why, exactly? Because they don’t live up to your standard? 

I don’t know why people can’t see the endless, downward spiral of this desire to define someone else’s experience based on their own values.  Once you start, it doesn’t end… it can’t end once it’s started: 

• A fence isn’t “hunting”. 
• A scoped, high-powered rifle isn’t “hunting”. 
• A compound bow isn’t “hunting”. 
• Any missile weapon isn’t “hunting”. 

It’s a rhetorical trap.  At some point, you have to recognize that there’s no such thing as “fair chase”… and short of running them down by foot and biting their heads off, every tool or weapon we use gives us “unfair advantage”.  That’s the point of inventing tools.

Shaun says hunting really is the “natural outdoor experience in pursuit of a game animal.” 

Help me out here.  What is “natural”?  What is “fair” when it comes to predators killing prey?  Is it somehow supposed to be based on the uncertainty of the kill… The level of effort required? 

I have known hunters to enter a high fence and leave again empty-handed. In one of the posts that started all of this, Galen Geer describes exactly such an experience.

I have a place I hunt where I am surrounded by over 200,000 acres of unfenced, wild lands.  Beyond that is more open land, eventually bounded on one side by the Pacific Ocean, on two sides by urban areas (Bakersfield and Los Angeles), and on the other side by the Mojave desert.  Yet on this place, I have a spot where I know that I can walk less than one mile two hours before sunset, wait an hour or so, and kill a wild hog.  It’s the closest thing to a sure thing that I’ve ever seen.  Even so, I’ll hit this spot at least a couple times per year, because I know that I can count on it.  When it comes down to it, I’m there to kill a hog.  If I simply want a walk in the woods, I can do that much cheaper and closer to home. 

Is that any different than hunting under a feeder where I know the animals will usually appear within five minutes of the whirring motor?  Why?  And if that’s not wrong, then why is it wrong to hunt in a fence with the same expectation of success?  Does hunting that spot lessen my experience or my enjoyment of that experience? 

A bigger question… If, for whatever reason, I can’t hunt according to the standard set by people like Shaun, should I simply forego hunting altogether?  I appreciate the fervor, but it simply doesn’t apply across the board.  Motivations vary.  Abilities vary.  Values vary. 

Hunt and live according to your personal ethic, but it’s a dangerous road to project your own values onto others… especially if your best rationale is some arbitrary concept of what the hunting experience should entail. 

That doesn’t mean, however, that we shouldn’t promote our own ideas of hunting ethics… nor that, should we choose to take the challenge, we don’t strive to elevate our own ethics. 

We should definitely throw our ideas on the table, dissect them, and see where it leads.  That’s why I got involved with this conversation, and why I am encouraging others to take it on as well.  The discussion is good and valuable, even if it’s primarily academic.  I’m just still not convinced that there’s a defined right or wrong answer to the questions.  Let’s keep it civil and keep it going.

From the While I Was Out files…  stuff that slipped through the cracks while I was here at the 2010 SHOT Show.

First of all, got this great photo in an email from my friend Matt, who some of you may recognize as De Hog Shootinest Gent’man.  I don’t think Matt ever stops hunting or killing hogs, but I think winter is his special time of year.  I’m a touch envious of his access to some prime hog hunting… and the fact that it’s close enough for him to roll out and hit it when the mood strikes. 

Nevertheless, he’s taken another really nice tusker as you can see here.  Congrats, Matt!  Keep at ‘em!

In other news, so to speak, Montana is the latest state to face new restrictions on lead ammunition.  I don’t know what I’d do without the Outdoor Pressroom, which is where I found the link to this article in the Missoula, MT Missoulian newspaper. 

You can read it yourself, but it looks like the MT Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks has floated a proposal to ban lead shot for upland and migratory birds on all of the state’s 72 wildlife management areas.  So far, it looks like the Department is just checking the water.

There’s nothing to suggest lead shot poses any risk to those or any other upland game bird species, Aasheim [Ron Aasheim, a spokesman for the MT DFWP] said. Montana’s tentative ban was proposed only to be “consistent” with the federal ban and other lead shot bans on certain tribal lands.

“We’ve got restrictions on using lead shot for waterfowl, and do we take the next step on the wildlife management areas?” he said.

