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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

The Evolution of Long Range Hunting

Introducing the Nightforce SHV MOA 1000 The most affordable long range rifle scope on the market today.

Starting At $975

Rifle only: $3,700

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

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sports connection ad:Layout 1

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Page 1

WESTERN

SEPT & OCT

SHOOTING JOURNAL

Volume 3 // ISSUE 1 // September 2014 PUBLISHER

James R. Baker ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Billings, MT Metra Park, 308 6th Avenue North

Sept. 5-7, 2014

Pasco, WA TRAC Center, 6600 Burden Boulevard

Sept. 6-7, 2014

Dick Openshaw EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Coeur D’Alene, ID Kootenai County Fairgrounds, 4056 North Government Way

Sept. 13-14, 2014

Hamilton, MT Ravalli County Fairgrounds, 100 Old Corvallis Road

Sept. 19-21, 2014

Andy Walgamott EDITOR

Rachel Alexander LEAD CONTRIBUTOR

Frank Jardim

Missoula, MT Missoula County Fairgrounds, 1101 South Avenue West

Oct. 3-5, 2014

Walla Walla, WA Walla Walla County Fairgrounds, 363 Orchard Street

Oct. 4-5, 2014

Kalispell, MT Flathead County Fairgrounds, 265 North Meridian Road

Oct. 17-19, 2014

Butte, MT Butte Civic Center, 1340 Harrison Avenue

Oct. 24-26, 2014

CONTRIBUTORS

Elisa Alexander, Michael Burchett, Larry Case, Tom Claycomb III, Ruthanne Conner, Christine Cunningham, Andre D’Allau, Dana Farrell, Scott Haugen, Mike Nesbitt, Amy Ridgeway, Barry Rogers, Bob Shell, Keith Sipmann, Robin Taylor, Kathy Weiser-Alexander, Heather Wilson SALES MANAGER

Brian Lull ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

See our website for full schedule.

Michelle Carpinelli, Becca Ellingsworth, Mamie Griffin, Vanesa Sax, Mike Smith, Paul Yarnold DESIGNERS

Dawn Carlson, Beth Harrison, Sonjia Kells PRODUCTION MANAGER

John Rusnak OFFICE MANAGER/ACCOUNTING

Audra Higgins ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Katie Sauro INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER

Lois Sanborn INBOUND MARKETING

Jon Hines CIRCULATION MANAGER

Heidi Belew DISTRIBUTION

Tony Sorrentino, Gary Bickford, Barry Johnston ADVERTISING INQUIRIES

ads@westernshootingjournal.com

ON THE COVER Actor Anson Mount plays former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon on AMC’s currently running series Hell on Wheels, a Western TV show about the construction of the first transcontinental railroad.

(CHRIS LARGE/AMC)

Contact the editor at ralexander@media-inc.com.

Get daily updates at westernshootingjournal.com.

Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Pinterest.

MEDIA INDEX PUBLISHING GROUP WASHINGTON OFFICE P.O. Box 24365 • Seattle, WA 98124-0365 14240 Interurban Ave. S. Ste. 190 • Tukwila, WA 98168 OREGON OFFICE 8116 SW Durham Rd • Tigard, OR 97224 (206) 382-9220 • (800) 332-1736 • Fax (206) 382-9437 media@media-inc.com • www.media-inc.com

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

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CONTENTS 88

VOLUME 3 • ISSUE 1 • SEPTEMBER 2014

HELL UNLEASHED Anson Mount, star of the AMC series Hell on Wheels about the mobile encampment building the first transcontinental railroad in the years after the Civil War, talks with us about growing up a hunter, and hellion, his favorite Westerns and reveals the surprising roll he would like to play some day. (AMC)

FEATURES 41

Where The Waitresses Pack Heat

We stop in at Shooters Grill, the Rifle, Colo., restaurant where the staff serves up a pretty mean Angus burger, and openly carries fully loaded six-shooters.

47 Uberti’s Family Of .44-40 Cowboy Action Guns

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Practical then, useful today, says our reviewer of Uberti’s remake of the Old West’s Yellow Boy rifle and replicas of the Schofield and Colt SA, all in .44-40.

