I love the weekend CBS show Sunday Morning hosted by Charles Osgood. I was introduced to it by my Grandfather, and now my boyfriend and I watch it every week we can. It's got the Wynton Marsalis-recorded trumpet theme, those great sun illustrations between segments, Mr. Osgood's trademark bow tie -- I'm a sucker for all of it.
     That said, I'm generally not a fan of commentary segments, and Sunday Morning is plagued by one particular contributor who reminds me that I really should be spending the next five minutes scraping dried tomato sauce out of the microwave, unclogging the bathroom sink or scooping the litter box with my bare hands -- ANYTHING to avoid sitting through the words and alleged wisdoms of CBS' Nancy Giles.
     Conveniently enough, Ms. Giles just did a segment on the Supreme Court gun rights ruling. I think I speak for all of us (you'll see what I mean when you hear her comments) when I say: Game on, Ms. Giles, game on.
     You can read her commentary here. Just don't have any potential bludgeoning devices around when you do -- it's not your computer's fault that such ignorance exists at the national network level. In the interest of warning you what you're getting yourself into, here's a particularly charming passage:

     "I wonder why some still hunt when you can get meat already wrapped at the supermarket."

     Yes, good question. What ever could we be doing out there?
     Of course, as the network disclaimer points out, Ms. Giles' opinions are her own and do not reflect the views of CBS. Good thing, or I'd  have to rethink my loyalties to Letterman.
     In Ms. Giles' defense (note, it's taking a great deal of maturity for me to be this morally generous), she does note that she'd like to better understand people who hunt. Anyone care to explain anything to her? -K.H.

     Here we are on the day of a historic Supreme Court ruling. In a 5 - to - 4 decision, a deeply divided court said the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own a gun (not just the rights of states to keep militias).
     As reported in this New York Times article, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said the amendment does not allow, "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home," thus ruling that the D.C. handgun ban was unconstitutional.
     But, far from a blanket ruling in favor of unlimited rights to individual gun ownership, the decision also states, "It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose."
     Today's ruling was the first since 1939 to deal with the Second Amendment, and the first in the nation's history to fully address the meaning of the amendment's original text.
     In case you don't have time to read the 64-page Opinion of the Court (not to mention the dissenting opinions that follow it), I've highlighted a couple of the places (there aren't very many) where hunting comes up in the dense text. First, an excerpt from the Opinion of the Court:
     "It is therefore entirely sensible that the Second Amendment's prefatory clause announces the purpose for which the right was codified: to prevent elimination of the militia. The prefatory clause does not suggest that preserving the militia was the only reason Americans valued the ancient right; most undoubtedly thought it even more important for self-defense and hunting."
     And several pages later, the dissenting opinion of Justice John Paul Stevens:
     "The parallels between the Second Amendment and these state declarations, and the Second Amendment's omission of any statement of purpose related to the right to use firearms for hunting or personal self-defense, is especially striking in light of the fact that the Declarations of Rights of Pennsylvania and Vermont did expressly protect such civilian uses at the time."
     Of course, the fallout from the decision is already rolling as challenges to other city firearms restrictions get underway and District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty plans legislative counter-measures.
     What was your reaction to the ruling (leading question, I know) and were you at all surprised by it? - K.H.

     Aside from seeing a full-body polar bear mount at a New York shooting club (it needed dusting, unfortunately), it's never occurred to me to think about what a polar bear hunt was like. But officials from northern Canada hope the Endangered Species Act won't keep U.S. hunters from seeking out the experience.
     On June 23, politicians from the Northwest Territory were in Washington D.C. to ask Interior Department officials to allow U.S. sportsmen to continue hunting polar bears in Canada, regardless of the animals' protected status under the ESA. According to this Seattle Post-Intelligencer story, the Northwest Territory's minister for energy, industry and tourism said that preventing hunters from pursuing polar bears and transporting hides back to the U.S. would "wipe out" most of the sporting industry income for villagers along the Arctic coast. About 86 guides and other workers earn their income through the hunting industry, which the minister said affects 3,500 residents. He added that hunters, mostly from the U.S., spend approximately $1.6 million each year on polar bear hunts.
     So, the polar bears are protected by the Endangered Species Act, but the villagers' livelihoods are protected by the polar bear hunts. The situation could hardly get dicier -- until you add in minor details like global warming and Arctic drilling. I don't mind saying that the minister of energy, industry and tourism's job is yet another one I wouldn't want to have. -K.H.

