What will ten bucks buy you these days? Not much. Buy a movie ticket and you won’t have enough left over for the popcorn. Well here are three bargain items — all priced around ten bucks or less — that should prove useful both at the range and for other purposes as well.
Stanley 16″ Plastic Tool Box from Lowe’s
Item #174828, Model 016011R, on Sale for $7.98
This is a versatile, compact Tool Box from Lowe’s. It has two convenient flip-top lids to carry small items such as patches, jags, and brushes. Inside you can stow your muffs, cleaning supplies, cleaning rod guides, log books or other range essentials. The box has an external hasp that can be locked with an small padlock.
Plano Soft Tackle Bag from Cabela’s
Item #OG-123603, Reg. $29.99, on Sale for $9.88
Wait a minute, you’re saying — this is a shooting website, not a fishing forum. Well, the four (4) plastic boxes in this Tackle bag are ideal for holding bullets, small reloading tools, patches, jags, bushings and other small items. You can use the bag to store these items conveniently, or bring the bag with a single box to the range and use the rest of the compartment for windmeters, ear muffs, notebooks and other miscellaneous shooting gear.
Diamond Cut Jeans at Sierra Trading Post
Items #23080, 17745, 1933U, on sale for $10.46
At a time when a pair of Levis are running $45 at some stores, can you still get a decent pair of jeans for ten bucks? Well, the answer is yes. In its “Bargain Barn”, Sierra Trading Post is now selling Diamond Cut Jeans in a variety of style and colors (even camo), for just $10.46 per item. The “Relaxed Cut” jeans, item #17745, are offered in stonewashed khaki, dark grey, light blue and dark blue, sizes 30-50. We like the Carpenters Jeans, item #23080, offered in stonewashed blue with plenty of pockets for storage. Sierra Trading Post also offers Diamond Cut Jeans in three different camouflage patterns (all listed as item #1933U): Mossy Oak Break-up, Natural Gear Camo, and Realtree All-Purpose Camo. For hunters needing comfortable, inexpensive camo trousers, these are a good solution. Head to SierraTradingPost.com and check out Diamond Cut trouser line-up. These $10.46 pants have been hot sellers, and the buyer reviews have been postive.
Thompson/Center (TC) has started shipping its new, ICON™ Precision Hunter varmint/deer rifle. From what we’ve heard, these guns should be shooters. Five chamberings are offered: 204 Ruger, 223 Rem, 22-250, 243 Win, and 308 Win. TC’s Precision Hunter features a 22″ heavy-contour, fluted 5R button-rifled barrel. The action mates securely to the stock via a machined aluminum bedding block (see photo below). All models feature a 3+1 detachable magazine with single-shot adapter. Tom Manners of Manners Composite Stocks has tested some wood-stocked ICONs with 5R barrels, and he says they “shot really well”. The ICON™ Precision Hunter comes with a 1 MOA accuracy guarantee, and we’d expect it to shoot quite a bit better than that with quality handloads.
The ICON Precision Hunter features a laminated hardwood stock with a beavertail fore-end incorporating vents on the underside. TC claims these vents allow better barrel cooling. Hmm… well those vents can’t hurt. The action, which has a 60° bolt lift, is very smooth to operate. The action comes standard with integral Picatinny-style bases for scope mounting. The trigger adjusts from 3.5 lbs to 5 lbs. On the prototype units we tried, the triggers broke clean and crisp, with very minimal creep. It’s a nice hunting trigger and we expect that with a spring swap you could lower the pull weight a bit.
TC is now owned by Smith & Wesson. It appears both S&W and TC are committed to building a quality varmint rifle with serious accuracy. “Thompson/Center has continued to push the definition of accuracy in a production rifle with the new ICON Precision Hunter, which is certified to deliver sub-Minute of Angle (MOA) accuracy right out of the box,” said Tom Kelly, Vice President of Marketing for Smith & Wesson. “We have listened to the bench shooters and varmint hunters, heard their ideas on what a perfect gun for their style of hunting would be and have designed the ICON Precision Hunter to exceed their expectations.”
What’s the price? MSRP for the ICON Precision Hunter is $1,149.00, so we figure street price will settle around $950.00. For more information, visit www.tcarms.com.
If you’re a fan of hunting in scenic, far-away places, you’ll enjoy Petersen’s Hunting Adventure Television. While the plots are predictable (Gun Mag writer hunts with local outfitter), the scenery is often stunning, worthy of Nat Geo. The producers have put highlights of some of their best shows online. Click the various tabs on the right side of the video player, and you’ll find clips of Black Bear hunting in British Columbia, wild boar hunting in Texas, Ibex hunting in Spain, and a Cape Buffalo safari in Zimbabwe. Our favorite clip features a hunt for Dall Sheep in Alaska’s glacier country near the southwest border of Canada’s Yukon Territory. Legendary hunting writer Jack O’Connor hunted this area, near the headwaters of the White River. During the stalk, the hunters do some serious high-altitude trekking through spectacular mountains. This 4-minute featurette is worth watching for the photography alone.