Whether you’re looking for a trail gun, a trainer for the family, or a strongframed six-shooter for reloading, this new line of Rugers delivers.

BLACK POWDER: Low Wall Rifle

C. Sharps Arms’ didn’t low ball it when they put together this classic take on the 1885 Low Wall in .32-20.

In part three of our series on top women in the gun world, we chat with a Second Amendment attorney, the former sheriff of one state’s most populous county, and meet a top college markswoman.

The Pregnant Moose Hunter

Think you’re an extreme hunter? Try chasing bull moose in Alaska with a 1½-year-old toddler on your back and another 6 months along in your belly.

121 COMPETITIONS: Bringing Marksmanship To High School

92 TV’s Golden Age Of Westerns

Ruger’s New Model Blackhawks

62 Women & Guns

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Saddle up, pardner! We’re taking a ride back to the days when Westerns like Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Wanted: Dead or Alive and more ruled the airwaves, and palavering with some of the few surviving stars of those times, James Drury of The Virginian and Lee Majors of The Big Valley.

107 Inside The Private Security World, Part 2 of 2

Everything you need to know if you are considering a career as a private investigator.

111 The Most Powerful Private Security Companies in the World, Part 2 of 2 – Nos. 20-1

Despite the increasing number of anti-gun messages they are receiving in school, the “center of gravity” in steel target shooting is shifting rapidly toward youths, and at the forefront of the movement is the rapidly growing Scholastic Pistol Program.

127 BEHIND THE BADGE: Policing The East Bay

Rides along with the Oakland, Calif., Police Department as they chase down bad guys. With use of force by criminals increasing across the nation, their job continues to get tougher.

145 SCATTERGUNNER: The Rise Of Aftermarket Shotgun Chokes

With so many options now on the market, we turn to shotgun legend L.P. Brezny for help choosing chokes.

Whether guarding cash, business execs, NGOs or natural resources, these companies are among the largest in the world – but which is the biggest? We rank the top 20!

WESTERN SHOOTING JOURNAL is published monthly by Media Index Publishing Group, 14240 Interurban Ave South Suite 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Display Advertising. Call Media Index Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising. All submitted materials become the property of Media Index Publishing Group and will not be returned. Copyright © 2014 Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A.

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CONTENTS ALSO INSIDE 157 The Patriotic Pistols of FMK Firearms 163 KNIVES: History Of Tomahawks, Part 1

DEPARTMENTS 17 19 21

Editor’s Note Letters To The Editor News: Another Firearms Manufacturer Flees A Gun-Control State 23 Gun Show Calendar 27 Competition Calendar 29 Reader Snapshots 33 Guns Of Our Fathers: Yesteryear’s 1911 Pistol 37 Range Spotlight: Louisiana’s Honey Island Shooting Range 159 Product Feature

HUNTING ADVENTURES

75 133 139 149

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Pregnant Mom Hunts Moose In Alaska Roadhunter: Get Aggressive With Elk Idaho Wilderness Bear Hunting ARCHERY: Tips For Aspiring International Bowhunters

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EDITOR’S NOTE

M

ore and more young people are taking up shooting as a hobby.

According to a recent article in The Boston Globe, “Participation in the nationwide 4-H Shooting Sports Program, which includes archery, hunting, pistol, rifle, and other firearms, has nearly tripled since 2009 and last year drew 336,558 program participants nationally.”

I’ve observed that many of our contributors to the magazine are teenagers; in fact, one girl who is 16 years old, Michaela Burchett, made the cover of our annual calendar insert two years in a row.

Demographically, while readers of our print magazine tend to be a little older, those who read us

online tend to be fairly young.

In this issue, we feature a story about Michaela and her younger sister Anna, age 14, testing out two of Ruger’s Western Blackhawks, a .357 Magnum and .45 Colt. Both girls look completely comfortable with the large guns. (Their dad, Michael, who wrote the story, gets a lot of credit there!)

We’ve also got a story about Ruthanne Conner, a young woman who started out shooting with 4-H in high school, where she excelled and won a scholarship to college. She now shoots on a university rifle team.

