Field Notes

Looking for comfortable furniture that also speaks to who you are as a person? Well look no further. Fully loaded, the chair pictured in the link below holds 450 12-gauge shells whose brass tips “create a massaging texture.”
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/02/shotgun_shell_chair.html

With the backing of The Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri Bowhunting Council, Whitetails Unlimited, and private landowners, the Show-Me state is trying to hit poachers where it counts--in the wallet. Missouri Senate Bill 665 would make poachers of whitetail bucks pay restitution to private property owners for damages and would allow for the development of a process by which a convicted poacher would also pay restitution to the state based on the deer’s Boone & Crockett score, a figure that could be as high as $7,500.
http://www.ussportsmen.org/interactive/features/Read.cfm?ID=1724

By now you’ve probably heard that Mike Iaconelli was disqualified from the 2006 Citgo Bassmaster Classic on Friday shortly after bringing two dead fish to the weigh in. Here are the details.

According to the story below, an ESPN video shows that upon finding the dead fish in his livewell, Ike lost his cool, destroyed a running light, and swore a blue streak in front of spectators.
"Once we saw the videotape, it didn't take long to make the decision," said a tournament official. Ike sees it differently, though, saying, "I totally feel like I'm targeted. I totally feel like I'm being sabotaged here.” Whatever the case, this is the second time Ioconelli has been disqualified from the Classic--an unofficial tournament record.
http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16205752&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512560&rfi=6

On the first day of the 36th annual Citgo Bassmaster Classic—during which Florida’s Lake Tohopekaliga produced the three largest bass in the event’s history—Luke Clausen flirted with a 30-pound limit (29 pounds, 6 ounces) and took an impressive early lead. By the end of the day on Sunday, the Spokane Valley, Washington, pro not only held on to win the event, but did so with a 3-day total weight of 56-pounds, 2-ounces, breaking the tournament's previous record of 55 pounds, 10 ounces.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/13969863.htm

Since the Bush Administration announced it’s latest plan to sell off federal lands (see http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2006/02/21/news/01burns.txt), a diverse group of academics, environmentalists, individual hunters and fishermen, and sportsmen’s groups are lining up to oppose it. It’s not just the loss of public land that bothers them, but also what many see as a frightening precedent of selling off our national heritage to pay for budget shortfalls.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060226/OPINION/602260308
http://sltrib.com/utah/ci_3548948

On a recent Saturday, Wayne Bessinger of Tippecanoe, Indiana, pulled a pair of big bucks from his one-acre pond. If you want to see a photo of the two 12-pointers that locked antlers, fell through the ice, and died, click on the link below. If you wan’t to see them in person, wait a while, then head to the Potawatomi Wildlife Park Nature Center, a small museum south of Tippecanoe where the deer will eventually be displayed.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060226/News01/602260346/-1/NEWS01/CAT=News01 

Since 2001, when the sage plains of western Wyoming’s Pinedale region teemed with game, the Bureau of Land Management--our nation’s primary caretaker of public land and wildlife--has overseen the area’s transformation into one of the most productive and profitable natural gas fields on federal lands. But mule deer, sage grouse, and pronghorn numbers have plummeted.

What are BLM wildlife biologists doing about it? Filing more gas-drilling permits, according to this Washington Post story, and with the hearty support of the Bush Administration and some members of Congress. For a revealing look at how energy production on public lands affects wildlife, check out the full story below.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR2006022101793.html

About 30 miles off the mouth of the Mississippi River out of Venice, LA, Baton Rouge angler Lane Foil and his friends were catching yellowfin tuna and about to gaff a 130-pounder when an 11-foot, 6-inch mako shark launched from the water at point-blank range, grabbing the freshly caught tuna in its mouth. Foil quickly rigged a bonito, pitched it into the water, and caught the 765-pound shark, shattering the old Louisiana state record and setting a new mark for the Gulf.
http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16181441&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512560&rfi=6

On Wednesday, the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow hunters or other game meat buyers to go onto a farm where elk are raised, choose their animal, shoot it, and take the carcass home for meat. They are calling this “hunting.” We ask you: Is this hunting?
http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/outdoors/cnhinsoutdoors_story_054125624.html

Current Taser stun guns pack a 50,000-volt wallop—plenty of juice to temporarily paralyze people. Problem is, today’s Tasers are only effective to about 25 yards. But the company is now developing a solution called the eXtended Range Electro-Muscular Projectile. A radically new shotgun shell designed to deliver the combined blunt-force trauma of a fast-moving baseball with the electrical current of a stun gun, the XREP has a current range of 100 feet. The US military, though, has challenged the company to extend the range to a 100 yards.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/20060221-1515-tasershotgun.html