I finally got to watch some hunting shows and Pig Man was one I've been hearing about so I tune in to the Cotton Mesa TX hog episode. Everything's fine until the dad wheels out the lil 6 year old and says he's gonna be using what appears to be an adult size high powered rifle. They don't show either shot the boy takes at a hog, probably because the little guy can't handle the rifle himself. Later when they find a hog they think is the one he shot at Dad is carrying the rifle.
Why do some dads insist on starting kids WAY to early with big guns? It's unsafe since the kid can't handle the weight and length of the rifle nor the recoil. Pushing a kid into a gun too big for their little bodies is also a great way to develop a flinch in a new shooter. I was tall for my age and wasn't allowed to carry a rifle other than a .22 until I was almost 10 years old. I can't imagine handing a small child a rifle and expect him to be able to control the muzzle like he should.
One recent instance of this nonsense I witnessed was at the trap range. One dad was insisting junior shoot dad's older shotgun and the poor kid couldn't even shoulder the gun correctly. Even when it was pointed out to dad that it was teaching the kid poor gun handling and shooting skills and also how unsafe it was for the kid to fumble around the shotgun, pop insisted on continuing their practice. Grrrr, sometimes you just want to shake people.
In many states youth hunters can't hunt big game until they are 12 years old like here in CA. I'd say that's about the right age but each kid develops at their own pace. When a young hunter should be trusted with a firearm should be up to the parent to make the right call, and PLEASE, leave all the macho BS out. Make the safe decision.
Between the gun safety nonsense I've seen on 3 "Wild Within" TV shows already and this it's gonna drive me back to Oprah and The View.
Some of us were just discussing bowhunters not being able to carry a pistola (CCW) while bowhunting in CA per DFG Code. One of the reasons many of us want to be able to carry a pistol is the chance of an attack by a bear or cougar. While the chances of one being jumped by these critters is remote you're much better off with a gun than a bow. The dude in the story below is lucky to be alive, he broke and tried to out run the cat. Major no no, running just triggers a cat's predatory response. It's one reason some call mountains bikers "Meals on wheels".
What really made me a believer in letting bowhunters be armed was my buddy Pete getting stalked and almost et by a cougar at Fort Hunter Liggett (FHL) a couple years back. He was able to knock an arrow but who knows if he would have even got that shot off had the cat not broke off the attack. The other problem Pete had was his jacket was stuffed in his quiver when he encountered the cat and reloading would have been tough. I'll take my chances with a pistol over a bow any day.
Pete near FHL the day before the cat encounter.
Another close encounter I've had with a big cat was 3 of us bumped into a cougar near Lake Henshaw CA a year ago while turkey hunting. That cat started to stalk the father I was with and finally broke off that attack when the father broke off a large tree limb and threw it at the cat. The father was also unarmed and regretted that decision later.
DFG should amend that reg to let bowhunters carry pistols for self protection.
We can't all have a miracle bumper slide up our sleeves.
The Raahuage's Shooting Sports Fair, held June 4-6 2010 in Corona CA, is a 3 days hands on event where you can handle and shoot rifles, pistols, shotguns, Gatling guns and more. There are plenty of vendor booths to check out new hunting and gun gear along with great gun groups like CRPA, NRA, Cal-Guns and more. FN and Sig-Sauer were no shows this year and hopefully they will be at the Shooting Sports Fair next year. There are also hunting and gun seminars by seasoned pros plus great food.
JHO dropped by Friday to films some of the action.
JHO takes a look at the new Konus SightPro Atomic Electronic Red/Green Dot Sight
Features:
1X magnification Weight: 3.8 ounces/110 grams Rugged enough for shotgun or magnum revolvers Weaver-style 7/8" mount & 3/8" rimfire adapter 5 intensity settings for both green and red Perfect for handguns, bows, shotguns and rifles Battery: 1 each 3V/ CR2032 Great co-witness sight Length: 63mm/2.4" Color: Matte black Unlimited eye relief 20mm/0.7" objective lens 4 MOA Made in China Manufacturer: Konus 7247
YouTube, which is now owned by Google, allows you to run ads now on your videos, something that helps pay for the cameras and other recording gear used by JHO. Google recently rejected two JHO videos from their ad program. One is a ground squirrel shooting video which I admit can get a bit gory. This latest rejection of our turkey skinning video has me scratching my head. Google/YouTube is known as anti hunter leaning and this video rejection supports that notion.