But we also need young communicators. Young women and men interested in learning about the firearms industry, as well as publishing and journalism, can intern with us.

Although it’s an unpaid position,

some colleges offer course credit for this kind of work, and you’ll gain free, valuable training. What might you help us do? My niece, Elisa Alexander, stopped by the office during production of this issue and put together the entire gun show calendar!

The editor with her niece Elisa.

Knowledge. Safety.

Preparedness • Firearms Law Classes • Firearms Law • NFA Gun Trusts • Restoration Of Firearm Rights • Employment Law/Discrimination knapp.m@comcast.net (253) 202-2081 Federal Way - Spokane

Law Office of Mark Knapp PLLC Criminal Defense Attorney

www.firearmslawyer.net westernshootingjournal.com 17

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR HECK WITH EMAIL, HE WANTS A REAL ADDRESS TO WRITE TO! Kind editor, get off’n yer high horse! Give us a snail-mail address! Too much trouble? Ask the Pony Express.

I accidentally found your magazine at the very back of the lowest shelf in the gun-and-car section of [Safeway subsidiary] Tom Thumb. At my age, that’s a job, bending over and praying to arise. Everything seems OK and I’ve already contacted a local advertiser for my daughter-in-law and her older daughter.

But crap! Nobody wants the NSA, FBI, IRS, alphabetsoup Nazis violating my Fourth Amendment with the 16th!

Gimme snail mail. At least going postal had a point.

P.S. I subscribe to nearly every other gun mag I know of, from Guns & Ammo, Field & Stream, Guns, Gun Digest, Garden & Guns, Military Trader – I’m cramping up, but I do read many more. — Lynn Holt, via email Editor’s note: Glad you found our postal address, it is located on the bottom of the masthead page of each issue.

TOP PIC LAST MONTH AT FACEBOOK.COM/WESTERNSHOOTINGJOURNAL An image of Junior shooter Katie Bridges achieving the highest score at the NRA Smallbore Championships got big likes on Western Shooting Journal’s main social media site. (NRA)

TOP TWEETS LAST MONTH AT TWITTER.COM/WESTERNSHOOTING Tweeters, including NRA radio show host Cam Edwards, appreciated July’s “girl power” cover featuring Girls With Guns apparel co-owners Jenifer Adams and Norissa Harman.

CamEdwards and Jen Adams favorited a Tweet you were mentioned in Jul 18 Wow, Larysa, Norissa and Jenifer: all on the cover of the latest edition! @WesternShooting @LSwitlyk @GWG_NUR @GwGJeN pic.twitter.com/BLjpYUaFEW martin and Larysa Switlyk favorited a Tweet you were mentioned in Jul 31 @doddsy_nz @WesternShooting @LSwitlyk @GWG_NUR Thx Tony! We loved Doddsy’s Hunting experience #NewZealand Tony Dodds @doddsy_nz Jul 20 Awesome, the girls that came and hunted at our place on the cover! @WesternShooting @LSwitlyk @GWG_NUR @ GwGJeN pic.twitter.com/HeeSxyOdaO

Mark Garber

attorney At Law L.L.C.

Felony Prosecutor For The State Of Louisiana For 6 Years • Gun Trusts • Advocate Of Firearms Rights & Gun Education

FREE

Consultation I Don’t Just Prepare Gun Trusts I Am A User/Consumer Of Short Barreled Rifles & Suppressors

Offices In Lafayette & Slidell garberlawyer.com • 337-234-5500 westernshootingjournal.com 19

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

PRIMER

NEWS

ANOTHER FIREARMS MANUFACTURER FLEES A GUN-CONTROL STATE

B

eretta is the latest major gun company to pack up its headquarters and move to a friendlier environment.

The U.S. division of Beretta, citing newly enacted gun-control laws in Maryland, and the likelihood of more restrictions in the future, announced the move to Tennessee this summer. Democrat governor Martin O’Malley signed the legislation into law in April 2013. Beretta employs 400 people, and the move will create 300 new jobs in Tennessee.

