Over the past few years, we have reported on numerous, outrageous cases of “zero-tolerance” enforcement defying logic and rational thought. There seems to be no shortage of this kind of miscarriage of not only justice, but of common sense. So here we go again: This week’s “Outrage” comes to us from Des Moines, Iowa, where a school recently suspended an 11-year-old girl for bringing a handful of empty shotgun shells to school. <<<Read the Rest>>>

This week’s second outrage (read about the first outrage of the week here) comes to us via Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper (D), who recently issued an official opinion that landlords can prohibit law-abiding tenants from possessing their legally-owned firearms within the leased premises of their rented apartments, even if the tenants have a valid carry permit! <<<Read the Rest>>>

On October 28, NRA filed a complaint in the Superior Court of Washington State against the City of Seattle, asking the court to enjoin and declare invalid a recently enacted parks and recreation administrative policy that prohibits firearms in parks, community centers and other city-owned buildings. Other plaintiffs in the case include state correctional officers and private citizens. <<<Read the rest>>>

It’s presently 3:25 a.m. The shuttle will be here in about an hour to whisk me away to Tampa International Airport. I’m headed for Maine for my annual deer hunting trip. I have scheduled so articles from the past, mostly all hunting stories, to get posted each day next week. I hope you enjoy them. When I get out of the woods next weekend, I’ll try to post up some pictures and stories. Until then!

Tom Remington

Young promising musician, 19-year old Taylor Mitchell, was attacked and killed by two coyotes while hiking in Nova Scotia, Canada. Authorities keep repeating that people are not a prey of interest to coyotes and that such attacks are rare. They claim they have no explanation as to why this would happen. I offer Dr. Valerius Geist’s 7 steps that wolves/coyotes take leading up to an attack on a human. This isn’t to scare people. It’s factual information that can arm you with knowledge and perhaps help you to avoid becoming a victim.

I received this update from the Pacific Legal Foundation on the current status of the efforts by the Federal Government to save the delta smelt at the expense of jobs and food for humans.

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Scientific surveys taken this summer show that the Delta smelt remains close to extinction, according to the Sacramento Bee “There are very few Delta smelt out there,” Randall Baxter, a senior fisheries biologist at the state Department of Fish and Game, told The Bee.

In other words, the federal policy of imposing drought on farms, businesses and communities, by turning off pumping into the state’s main water system, isn’t having its promised effect: The pumping cutoffs aren’t resuscitating the Delta smelt population.

As a matter of principle, the feds shouldn’t be putting fish before people in environmental policy. But when they insist on doing so, and the only effect is pain for people—without gain for fish—their schemes are worse than wrongheaded, they’re illegally absurd.

We use the word, “illegally,” advisedly. PLF’s lawsuit against the Delta smelt water cutoffs argues, in part, that federal regulators failed in their statutory duty to show that their water cutbacks would actually help the fish.

They didn’t make the case, because it can’t be made in a scientifically credible way. There is no scientific consensus that stopping the pumps will keep the smelt from going down the drain.

As PLF’s Dave Stirling wrote in a June 14 op-ed in The Sacramento Bee: “[T]he frail Delta smelt species has been in decline for more than 35 years and will likely become extinct from several causes no matter how much effort or funds are expended to preserve it. One factor alone, 260 invasive, or nonnative, species – some that prey directly on the Delta smelt and others that voraciously consume its food source – have proliferated in the Delta for several decades, and cannot be eliminated without killing other protected species and causing other environmental harms.”

The one thing about the water restrictions that’s beyond debate: They have killed tens of thousands of jobs, fallowed hundreds of thousands of farm acres, and raised water costs for tens of millions of residents in Central and Southern California.

PLF attorneys will fight all the way up the judicial system to stop the feds from starving our people and our economy of water.

Sincerely,
Rob’s Signature Image
Robin L. Rivett, President
Pacific Legal Foundation

Guest blog by Michael Waddell, contributing writer for Peterson’s Hunting.

