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Texas Men Capture 800 Pound Boar – ALIVE

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Photo Credit: New York Daily News Blaine Garcia was stalking animals on a De Leon ranch on January 16 when he spotted the gigantic wild beast, reports The Flash Today . . .

The creature weighed 790-pounds — almost twice the size of the previous largest hog Garcia had ever caught, which tipped the scaled at comparatively puny 450-pounds . . .

Garcia decided to try and catch the gargantuan critter. With the help of two hunting bulldogs he and Wyatt Walton started to work the 20-acre area . . .

Garcia then set his pup free. It sprinted over to its prey and latched its jaw onto the towering creature’s ear. But the hog was so big that the pup couldn’t bring it down.

Wyatt then arrived and the two men grabbed the boar’s legs before tying them together. (Read more about the men capturing the 800 pound boar HERE)

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Father and Son Bag 700 Pound Boar in North Carolina

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Photo Credit: North
Carolina Sportsman Jonathan Florence admitted that it was “pure luck”, but neither he nor his father, Bruce, is about to downplay the hunt last Friday in Transylvania County that ended with Bruce Florence killing a 707 ½-pound wild hog he said could be best described with one word: buffalo.

The Florences, who live in southern Caswell County, travelled to North Carolina’s mountains last week because one of Bruce Florence’s friends told him they had on some property plenty of wild hogs and some big ones . . .

“I was probably about 20 yards from getting through the laurel thicket when the big boy blasted out of there,” Jonathan Florence said. “When I ran him out, he headed straight for my dad.”

Bruce Florence was sitting down, holding a single-shot .25-06 rifle, when the hogs started to emerge from the laurel thicket. Florence, a serious wild hog hunter who has killed porkers up to 150 pounds, admitted he wasn’t quite ready for what was heading in his direction . . .

The hog broke cover about 90 yards from Florence and was bearing down on him at around 30 yards when it angled off to one side, giving Florence a broadside shot. He squeezed off his only round, aiming behind the hog’s shoulder. At the shot, the hog started to stumble; Jonathan Florence, who broke out of the laurel in time to witness the shot, said the hog “went digging another 15 to 20 yards” before it went down for good. (Read more about the 700 pound boar HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Alaska To Make Drone Assisted Hunting Illegal

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Photo Credit: ubergizmo.comDrones perform spectacularly as the proverbial eye in the sky, but the Alaska Board of Game doesn’t want drones giving hunters an unfair advantage over their UAV-less counterparts.

At its recent meeting, the 7 member Alaska Board of Game unanimously voted in favor of a measure to stop hunters from spotting game through drones, or other similar gadgets.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers believe that this practise isn’t widespread, but with drone technology becoming cheaper, its only a matter of time before hunters start investing in drones.

Read more from this story HERE.

Hunters, Fishermen Targeted by Feds for Local Violations

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Photo Credit: peteSwede

Photo Credit: peteSwede

U.S. law enforcement agencies are conducting thousands of investigations using a law that makes violating state wildlife statutes a federal crime, often ensnaring hunters and fishermen for seemingly minor infractions.

Some even suffer stiff federal prison sentences.

Special agents and wildlife inspectors for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conduct about 2,500 investigative cases a year of violations of the Lacey Act, a 1900 law meant to combat illegal trafficking of wildlife. Additional probes of Lacey Act violations also are conducted by other federal agencies, as well as state and local governments.

Though a small percentage of the Lacey Act cases result in prison time, a high percentage plead guilty, consistent with a federal system in which 97 percent of cases end in plea deals.

But for those imprisoned, ensnared in costly investigations, or who pleaded guilty to reduced charges, the horrible repercussions can have a devastating impact on their livelihoods.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Sees 25 Percent Surge in Women Hunters Since 2006

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Photo Credit: Renee VThe number of American women spending time hunting has spiked 25 percent between 2006 and 2011.

According to Census Bureau statistics cited by National Geographic, while men still make up the majority of the 13.7 million hunters in the United States, 11 percent are women.

Many states, the magazine reports, are now hosting workshops, titled “Becoming An Outdoors-Woman” (BOW), which instruct participants in archery, shotgun and rifle shooting.

“There is definitely a high demand. We have over 3,000 women on our mailing list, and workshops fill up quickly,” Patricia Handy, information and education program manager at the Department of Natural Resources in Maryland, told National Geographic.