Jeff Cooper, Beretta U.S.A.’s general manager, said, “During the legislative session in Maryland that resulted in passage of the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, the version of the statute that passed the Maryland Senate would

have prohibited Beretta U.S.A. from being able to manufacture, store or even import into the state products that we sell to customers throughout the United States and around the world.

While we were able in the Maryland House of Delegates to reverse some of those obstructive provisions, the possibility that such restrictions might be reinstated in the future leaves us very worried about the wisdom of maintaining a firearm manufacturing factory in the state.”

AR-15 manufacturer PTR Industries Inc. of Bristol, Md., announced soon after the legislation passed that it would be leaving the state and relocating to South Carolina. Last year, HiViz Shooting Systems moved its operations

from Fort Collins, Colo., to Laramie, Wyo. Colt Competition transferred from Oregon to Texas. Magpul Industries Corp. is in the process of leaving Colorado for Texas and Laramie.

This trend will continue if “blue states” continue to pass gun-control laws, hurting their economies while “red states” like Texas boom economically. WSJ

Gunmaker Beretta is moving from Maryland to Tennessee. (WIKIMEDIA)

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY

PRIMER

GUNSHOW C A L E N D A R

Every spring at the Raahauge’s Shooting Sports Fair in Corona, Calif., professional dog trainers demonstrate the ancient art of hound hunting.

5–7

12 – 14

Franklin County Gun Show, Washington, Mo. Billings Gun Show, Billings, Mont.

Twin Bridges Gun Show, Twin Bridges, Mont.

Tonopah Gun Show, Tonopah, Nev. Gillette Arms Show, Gillette, Wyo.

Wausau Fall Gun Show, Wausau, Wis. Adrian Elks Gun Show, Archie, Mo. Whitehall Gun Show, Whitehall, Mont.

Fallon Gun Show, Fallon, Nev. SJWF Farmington Gun Show, Farmington, N.M. Waukesha Expo Forum Gun Show, Waukesha, Wis. One Day Old Style Gun Show, Fayetteville, Ariz.

Quanah Gun & Knife Show, Quanah, Texas ACSWW Gun Show, Vancouver, Wash.

Sacramento Gun Show, Sacramento, Calif.

San Francisco Gun Show, San Francisco, Calif.

Mandeville Gun Show, Mandeville, La. Hermiston Gun & Knife Show, Hermiston, Ore. Knoxville Gun & Knife Show, Knoxville, Tenn.

6–7 Heart of the Rockies Gun Show, Howard, Colo.

Caldwell Gun Show, Caldwell, Idaho Monroe Gun Show, Monroe, La. Bloomington Gun and Knife Show, Bloomington, Minn.

Columbus Rifle Club Gun Show, Columbus, Neb. ARPC End of Summer Gun Show, Ada, Okla.

Eugene Gun and Knife Show, Eugene, Ore. Saxet San Antonio Gun Show, San Antonio, Texas Pasco Gun Show, Pasco, Wash.

The Big Gun Show, Milwaukee, Wis.

19 – 21

Willcox Gun Show, Willcox, Ariz.

Denver Gun Show, Denver, Colo.

Wichita Century II Gun Show, Wichita, Kan. Newton County Gun Show, Neosho, Mont.

Merlin Gun & Knife Show, Grants Pass, Ore. HGCA Gun Show, Houston, Texas Salt Lake City Gun Show, Salt Lake City, Utah Quilcene Gun Show, Quilcene, Wash.

26 – 28 Missouri Gun and Knife Show, Cape Girardeau, Mo. Ashton Gun Show, Ashton, Idaho Salina Gun Show, Salina, Kan. Germantown Gun & Knife Show, Germantown, Tenn.

Lewis Clark Trader Gun Show, Spokane, Wash.

Oregon Arms Gun Shows, Portland, Ore. Visit westernshootingjournal.com for more events.

Email editor@westernshootingjournal to have your show listed here.

Superior Gun & Knife Show, Superior, Wis. westernshootingjournal.com 23

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

PRIMER

COMPETITION C A L E N D A R

5 2014 Iowa Sectional Championship, Elkhart, Iowa

6 2014 Oklahoma Limited & Production Sectional, Arcadia, Okla.

