Entries for December 2011

Have you made a list of New Year's resolutions? It's that time of year to write down the things you want to change, and get busy altering your character, behavior or negligent chores. I've never been big on resolutions.

If I'm two things, I'm a waterfowl hunting nut and a hardcore when it comes to protecting my hearing on the shooting range. The latter dates back to when I first met a couple of my gun-writing idols on a product trip back in the '80s. They were great guys, but nearly as deaf as posts. That meeting left a deep impression.

If you're one of the lucky ones who has a few days off between Christmas and New Year's Eve, you don't have to spend every day in line at the big-box stores trying to save a dollar on wrapping paper. Think hunting.

It’s a long-established fact that breaking hunting, wildlife and angling laws doesn’t require the highest level of human intelligence. That said, here are our picks for the "Headline Hunter" blog’s "Dumbest Poachers of 2011."

Word has been out for almost a week now that the gray wolf in the Western Great Lakes region has been removed from the Endangered Species List, thusly turning their management over to state jurisdiction. This is great news—most importantly for the status of the wolf population, but equally for those, like me, who want an opportunity to hunt them.

For some logic-defying reason, I though it was a divine idea to get a Labrador puppy a month before my first kid was born. Maybe I was so petrified by the thought of fatherhood that my cognition deteriorated. Maybe I was deathly afraid of being in the gender minority at my house. Maybe both—I don’t really know.

We have all been there: On the 20-minute hike to our favorite stand we break a sweat. Everything is fine until a 1/2-hour later when we start to cool off and our teeth begin chattering, making it almost impossible to sit still.

Whew! Christmas is here, and boy am I glad. It’s been a long fall.

As usual, it was a nail-biter on the last day of my Texas whitetail hunting adventure. I was on the hunt to find a management buck that fit the definition set by my guide, Mason Roberts, at Monte Cruz Hunts.

United States Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar formally announced today that the gray wolf has been delisted from the Endangered Species Act in the Great Lakes region, ending a protective measure that has been in place for 33 years.