Bushcraft Icons: Kuksa

Traditionally carved from the burl growth of a Birch tree, these wooden cups known as Kuksa or Guksi are as Scandaweegen as anything. In the cold of the Sammi peoples arctic homeland a metal cup would be a one way ticket to a stuck lip. So the insulating properties, and light weight of wood make this a perfectly adapted tool for the region. They also look totally cool in the suburbs, and clearly designate their owner as 'more bushcraft than thou' around any campfire. So there.

More soon
Your Pal
SBW

Unboxing: Mora Forest Knife Review

In these times of economic uncertainty the overpriced, and the badly made will - if you believe in the sanctity of Adam Smith's worldview - be driven from the marketplace. Here's how. I've wanted to test out the new Mora's for a while now, so when the chance came to trade for one I jumped at it. The Forest model is about three times the price of the much loved Mora Clipper so I was intrigued to see if  the Forest was as big a bargain as it's stable mate.

Designed with the bushcrafter in mind the Forest has a blade length of 106 mm (4.17in), and is 2.5 mm (0.1 in) thick Sandvik 12C27 steel, hardened quite softly [if that makes ant sense at all] to HRC 57-58. The knife currently only comes with a khaki green hand grip and a sheath of the same colour. I'd have preferred orange myself. The sheath design is a vast improvement on the old clipper sheath, the belt loop fully encloses the belt, rather than just clipping on, and it allows the knife to pivot with the wearers movement.

The new design of profile-ground stainless steel blade is a fair bit more sophisticated than the Clippers stamped offering. It follows the idea that as different parts of the blade are used for different tasks the blade can have different profiles to accommodate them.  I'm guessing the extra grinding is what's led to the the price hike. The blade works very well. I've never had a stainless steel Mora before, but found it easy enough to sharpen on the Sharpmaker. Leaving an amusing series of bald patches up my arm.

Is it worth the extra cash over the already excellent clipper?
Is any knife? Yeah I'm keeping it. It's very nice to cut with, the new sheath is way better. And I've already decided how to pimp the first one. Gary from Bearclaws Bushcraft has the whole range - and lots of other low cost - high usefulness bushcraft kit at his trading post. If all purchasing decisions were made purely on a 'quality of product' to 'cost of product' comparison, would any other knife companies exist? Seriously.

More soon
Your Pal
SBW

Water Purifiers: Pre-Mac Trekker Review

This afternoon while tool shopping in 'crack converters' ( a chain of pawn shops) I found an unused Pre-Mac Trekker, complete with vintage picture of Ray Mears on the Package

Ray Mears had a period where he looked a lot like BoB

There are lots of rubbish water purifier systems availible, quite a few so-so ones and a couple of really good ones, each with thier own advantages. Here are some thoughts on the best options I've used.

The MSR miniworks is highly regarded, although perhaps a little bulky, and has an amazing flow rate of 1 litre per minute. The miniwoks uses a filtration system down to 0.3 microns which is enough to remove all bacteria, protozoa, etc. Of course, the ceramic filter can do nothing about viruses. They must be killed pre or post use, by either high temperatures, ultraviolet light, or chemicals like iodine and chlorine. Where you believe the water to be virus free [and you're right] the filtration-only design comes into it's own avoiding the taste of iodine or chlorine.

The british army and some NATO forces use the Pre-Mac Trekker which, while is has an annoying flow rate of only 0.4 litres per minute, does have other things going for it. Designed 'to produce safe drinking water from contaminated sources by elimination of pathogenic organisms - bacteria, viruses and cysts' in tests by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine the Trekker achived total elimination of the bacteria Eschedria coli and a reduction of Poliovirus in excess of 99.9%. One clever feature is the use of a resin that has iodine in it, so very small amounts of Iodine are present in the filtered water - leave the water to stand for three minutes and everything's zapped. I like the Trekker a lot, while it pumps slower and has a slight taste of iodine, it packs smaller, and is the best choice for when you absolutely, positively, have to kill every virus in the cup.