2014 Washington State Outdoor International (rifle), Tacoma, Wash.

Shoot in the Salt City! (cowboy mounted shooting), Hutchinson, Kan.

6–7 SASS Kansas State Wild Bunch Championship Uprising at Monticello, Lenexa, Kan. Sharp Shooter Series #3 Cap Farms (cowboy mounted shooting), Sultan, Wash.

Shootin’ up The State Shoot in Dakota Territory (cowboy mounted shooting), Lennox, S.D.

9 2014 IDPA US National Championship; Tier 5 match, Tulsa, Okla.

11 San Antonio Christian Schools 1st Annual Skeet Shoot, San Antonio, Texas

11 – 14 Roop County Days (single-action shooting), Fernley, Nev. Standoff at Smokey Point (singleaction shooting), Arlington, Wash.

mounted shooting), Hawk Point, Mo. Garfield County Shoot (cowboy mounted shooting), Pomeroy, Wash.

13 – 14 ISSO Senior Open (trap), Lewisville, Texas Drifter Daze III (single-action shooting), Medical Lake, Wash.

Northwest Territorial Shootout (singleaction shooting), Twin Falls, Idaho Montana State Championship (cowboy mounted shooting), Belgrade, Mont.

Texas-Oklahoma Border Wars (cowboy mounted shooting), Ardmore, Okla.

Rendezvous 2014 (cowboy mounted shooting), Greeley, Colo.

13 – 18 National Police Shooting Championships (pistol), Albuquerque, N.M.

13 – 20 Silhouette National Championships; Black Powder Target Rifle, Raton, N.M.

14 California State Championship Free, Standard & Center (pistol), Concord, Calif.

Single Action Shooting Society Oklahoma State Championship Ruckus in the Nations, Sand Springs, Okla.

Kansas State Fair Shoot (cowboy mounted shooting), Hutchinson, Kan.

19 – 20

12 – 13

Six Gun Justice (single-action shooting), Rexburg, Idaho

The Chisum (cowboy mounted shooting), Roswell, N.M.

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12 – 14 TTA Zone V (trap), San Antonio, Texas TWA Sporting Clays Shoot, San Antonio, Texas Ambush at Hat Creek (single-action shooting), Burney, Calif.

13 2014 Idaho State IDPA Championship, Parma, Idaho Jinglebob Memorial Shoot (cowboy

This year’s Fastest Gun Alive World Championship of Cowboy Fast Draw & Wild West Festival takes place on October 2nd through 5th in Fallon, Nev. For more, contact Cal Eilrich (775) 575-1802 or visit cowboyfastdraw.com. (COWBOY FAST DRAW ASSOCIATION)

26 – 28 Adobe Walls (single-action shooting), Gonzales, Calif.

26 – 10/3 World Skeet Championships, San Antonio, Texas

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Cheyenne Autumn (single-action shooting), Kress, Texas

2014 Pro Series Event #4 (3-gun), Tulsa, Okla.

Rampage (single-action shooting), Fruit Heights, Utah

20 – 21

27 – 28

Wolverton Mtn. Peace Keepers 9th Anniversary Match and Warmup for the NW Regionals (single-action shooting), Ariel, Wash.

Northwest Regional Revolver Championship, Fallon, Nev.

21 – 22

Visit westernshootingjournal.com for more events.

Email editor@westernshootingjournal to have your show listed here.

Old TV Westerns Match (single-action shooting), Bend, Texas westernshootingjournal.com 27

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PRIMER

TOP SHOTS Rob Koebel of Charlotte, N.C., is fully loaded. The photo was taken on the set of the major motion picture Captive in Charlotte.

Beth Bannister, a Phoenix, Ariz., gunrights activist, works on her tactical moves with a Red Jacket Firearms AR-15, Saiga 12-gauge shotgun and Springfield .45.

(KEITH SIPMANN)

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PRIMER

READER TOP SHOTS With three empties from his XD.45 ACP in the air, Bud George participates in a KSTG (Kinda Sorta Tactical Game) put on by Tehama Shooters Association action-pistol match at his local range in Paynes Creek, Calif.

