Archive for the 'Animals' Category

Told you so.

That’s Wyoming, Montana, ND, SD …

Sight your rifles in, boys. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

A dog is a reflection of its owner. She didn’t spend time to train the dog.

Simple problems allow for simple solutions.

Does @SteveDettelbach know you’re campaigning to take his job as @ATFHQ director? https://t.co/QPSjMTADoY

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) May 3, 2024

This is certainly an interesting interview by Ron Spomer.

I found it insightful that Phil says that the sound of the spray leaving the nozzle is what scares a bear when using bear spray. But he also says that if a charge is legitimate and not a bluff charge, he’s shooting.

I’m not sure how it became conventional wisdom that one has to decide to use either bear spray or firearms, rather setting the context as a both-and query.

I’ve never carried bear spray and I’m not sure that I ever would. If a bear is charging me, I will assume that it’s not a bluff charge. This is especially true given that a hiker is interested in shaving grams of weight off of his load (not just ounces or pounds or kilograms).

But then, I’m not a professional bear hunting guide who gets charged multiple times every season and has a license to maintain either.

I’d be interested in your thoughts on his experience using 9mm against the brown bear. As to his advice to carry what you’re comfortable shooting, I am comfortable shooting .45 ACP and 450 SMC, so I’d rather have either of those two rounds than 9mm.

If you do a search on Phil Shoemaker, they don’t even advertise their rates. I’m sure it’s rather expensive to go on a hunting trip with Phil. I’d like to, but I know I can’t afford it.

Courtesy of Outdoor Life.

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I really like Dan Becker, and I especially like his faith commitment to Christ.

However, I think he got sold a bill of goods by interviewing someone who claims to have the last word on the gun versus bear spray debate.

It’s no debate in my book. I will never go into the bush without a large bore pistol. End of story. And all of what this “expert” claims are potential pitfalls of use of a firearm aren’t really pitfalls in my book, and I also think he ignores the potential pitfalls of the use of bear spray. If you’re worried about your ability to use a firearm under pressure, carry a revolver in a shoulder holster. A revolver is simple to use.

For my part, I’ve carried a .44 magnum wheel gun, but if I am carrying 450 SMC ammunition, I’ll carry it in a 1911 (with an enhanced recoil spring, i.e., 22#), with a round chambered and on safe, which is an advantage with the 1911 design. It’s easy to sweep the safety off while raising the pistol. A Hill People Gear kit bag worn on my chest puts this within hand’s reach of being able to deploy it.

Dan, if you’re listening, if you want another perspective on this by someone who has compiled the largest, most well-researched catalog of bear attacks and how well firearms do, contact Dean Weingarten (who writes at Ammoland).

Tiger chasing a sloth bear in Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. Jungles never cease to amaze us.

VC: Siddharth Singh pic.twitter.com/JHlKztkkUX

— Ramesh Pandey (@rameshpandeyifs) April 3, 2024

Source.

This week, a bill to change the membership, authority, and scope of duties of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board took another step toward becoming law. In addition to requiring some “non-consumptive” users serve on the board, the bill would also ban hunting coyotes over bait and with dogs.

The attempted overhaul mostly comes from critics of how the board recently handled coyote hunting and trapping rule changes, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department commissioner Christopher Herrick tells Outdoor Life. But it reflects a larger shift — one we’ve seen in other parts of the country — toward a more partisan approach to wildlife management than the default trust in agency biologists, managers, and other subject-matter experts. Most notable is Washington, where a wildlife commission recently staffed with multiple preservationist, anti-hunting members voted in 2022 to end the spring bear season, despite the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s stance that it was ecologically sustainable.

In addition to the coyote baiting and hounding ban, Vermont Senate Bill 258 would dismantle and restructure the board with members from varied backgrounds through a new selection process. It would also require that VFWD take over the board’s decision- and rulemaking powers. So if this bill becomes law, (and it looks like it might), then a birder, for instance, would get the same amount of clout that a duck hunter would — and VFWD would have to report to both when setting seasons, establishing Vermont’s antlerless hunt, and making other rules.

Like the regulatory bodies of wildlife agencies in other states, Vermont’s board is currently comprised of governor-appointed citizens. Those 14 members, one from each of the state’s 14 counties, oversee hunting, trapping, and fishing. While they aren’t required to have degrees or career backgrounds in wildlife biology or management, they are informed and guided by those who do: VDFW employees.

But their perceived lack of qualifications — and what many consider an undemocratic selection process — are part of why the bill’s proponents are trying to change the status quo. Herrick says this criticism undermines the quality work the agency has accomplished in recent years.

“If you look at the history of the Fish and Wildlife Board and Department, and the work that we’ve done, our wildlife is in a very good place,” Herrick says. “In the early seventies, we introduced wild turkeys to the state and now that’s one of our biggest game seasons, in May and in the fall as well. We have a healthy and vibrant deer herd. We have a good moose population that’s being managed very well. That doesn’t mention the work we do with our flora. To use a trite phrase, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

You don’t understand, Mr. Herrick. To them it’s broke if there is any hunting at all. They are rewilders, you see. They don’t admit to a good role of hunters and wildlife biologists in herd management. They think humans are the pestilence. There is an ulterior motive, of course.

If you claim you need your firearms for hunting, and not just for the amelioration of tyranny, they can outlaw hunting and you lose that excuse.

Do you see how this works?

Well, the jackasses who are perpetrating this can enjoy what they have created. It’s not Coyotes. They are Coywolves, and they have dog and wolf DNA too. They are a superbreed.