More Soon
SBW

Arragh Spider!!!

This has to be the biggest spider I've ever seen in the UK. There were a couple of smaller versions nearby, I'm guessing this is the female of the species?

Any Arachnologists out there?
More soon
SBW

League Against Cruel Sports EXPOSED

"impatient, intolerant, judgmental, tactless -- I'm not very nice, I'm really not. And if you don't do it my way, by God you'll be sorry." Annette Crosbie


As regular readers will have noticed The SBW blog is usually played for laughs - it's the way I roll, but while not a practitioner of insightful journalism myself [or any other kind] you may have noticed that I'm a massive fan of The Terrierman's Daily Dose where Patrick Burns uses the disinfectant power of sunlight to revel the dishonesty at the heart of the animal rights movement, the Kennel Club and the Pharmaceutical industry, amongst others. The standard of writing is very high and his research is first rate so I was delighted when he was kind enough to join this blog with a guest post about a UK based anti-fieldsports organisation who are engaged in a prolonged campaign to represent themselves as the voice of reason, when as we shall see they are anything but. If you have the time, I'd really recommend following the links at the bottom where some perviously prominent members of the organisation talk about changes to their thinking. Over to you Patrick. 


Journalists (God bless them) are under crushing deadlines and often do not know much about the organizations and issues they are being asked to cover. One newspaper piece is used to create another, and no one in the press corps goes to libraries at all.

The sadness here is that Wikipedia -- the chaotic "anyone with a password" online encyclopedia is often touted as a legitimate source (go to "Google News" and type in "Wikipedia" for conformation) even though what is written there is often nothing more that Public Relations Department puffery. And -- just to be clear -- those public relations departments do not always want the truth to be told.

Take the League Against Cruel Sports. They are emphatically opposed to anyone actually posting their true history on Wikipedia.

I have appended below the text (with citations) that I added to their Wikipedia puffery, and which they have repeatedly cut out.

For those that think this true history should stay, simply go to this post on the League Against Cruel Sports and put it back in by using the "edit this page" tab or the "history" tab (compare and then revert if you feel that is called for). Or, if you prefer, have the time, and are well-researched, add your own take to LAC's Wikipedia entry -- just be sure to footnote stuff and stick to "just the facts ma'am."

The League began in Morden, a suburb of London in 1923. Henry Amos raised a protest against rabbit coursing, he was successful in motivating support and managed to achieve a ban. This encouraged him to organise opposition to other forms of cruel sports and so in along with Ernest Bell, he established the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports. Although many blood sports such as bull, bear and badger baiting and cock fighting had already been outlawed at the timethe laws only applied to domestic and captive animals. With the RSPCA unwilling to take action against hunting, Amos and Bell identified a clear need for an organisation which would campaign against what it classified as cruel sports. (citation)

Originally called the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports, the partnership between Henry Amos and Ernest Bell did not last long. The organization had 500 members in 1927, and not many more when, in 1932, Bell left the organization due to a difference in tactics. Bell went on to found the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports (NSACS).

LACS (now called "The League") struggled through World War II, its already small membership depleted by the war effort. In 1956, journalist Eric Hemmingway -- an avid hunt disrupter -- was elected Chairman, and by 1960 LACS (it now calls itself "the League") had a more radical image and a larger support base. (citation)

Hemmingway died in 1963, and was succceed by Raymond Rowley. In 1975, after the anti-coursing bill failed, there was an increasing level of disent with the League as to the course and direction the organization should take. In March of 1977, Richard Course, a former hunt saboteur and a member of the Executive Committee of the League, was charged with receiving documents stolen from the British Field Sports Society. This theft did not slow Course's rise within the League, however, and in 1981 Course was made Executive Director and Mark Davies became Chair. (citation)

In 1982, League member Mrs. Janet Simmonds won a High Court case against the League over an £80,000 gift the organization made to the Labour party in 1979. The judge ruled the donation invalid and that it had to be repaid back with interest. (citation)

In 1982, The London Times revealed that League Press officer Mike Wilkins was actually the convicted grave desecrater Michael Huskisson who had previously set up the Cambridge group of the Hunt Saboteurs Association. (citation citation ) Huskinson was subsequently fired from his League job after he joined the South East Animal Liberation League in sacking the offices of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) offices at Buxton Brown Farm, Downe, Kent. Huskinson was sentenced to prison for eighteen months for his role in the vandalism and theft of documents (citation).