     So what do you make of this incident in Vermont, where a grade school student was silenced by his teacher for talking about hunting in class? According to this Rutland Herald story the student, Jared Harrington, was discussing turkey hunting with a classmate during a free snack time, when his teacher reportedly covered her ears to block out the conversation, then told Harrington there was to be no talk of "killing" in her room.
     Harrington's father said that when he later confronted the teacher about the incident, the conversation ended with her asking him to leave the classroom (the paper noted there was some "screeching" involved in her request).
    According to Harrington's parents, the teacher then seemed to single out their son with unfair treatment such as assigning excessive homework. Citing freedom of speech issues, the parents took the incident up with the school board and ultimately decided to home school their son for the remainder of the year.
     Even if you're willing to give the teacher the benefit of the doubt, it's hard to come up with much to say in her defense. I'm not sure what I would have done as a parent in response to such a situation, but I will say I don't envy that school board's prickly job of finding a solution for it. -K.H.

     Skeet shooting champion Haley Dunn is a 23-year-old living in north Texas, whose competition career is going strong. She just returned home from the most recent world cup in Kerrville, Texas, where she won the gold. A few weeks earlier she'd earned the bronze at a world cup in Beijing, China.
     In addition to her competition and training schedule, Dunn hunts for Bass Pro Shops' Next Generation Team TV show, and helps to guide for pheasant, quail, and chukar with her family's business in Eddyville, Iowa. During a brief break in the action, she took some time to answer questions for our women hunters blog.

FSHuntress: When your training schedule is at its busiest, how many hours do you spend shooting in a week, and how many rounds do you go through?
Haley Dunn: An average week of hard training consists of 20 to 25  hours at the range shooting and going through 1,000 to 1,500 rounds. This doesn't include extra mental training time or physical training.

FS: What's your competition gun?
HD: It's a Beretta DT10 12 gauge over/under.

FS: Considering your training schedule, were you able to fit in any hunting last season?
HD: I did get to do quite a bit of hunting, but definitely not as much as I wanted. Not only was I finishing my last year of college at the University of Missouri - Columbia, but I was also training really hard to make the Olympic team. Needlesss to say, planning extra hunting trips wasn't my highest priority.

FS: How does competition shooting help you as a hunter?
HD: It definitely helps with bird hunting. Being able to point a shotgun well and with confidence gives me a lot of success in the field.

FS: You're a person who knows a lot about shooting under pressure. How do you keep nerves from harming your performance?
HD: Well, what I've learned about performing under pressure is that you should only focus on the things you can control and stick to your routine. You should also be performance oriented rather than outcome oriented. For example, when a monster buck comes by your tree you don't think about how impressed all the guys are going to be when they see it; you are focused on the shot you have to make to bring that bad boy home.

FS: When is your next competition?
HD: It will be in July at Colorado Springs for the National Championships. I then return to Kerrville for the fall selection match to pick next year's world championship team. My last match of the year will be in Minsk, Belarus for world cup finals where only the top 10 people in the world are invited.

FS: What are your hunting plans this fall?
HD: All I plan on doing this fall is hunting! I have a trip to Minnesota for bear, Alaska fishing, and a possible elk hunt in Colorado. Not to mention hunting big whitetail in Iowa.

FS: What are some of the experiences you've had with other women in the field?
HD: Well, I've had the chance to volunteer at several women's hunting and shooting events and have been fortunate enough to witness several firsts for beginning hunters and shooters. Seeing women get really excited about hunting reminds me of how much I love what I do.

To find out more about Haley Dunn, visit her website here. 

Our own Laura Bell from Garretsville, Ohio just sent this success story from her spring turkey season. I'll just get out of the way and let her tell it -- she has a lot to say. Congratulations, Laura! -K.H.