Short, two- or three-minute previews of 2009 broadcasts are also offered online. Featured videos include: Rocky Mountain Elk, Carpathian Chamois (Mtn. goat), Wyoming Pronghorn, Desert Big Horn, Kalahari Kudu and Gemsbok, Spanish Red Stag, Desert Mule Deer, British Columbia Moose.
You’d never know it, given the way the mainstream media portrays the shooting sports, but hunting/shooting is more important, from an economic standpoint, than golf, tennis, bike-riding, or just about any recreational sport you can name. Americans spent $4.6 Billion on hunting and shooting sports equipment in 2008, a 16% rise from 2007. Yep that’s “B” for Billion.
According to a new National Sporting Goods Association report, hunting- and firearms-related equipment was the only sporting-goods equipment category to see double-digit sales growth in 2008. Sales rose 16 percent, while overall sporting-goods equipment sales declined 1 percent compared to the previous year. Hunting- and firearms-related equipment ranked second only to exercise equipment in 2008, NSGA reports. Included in the “hunting and firearms” equipment category are rifles, handguns, shotguns, ammunition, airguns, reloading equipment, paintball and cutlery. NSGA reported sales in the hunting and firearms category were $4.6 billion in 2008, up from $3.9 billion the previous year.
In related news, Sturm Ruger & Co. announced a huge spike in its gun sales for 2009. This is probably due to the popularity of Ruger’s new compact handguns, combined with orders for its new AR15 style rifle, the Ruger SR-556 with gas-piston upper. Ruger reported Wednesday that firearms sales grew 94 percent in the second quarter of 2009, compared to the same period last year, and that sales were up 14 percent when compared to the first quarter of this year. Firearms unit production grew 63 percent from the second quarter of 2008.
Call it “panic buying” or the “Obama Effect”, but it’s ironic that the election of President Obama has ignited the greatest surge in guns and ammo sales in recent memory. One firearms marketing rep has suggested, half-seriously, that Pres. Obama should be named “Gun Salesman of the Century”.
We generally don’t put too much stock in awards handed out by print magazines, nor the NRA’s Golden Bullseye awards (which often seem to be the “Golden Ad Revenue Payback Awards”), but we were pleased to see the Sako 85 rifle receive some recognition. The Sako 85 Finnlight stainless model received an “Excellent” rating from Outdoor Life magazine in its annual review of hunting rifles. The Finnlight ST was the only rifle tested to receive an overall rating of 4 Stars, or the classification of “Excellent”. READ Sako 85 Finnlight REVIEW.
Each year Outdoor Life performs tests and offers awards in various product categories. This year 13 new rifle models were tested and more than 3,500 rounds of ammunition were fired. “Our rigorous … testing protocol offers the toughest, most honest comparison of new hunting rifles on the market,” according to John B. Snow, Executive Editor. The Finnlight ST received “A” grades in both Workmanship and Performance. Outdoor Life’s tester wrote: “The proven Sako 85 action is as slick and reliable as they come, and the accuracy of our test sample (in .308 Win.) was impressive, especially in light of the rifle’s unscoped weight of 5 pounds 6 ounces. One of my 5-shot groups using Hornady 168gr A-Max ammo measured a scant .581″. The Finnlight is a rifle you can trust your hunt to, which is about the highest praise of all.”
The complete 2009 Hunting Rifle Test can be read online on the Outdoor Life Website. Guns tested are listed alphabetically below, and you can click the links to read individual reviews:
In the shooting sports, safety always has to be your number one priority. Even if you have a safe load, if the barrel is obstructed in any way, such as with mud in the barrel, a squib bullet, or a bore-sighting tool left in the barrel, the barrel can blow up, pealing back like a banana skin. Serious injury or even death can result. Below is an amazing video showing a catastrophic barrel failure caused, presumably, by a barrel obstruction — probably mud or dirt. You can see the barrel blow apart, starting at time mark 0:25 seconds.
The rifle is a Browning stainless A-Bolt, caliber unknown. We don’t know for sure, but the barrel probably became obstructed when the shooter allowed the gun to rest muzzle down on the ground, so some mud collected in the bore. Below, we’ve grabbed five frames from the key section of the video. You can see the barrel split into two segments. This shooter, who was NOT wearing eye protection, was uninjured. He is is lucky that the action held and no metal shards blew backwards.
