The Debutante Hunters - Sundance Film Festival

 Click the link below. A great clip about women hunters in South Carolina with some honest expression and real love for the hunt in its entirety (sorry, I couldn't embed the clip).

The heartfelt admission that 'it's like home' makes me think that those lessons and that ethic will be properly passed to her children...

http://screen.yahoo.com/sundance-2012-debutante-hunters-short-27874990.html

Zombie Max nonsense...

Seriously Hornady? A heretofore respectable and innovative company decides to dress up ammo like a dollar store Halloween product. The marketing video screams “These shooting enthusiasts are juvenile members of the 101 internet keyboard commando who fantasize about shredding zombies!” It’s a serious disservice to responsible weapon ownership and an insult to those serious about their shooting sports.

Zombies? Shooting humanoid targets? Revelling is splattering gore? Is this message to the non-shooting public providing any PR gains?

Disappointing to say the least. It sure as hell doesn’t represent me or my interests AT ALL, nor those of many others I know.

© Brian Joubert

Cheap and accurate?

I have been hearing via assorted tall tales and general bull in the shooting universe that Savage’s new-ish budget iron, the Axis (nee Edge), can turn some pretty fine accuracy. I have handled a few but not shot any, until today. The reports of trigger pulls that could budge a hippo are true, as is the general ‘plasticiness’ of the piece. However for $299 ($329 gets you the package with a set of generic weaver style mounts and a Bushnell ‘Sharpshooter’ 3-9x40 scope) this must be, without a doubt, the best value going. Then again, the other budget Savage offerings like the Stevens 200 and 111/11 FCXP3 also have a reputation for cost defying accuracy).

A horse named Ovis: a sheep story

Ovis (C. Craig)

Well his name isn't really Ovis, it’s actually Taco, but for the six days he carried my butt up and down steep rocky trails we didn’t know that – he was borrowed from someone else you see. ‘New Horse’ was his more used alias but ‘Ovis’ seemed fitting for a horse that carried me on my first attempt at hunting Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis).

My interest in pursuing these icons of mountain game has remained on simmer for the last few years and I should admit this with some self-criticism. This is because the constraints on sheep hunting in Alberta are essentially self-created. Barring a few areas with licences on a draw-only basis, most sheep can be pursued by residents of the province with an over-the-counter tag. That’s right, you buy a tag, lace up your boots and pursue Big Horn rams! Of course these licenses are for ‘Trophy Rams’ only, limiting the hunter to rams with a very strictly controlled minimum horn length (tips must pass an imaginary line that extends from the front of the horn base past the front of the eye). Legal rams are therefore not exactly a Sunday morning doddle to bag but hey, only ones ambition, skills and physical condition separate you from pursuing one of the apogees of the hunters’ realm. Why didn’t I try this earlier?

Tree Saddle - a better tree stand?

Having never used a tree stand before, I began considering one after taking the leap into archery this year. Whitetail are the most prevalent quarry in the areas that I hunt and those in the know advised that hunting elevated would be the best tactic if I hoped to tag an archery deer.


After considering a climber, hang-on or ladder stand and weighing them against the usefulness of a ground blind, I was introduced to the idea of a tree saddle by a fellow on a local outdoor forum. The Trophyline Tree Saddle is essentially a suspended sling seat built into a fall protection harness. The unit incorporates a lineman’s belt for safer climbing and a second independent webbing strap that acts as an adjustable anchor once wrapped around the tree. One climbs the tree using any of the step systems you would use for a regular stand. There is no safety harness as your ‘stand’ is essentially a safety harness with a sling seat. The seat on my ‘Ambush’ model is made from heavy duty mesh.

Outdoor-sports: A green audit.

Most of us involved in outdoor sports take an interest in environmental or green issues. That paddlers, climbers, surfers, skiers, hikers et al are environmentally conscious, seems to be accepted as axiomatic.
 Despite these stated environmental concerns there is often a juxtaposition in our revealed behaviour, myself included.

Now far from intending to bore you with the platitudes of my naval gazing, I think that my anecdotal ‘green audit’ has some value. Firstly, we normally all agree that initiating newcomers into outdoor lifestyles is pressingly important in our ever increasingly nature-disconnected lifestyles. Furthermore, the assumption is that if people develop an interest in the outdoors the spinoff will naturally be a concern for conservation and the environment. For the most part I strongly agree with this postulate but am sceptical of any claims to an unquestionable, minimized environmental footprint from this consciousness.

Secondly I want to briefly contrast the footprints of my two main outdoor passions one considered ‘non-consumptive’ – kayaking, and the other -
 hunting, considered ‘consumptive’ of the environment (and nothing short of an environmental crime by some who espouse green-living ideals).

I will touch on three areas of comparison and perhaps it will motivate you to reflect, if you already haven’t, on these issues . An important caveat: I am not out to sully the sports or lifestyle of anyone or any activity. This is simply an open and critical admission based on my reality and observations. Both kayaking and hunting have been central to my life and ideology for a long time. The lessons they have taught me are invaluable and the places and people they have introduced me to have often been life changing.

What tripped YOUR trigger?

I have often wondered if other hunters ever experienced revelatory moments that were a distinct catalyst in their decision to take up hunting. This is especially true of those who came to this decision largely per chance or after an largely isolated epiphany, one that arose without any clear influences. After some discussion with a new friend, author Tovar Cerulli, I spent time thinking about my own hunting and outdoor influences. Tovar has some excellent and well researched insights into ‘adult onset hunters’, many of these types of new hunters come to the activity without the benefit of a community to influence their choice. This parallels my experience, albeit in my youth.


I have always been passionate about being outside. I was drawn to angling at age 6 which I believe was the result of being entranced with all the bits in a tackle box I rooted out in my late grandfather’s garage. My family were certainly pro – outdoors but no-one in my immediate family was an angler, shooter or hunter. Both parents and my older brother were also very supportive of my often annoying compulsion to spend seemingly uncomfortable hours in or alongside water bodies with a rod in hand.

Dear Anas undulata, thanks for tripping my trigger!

The birth of my desire to shoot remains a fuzzy mystery to me. I was exposed to it a few times and always relished the opportunity to shoot and accept the responsibility to do so safely. By the onset of my teens I was fairly interested in it but by no means passionate, until the revelation happened…

My gang of normally-muddy buddies and I used to fish for carp in a small stream that ran through our local suburb. Late one afternoon while waiting