In the late 1980s, League Executive Director Richard Course was appointed to the Burns Inquiry into hunting with dogs and began to spend some field time with the mounted fox hunts as an outgrowth of this work. After a period of time talking with professional wildife managers, scientists, and hunt supporters, he finally concluded that: "The dogs easily outpace the fox within a minute or two and kill it within a second or two. How the fox is located is totally irrelevant to animal welfare considerations," and he began to say to publicly.

Course was fired from the League for expressing this and other sentiments divergent from the League's mission. What followed was a period of turmoil and bitter accusations within various factions of the League. James Barington assumed Course's position within the League (still widely known as LACS), but he too eventually quit the organization saying that he too had concluded that an absolute ban on hunting was not in the best interests of animal welfare.

Graham Sirl and John Bryant then took over as Joint Chief Officers of the the League, but this partnership did not last long as Bryant quit over the sale of some of the League's wildlife sanctuaries to pay costs associated with political campaigns.

On February 18, 2001, The Sunday Telegraph (citation) reported that Andrew Wasley, the League's press officer, had previously been arrested for violent disorder at Hillgrove Farm cat breeding centre, where he was one of the balaclava-wearing saboteurs. Wasley was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for his actions. (citation)

In May of 2001 Graham Sirl resigned his position in the League (some say he was fired) and said that he no longer believed a complete ban on hunting was in the best interests of wildlife, and was especially not in the best interests of the Exmoor deer herds which would quickly overpopulate the area if left unmanaged. Sirl says, "I now believe hunting with hounds plays an integral part in the management system of deer on Exmoor and the Quantocks." (citation)

LACS went through more leadership turmoil in 2001 and 2002 until, in January of 2003, actress Annette Crosbie was named President. In a January 10, 2003 inteview with David Edwards, Crosbie told The Mirror (citation) : "When I think about it, I think humans are the nastiest species of animal on the planet ...". In the same interview she describes herself as "impatient, intolerant, judgmental, tactless -- I'm not very nice, I'm really not. And if you don't do it my way, by God you'll be sorry."Supporters of Crosbie say her personaality is one of the things that makes her an ideal choice to lead the League.

The folks at LACS have also tried to delete all external links to anyone except their own web site. Specifically, they have deleted the following links to interviews with their former leadership. I include all the links I included (unlike LACS, I believe in balance and can co-exist with divergent viewpoints so long as both sides are represented).

* Official website of LACS
* Copy of publication by Clifford Pellow, former huntsman
* Horse & Hound: Anti turns pro: "Graham Sirl speaks out"
* Horse & Hound: Anti turns pro: "Miles Cooper"
* Hunt Crimewatch campaign to report illegal hunts

Back to nonsense, kit lust, and the like very soon

Your pal

SBW
Picture credit

Of Porn Stars And Puppy Killers

Yeah I know it's not big or clever to mock idiots.......
But it's fun

SBW

I Want One - A Not So Occasional Series Pt18

Oh well go on then, I may as well confess; once again I'm sitting on the sofa lusting after things I can't afford, but weirdly imagine would give me that elusive sense of completeness [until the next thing].

I’ve been lucky enough to have a go with one of these on a weekend away with The Bambi Basher and to be fair there really is something a little bit magical about them. We made a short video of the .275 in action you can see it here.

£1600 ($2,462) is a fair whack of cash (especially at the moment) but this rig, a box of solids [footsteps of Karamoja Bell an’ all that] and you’re good to go. Classic, elegant as you like, and remarkable in any company, could this be The One? Must be love.

