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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Tuesday, January 26, 2021:
Texas nilgai hunting expands with increased management of exotic species
Tennessee authorities searching for man accused in killing of two duck hunters
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is searching for a 70-year-old man in connection to the shooting in Obion County that left two dead Monday morning.
Shortly before 9:30 p.m. Monday, the TBI announced that 70-year-old David Vowell is a person of interest in the case. He is considered armed and dangerous. The bureau has confirmed the two people killed in the shooting at Reelfoot Lake are 26-year-old Chance Black and 25-year-old Zachery Grooms, both of Weakley County.
Earlier Monday afternoon, TBI spokeswoman Keli McAlister confirmed special agents are investigating the deaths of the two men killed at Reelboot Lake.
David and Patsy Gray live in the Walnut Log neighborhood, where authorities are investigating. The couple said this is extremely rare incident for the area, and has made the community very tense.
“This is a very quiet area. A lot of hunters come in here and they enjoy the duck hunting and all, but to be upset over somebody shooting more ducks or whatever the case may have been, I don’t know,” David said. “But it’s bad to hear that someone, especially young boys, being treated that way. It’s a shame that something like this would happen.”
The king of the turkey slam
Have you ever dreamed of taking a turkey grand slam? Then give a listen to Jeff Budz. He’s comleted 106 of them.
The rental car bounced awkwardly through deep South Dakota ruts, and Jeff Budz paused, mouth agape, while considering his response.
I’d just casually mentioned that I’d taken a March vacation to Hawaii with my wife a few years earlier but didn’t have time to hunt turkeys during the trip. And to Budz, that didn’t compute.
“Wait a minute,” he said, his voice rising and eyes narrowing to a Clint Eastwood-esque squint. “You went to Hawaii in March and didn’t hunt?”
I nodded sheepishly and stared ahead, embarrassed that I’d fallen short of the standards demanded by turkey hunting’s undisputed Slam King. The reaction might have seemed overblown, but it epitomizes the grit and drive of the relentless 54-year-old Budz who continues to set records and pursue turkeys nationwide at a breakneck pace.
Across the Pecos for mule deer
Standing on the side of a mountain on the Eason Ranch, way out in Pecos County, I found myself somehow caught up in a time warp as I glanced across the vastness of distant mountains, just as the morning sun began to light them up.
The day before, after the morning hunt for mule deer, John Eason gave my friends Jeff Rice, Larry Weishuhn and I a tour of some of the ancient campsites that were scattered throughout the ranch. The feeling is difficult for me to describe, but I felt almost as though the ‘ancients’ — as Mr. Eason refers to inhabitants of his ranch many years ago — were calling out to me through the years. I’m sure my buddies were probably experiencing the same feelings.
This trip was a long time in the planning. Weishuhn and Eason had first met years ago when Weishuhn was doing a mule deer seminar at Ft. Stockton. Eason and I met this past year during interviews for my weekly radio programs. I could tell we had a great deal in common, and luckily we were able to find a hole in Weishuhn’s busy schedule so that we could all spend a few days together hunting mule deer with Eason.
My running buddy Rice joined us for the hunt. He loves to hunt, but I truly believe he loves capturing the essence of the outdoors with his video camera almost as much as the hunting and fishing experience.
The Eason Ranch encompasses thousands of acres and is home to a very healthy population of desert mule and whitetail deer. Wild turkey and javelina also thrive in this beautiful high desert country. Through the years, I have taken a few desert mule deer from this region and hunted the Rocky Mountain mule deer in higher elevations of Colorado and New Mexico.
The top new hunting guns of SHOT Show 2021
With SHOT Show in virtual swing, we scoured brands to seek out the coolest new hunting guns for 2021, whether you’re a waterfowl enthusiast or a deer hunter.
‘Tis the season for new gear, and the newest hunting guns of the year are here! Thanks to SHOT Show, we’ve been able to track down some of the most interesting firearms coming to the world of hunting today.
Typically, we get a chance to shoot shotguns and rifles in person at SHOT Show. But due to COVID, we haven’t yet had a chance to shoot these firearms. So the following is an overview rather than a review, highlighting notable updates and all-new options for putting meat on the table or shooting clays with your pals.
From rifles to shotguns, there’s a lot to look forward to. And if you’re in the market for a new hunting option, there’s likely something for you.
Grizzly, 34, confirmed as Yellowstone region’s oldest known
Zach Turnbull could barely make out the emaciated grizzly bear’s inside-lip tattoo, and when he did decipher the digits — 168 — they just didn’t seem right.
The Pinedale-based large carnivore biologist dialed up his boss, Dan Thompson, to make sense of a tranquilized animal that seemed to somehow span careers and trace all the way back to the Reagan administration.
“He was like, ‘Hey, ah, how old do bears live?’” Thompson remembers of the exchange. “We started talking about it, and he’s like, ‘I am sure that this bear I have, based on everything I can find, is 34 years old.’ ”
A check of a federal grizzly bear dataset confirmed the news. Remarkably, Grizzly 168 is, so far, the oldest grizzly ever documented in the tri-state Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The bear, in fact, lived as long as any grizzly on record in North America, though closely related coastal brown bears have bested that longevity in the wild — as has a Minnesota black bear.
Large carnivore supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Thompson said his team was able to pinpoint Grizzly 168’s age, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports.
“He was born in 1986,” Thompson said. “That’s pretty wild to think about. I think I was in junior high. I know it was the year before (Guns N’ Roses’) Appetite for Destruction came out.”
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