Aasheim also stressed that the ban was very tentative and proposed more like a “trial balloon” to see where Montanans stood on the issue. There are no “biological reasons” to ban lead shot on the areas, but people simply may not like it, Aasheim said and commissioners want to know about it.

The majority of hunters interviewed in the piece are pretty strongly opposed, of course.  That was no surprise.  The thing I didn’t like to read is that the folks in MT are seeing lead ammo bans into a “California thing.”  It is NOT a geographical issue… it’s a very real topic that will continue to come up all over the country.  CA hunters and shooters missed their best opportunity to block the ban here, because they didn’t come together and form a united front.  Hunters need to pay attention and learn from the mistakes made in CA, or they’ll be repeated every time.  But that’s enough preaching for now.

One last thing, and this actually relates to the 2010 SHOT Show.  I was remiss in not reporting that Dave Petzal, of Field and Stream was the recipient of this year’s Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator Award.  I’ve often referenced Petzal’s blog, the Gun Nut, and I’ve always enjoyed his writing in the magazine as well.  It’s much-deserved recognition, and I offer my congratulations to Mr. Petzal. 

Well, my flight leaves in a little while.  I need to finish packing and get out of this crazy town.  Vegas is fun… for a little while, but it’s no place to be flying solo (particularly not given my age and relationship status).  I’m looking forward to being home.

Well, it’s done.  The 2010 SHOT Show is in the bag, and nothing left but to break down, pack up, and head for home… or, as is the case for many of the exhibitors and media folks, on to the next show.  Winter is show season in this industry. 

According to the NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation - the organization behind the SHOT Show), there were approximately 58,444 attendees at this year’s show.  That’s a shade short of the record set in 2008, but not too shabby,  Of those attendees, 1,804 were members of the media (like myself), there to get that first look at new products.  With 1,633 exhibitors on a show floor covering over 700,000 square feet of display space, there were plenty of products to look at.  So many, in fact, that just like every year, I found myself falling short of all of my objectives.  There simply wasn’t time to get to everything. 

So what was the big story of 2010? 

In my eyes, if I boiled this show down to one thing, it would be tactical (law enforcement and military) gear.  Yeah, not only “black rifles” which were overly abundant, but almost any and every product seemed to have a “tactical” version, from optics to flashlights… even sportswear, such as t-shirts and casual clothing.  There were even tactical vehicles, including a couple of SWAT vehicles and an armored SUV. 

With the exception of Browning, I honestly don’t think there’s a single, major, US gunmaker who hasn’t brought an entry into the AR platform over the past couple of years.  Even some of the custom gunmakers are building ARs, including Christensen Arms and Wild West Guns! 

Just for a couple of examples, Remington displayed their entire line of law enforcement and tactical weapons, but they have also expanded their line of civilian ARs, the Model R-15.  This one actually got my attention too, since they’ve chambered this rifle in the .450 Bushmaster.  This rifle pushes a 260 grain bullet down range with devastating force.  If they offered the ammo in lead-free, I think it might even tempt me to enter the ranks of AR owners. 

Speaking of entering the ranks, I saw several rifles designed for that entry-level audience.  Chambered in .22lr, Heckler & Koch, Sturm Ruger, and several other companies are building AR look-alikes.  Most of the promotional materials accompanying these rifles (at least for the civilian market) emphasize young shooters.  It’s a good approach too, I must admit, because youngsters probably are more likely to be interested in shooting if they get to use the coolest, military-styled rifles. 

From the overwhelming number of AR-styled rifles on the market today, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m going to need to get proficient in these weapons.  That was driven home this morning when a parts manufacturer was showing me an innovative new accessory for an AR-15 and I wasn’t really even clear on the basic operation of the bolt and action.  Time to go back to school? 

Tactical, and tactical-style design isn’t just being applied to rifles.  Shotguns are also showing a decidedly “black” look these days.  While tactical and riot shotguns aren’t really new, you know someone is going to come up with something to challenge our preconceptions.  Stoeger has done exactly that, with their Double Defense shotgun.  The Double Defense takes the classic “coach gun” (a short, double-barrel shotgun, so named because it was commonly used to defend stagecoaches… hence the term, “riding shotgun”) and turns it into a whole new animal. 