JOHN RIGBY & CO.
A .275 BOLT-MAGAZINE SPORTING RIFLE, Rigby serial no. 2436,
25in. blued signed 'JOHN RIGBY & CO. 72, ST. JAMES'S ST. LONDON', block-mounted bead fore-sight, block-mounted rear-sight of one standing and two folding leaves each with platinum-inlaid centre-line and calibrated to 300 yards, fitted with a Burris 2x-8x telescopic sight, receiver marked 'WAFFENFABRIK MAUSER OBERNDORF A/N, set trigger, 14in. figured semi-pistolgrip stock including 3/4in. rubber recoil pad, chequered grip and fore-end, sling eyes
Estimate £1,200-1,600 Sale A1045 Lot 1125

Then again what would you buy for the money?
Until next time
Your pal

SBW

PS I've seen both Karamoja and Karamojo used, but as the place seems to be spelled Karamoja, I'm going with that.

Another Ishi?

I stumbled on this story, written by Monte Reel on Slate.com, a few days ago and I suppose it goes some way to answering the question:

What would happen to Ishi today? 

A few Brazilians first heard of the lone Indian in 1996, when loggers in the western state of Rondônia began spreading a rumor: A wild man was in the forest, and he seemed to be alone.


Government field agents specializing in isolated tribes soon found one of his huts—a tiny shelter of palm thatch, with a mysterious hole dug in the center of the floor. As they continued to search for whoever had built that hut, they discovered that the man was on the run, moving from shelter to shelter, abandoning each hut as soon as loggers—or the agents—got close.


No other tribes in the region were known to live like he did, digging holes inside of huts—more than five feet deep, rectangular, serving no apparent purpose. He didn't seem to be a stray castaway from a documented tribe.


Eventually, the agents found the man. He was unclothed, appeared to be in his mid-30s (he's now in his late 40s, give or take a few years), and always armed with a bow-and-arrow. Their encounters fell into a well-worn pattern: tense standoffs, ending in frustration or tragedy. On one occasion, the Indian delivered a clear message to one agent who pushed the attempts at contact too far: an arrow to the chest.


Peaceful contact proved elusive, but those encounters helped the agents stitch together a profile of a man with a calamitous past. In one jungle clearing they found the bulldozed ruins of several huts, each featuring the exact same kind of hole—14 in all—that the lone Indian customarily dug inside his dwellings. They concluded that it had been the site of his village, and that it had been destroyed by land-hungry settlers in early 1996.

You can read the story: The Most Isolated Man On Earth. Here

I’m not sure what to make of this, in wishing to catch a glimpse of this disappearing world we’d destroy it, in leaving it alone we’d leave it for others to destroy. Let me know your thoughts.

Cheers
SBW

Vintage Firearms - Tactical Ring Pistol

At the Ex Mrs SBW's for the next few days, hanging out with the rugrat's, while they're watching 'Horrible Histories' I took the opportunity to scan the catalogue for Holts next auction of historic and sporting arms. Found this little terror, basically a finger mounted, multi-shot mini-cannon!

A RARE 4mm PINFIRE SIX-SHOT RING PISTOL, MODEL 'LE PETIT PROTECTOR',
circa 1865, comprising of a small hand-rotated blued cylinder attached to a nickel-silver ring, the ring engraved with 'LE PETIT PROTECTOR' around the circumference together with two bands of floral engraving, concealed, manually cocked hammer and trigger, the whole in fine condition retaining nearly all its original finish TOGETHER WITH a flip-top jewellery-style blue leatherette covered box, an inlaid white metal plaque to the top of the lid engraved 'LE PETIT PROTECTOR', the inside lined in off-white satin and maroon velvet, compartmented in the continental style with locations for the pistol, six rounds of ammunition (missing), and a small blued turn-screw. 