Whether hunting public or private land, the fundamentals of calling elk remain the same.

The “Professor”, Waddell’s largest bull came from the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. Public land bulls like this can be call shy and may require some double teaming with a separate caller to fool. Master the cow call and you will call in elk bow-close. Use the bugle to locate as well as seal the deal on an aggressive bull.

We heard the bull bugle at first light and snuck into his core area. When I hit a lick on my bugle, the bull simply came unglued and stormed our position like a tank, crashing through brush and small lodgepole pines like they were matchsticks. Before we could react he was in our lap and we were pinned down, me hiding behind a camera, too scared to touch the tripod for fear my shaking hands would ruin the footage. All I could see of my partner wedged against a stunted pine was the tip of his undrawn arrow quivering on the rest. Before a shot presented itself,the bull smelled a rat and disappeared as quickly as he arrived. While this experience didn’t result in a dead elk, it did hopelessly addict me to calling them.

It seems that in all walks of life, be it the animal kingdom or humans, communication is a key ingredient for all social interaction. However, not all living things communicate to the same degree. If you ask my wife, I am sure she will tell you I am lacking in the communication department; in fact, I’m sure she believes I don’t listen to her at all, but when it comes to communicating with animals I can barely shut up. Of all the animals I love to communicate with, elk rate right at the top.

By nature, elk are very vocal. The uninitiated often simply think of bulls bugling, but cows, calves and bulls make all sorts of noises year-round. If you encounter a large herd, while you might not hear anything from a distance, if you get close you will hear lots of subtle vocalization. Most of the time these are sounds of contentment, but depending on what’s happening the vocalization reflects it. Elk can convey contentment, danger, curiosity or a cow in heat.Bulls , for instance, only bugle primarily in the rut, but they also communicate to establish a pecking order. After spending a considerable amount of time chasing the mighty wapiti, I’m convinced every elk in the herd knows each other by sound alone. This happens with the cows as well as the bulls, and based on my evaluation, somewhere in this mix is the deadly secret to calling elk bow-close.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

It seems that the more vocal a herd, the better the odds are for success at calling them. Some cows call subtly, while others are loud-mouth ladies actively looking for a date. By listening, it gives you a better opportunity to imitate the particular tones and intensity of the herd.
Master the cow call and you will call in elk bow-close. Use the bugle to locate as well as seal the deal on an aggressive bull.

Master the cow call and you will call in elk bow-close. Use the bugle to locate as well as seal the deal on an aggressive bull.

By calling, we are automatically intruding into the social club without an invitation. The closer we can sound to a known elk and match that intensity, the better the odds are of filling a tag. Even though we may sound like an outsider to the herd, luckily for us, love-crazedbulls are not looking to be intimate with just one or two cows; they are looking for all the love of every cow in the world, so taking advantage of their sexual frustrations and promiscuity is our salvation.

It doesn’t take a world champion elk caller to trick bulls within range. By simply paying attention to the herd and understanding simple elk rhythm, tone and, more important, volume whencalling, a hunter can depend on an elk call to be a valuable asset to dulling broadheads.

Public Versus Private Land

Since I started hunting elk 16 years ago, on private as well as public ground, I’ve realized comparing these two different types of ground is like comparing night and day, and it is all about the amount of pressure each receives. Generally speaking, private ground bulls are way easier to call than public ground animals, but this is not always the case. Some private land gets a lot of pressure, which can make for some pretty tough calling duels with elk that can serve you up a humble pie every time you bust out a call. Conversely, some public land, either through sheer remoteness or hard-to-get tags, is like calling the best private land in the nation.

Hunting untouched land and cow calling to bulls that have never heard a Hoochie Mama would obviously be nice. It wouldn’t take long working over these uneducated elk to start feeling like an elk-calling pro, only to be deflated the first time we went to the national forest and mixed it up with bulls so well known by local hunters that they have nicknames. However, regardless of where you hunt, the basics of calling remain the same.