 To begin with, they’ve ported the 20″ barrels, which should help to dissipate the recoil of heavy, defense loads.  They also provide a Picatinny rail, to accomodate various optics, lasers, or light systems.  The gun is finished in a tough-looking matte-black, to further the image of a no-nonsense, home defense weapon.  Personally, I think this is reaching a bit, especially with all the excellent defense shotguns already on the market… but hey, who am I to say?  I have no doubt there will be a good market for this thing. 

On the topic of defensive shotguns, by the way, we can’t forget about ammo.  There are already a wide variety of special-purpose shotgun slugs and loads for law enforcement and the military.  Many of these are not available for civilian use.  But Winchester Ammunition has released the PDX1 12, Personal Protection Ammunition in 12 ga.  These rounds incorporate three pellets of 00 buckshot, nested on top of a one ounce slug.  The idea is that the buckshot spread out around the slug, offering a margin of error for rushed aim (as you might expect in a defensive situation).  I shot some of these things at the Media Range Day on Monday, and they’re pretty intense.  It looks like it packs one heck of a punch, and at 15 yards the spread was almost exactly the size of a human torso.  Bad news, bad guy! 

One other item of note, for now, and then I’ve got to do some packing for the trip home tomorrow. 

Along with all the ARs, shotguns, knives, and other what-not, I was pretty amazed at the preponderance of .50 BMG, long-range rifles.  Once the domain of companies like Barrett, these things seem to be coming out of the woodwork… in one area of the show floor, I could have sworn that there was one on every other table!   

I’m not sure what the rise of the AR means to the industry, or the future of shooting.  I know there’s no doubt that the more hard-headed “traditionalists” are going to have to make room in their little worlds for these weapons.  It’s here and now, and griping about it from either an aesthetic or functional perspective simply isn’t going to change it.

I’m also pretty sure this is going to continue to drive a rift between gun-owners and the people who fear or do not understand guns or their owners.  It’ll be an ongoing battle, and I can only hope that efforts toward education continue as they have been.  Almost every popular hunting rifle is descended in some way from a combat rifle… whether lever action, bolt, semi-auto, or even rolling block.  The superficial appearance of a gun does NOT make it any more dangerous than the less malevolent-looking ones we’ve been using for decades.  We just need to focus on passing that message along.

I’ve got a lot more stuff to write about now that this show is wrapped up.  Over the coming months I’ll be reviewing some of the gear and gadgets I learned about in the past four days.  As always, my reviews will be honest and as critical as necessary to make the primary points… is this a piece of equipment you need, something that you might like to have, or a poorly designed or executed idea?

I can’t remember if it was my first or second visit to the SHOT Show when someone from a little, cable network called “The Outdoor Channel” handed me a couple of passes to a special event, honoring the top hunting and outdoors television programs.  The network was still pretty fresh in a new, but rapidly growing market, and I really didn’t know much about them.  It seemed like a great opportunity to see what these folks were all about, and to get a look inside the fledgeling Hook-and-Bullet television phenomenon.

That party was my introduction to the Golden Moose Awards.  I remember laughing in my Budweiser at the name of the award and at the idea of a “Golden Globes” for hunting and fishing TV.  I can’t remember how many awards, or categories there were at that event, but I did recognize the start of something that was going to be huge.  Since then, the industry, the network, and the Golden Moose Awards have grown exponentially… and it became one of the hot tickets at the annual SHOT Show. 

In addition to the rewards ceremony, the event offered top-name entertainers (usually Country music).  Two years ago, in Vegas, a surprise appearance by rocker/hunter Ted Nugent brought the program to a whole new level of popularity.  By last year, the event had become so large and so popular that the organizers began to limit attendees to people directly related to the shows and the network.  Unaffiliated writers like myself were no longer able to attend. 

Last night. however, I was able to swing a highly coveted pass to the 10th annual, Golden Moose Awards program here in Las Vegas.  Michael Waddell emceed the event at the Hard Rock Casino (and sponsored by Budweiser), announcing the categories and winners with classic, good-ol’ boy humor.  There were 20 categories, including five “Fan Favorite” selections (fans voted via a poll on the Outdoor Channel website).  The the Duck Commander team was a big winner in several categories.   The categories, nominees and winners are:

