Thursday, August 28. 2008
Gwynnie had fun fishing yesterday in the California mountains. Note the US Government quarter. 
For the small trout in tiny moutain rills, small gear is indicated. This real graphite rod is a 30" “Micro” by J. Austin Forbes Ltd. 
Tuesday, August 12. 2008
 Writing can confront you with odd things, like realizing that you aren't 100% certain how to spell "twelfth" when you start typing it. Lots of consonants for one small word. You can cheat and type 12th.
The Glorious Twelfth is the August opening of grouse season in the UK, mainly in Scotland. That would be the Scottish Grouse - Red and Black - legendary game birds. Driven fast-flying grouse - doubt I could hit a single one. Some day, I will try. They can reach 60 mph. Unlike the US, in the UK you can find game on restaurant menus - and on the same day, if lucky. In the US, we found it necessary to make that illegal - market hunters were driving wild critters to extinction. Public lands, no gamekeepers. Our grouse babies aren't even full-grown yet, and our grouse season doesn't begin until October. Brits and Scots would hate our North American grouse hunting. It entails walking endlessly, without cocktails, through alder tangles that can feel like jail cells, and with only a few shots per day. And no loaders, no drivers. Image: Scottish Red Grouse, in the heather on the moors.
Thursday, July 24. 2008
 Bruce at No Looking Backwards says "I think I need a little help defragmenting my hard drive."
Tuesday, July 22. 2008
Our post on Richard Gatling and his Gun prompted a reader to inform us about two other hand-driven machine guns of the 19th Century: The Nordenfelt Gun and the Gardner Gun. Here's a clip of the Nordenfelt gun in operation:
Friday, July 18. 2008
 Richard Gatling believed that his rapid-fire gun would be a boon to mankind.
A quote from a review of the book on the right by Jonathan Yardley in the WaPo: 'It occurred to me,' he wrote to a friend in 1877, 'that if I could invent a machine -- a gun -- which could by rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a great extent, supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease be greatly diminished.' As disingenuous and self-serving as that sentiment sounds, it ended up being quite correct: Innovations in arms steadily reduced the relative lethality of battles (not to mention the cost of waging war) throughout the twentieth century."
Monday, July 14. 2008
From Theo, that's a bunch of service dogs in Hawaii. How did that fat Golden sneak into the photo? And, via Callimachus, Poodles in WW 2. A bit too friendly to be good guards.
Thursday, July 10. 2008
20 years ago you would be hard put to find any Striped Bass up here. The return of the Stripers is a fish conservation success story, which involved cleaning up the Atlantic estuaries in which they breed (especially the Chesapeake area, and the Hudson River) and banning commercial fishing for them. One positive result: Farming bass. Some of our pals went fishin' a week ago with Captain Bruce out of New London, CT: 
Wednesday, July 2. 2008
 The Supreme Count in its landmark case District of Columbia, et al. v. Dick Anthony Heller is a limited victory for opponents of gun control laws, affirming a right to keep a handgun in the home for defensive purposes.
There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms. Of course the right was not unlimited, just as the First Amendment’s right of free speech was not. Thus, we do not read the Second Amendment to protect the right of citizens to carry arms for any sort of confrontation, just as we do not read the First Amendment to protect the right of citizens to speak for any purpose.
Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment . . . was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. For example, the majority of the 19th-century courts . . . held that prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons were lawful under the Second Amendment or state analogues.
It is therefore probable that state “shall issue” laws and other concealed weapon “carry” laws are discretionary, and not supported by the Second Amendment.
Next, “assault weapon” laws which ban ownership of semi-automatic rifles because they are ugly or scary-looking are clearly supported by Heller.
We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms. Miller said, as we have explained, that the sorts of weapons protected were those “in common use at the time.” We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of “dangerous and unusual weapons.”
. . . weapons that are most useful in military service—M-16 rifles and the like—may be banned . . ..
Looking at Part III of the Heller decision, we can see the future of gun control efforts: The clause allowing “laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms” could well be taken as permitting registration of purchased firearms, limitations on quantities owned and possibly buyer qualification (such as requiring drivers licenses for cars). Of course, gun advocates have long feared registration as a pre-cursor to confiscation (as happened in Australia), but that fear is substantially reduced by Heller. We have registered our SUV, but do not fear the state confiscating it. Furthermore, in view of the individual right to bear arms affirmed by Heller, an argument may be made that having an inventory of individually-owned firearms in the hands of the State may inhibit the right of possession, much as requiring publications critical of whatever administration is currently in power to be sent to and registered with a central bureau. Heller therefore is a narrow decision permitting handguns to be kept at home for defensive purposes, and should not be read as securing a broad right to hunt or even to carry arms for any non-defensive purpose. Photo: A Browning M2 machine gun, still not available for home defense.