Read more from this story HERE.

Enthusiasts Encourage More Women To Give Hunting A Shot

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Photo Credit: Irina Zhorov/Wyoming Public MediaThe departure time for Wyoming’s inaugural Women’s Antelope Hunt was set for 5:30 a.m. — but that was before a snowstorm hit. By 6 a.m., the electricity is still out, wind and snow are howling and antsy women in camouflage are eating eggs by candlelight.

Marilyn Kite, Wyoming’s first female state Supreme Court justice and one of the people who dreamed up the hunt, is among them.

“We’ve found it to be just great recreation, lots of fun, and the camaraderie of it is why you do it, really,” Kite says. “But we also really like the meat.”

Women still make up only a small percentage of all hunters, but that number has increased significantly in recent years. Now, organizations like the Wyoming Women’s Foundation want to encourage more growth through mentorship.

The group says hunting is an important way to teach self-sufficiency and economic independence — and taking meat home is a part of that, Kite says. “There’s a lot of young women who are single mothers, who are trying to provide for their families,” she says. “And [hunting is] certainly one way to do it.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Slams Feds for Keeping Hunters off Land

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Photo Credit: Alex SlitzAlaska lawmakers accused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of violating federal law by shutting down hunting on its lands during the government shutdown, saying a 1980 law guarantees state residents must have access to the land.

“It seems that agencies are working harder to keep people off federal lands than they have ever worked before to get them to visit federal lands,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, who questioned the Obama administration’s decisions during the week-old shutdown.

The National Park Service has faced scorching criticism for closing not just parks, but even parking lots and drives that don’t require continual monitoring or upkeep. Other federal land management agencies also are facing criticism.

A tour guide who had a group at Yellowstone National Park accused the Park Service of “Gestapo tactics” in trying to prevent visitors from viewing any of the sites, saying that while they were allowed to remain at the lodge in the park, they were not allowed to do much else — including walk on the boardwalk paths outside the lodge or visit the park’s geysers.

And when he took the tour bus with his group along the road and stopped to photograph bison, he said, a ranger drove up behind them and told them they could be charged with trespassing.

Read more from this story HERE.

California’s Great Gun Grab: State’s Sweeping Gun Control Bills Target Firearms, Ammo — and Hunting

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Breaking new ground in the state-level battle over firearms, the Democratic-dominated California state legislature has taken gun control into uncharted territory with a flurry of new bills that target not just firearms and ammunition, but also recreational hunting.

Among the dozen gun-control bills sitting on California Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk are measures that would outlaw lead ammunition for hunting as well as common types of hunting rifles under the umbrella of an assault-weapons ban. Taken together, the measures go far beyond the efforts that have inspired a sharp backlash and political battles in states such as Connecticut and Colorado.

To put the lead bill in context, about 95 percent of all ammunition sold in California contains lead. The alternative is metal bullets, some of which can pierce police armor and are banned by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Critics say the bill would effectively end hunting as a sport in California.

“If California outlaws lead bullets, the federal government already outlaws everything else, so there’s nothing left for hunters to use,” said California Assemblyman Brian Jones, a Republican from Santee. “It basically outlaws hunting.”

Mr. Brown has yet to say whether he will sign any or all of the gun bills, but the effort has already sparked a backlash against the Democratic-sponsored bills by one of the party’s chief constituencies: labor unions. A half-dozen California labor leaders have formed a coalition urging the governor to veto Assembly Bill 711, the lead-ammunition ban, citing the loss of manufacturing and supply-chain jobs as well as recreational opportunities.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Unbelievable Video Showing the Moment a Hunter Snatches a Bird Out of the Air with His Bare Hands

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What do you get when you combine guns, hunting, NFL quarterback Colt McCoy and a one-in-a-million-type feat? A viral video for sure.

Below is a YouTube post by Austin Stone church, a prominent church in Austin, TX. In it, a man can be seen walking through the brush with his shotgun when his buddies alert him to a quail coming his way. Instead of raising his gun (a good decision considering the bird was between him and the camera man), the hunter instead stretches out his hand and snatches the bird right out of the air to the disbelief of many:

Since being posted on Monday, the video has over 500,000 views.

Read more from this story HERE.