Rifles and Recipes

My old Montana friends John Barsness and Eileen Clarke, who run the site Rifles and Recipes, have two new projects worth your attention. John, who may be one of the best gun writers in the world– what other former poet is also a world- class gunsmith?– has started an online mag called “Rifle Loony.” It …

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Lane Batot’s Trailhounds 4

Trailhounds Part 4……When I had kept Notches, the Black-And-Tan hound for a year or so, I became curious as to whether she still had her “raccoon phobia”. Though I probably would have found out eventually by happenstance–raccoons being common in the area–I decided to set up an encounter where I had some control of the …

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Lane Batot on Trailhounds– Part 3

Once I had decided to keep Notches, the little Black-And-Tan hound, I naturally sought to fulfill my old desire of training a trailhound to pursue a variety of game, as the old time pioneers had done. I knew that with this previously traumatized dog, I would have to proceed slowly and patiently. At first she …

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Lane Batot on Trailhounds

Part 1, Trailhound tales In relating some of my experiences with my canine family members, I will start with my two trailhounds, as mention of them has been made on comments in past discussionsons this blog. I prefer the term “trailhounds” to “coonhounds”, which is how most people identify these scent hounds, if they can …

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Survival of the Scrawny?

Annie H sent this Newsweek item about how hunters are trashing the evolution of prey species. I call agenda- driven cherry- picking bullshit. The thesis seems to be that trophy hunting removes all good males and big individuals from the gene pool. This might well be possible in some individual populations especially if it were …

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Hunting with Rio

From a bird who “snarled” at all dogs (you have to hear a Harris to believe the noise they make), Rio has progressed to a hunting partnership with Ataika. He is sitting on top of the cholla cactus above the bank beside Taik– apologies for photo quality. He usually rides on a T- perch walking …

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Teeth

Polymath scientist- archaeologist- artist- writer- rancher Joe Hutto blew through the other day after running down to Catron County, on his way to home in Wyoming via the Carolinas. He brought us a beautiful dark Late Pleistocene mammoth tooth he had retrieved from the black waters of the Auscilla River on the border of Florida …

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Running and Hunting

A Scientific American blogger wonders if we run in such things as marathons because once, we ran down other animals. Elizabeth Thomas got there years ago. HT Walter Hingley for the SciAm link.

A few more thoughts on dog restrictions

Annie Hocker, Matt, and feminist hunter and gun writer Mary Stange were having an online discussion on the erosion of support for unpopular kinds of hunting like that with hounds. I saved a few of my thoughts as I thought them appropriate for the blog. Mary said (rightfully) that we must mobilize and stand up: …

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