•  Best Overall Production | Winner: Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures
  Nominees: Benelli Presents Duck Commander, Hunt Masters, Bone Collector, Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures, The Crush with Lee & Tiffany, The Best of the West, Bow Madness , Leupold’s Big Game Profiles, On Your Own Adventures , Whitetail Freaks
• Best Big Game | Winner: Bone Collector
  Nominees: Hunt Masters, Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures, The Crush with Lee & Tiffany , On Your Own Adventures, Realtree Roadtrips, Limbsaver’s Addicted to the Outdoors, In Pursuit with Greg Miller, Ultimate Hunting, Bone Collector, Biologic & Drury’s Wildlife Obsession
• Best Fishing | Winner: Bill Dance Saltwater
  Nominees: Penn’s Big Water Adventures, Classic Patterns, The Crush with Lee & Tiffany, The Jackie Bushman Show, Bill Dance Saltwater
• Best Bird Hunting | Winner: Benelli Presents Duck Commander
  Nominees: Benelli Presents Duck Commander, Outdoors 10 Best, Pheasants Forever, Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild, Benelli’s American Bird Hunter
• Best Turkey | Winner: Realtree Road Trips
  Nominees: Bone Collector, On Your Own Adventures, Realtree Road Trips, Muzzy’s Bad to the Bone, The Choice
• Best Conservation | Winner: Beyond the Hunt
  Nominees: Pheasants Forever, Beyond the Hunt, Knight & Hale’s Ultimate Hunting, Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures, Leupold Big Game Profiles
• Best Educational / Instructional | Winner: Bass Pro Shops Next Generation
  Nominees: Bass Pro Shops Next Generation, The Best of the West, Gold Fever, On Your Own Adventures, In Pursuit with Greg Miller
• Best Videography | Winner: Benelli Presents Duck Commander
  Nominees: Benelli Presents Duck Commander, Bone Collector, Limbsaver’s Addicted to the Outdoors, The Crush with Lee & Tiffany, The Stihl Dogs N Logs World Championship, Hunt Masters, Destination Polaris, Tracks Across Africa
• Best Sound Design | Winner: Hunt Masters
  Nominees: The Best of the West, Whitetail Freaks, Hunt Masters, Benelli’s American Safari, The Crush with Lee & Tiffany
• Best Graphics | Winner: (Tied for 1st) Hunt Masters & Bass Pro Shops Next Generation
  Nominees: Bone Collector, Hunt Masters, She’s Beyond the Lodge, Bass Pro Shops Next Generation, Full Frame
• Best Commercial | Winner: Benelli – “Vinci”
  Nominees: Benelli – “Vinci,” The Best of the West – “Gunwerks LR-1000,” Duck Commander – “Carry-Lite Decoys,” Knight & Hale – “Pack Rack Tease,” Remington
• Best Blooper / Outtake | Winner: Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures
  Nominees: Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures, Inside Outdoors TV, Limbsaver’s Addicted to the Outdoors, The Jackie Bushman Show, Realtree Roadtrips
• Fan Favorite Best Overall | Winner: Benelli Presents Duck Commander
• Fan Favorite Best New Series | Winner: (Tied for 1st) Benelli Presents Duck Commander & Bone Collector
• Fan Favorite Best Hunting | Winner: Benelli Presents Duck Commander
• Fan Favorite Best Fishing | Winner: Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World Fishing
• Fan Favorite Best Host | Winner: Lee and Tiffany Lakosky for The Crush
• Golden Moose Honorary Award – Outdoor Adventure | Winner: Savage Wild
• Golden Moose Honorary Award – Off Road | Winner: Destination Polaris
• Golden Moose Honorary Award – Shooting Sports | Winner: Impossible Shots

Ted Nugent headlined the entertainment, and at risk of selling it short, all I can say is that there aren’t many entertainers who generate energy like Nugent.  You’d never guess the man is almost 62 years old, as he belted out his trademark gonzo jams with a drive and passion that would exhaust most 20 year old rockers.  The setlist was largely derived from his classics, including hits like Wango Tango, Stranglehold, and Great White Buffalo. 

It was easy to see why this program has become such a high-demand event every year. 

As far as yesterday’s show, I didn’t get to a lot of booths.  T. Michael Riddle was at the show all day, and I spent a good bit of time with him and his team as he provided interviews to various members of the press and media.  Riddle is taking his operation to a larger audience, and by all accounts he’ll be getting some great exposure.   Look for big things coming to Native Hunt soon. 

Last night ran a little long, so I’m late heading out for this final day of the Show.  There are still several topics I’ll be exploring, so hang tight and I’ll be back with more gear reviews and industry news this evening.