Estimate £2,000-3,000 Sale A1045 Lot 727 

More soon
Your pal
SBW

Eating Ortolan

Here's one from the 'Wouldya! Couldya?' files. It seems there is an innocuous little song bird (25g-just less than an ounce), called the Ortolan that makes its way across the Landes region,to the south of Bordeaux on its way to winter with the Hippo in africa. As yer do.


Here's the strange bit, Not only is this little fella considered a delicacy, but it's eaten guts, feathers an' all and served on fire - yep a la Tweedy-pie and Sylvester. Gizzards, testicles, Goofy Girls cooking, I like to think of myself as an adventurous eater. But I'm not sure if I could!


As this takes place in France there are a few ritual elements to consider - you're supposed to eat them with a napkin over your head. Strange yes, but that's not the only part. they are trapped in nets, then kept tin the dark for a month being fattened up on grain, and then drowned in armagnac. Classy.




Trapping the Ortolan has been illegal in France for ages, an this is supposed to be the zero tollerance year, but being an activity that's only practised in the depths of the countryside by a dwindling band (you wouldn't have to ask why) of old people it's not usually considered for prosecution.


'François Simon, a restaurant critic for Le Figaro, has tried ortolans on several occasions. "It's absolutely delicious: rather crunchy, with the texture and flavour of hazelnuts,"'

Get the whole story HERE

EDIT Thanks to Hubert some background is here in a story from '97

Your Pal

SBW

On This Day 1911: Ishi Stepped Out Of The Stone Age

A victim of genocide, born on the run from an encroaching culture that was totally alien to the frame of reference he'd have known. Fresh out of options, he turned to face the very thing he'd run from his whole life, and one afternoon; bewildered and exhausted Ishi stepped out of the stone age and into the 20th century. He was imprisoned, poked, prodded, and gawped at. Then at last, protected, befriended and given the welcome such a stranger deserves.

... Somehow, despite Ishi having endured the horrors and hardships of seeing his people murdered, and continuously aware that Americans might find and kill him too, Ishi continued to accept life as each new day came his way. Even after every other person in his clan was gone, Ishi lived on alone like a signal beautiful flower firmly accorded in the soil of a hillside that had already eroded away. Indeed, “a unique gentlemanliness… beyond all civilized breeding and training… an outward expression of a pure inward spirit…”

Theodore T. Waterman, Professor of Anthropology at Berkeley

I first read Ishi's story in the amazing 'Hunting with the bow and arrow'. Inspired by Ishi and the spirit of Robin Hood. The surgeon, bow hunter, and Edwardian wag Dr Saxton Pope offers this thesis on bow craft and hunting as taught to him by Ishi. Thanks to the non-profit Guttenberg project the book can be downloaded for free or you can read the review HERE

Your Pal

SBW

Let's Play With - Crossbows!

After all the fun we had thinking about Mini-Cannon (Part 1 and Part 2) and now that we are potentially plagued by Trophy Rats, it was nice to see Jay from MArooned giving a mention to the the Chu-ko-nu or the Manchurian Repeating Crossbow. Lets just say that again, Manchurian-Repeating-Crossbow, sounds like fun doesn't it? And highly affective against beer cans, cardboard boxes and other household menaces. For the full spec click here.

Your pal
SBW

Show Us Your Guns

This one is from Saturday Night Live, me I'm looking down the barrel of Saturday Night Home-Alone.
SBW

Japanese Deer Sign

This afternoon I took a leaf out of Chad's book and spent some time aimlessly surfing the internet for things that would excite my imagination, and perhaps prompt a wry smile to break across your face dear reader. I'll admit that my find on Boing Boing wasn't as WICKED AWSOME as his, but of course Chad gets paid for it and I'm doing it [for you] for free. Just sayin' 's all.

Anyway back to the picture I found: I was heartened to see that there is still one first world country that expects it's people to have what I believe was once known as 'common sense'. Novel idea huh?