Constable Brandon Schmoll from Phoenix, Ariz., carrying his Springfield Armory XD .40SW, received the first ever Exemplary Service Award from the Arizona Constables Association. It meant a lot to him to be recognized by his peers for all his work in the community.

Don’t mess with this young trailhand! Anna Burchett of Longview, Wash., gets familiar with a New Model Blackhawk in .357 Magnum.

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER!

Congratulations to Shell Abbott for winning the Readers’ Top Shots contest for August!

Each month, the reader who submits the best photo will receive an AmmOMug of their choice from ammomug.com. Submit your best reader photos to us at ralexander@ media-inc.com. You can also submit videos for our website.

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guns of our fathers

A FAMILY OF 1911S, PART 1 ARTICLE BY GLEN PETROSKI • PHOTO BY CANSTOCKPHOTO

B

ack in the day of yesteryear, when motherhood, homemade apple pie, the American flag and shootin’ irons were integral parts of our culture, I grew up in Dracut, Mass., a small, rural, agrarian town bordering the New Hampshire state line. The back boundary of our property was a 30-foot-wide creek – it provided Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn adventures, for sure!

Being a Baby Boomer born in 1946, I became cognitive of life in 1952.

World War II and the Korean War were the ongoing talk of the neighbors and my parents. Quietly, I just listened as I was indoctrinated to de facto life on the planet. As I understood it then and do now, there are good guys and there are bad guys. Having watched many Western movies, I knew the good guys always wore white hats and won. Yet I came to soon realize that the 20th Century’s good guys wore camouflaged helmets and had bigger guns; thus, I realized that weapons were necessary for life support, as

they have been for all of recorded history. I learned early that good and evil exist together and always will, despite international socialism. I knew up front that socialism is simply a euphemism for communism; i.e., no liberty, no justice, no freedom, where all become wards of the state.

Strolling back to the ’50s, I recall the neighbor boy and I fabricating our own weapons of war for offense/defense. We started making pistols and rifles from wood; the enemies were the Germans, Japanese and Indians. Needless to say, westernshootingjournal.com 33

guns of our fathers we always won the war!

As time went on, we built bows and arrows from scratch, gluing chicken feathers on to the arrows and making arrowheads from scrap metal. We also made slingshots from natural tree-limb crotches, using inner-tube rubber for elasticity. We played marble games to win ammo. We initially shot small rocks that always went crooked; marbles were much better for accuracy.

As we became teenagers, our ballistic technology advanced to BB guns – the Daisy models – then pellet guns, and finally, the ecstasy of all of us boys, a .22-caliber rife. This is where reality set in, a real gun with ballistic accuracy.

No, they weren’t quite the same caliber as the numerous guns my dad owned – rifles, a shotgun, Model 1911 military .45, and, our favorite, a .300 Savage lever-action rifle – but we carried them proudly.

As I recall, my brother, cousin and I were walking along the rural, public

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

roadway packing our .22s on the way to an adventure, none of us even 16 years old yet. Well, the chief of the Dracut town police lived up the hill from my home. He drove by in uniform, in his personal vehicle heading home.

As he went by, he waved and smiled, acknowledging the reality of boys soon to be men. Only now do I realize the significance of that seemingly, uneventful event.

Back in my day, all boys were expected to have shootin’ irons.

Comically, I recall the same chief of police driving up to my neighbor’s house, in uniform as usual. As I peered through the trees, I noted neighbor George going out to his barn, which was converted into a “moonshine still,” exiting with two gallons of “liquid lightning” and selling it to the chief for what appeared to be $20.

Just guessing the chief had a good evening back in the day. Sounds to me like the chief committed a felony, like

tax evasion!

Moving on to higher technologies, we graduated into ballistic chemistry and were able to manufacture our own gunpowder from commonly available chemicals. I won’t give you the recipe, but I later found out it was the same ratio of components used by our Founding Fathers during the American Revolution. How cool is that?

With homemade gunpowder, we entered the era of rockets and bombs.