Two DVDs Now Offered
The latest video from Velocity Films is “Dog Be Gone and Beyond (Volume 2)”. It features footage from multiple locations, while hunting Ground Squirrels, Rock Chucks, and Prairie Dogs. The video includes field tests of the .17 HMR & .204 Ruger, handgun hunting, plus reviews of the latest varmint hunting gear. This video is offered on DVD only for $17.95. The original “Dog Be Gone (Volume 1)” video is offered on VHS tape for $7.95 or DVD for $14.95.
All turkey, all the time — that’s the concept behind turkey.realtree.com the new turkey hunting website created by Realtree. This content-rich site contains tons of info for turkey hunters, including gear reviews, hunting reports, video clips, and even a turkey trivia game. The gear archives cover everything a turkey hunter needs: firearms, clothing, footwear, decoys, turkey calls, and shooting accessories.
HD Video Webcasts of Real Turkey Hunts
The new website boasts impressive HD (high-definition) video content on “Turkey Television”. You’ll find multiple high-quality archived hunting videos. Each Friday the “Daybreak” webcast will feature a “semi-live” turkey hunt followed by a segment on the latest turkey hunting guns and gear. You can also download video “podcasts” to your home computer or media player. Topics include: Selecting the Right Turkey Gun, Choosing Turkey Optics, Sighting-In a Shotgun, and Mounting A Scope (or Fiber Optic Sights).
In an official press release dated March 10, 2009, the National Park Service (NPS) announced its intention to ban all lead bullets, lead-containing ammunition, and lead fishing tackle in the lands under NPS control. National Park Service director Dan Wenk stated: “Our goal is to eliminate the use of lead ammunition and lead fishing tackle in parks by the end of 2010. We want to take a leadership role in removing lead from the environment.”
Well, it looks like the NPS was not prepared for a firestorm of criticism. This week it back-peddled, issuing another press release stating that there would be no actual lead ban affecting the general public.
National Park Service Clarifies Lead Ammo Policy
Faced with pressure from groups representing hunters and anglers, and criticism from some politicians, the Park Service has disavowed its stated policy to ban lead ammo and lead fishing tackle by 2010. Now the Park Service is saying that it was “misunderstood”. Last week the Park Service issued a “clarification”, stating that the proposed lead restrictions would only apply to Park Service employees and projects. Duly chastened, the NPS pledged to seek input from hunters, anglers, and other interested parties. No future ban on lead ammo or tackle will be imposed without “public involvement, comment, and review”. Here are the key points in the latest NPS release:
“1. Nothing has changed for the public. We are simply announcing the NPS goal of eliminating lead from NPS activities to protect human and wildlife health.
2. We will work to clean our own house by altering NPS resource management activities. In 2009, we will transition to non-lead ammunition in culling operations and dispatching sick or wounded animals.
3. In the future, we will look at the potential for transitioning to non-lead ammunition and non-lead fishing tackle for recreational use by working with our policy office and appropriate stakeholders/groups. This will require public involvement, comment, and review.”
Do you have a hunting, fishing, or outdoors-related photo that deserves to be in print? If so, you can enter Outdoors Magazine’s inaugural Memorable Moments Photo Contest. Photo entries should “celebrate ‘memorable moments’ in the outdoors”. Appropriate subjects include: traditional big game trophy shots, classic fishing pictures, youth in the outdoors, dogs working, wildlife photography, ATVing, snowmobiling, camp life, boating, and much more.
Monthly winners will receive an assortment of prizes. The grand prize winner will be selected next January and will receive either a guided Maine hare hunting trip, a one-day fishing excursion on the Kennebec River, or an evening moose safari compliments of Pine Grove Lodge in Bingham, Maine.
Photo submissions will be posted on the Outdoors Magazine website, and may be used in future issues of Outdoors Magazine. Email entries to Kyle [at] elkpublishing.com. Please include your name, address, phone number and information about the photo in the body of the email. You can also mail entries to: Outdoors Magazine Photo Contest, 531 Main Street, Colchester, VT 05446. Include a self-addressed envelope if you would like them returned.
If you’re a fan of hunting in scenic, far-away places, you’ll enjoy 
According to a new National Sporting Goods Association report, hunting- and firearms-related equipment was the only sporting-goods equipment category to see double-digit sales growth in 2008. Sales rose 16 percent, while overall sporting-goods equipment sales declined 1 percent compared to the previous year. Hunting- and firearms-related equipment ranked second only to exercise equipment in 2008, NSGA reports. Included in the “hunting and firearms” equipment category are rifles, handguns, shotguns, ammunition, airguns, reloading equipment, paintball and cutlery. NSGA reported sales in the hunting and firearms category were $4.6 billion in 2008, up from $3.9 billion the previous year.
Two DVDs Now Offered
In an 