Your pal
SBW

Ooo VOX Folders

Nice eh? VOX has finally brought out his own custom folder.
A thing of much lovelyness. I don't know, I didn't ask, I can't afford one.
SBW

The Trophy Rats Of Bradford

Over the last few days the English papers have covered this story of giant rats seen on an estate in Bradford.

The story goes that a Mr Goddard - who says that he and his friends go rat hunting a couple of times a week - decided to see if he could bag one of the bigger ones. They took an air rifle and headed to the edge of the estate.The group had heard rustling and scratching near the wall before he got the shock of his life.

'The first went right past but we got the second one. Then three more got away."

Rats in Indonesia and South America can grow up to three feet long, and witnesses say the rats in Bradford are just as big 'I've never seen any as big as this. The one I shot was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking, Goodness knows where the others went. I'm glad I don't live there.'

Estate resident Rebecca Holmes, 38, was in no doubt that large rodents are in the area - after having cornered one in her house. The mother-of-five said her cat Marie had cornered one in the lounge, but the rodent stood its ground - because it was around the same size as the domestic cat.

Carol Beardmore, who represents the Eccleshill on Bradford Council, sounding just like your typically pompous local politician, played down suggestions that hundreds of giant rodents were plaguing the estate.

She said: "I live on the estate and while I'm not saying we don't have rats - everywhere has rats - I am not aware of an infestation of giant rats." She added: "I live close to a wood ... and we have not seen anything like that, and if we had I am sure my cat would have caught it."

Just what kind of super-cat does this woman own? As Miss Holmes testimony suggests, your average moggy would have more sense than to tangle with a 30 inch rodent!

As we saw before the 'culinary solution' awaits the brave locavore!

Your Pal

SBW

Picture credit

Blogs Of Note And Weekend Reading

There are a few blogs that I've been reading lately that i'm not sure are getting all the readers they deserve. If your blog doesnt apear on this list it's not because I dont read what you write it's just that I've either not read your blog because you haven't commented on mine, I've already mentioned you, or I love your blog but you're not posting that regularly and I'm starting to wonder if you ever will again.

Lets start our journey with a real live journey-man 

Pathfinder Tom

Ever wanted to jack it all in and hit the road? Yeah me too! Well now we can without ever leaving the comfort of our armchair campfires. Tom has been to most places, and lived to blog about it. One of the many appealing things about the tales he tells is the super low budget he runs the whole show on, if he's got new gear he's either traded for it or dumpster dived it.

'I need an Axe and bastard file for my upcoming Maine wilderness adventure so my friend and Me took in the local swap meet and I managed to locate a 2 pound Axe head and a bastard file to sharpen it with for the grand total of 3 bucks - not bad. The Axe head is actually in fair shape but the file leaves a bit to be desired, but, ill make them work for me. At the same swap meet I was also able to locate 3 pair of Carharrt pants and 2 pair of Carharrt shorts for 4 bucks - excellent deal.'

I Don't Wear Pink Camo To The Woods

.

.....this buck is the largest whitetail taken in our household...

'A Wisconsin Chick's Journal of Outdoor (Mis)Adventures' Kari has a great voice that leaps off the screen as she blogs tales of her outdoor and toxophilite adventures with Hubbin and her little lad.

On: Taking a break from archery

I'm super jazzed about this 9 day gun season for reasons to numerous to mention, but I think the main reason is that the last time I hit the woods "packin' heat" I was 4 months pregnant. Then, for two whole seasons after that, I didn't go because...there was no one to watch the boy. Ah, but this year, my mother-in-law has offered to wo-"man the fort" opening weekend so my hubbin' and I can hit the woods. So very romantic, in a "back woods" kinda way, and that just so happens to be the way we roll.

On: Jewelry
I am not just the average chick when it comes to pretty much everything. I occasionally do to things like pee on scrapes during the rut (just to see what happens) or when I find myself with available "duty-free time" I go to the woods, or the range, rather then visit the spa or get my nails done. Well, when it comes to dressin' up and going out, I guess I'm a bit different there too. You see, I like love to wear raccoon ivory with my diamonds!