Retrospectively rather comical, our mothers didn’t have a clue what we were up to until my brother blew the top of his index finger off, thus terminating that era. WSJ Editor’s note: In part II next issue, Glen Petroski, a U.S. Navy veteran who served from 1966-70 with the Commander Pacific Fleet, Carrier Task Force 77 and Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club, recounts how he moved on to slightly bigger guns.

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

RANGE SPOTLIGHT

HONEY ISLAND SHOOTING RANGE PHOTOS BY HONEYISLAND.ORG

At just $6 per day, this range may be the best deal in the country.

T

he Honey Island Shooting Range is located in the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area North of Slidell, La., in the Honey Island Swamp. The swamp got its name because of honeybees that lived nearby. It’s famous for allegedly harboring the Honey Island Swamp monster, described as “bipedal, 7 feet tall, with gray hair and yellow eyes.”

Operated by Southeast Louisiana Firearms Safety, Inc., Honey Island is one of the least expensive ranges

in the country; it’s only $6 to shoot, and kids 15 and under shoot free. All ammunition up to .50 BMG that is legal and safe is authorized. Hunter education classes are offered.

The range has a 100-yard rifle range, a 25-yard pistol range and electronically operated clay throwers.

It is a Civilian Marksmanship Program affiliate, which means if shooters become volunteer range officers and join SELF, they gain access to rifles, ammunition and other merchandise from CMP. It is also an NRA affiliate.

There is also fishing and hunting in the marshland, which requires a special state stamp, and hunting also requires a

hunting license.

During the summer, the range is open on Fridays from 1 to 6 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. During the winter, the range is open on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit honeyisland.org. WSJ

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

THE WAITRESSES PACK HEAT AT THIS GRILL! Colorado Family Restaurant Caters To The Well-Armed ARTICLE BY FRANK JARDIM PHOTOS BY SHOOTERS GRILL

F

ood is occasionally pulled into the world of polarizing political commentary. Since we need food to live, Americans can’t get too carried away with this, but here are a few examples from the past. During WWI, when anti-German sentiment in this country was high, sauerkraut was renamed “victory cabbage.”

More recently, when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, France declined to participate, generating anti-French sentiment here. French fries were briefly renamed “freedom fries.” Since we still know these delicious foods by their original names, food is obviously too important to politicize. The same

may not be true for restaurants.

There was at time that restaurateurs thought it was good business to steer clear of politics.

It’s hard enough for eateries to be profitable as it is. Why risk alienating customers who don’t agree with your point of view on [insert hotpotato topic of your choice here].

Of late, I suspect this is changing.

For example, the Christian beliefs of Chick-fil-A restaurant founder Dan Cathy led him to express his personal opposition to the concept of gay

marriage. As a result, the pro-gay marriage groups drove an attempt to boycott his restaurants. Not only did their boycott fail (the sandwiches are delicious) but pro-Chick-fil-A patrons westernshootingjournal.com 41

staged counter-demonstrations, and on a single day, apparently bought every Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich in the country. Expressing and then sticking by his personal principals paid off in a big profit for Cathy, despite the efforts of media bullies to punish him.

Now consider the case of the Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colo. It was created by Lauren Boebert, who is steadfast in her Christian beliefs

and support of the constitutional right to bear arms. Her beliefs are obvious to anyone who walks in the door. If a person didn’t care much for guns or Jesus, they might still go to Shooters Grill because the food is excellent. After all, food is the main reason any normal human being goes to a restaurant. They serve classic American fare (including great 100-percent angus-beef burgers) with some Mexican favorites thrown in

HISTORIC CITY OF THE OLD WEST: RIFLE, COLO. The city of Rifle, Colo., is rich with Western heritage.

Reportedly named after a rifle found leaning up against a tree in the early 1900s by an old cowboy surveyor, much of the downtown consists of buildings dating back to that time, and

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visitors can take a historical walking tour. The action movie Vanishing Point was filmed in this small city of 9,172.

Rifle is where the Old West meets the New West. Like the rest of Colorado, it is home to plenty of active, outdoors

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too. Shooters Grill is a small business in a small town, and on an average weekend, they sell 45 to 60 halfpound Angus burgers. Then some television news producers realized that the pretty young waitresses who work there openly carry handguns while on duty. This past July 4th weekend, they sold 300 burgers and ran out of food by Monday, despite extra deliveries. Apparently more people like guns (and presumably

Jesus too) than don’t like them.