Over the past century, coywolves have slowly taken over much of eastern North America. Coywolves inhabit the forests and parks around people’s neighborhoods.

They can even be spotted in cities. While most people may think that these creatures are just regular ol’ coyotes, they are actually the results of a coyote and wolf mating.

[ … ]

The hybrid’s scientific name is Canis Iatrans var., and it weighs about 55 pounds more than a true coyote. It also has a larger jaw, a bushier tail, smaller ears, and longer legs.

The coywolf’s genetic makeup consists of the eastern wolf, western wolf, western coyote, and large breeds of domesticated dogs, such as Doberman Pinschers and German Shepherds. On average, coywolves are a quarter wolf and a tenth dog.

There are currently millions of coywolves across the eastern region of North America. Their climbing numbers may be due to the advantages they have over their parent species.

Congratulations, dumbasses.  Enjoy your pets being eaten and your children getting attacked and mauled. This superbreed will attack in groups too, unlike their predecessors.

As for the good men and women left in Vermont, if there are any, never go into the bush without a large bore handgun. As for that matter, don’t even take the trash out without carrying.

Around these parts, we shoot Coyotes (Coywolves).

Source.

A well-funded environmentalist group played a key role in the push to remove dams in the Pacific Northwest’s Klamath River ahead of premature deaths of thousands of salmon.

American Rivers — an organization that has received millions of dollars from left-of-center environmentalist grantmaking organizations in recent years — was “the orchestrator of the Klamath dams removal project,” according to Siskiyou News, a local outlet in Northern California.

The drawdowns of several reservoirs pursuant to the scheduled removal of four dams in the river preceded the deaths of “hundreds of thousands” of young salmon in the waterway, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The push to remove the dams is often marketed as beneficial for salmon, as proponents of the plan — including American Rivers — have argued that the dams obstruct the natural movements of salmon as well as their access to habitat.

However, weeks after beginning the process to remove one of the systems scheduled for deconstruction on the river, a large number of the 830,000 young salmon released into the river on Feb. 26 had died as of March 2, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

CDFW officials attributed the mass-death to gas bubble disease, which is caused by changes in water pressure, and stated that the changes in pressure driving the deaths was attributable to old dam infrastructure that is slated for removal. The agency further stated that water turbidity and dissolved oxygen levels do not appear to have contributed to the mass-death.

The young salmon that died travelled through a tunnel involved in the dam infrastructure that had previously not been accessible to the fish before officials altered the flow of water through the system as part of the removal process, Peter Tira, an information officer for the CDFW, explained to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The deaths were primarily a function of where the fish were released into the water, and the outcome, though unfortunate, is a learning opportunity for stakeholders who remain committed to making the Klamath River a free-flowing cold water river system again in the long-term, Tira told the DCNF.

Oh those goofy, dumb, uneducated, hillbilly rewilders. They make such a mess of things. They always do things that are counterproductive to their stated goals.

We’ve discussed this before.

Yes, I remember now, we’ve discussed this before, in detail.

Listening to this video I wasn’t sure I was listening to Chuke! He goes down a very long list of calibers that may be a potential deadly affect on large game.

I doubt some of this. Put me up against a large predator like a brown bear and I want a .45 SMC, .44 magnum, shotgun or semiautomatic rifle.

The Alaskan can weigh in since he is experienced with large predatory animals in Alaska. I doubt he will agree with Chuke on this video.

Texas Monthly.

By the age of thirty, a time when most people are just beginning to think about their mortality, Austin Riley had already conquered his fear of death. He’d come exceedingly close to dying on multiple occasions, including a few months before his first birthday, when doctors discovered a golf ball–size tumor growing inside his infant skull. He would go on to spend much of his childhood in and out of hospitals, enduring high-risk brain surgeries and grueling recoveries. Then, in his mid-twenties, he was nearly killed by a brain hemorrhage that arrived one night without warning, unleashing the worst pain he’d ever felt. He emerged from that experience reborn, feeling lucky to be alive and convinced that his life had been spared by God.

So as he sat in a pool of his own blood on a beautiful October evening in 2022, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the morbid absurdity of his current predicament. He’d spent decades conquering brain injuries only to be killed while doing mundane chores on his family’s 130-acre Hill Country ranch in Boerne. “After all I’d been through,” he said, “I just couldn’t believe that this was how it was going to end.”

As he slumped against a fence and his mangled body began to shut down, Austin’s mind went into overdrive. He thought about his girlfriend, Kennedy, whom he’d never get a chance to marry, and the children he’d never be able to raise. He thought about how much he loved his parents and how badly he wished he could thank them for the life they’d provided. He thought about the land stretched out before him, a rustic valley accentuated by crimson and amber foliage that seemed to glitter in the evening light, and realized it had never seemed more beautiful than it did in that moment.

But mostly, he thought about the animal that had just used its razor-sharp, seven-inch tusks to stab him at least fifteen times. The attack had shredded his lower body and filled his boots with blood, and then left gaping holes in his torso and neck. Had any other animal been responsible, Austin would’ve considered it a random attack. But this was a pet he’d trusted more than any other: his lovable, five-year-old warthog, Waylon.

It wasn’t just an attack, as far as Austin was concerned, but a murderous act of betrayal, one that shattered everything he thought he knew about the deep bond between man and pig. “For years, that animal trusted me everyday and I trusted him,” Austin said. “I put blood, sweat, and tears into his life, and he decided to kill me.”

They’re not pets. Feral hogs will kill you, folks.