You read it right. I wrote raccoon ivory. It's not really ivory, like you'd find on an elephant, but rather just a fancy name for a raccoon penis bone that sits well in all types of company. Besides being called an "ivory," they are commonly referred to as: coon dongs, love bones, Mountain Man toothpicks or "insert your state here" toothpicks (and yes, they do work as such!) and as I like to call em', just plain ol' coon pecker s. 


In a word 'beguiling'

Hodgeman's Thoughts On The Great Outdoors

Although Hodgeman doesn't post that regularly I will never delete him from my RSS feeds. If you're looking for something a bit more thoughtful than your average blog, this is where its at. Living in Alaska he has more opportunity and more field time than armchair enthusiasts like myself will ever know. He hunts, fishes and gets out and about a lot.
One of the things I admire about his writing style is the way he creates opposing propositions and then, as if by magic, gathers them up into a cohesive whole, leaving the reader (this reader at least) with a feeling of having covered more mental terrain.

Here in his most recent posts he discusses the decline of the American Rifleman

Perfect Practice makes Perfect- Part 1
We've all heard the old adage that practice makes perfect but nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that perfect practice makes perfect and nothing else. Imperfect practice does nothing except solidify bad habits and instill a false sense of confidence in shaky abilities. Being a person interested in the shooting sports, I've noticed a few things regarding practice and some critical elements that I think we're missing very badly in the 21st century. African PHs (professional hunters) and Alaska guides share many things in common and one of them is the opinion that clients tend to overestimate their shooting ability by factor of (at least) ten. Both have gotten used to the practice of consoling a client who's shooting poorly by saying that "the light is different down (or up) here... you'll get used to it." Both have also gotten quite terrified of letting a new client shoot much past bayonet range until the client has proven himself a competent hand with a rifle and the pre-hunt ritual of "rifle zeroing" conducted under the pretense of calibrating rifle scopes after shipping is as much for checking to see if the client is "calibrated" as for the stated purpose. Sad to say but the American sportsman these days is largely a pathetic example of field marksmanship. Why would this be? The American sportsman at the turn of the previous century was a marvel to the sporting world with good aperture sights, early scopes and smokeless ammunition. Those early adventurers to Africa and Alaska were often men who spent considerable time afield with a rifle in their hand as well as men with more than a passing interest in riflery. The reputation of the Yankee marksman soared. These days a visiting sportsman is assumed a clod until proven otherwise.


Perfect Practice makes Perfect- Part 2
In my previous effort I decried the declining state of field marksmanship among Americans but I feel some apologetic words are in order. One, America remains one of the last places on this spinning orb that an average man can go out and for an average weeks' wages, purchase himself a high powered rifle and cartridges and then take that rifle hunting for a large game animal with a minimal amount of government intrusion. I think that is a very good thing. Two, the declining state of riflecraft in America is notable because we have the masses out in the fields shooting game.

While I don't pretend to know many European hunters, the few that I've met in Alaska seem to be a very serious sort of rifleman indeed. A couple of Germans and an Austrian in particular were quite savvy and their guide reported them excellent marksmen and wonderful field hunters. But, I'd wager those gentlemen were the exception to the rule and a random cross section of Europeans would likely have as equally bad field marksmanship as Americans- if not worse. It seems that Europeans have many more restrictions and provisos on the purchase and shooting of high powered rifles than Americans have and the men who pursue hunting there must be very dedicated indeed. When a rifle subjects you to the level of hassle and expense the average European endures to own a smokepole, I'd wager a weekend warrior you are not. 

Having taken instruction on both sides of the pond I would echo this. In the UK I've always (100% every time) been handed a rifle that's been proved empty in front of me and I've been expected to confirm its status immediately. In the US I've had a rifle put in my hands with the words "It's hot and ready to rock".