Start with mastering the cow call and all its various inflections. Your basic reed-type calls are the easiest to learn as well as get proficient with. You will find two kinds; both are bite-down reed-type calls, one being enclosed and the other having an open reed or reeds. These calls make a very realistic sound and before your wife can run you out of the house you will master the basics.

I rely heavily on the cow call and think most of the time hunters are better off sticking with it over a bugle no matter where they are hunting. However, learning how to make a basic bugle is important, especially for locating bulls at a distance before getting close and working him with your cow call. In addition, sometimes it is the bugle that finally provokes a dominant bull to commit, especially during the early season when bulls are still sorting out their pecking order.

This public land bull didn’t sound like much when he bugled, but he turned out to be a lot better of a bull when he responded to some subtle calling and snuck into 16 yards.

This public land bull didn’t sound like much when he bugled, but he turned out to be a lot better of a bull when he responded to some subtle calling and snuck into 16 yards.

Earning Your Public Ground Ph.D

Let’s face it, unless you have deep pockets much of the private ground in the West is pretty much off limits, so you have to learn to hunt public land. This is not a bad thing, as public ground comprises millions upon millions of acres across the West and happens to have some of the biggest bulls found anywhere. While it can be tougher than private, once you learn how to hunt it you won’t be disappointed. Over the years one of my favorite places to hunt is the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, and even though this is a trophy area, tags are fairly obtainable through application.

In the Gila, the trophy potential is off the chart, sporting some of the biggest bulls in the country, but just because the big ones live there doesn’t mean that you automatically make one call and they come running to get in the back of your truck. These mature jokers have a Ph.D in avoiding hunters.

Over the last six years I have hunted this area religiously and have had the opportunity to shoot some nice bulls, all by using elk calls as an aid to close the coffin.

Notice I said, “as an aid,” meaning the call was just one thing in a bag of tricks to help smoke these monarchs. My biggest bull that came out of the Gila was a 378 P&Y bull that earned the name The Professor because he always seemed to take you to school when you applied too much pressure. However, this bull was vocal and would bugle his butt off. He also seemed to be fairly easy to find, not only by his gnarly, raspy bugle that set him apart, but frequently he could be found early in the morning in a large meadow just south of a particular water hole that always attracted a large herd.

The Professor was not the only bull in the area that had large headgear, but it was the Professor that seemed to call the shots. I had caught this bull in the open several times, but calling seemed to really make him uneasy when you were in close. However, he would bugle hard to distant cow calls and seemed to be wholeheartedly interested, but he had a sixth sense when you moved in for the attack.

Finally, we decided to have a caller stay behind as we worked him coming off the meadow at daybreak. By doing this we could keep him interested and bugling as we stalked in closer. The caller always was no closer than 80 yards behind me. While the caller kept him occupied, I slid within 50 yards and gave him a G5 Tekan right behind the shoulder. This hunt was really a stalk, but the call and caller had a big part to do with his demise. Once we started quartering the bull, we found a piece of an old arrow lodged just below the backstraps, so obviously someone had him in close before and gave the teacher an education, which explained why he was so wary.

The Double Team

As this old bull showed, hunting with a partner can work extremely well. It not only puts the hunter out in front of the call, it gives the hunter a chance to move and adjust the angle based on where the bull might be approaching. Likewise, the caller has the flexibility to move and apply a lot of different calling techniques.

The double-team plan worked again on another hunt. It had been hot, and the bulls were only bugling early and late. As soon as the sun would rise the elk woods would turn into a ghost town.

Just after daybreak on the fourth day of our hunt we heard this bull bugle. He hit it only two times, both very weak. He sounded like the littlest rag horn in the land, but with no other game in town we went after him. Getting as close as possible to where we thought the bugle came from, I eased up and sat down by a pine stump while my buddy moved back and to my right about 40 yards.

Neither of us was very optimistic about our chances. My buddy made one or maybe two very soft cow calls on a two-reed diaphragm, then he started raking a tree and rolled a few rocks. We sat there for possibly 10 minutes in silence, then out of nowhere appeared a wide 6×6 coming directly to us.