Imagine a child or non hunter being subjected to actually learning how to clean and prepare their own food? The horror. Here's the YouTube rejection email.
Thanks for submitting your video How To Skin A Turkey (Breasts & Legs) for revenue sharing. We have disabled revenue sharing on this video for one of the following reasons:
* You have not provided adequate documentation that you have the necessary rights to commercially use all the video material and music * Advertisers on YouTube are currently looking to advertise next to family safe content
Please note that we reserve the right to make the final determination on whether to enable revenue sharing for a video.
Thanks for your understanding,
The YouTube Team
What's also indicative of how this company operates is you cannot reply to the rejection email, it has one of those "noreply" email addresses. If you want to really waste some precious time I guess you could wade through YouTube's Help menus trying to find out who to appeal to, if they even allow that.
Thanks for your understanding? Ha! What kind of mamby pambies do they have running this company? Looks like the time has come to shift off Google, there are other video hosts to use like Vimeo, BrightCove and our own JHO Photo/Video Gallery . I'm also looking for another way to lose the Google ads on our website. Enough is enough. Heck, even this blog is run on Google's Blogger which means I need to find a new blog host. Feel free to let me know any blog alternatives that are gun and turkey skinning friendly.
As one of our forum members pointed out recently, how can we be in bed with Google by running their Google Ads on our forum when Google is a well known anti gun company? Looking around the other hunting and fishing websites I see Google Ads on many of them, it's hard not to jump on their gravy train. Google is the shizzle if you want higher search engine ranking and to make money off ads, no one is even close to them. Yahoo just shut down their Publisher Network web ad program that was comparable to Google's AdSense because Google kicked their tail.
Google also gave us crap over submitting feeds from our store for their Froogle listing because we sold ammo and knives, oh my! We finally pulled those items from sale to get the feed working but I really regret caving in to the PC crowd BS.
What are your experiences with YouTube/Google? Any nightmares or PC tales to relate? Hopefully this huge 100 ton gorilla will collapse from their own weight and someone with some common sense will take over. In the meantime I'm hoping the Chinese wreak havoc on them, Google needs a wake up call.
The last thing I need is to stop a hunt or target shoot to haggle with the gendarmes over the tangled morass we know as the county shooting regulations in SoCal. We have NF, BLM, DFG, county, city and private land that have different regulations covering target shooting and hunting. San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties both published an official county shoot map years ago but they are so outdated they are useless today. The only way to stay legal is to have current maps at your fingertips and http://www.firearmsmaps.com/ has filled that huge void.
Netcomp, the company that makes the maps, is based out of Colton CA and owned by Ken who's a hunter. Ken had the same desire as most of us who wanted to stay legal when hunting or shooting. These maps are a godsend since may sheriffs and law enforcement personnel do not know the boundaries or regulations.
I recently stopped by for a peek at the latest editions of the maps. That's what really cook about these maps, Ken is constantly updating the maps when new regulations or boundaries are announced by government departments. The BLM just recently had some major changes in their land boundaries and the new Netcomp map edition has those changes already. What timely service.
I also got a peek at a Verizon Smart Phone running the maps on it. Too slick. You just start the application, the map overview comes up and you tap the screen to zoom into where you want. The regs for the area you are looking at pop up on the screen for instant knowledge of what is legal to shoot, say a rifle & shotgun zone or a no shoot zone. Netcomp also has CD software so you can run the maps on your computer.
The maps are so popular they were swiping them off our table at our booth at the recent Fred Hall Show in Long Beach.
Run, don't walk to Netcomp http://www.firearmsmaps.com/ now and get your maps ordered. A trespassing ticket, even if you're found innocent, is going to cost you a day off from work to fight and win. You also don't have to stop your hunt and leave, just show the cop where you are and you should be left alone to finish your hunt or target shooting. I recently had Riverside Sheriff contact me while crow hunting and my map allowed me to show them I was perfectly legal doing what I was there. I also recommend you carry the DFG regs if any questions arise about hunting regulations.
Need a lil help here. The SHOT Show kicks off January 18th in Las Vegas with the media day at the ranges. There is so much new gear and guns to see every year I'd like to ask for some suggestions on what to whittle the "Must See List" down to. Do you know about any new guns or ammo you'd like to read about? New clothing line or game camera coming out? Please let me know here in the comments or by email what's you'd like to see covered. I'll do my best to get some info and take some pics.