There's been some interesting discussion of the ethics of hunting on the blogs I read in the last year, but for the best commentary was Hodgeman's you might enjoy reading Hail Mary Shooting... and The 'Texas' Heart Shot

Alaska is just the sort of place to commune with nature, eating it and or being eaten by it"Bear Haven"- Just My Two Cents....
As an avid collector of gear, and owner of some of the most worst low-rent outdoor attire I chuckled over his take on the proper attire for a hunting trip.

About those shoes [and that camouflage]…
I also tend to abhor most camouflage clothing as it generally looks goofy anywhere but the field and in the field it’s often just plain ineffective. If I were a Southeastern U.S. deer hunter I might feel differently but in Alaska I just don’t see the point. Every year hundreds and thousands of hunters from the Lower 48 (affectionately and locally known as theCabela’s Army) pour into Alaska and bring their hunting attire with them. Not to sound snide, but you can spot a guy wearing Mossy Whatever (or similar pattern) out on the tundra at about 3 miles with the naked eye- its just too dark, the pattern is too dense and it appears nearly black at any kind of distance. Neither do dark, complex patterns work well in open mountainous terrain, ... There simply are very few open country patterns that work well up here, but solid color clothing in the right palette can disappear remarkably well over the variable terrain if you keep the extraneous movement to a minimum.

If I big him up a bit more do you think he'll post more often?

Enjoy

SBW

PS The only surefire way i know to find blogs worth reading is by following comments on this and other blogs. HINT.

Fresh Air Fund

A while back Sara wrote to me and asked me to publicise the non-profit that she's involved in and inadvertently showed me a glimpse of what I'm doing with my life .

As those of you who are still waiting for post from me will have noticed I tend to let everything else get in the way, and I despite my good intentions I did nothing about her request. Then by chance I read this post on a blog I'd never read before. The Fresh Air Fund is a very cool organisation, that match families living in the fresh air with children who live without it in the city. It works out so well that as of last year 65% of the children we invited back.

A couple of years ago I worked with a grey haired Scottish guy, with piercing blue eyes that could look into your soul, who had been a minister in Texas, and then in Mexico working with the very poorest people, at the bottom of the food chain. As we travelled we'd sit up into the night talking about the nature of the universe, the gulf between saying and doing and role religion plays in the world, one thing he said still haunts me. It was at the end of a story about why he left his comfortable life with his wealthy flock in Texas "they seemed to think if we told people about being christian that would be enough, I thought if we showed them being christian that would be a start". While I'm not what you'd call blessed with faith myself, I could see his point. We could change the world, if only we were wise enough to do it one person at a time.

Living in the city I'm not able to extend an invitation myself, but if you can I'd bet you'd find it the best thing you've done in years. Kids are kids; they delight in the smallest things and are naturally drawn to all that the outdoors has on offer. These kids don't have the start in life that many of us enjoyed, but with just a few days exposure, will surely become the outdoor advocates of tomorrow. So if you're concerned about the way the worlds going, the lack of options inner-city kids have, and the wholesale destruction of the natural world, here's your chance to make the most difference with the smallest amount of input. A week living with a little person (who may just teach you something about yourself), or a blog post to spread the word.

Thanks for your help
SBW
PS If you fancy sending a few bucks, a very cool donor is matching funds, for every dollar you send they'll send one too.

facebook.com/freshairfund
http://freshairfundhost.com

Yea Mini Cannon! Pt2

Still Lovin' Mini Cannon - just this time it's a more destructive kind of lovin'
SBW

Skull Pix 1

Today: rain stops play, and work.
As you've probably noticed I love skulls and skull motifs, and I'm not the only one.
Regular Commenter Goofy Girl pointed me in the direction of the excellent Skull-a-Day where skull art and skull-like things are posted. This afternoon I received an unexpected call from JonGee who is taking a break from his monastic studies and passing through 'Old Larnden Taarn' he's the owner of a VERY impressive collection of skulls from his travels and his day job. The main collection is in storage but in the meantime here's one he did have a picture of, on his computer.

For Five solid gold bushwacker points - name the animal that used to live in it- answers on a comment.

Your pal
SBW