     I was lucky enough to fill both my tags this year as well as call in a few birds for my dad. Here's the rundown:
     We did our scouting well ahead of time and had a group of birds picked out for opening day. The birds were hot the day before the opener and gobbling at any sound around. But the first day fizzled. The birds barely answered a call and finally shut up all together.
     We tried again the second day and got a much better response. We set up right under a gobbler and had him riled with a combo of my H.S. Strut Diaphragm call and my dad scratching up some leaves. He pitched off roost and minutes later walked into an opening and I took the shot. He weighed 19 pounds, had a 9 1/4" beard, and 1" spurs.
     The next day my dad downed his first of he season. Again the mouth call from the previous day brought his Tom down.
     Then for the third day in a row we scored. We tried a new woods and before we walked too far I hit an aluminum call. Nothing. Walked a little and tried again. Still nothing. Went just a little deeper again and I got one cluck out of the call when a gobble rang out within 100 yards of us. We dropped next to a tree and got ready. I popped in my lucky mouth call and let'm have it. Within a minute they appeared, a trio of bright blood red heads. They were excited, but they wouldn't come into range. They skirted it while gobbling their heads off, then slowly filtered deep into another part of the woods. They were hot and willing so we thought a new position might help us. We moved and soon the gobbles had turned back to us and edged closer. Soon they popped over a hill on my dad's side. They didn't like something and were on their way out when I told my dad to take the shot. A 10" inch bearded bird with 1 1/4" inch spurs was the reward.
     For my last tag we played with multiple birds but they wouldn't play into our set up. Finally on the last day it came together. It was pouring rain -- not the weather you want. We thought we had the birds' roost patterned, but after we set up and it was light out, my gobbler spoke up in another woods across the field we were watching. We thought about moving but knew we'd be busted. Again I had my mouth call, and combined with a gobble call that my dad was using we made our best attempt to make the Tom jealous. We sat in silence for some time, and finally I saw his white head coming our way across the field and he had a Jake along. He seemed to listen to the calls but something was keeping him out at the 50 - 60 yard range.
     Then several hens came out of the woods to join the Tom in the field and feed. They came in to about 15 yards and took notice of us. This is where the rain helped us out. It started really beating and the turkeys hunkered down into tight little balls of feathers and were still as stones, just letting the rain come. It was very neat, to say the least.
     At this point I was shaking awfully bad from the cold and wet, but also the excitement. The rain gave in just slightly and my dad told me to call, as he didn't know how much longer he could sit. I hit it and it was enough to get the hens moving, but my gobbler still stayed out of the way. The hens started to feed off to my left and the Tom and Jake acted as if they would leave.
     I knew they were far but if this was the only shot, I was going to take it. I leveled my gun on him. I gave an aggressive call and they answered so I hit them right back even harder. The Jake took the bait and started to take a step closer, then a couple more. The Tom knew what he was up to and ran and cut the Jake off. The Tom now spots the decoys and starts running in with the Jake hot on his heels -- or spurs, rather.
     They closed fast and I got my shot at the 20-yard line. The Tom dropped instantly. It was an awesome end to the season! This bird weighed 21 pounds soaking wet! He had a 10 1/2" beard and 1" spurs.

     I figured I'd do a news post today, and while I could have talked about closer-to-home issues like potential revisions to state venison donation programs, the absence of CWD in Pennsylvania deer tested after last season, or the efforts of Montana environmentalists to reinstate federal protection for wolves in the northern rockies, I got sucked in by this unlikely little item.
    According to this Topnews.in article (random source, I know) mega-stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have gotten the attention of a group of French boar hunters. The celebrity couple recently moved into the 17th-century Chateau Miraval, a 35-room, 1,000-acre property near the village of Aix-en-Provence, which they will rent with their rapidly growing family for the next three years.
     The estate, however, happens to be a favorite of area deer and boar hunters. Last year, its owner, Tom Bove, reportedly hosted a party of 65 sportsmen on the property. But now, local hunters are nervous the new tenants will decide to ban hunting for the length of their stay, and have begun appealing to Bove, asking him to ensure that the grounds will not become off limits.
     Even the local Mayor of Correns has weighed in, citing concerns for the valued vineyard on the chateau property. "Hunting here is part of the local tradition," he's told the press. "Boar and deer are harmful. If you don't hunt them, you don't get grapes."
     Well, all I can say is that the next time I rent a 17th-century French chateau with a helipad, two swimming pools, and a swan-filled lake: mi hunting lands es su hunting lands. -K.H.