Also, if you're attending the show and would like to have lunch or supper one day feel free to contact us at 951-314-5837. If you are a vendor or and would like us to shoot some video of your gear or operation please contact us at the same number.
Westy and I managed to sneak out for some bowfishing this past weekend at Big Bear Lake in SoCal. When the carp refused to come into the cold shallow water where we stood shaking like dogs passing a peach pit, we headed for the Big Bear Valley Sportsman's Club Shooting Range to reconnoiter.
The range has some history with the likes of John Wayne, Jeff Cooper, Jack Weaver (Weaver Stance fame) and others practicing their shooting when up in the high pines around the lake. We happened to bump into actor Christian Slater and his friends who were looking to rent some guns for some shooting fun. Unfortunately the range doesn't have any guns for rent and we didn't have any to lend them.
So if you're ever headed up to the mountains around Big Bear and want to throw some lead downrange or bust some clay targets there is a nice range just north of the lake at the Stanfield Cutoff. With all the famous folks running around the area you never know who you'll run in to.
I have to be brutally honest about these planted bird shoots that we've put on the past couple of years, JHO won't be participating anymore for several reasons.
1) The biggest reason is the safety issue. Every time I've been out on a planted bird shoot we've had issues with folks who are not aware of where their muzzle is pointing or had fingers on the trigger while walking. Even after warning the shooter we've had the same issue pop back up again the same day which puts in in a jam over kicking someone out of the shoot.
In these bird shoots we're also mixing small groups together that have never shot with each other and it's caused some strife. I know I've hit the ground a time or two over the past couple years when someone swung too far and almost blew someone's head off. I know 2 people who've been shot in the past 2 years while at pheasant shoots like this and I don't want any part in any shooting.
2) It's a canned hunt. I grew up chasing pheasants in the frozen cornstalks of Iowa and Missouri and these hunts, or shoots as they should be labeled, are just not my cup of tea. The dogs do get a work out but that's about it. You walk up and kick the pheasant out of sparse cover and bang! Wild pheasants are a completely different game, they use their cover to best many upland hunters. That, and many times a bird gets pounded by 3 or 4 shooters as it flies across field, leaving a bloody mess you can't even salvage for a bite to eat. Antis also use this type of canned hunt in their argument on hunting being called fair chase. I've always been for fair chase and these type of shoots do not make the cut for me.
3) The other issue we've had to deal with is dog owner's who have NO control what so ever over their dog or dogs. The last hunt we had a springer flushing out a pheasant from our field even before we walked out, the owner was no where in sight. Later, this same dog came back and we hollered for someone to reel in their dog and no one around responded. We never did figure out who was letting the springer run all over other fields. The hunt before that we had to ask one person to put their lab up in his truck after the dog ruined several fields by flushing birds out of them. Some folks who think they have control over their dog are completely oblivious to the whole program. This issue has also caused some heartburn between groups at these shoots as they watch a loose dog flush out birds they just paid to shoot.
The bottom line, just too many folks in tight quarters swinging shotguns around with many of them newbies or just way too careless for me. The California DFG youth hunts are more controlled in that they have several mentors around the kid and only hand them a shell when it's time to shoot. That's great but it's still a far cry from a fair chase hunt. One young hunter put it best to me after teaching him to shoot pidgeons at the local dairy in Chino. We were on his first planted pheasant hunt and after kicking the bird several times the pen raised bird finally flushed up and he shot it. The kid turned to me and said, "This ain't no fun, let's go shoot pidgeons." So we did, leaving our 2 other birds for another shooter in the next field to finish off.
I'm not trying to dis the DFG or the pheasant clubs it's just I have to be truthful on how I've always felt about these shoots. I tried to go along for the kids and group shoots for the comraderie but it's just not going to work for me.
Part 2 of this video series has the famous Cowboy Action Shooter "Tequila" covering the .38 single action pistol and pump shotgun used in CAS (Cowboy Action Shooting).
Tactical2Practical was a Stuntwomen's Association Of Motion Pictures shooting seminar held in November 2004 at the ISI range in Piru CA. All types of weaponry, from handguns to full auto machine guns to antique cowboy rifles are taught, as well as police, SWAT, and military tactics. The seminar is taught by world and national champion competition shooters, elite police and military trainers, as well as Olympic gold medalists.
The seminar is by invitation only to elite members of the stunt community.
I do honest reviews on gear, services and trips that are sometimes given free to JHO in compensation. I report the good AND bad from my perspective. Your mileage may vary.
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