Sunday, June 29. 2008
These people were always finding water all over their pool deck and furniture every time they came home after being away for a few hours. They thought the neighborhood kids were waiting for them to leave, and using the pool. However, they could never catch them doing it. So, they set up their video cam and left. This is what they found out:
Friday, June 27. 2008
I know nothing about Italian gun laws, but it seems timely to post this photo I took of a poster for Delta Firearms Academy last week on a street in Domodossola, while wandering around waiting for the train to Locarno. Our friends in DC should maybe give Inizio a call. 
Thursday, June 26. 2008
 From the Supremes today:
“The inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right...” Without self-defense, a person becomes a sheep in a world with wolves. Bravo to the five Justices who honor our Constitution over their personal preferences, and bravo to Justice Scalia for putting it all in historical context. The justices' personal opinions should have no role in their job: it's not what they are paid to do. After all, everybody has an opinion on everything. Opinions on stuff are a dime a dozen. Anyway, it's a big step in the right direction. More later... Updates: Lots of links at Drudge and Memorandum. And here is the Supreme's announcement. Also, "Yahoo" at Yahoo.
Tuesday, June 17. 2008
 My favorite handgun is my Les Baer 1911 Thunder Ranch Special.
Nobody builts a .45 like Baer, perfectly weighted and balanced so you can actually hit the target, and not get pushed backwards. A bit too heavy and bulky for carrying in your back pocket, however.
Monday, June 16. 2008
 Jim at Wild Goose Lodge on PEI is a good friend of Ducks Unlimited and is generous in his donations of trips to our fund-raising events.
To accommodate the increased costs of travel, he is reducing your 4-night package cost by $350 this year, while predicting another excellent year of waterfowl hunting.
Sunday, June 15. 2008
This is a re-post: Our guest author offers this summary as a companion piece to our summary of the Eastern Trout. Glaciers and mountain-building have created many distinct species of trout throughout the Pacific drainage. To find them, fish a mountain river, take a boat out on the Pacific, or hike to a desert lake.
 Rainbow (above) – Silver with black spots and a reddish band along the side. Their native range is the West Coast mountains, though they have been introduced elsewhere in North America and beyond. Redbands are a variant found in the Great Basin, where they have adapted to high summer temperatures. Steelheads are anadromous rainbows that spend parts of their lives in the North Pacific from Kamchatka down to Malibu Creek near Los Angeles. In the Northwest, rainbows and steelhead are the premier game trout of the rivers and coast. (While Rainbows are to be found in the East, these are all transplants or hatchery fish. The native stream trout in the East is the Brook Trout - which is a char.)  Cutthroat – Meriwether Lewis stopped at a Philadelphia tackle shop before setting out and his purchases served his expedition well, like on the Great Falls of the Missouri in June 1805. Private Silas Goodrich fished the river as Lewis described events. Goodrich caught a trout “with specks of a deep black…and a small dash of red on each side behind the front ventral fins… the flesh, when in good order, of a rose red.” There are at least 14 types, often unique to particular river systems. Cutthroats are the classic trout of the inland American West, and they sometimes interbreed with Rainbows.
 Dolly Varden - These are char (as is the eastern Brook Trout), like trout but with different teeth and coloration. Dollys are olive or gray-green with yellow to pink spots and light gray bellies. A character from a Dickens novel, Dolly Varden became the name of a patterned dress and in the 1870’s the name was given to the char found in California’s McCloud River. Dolly Varden are similar to Bull Trout, another char, and at one time they were thought to be the same species. They spend time in the ocean as do Cutthroats.
There are a few other species found in isolated areas that exist today only due to the hard work of folks like Trout Unlimited. Here are two examples:
Apache Trout - Jump in your car and drive to the Ft. Apache Indian Reservation about three hours northeast of Phoenix. There in the White River is the gold, red, and black Apache. It has been a long struggle due to loss of habitat and interbreeding with rainbows. But now things look good enough to move it from the endangered list to merely “threatened” so you may legally try your luck at catch and release.
Gila Trout – Another modestly reviving species in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, it too had been pushed to the brink by development and competition with non-native trout introduced decades ago. Gilas have black spots on gold and copper bodies and grow to over a foot. Long term restoration has brought them back enough to permit limited fishing in a few beautiful mountain streams. Bring your hiking boots.
Sunday, June 1. 2008
Here's one guy who won't be showing up for church this morning. Good grief. I don't think much of Obama's church, but what does it say about a guy that he would throw his church overboard for political power? Isn't that a Faustian deal?
Saturday, May 24. 2008
It's the beginning of summer, so it's time to begin thinking about fall hunting trips. Here is a re-posted sample of a few decent places to stay for your New England grouse hunting, ranging from the simple to the quite comfortable (some have fishing too):  Bosebuck Mountain Camps
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