At 25 yards the bull let out a soft chuckle, looked over his surrounding, and kept walking in the direction of where the last rock had been rolled, which led him 16 steps from my pine stump. By now I was at full draw, waiting for a broadside shot. When the arrow left my bow, I knew we had killed a call-shy monster by keeping it low-key and staying patient. Needless to say, I was never convinced by the two times he had bugled earlier that he was a shooter. This was a lesson in itself. Never judge a bugle until you can see what is making the sound.

The most exciting way to bag a bull elk is to get him in close, and the best way to do that is with a call. Confidence in your call is critical, because if you’re insecure about using your call, there is a good chance you will spook elk. Have confidence in your calling ability and become just another elk in the herd where you are hunting.

Find a call that works for you and not what works for someone else. Think like an elk and do as elk do. Realism, rhythm and volume control can make the difference between bringing them in or running them over the next ridge. Remember, it’s not always about calling. It can be about just patiently listening to the sounds around you and applying minimal calls while practicing good woodsmenship and stalking skills that could help you put that monster on the back of the truck.

CONCORD, N.H. – Opening day for New Hampshire’s regular firearms deer season takes place on November 11, 2009, a date anticipated with great enthusiasm by the state’s estimated 60,000 deer hunters. The season runs through December 6 in much of the state, except in Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) A in northern New Hampshire, where it closes November 29.

The state’s popular muzzleloader deer season gets underway on Saturday, October 31 (except in WMU A, where it begins on November 2), and runs through November 10.

“For many New Englanders, the firearms deer season is a traditional opportunity to get together with family and friends, enjoy our bountiful resources and put meat in the freezer before winter,” said Kent Gustafson, the deer biologist for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.

New Hampshire’s deer herd came through last winter in good shape, according to Gustafson. The state’s archery deer kill through October 18, 2009, totaled 1,561, somewhat below last year’s total at that point in the season, but higher than similar totals experienced from 2001 to 2005, according to preliminary reports. For a comparison by county (where deer were registered), visit http://www.huntnh.com/Hunting/deer_hunt_take_October.htm.

Deer hunters can find Wildlife Management Unit and season-specific either-sex day regulations in the 2009-2010 New Hampshire Hunting and Trapping Digest, available online at http://www.huntnh.com and from Fish and Game license agents. In WMU A, an antler point restriction and changes in season length are again in place as part of an effort to improve the age structure of the northern deer herd.

Hunting licenses can be purchased online at http://www.HuntNH.com or from license agents statewide. Licenses are also sold at Fish and Game headquarters in Concord. The basic N.H. hunting license costs $22 for residents and $103 for nonresidents. Hunters under age 16 do not need a license, but must be accompanied by a properly licensed adult at least 18 years of age.

Special permits remain available for taking one additional antlerless deer in Wildlife Management Unit M during the archery, muzzleloader or firearms season by any legal method. Permits are sold on a first-come, first-served basis for $13 each (a limit of one per licensed hunter). They can be purchased online, at Fish and Game headquarters, or by mail. Visit http://www.wildnh.com/Hunting/Special_Unit_M_permits.htm.

Successful hunters can help the less fortunate by sharing their harvest with the “Hunt for the Hungry” program at the New Hampshire Food Bank. For more information on donating game meat, call (603) 669-9725 or visit http://www.nhfoodbank.org.

Find more on deer hunting in New Hampshire at http://www.huntnh.com/Hunting/Hunt_species/hunt_deer.htm.

Some of you may or may not know that periodically I check my “statistics” for my blog. I can see how many people have visited, what they read, etc.. One area I often look at is the search words section. This is where is shows me what users type in for search words or phrases that caused them to end up on one of my posts.

This morning as I’m looking through the search area results, I came across this search phrase, “can night vision cameras from the air pick up deer feed”. I laughed pretty hard as I wondered just what this person might be up to. Does it sound a bit illegal to you?

Tom Remington