Despite my best intentions (and even with technology out the wahzoo), the Outdoor Pressroom and associated blog and Web site posts/updates will be sparse (if at all) for the remainder of the week as I drive from New Mexico to Hoosier country, with a 2-day stop in Illinois for venison gathering. JR
Jeff Berger of Lima, Ohio expected to enjoy watching his Cincinnati Bengals team score another W on Sunday. Instead, he had to leap from his fiancee's couch after a deer crashed through the patio window and charged right at him. “It looked me dead in the eye and...it tripped and that gave me a split second to move out of the way," Berger said. No one was injured. Via AP.
Leading fishing tackle and gear manufacturer Pure Fishing—whose brands include Penn, Berkley, Shakespeare and Abu Garcia—has completed the relocation of its administration, durables product management and sales and marketing to Columbia, SC. Its original facility in Spirit Lake, Iowa remains its largest site. The Orangeburg Times and Democrat.
Ron Goade and wife Cindy were approaching the 10th tee at Scottsdale's Desert Mountain Golf Course when they witnessed several mule deer does chase a male bobcat up a paloverde tree, hissing aggressively at the feline. Goade captured the moment with a cellphone camera shot. Ed Godfrey in The Oklahoman. Click photo for larger image.
Forget traps and the state Department of Wildlife. After it broke into the Village Church in Incline Village, Nev. and feasted on peanut butter, cornflakes and food destined for the needy, the 700-pound black bear that has damaged homes around Lake Tahoe now has the power of prayer against it. "Pray this bear (that has) done over $70,000 damage to homes and now a church is caught and relocated," Rev. Dick Randall wrote in an email to congregants. Tahoe Tribune.
After a mountain lion was sighted in a residential area of north Bismarck, ND on Friday evening, officers from the state Game and Fish Department and Bismarck Police located the animal and kept it spot-lighted while an officer moved in with a shotgun. "It exposed itself to (Bismarck Police) Officer Bullis," said G&F investigation superintendent Bruce Burkett. "Our policy is if a cougar is in an urban setting, we have to take it out." The Bismarck Tribune.
Eric Ator was coming out of a Post Falls, Idaho fitness center Thanksgiving morning when he spotted a large yellow Lab doing what the breed does best--retrieving a big bird. Unfortunately, this fowl had been filched from a family that had left their $25 free-ranging frozen turkey outside to thaw before it was scheduled for oven time. Ator snapped a few shots as the pooch headed down the street with his spoils. KXLY reports.
Reacting to the Obama administration's announced intent to participate in international arms-trade treaty negotiations, former Colorado U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo has taken initial steps to place a non-binding measure before state voters opposing such action. The initiative would first have to qualify for the November 2010 ballot with some 76,000 valid voter petition signatures. The Denver Post.
Two deer hunters reported close encounters with mountain lions in Nebraska's Pine Ridge area in the past week. One hunter reported he discovered a lion eating his deer when he returned to the carcass with field-dressing equipment. Via AP.
Southern Illinois bowhunter Joe Graber's 25-point "deer of a lifetime" didn't come easy. Taking what he thought was a perfect lung shot, Graber's arrow was deflected, instead traveling straight into the buck's ear. The deer flipped in the air, skidded down an embankment and dropped off a 20-foot cliff into a creek, where it drowned. More at my Slugs & Plugs blog.
After the Montana Supreme Court ruled a Bitterroot River tributary crossing property owned by musician Huey Lewis near Stevensville, MT was a legally accessible public waterway, the '80s rocker and other landowners are openly feeding waterfowl, effectively prohibiting legal duck hunting there. “Federal law says you can’t hunt a field that’s been baited,” said FW&P warden Jeff Darrah. “That’s his way of saying you can’t hunt here.” Via AP.
In 1943, Leon Wilson was informed he was too old to fight for his country in World War II. But this week, less than a month away from his 101st birthday, you'll find Leon in a northern Minnesota deerstand, enjoying his second favorite recreation. "Pinochle comes before hunting," he says. Brad Dokken in the Grand Forks Herald.
Pennsylvania State Police say an argument over trespassing apparently sparked a shoot-out in a rural area northeast of Pittsburgh yesterday, leaving a landowner dead and a member of a bear-hunting party with a gunshot wound. Charges are expected as the investigation proceeds. York Daily Record.
TJ Hauge of Prairie du Sac, Wisc. took careful aim at a whitetail buck on opening day of the state's 9-day gun season on Saturday, dropping the animal in its tracks--in addition to the buck standing behind it that he hadn't seen. Fortunately, Hauge, whose father is the state DNR wildlife management chief, had two buck tags. LA Times' Outposts reports.
With better deer-hunting fortune than his counterpart in Minnesota, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon killed a doe (and retrieved it) while hunting in Pulaski County this week. He donated the meat to Share The Harvest, a public-private charity he recently helped expand. The KC Star.