The open carry of firearms is legal in Colorado, but certainly isn’t common, and Lauren Boebert’s Shooters Grill is unique in that it encourages, but doesn’t require, its staff to be openly armed at work.

Of course, perhaps the unique accessory works successfully because, after all, Shooters Grill is located in a city named after guns, rich with Western heritage. WSJ

people. Popular activities include hunting, fishing, ATV trails, and snowmobiling.

Rifle Falls is a huge draw – the nearby waterfall is beautiful – and there is rock climbing. There is also plenty of ranching and farming in the area. For more info, including making lodging reservations, visit riflechamber.com. WSJ

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gun reviews

THE .44-40 FAMILY OF COWBOY ACTION FIREARMS Uberti Line Is Affordable Fun For Old West Shooters ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY BOB SHELL

The author’s friend Christine shoots a Model 66 remake of the Yellow Boy.

O

ne of the fastest growing shooting sports is cowboy action shooting. There is a variety of reasons why, including the reasonable cost of guns, its reputation as a family event and it’s just plain fun. Another factor in some states is that these types of guns are not subject to the draconian laws enacted as they would be on more modern designs. The rules require that guns and ammo that was used in the Old West are the only ones allowed.

There are many of the original weapons still in service, but they are expensive, putting them beyond the reach of the average shooter. The solution is to have companies make replica guns at reasonable prices. Several companies have taken up this task and as a result, we have good quality guns at fair prices. One of the best is Uberti for both selection and quality.

In 1959, Aldo Uberti began making replicas of Civil War-era cap-andball revolvers. Over the years, as his craftsmen gained experience, the company increased production by including more of the Old West firearms. I have shot and owned various products that they have manufactured with complete satisfaction. At this time, I am reviewing three guns all in .44-40 chambering. The rifle is a Model 66 remake of the Yellow Boy, while the handguns are a Schofield and a Colt

SA replica. All of these guns are good looking with fitting and finish top notch.

I chose the .44-40 because during the last 20 years of the 19th century, it was chambered in both handguns and rifles and was very popular. It was practical back then and is still useful now. Components are relatively easy to get and it has all of the power I need. Since I don’t plan on using them for hunting, loads will be mild also in deference to the action strength of the three pieces. The most common

Christine tries out the Schofield .44-30.

westernshootingjournal.com 47

bullet used back then was a 200-grain cast which is also my choice. There are other projectiles available, including a jacketed 200 grain, but except in narrow circumstances, they are not necessary. I used both black powder for originality and some light smokeless loads. Factory ammo is available, though you might have to look around a bit. Ten X produces ammo and I have found that their ammo has superior quality and is safe in these old designs. Space prohibits me from listing loads but the rifle was in the neighborhood of 1,200 fps, while the handguns produced 800 fps. Another attractive feature of the .44-40 is the mild recoil, which allows female and youthful shooters to enjoy shooting this round.

I am looking at how reliable and accurate these guns are, and so far I am not disappointed. The Schofield is a little tight, but time and use will loosen it up. The Colt is a joy to shoot

48 Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

The Uberti .44-30 is a favorite for cowboy shooting thanks to its selection and quality.

as the trigger has been worked on at the shop it came from. Taylors imports many of the guns they sell, including some modern ones, and are a good company to deal with as they have a good selection of these guns. Like the other two, the Colt was made by Uberti.

Due to the moderate recoil, women and youngsters can shoot it easily. For a family who wants to get into cowboy shooting, Uberti supplies all of the guns at affordable prices.

One of our shooting sessions involved three Uberti firearms: two handguns and a rifle. Accuracy testing at 7 yards with black-powder loads gave us some fine groups, which isn’t a surprise as the Uberti guns generally perform well. While not scientific, we were hitting softballsized targets at about 100 yards with the rifle. Some loads were shot for velocity readings, so we have shot them quite a bit with no performance or malfunction issues. These three will be shot a lot more, but based on my experiences with this brand I can highly recommend them. WSJ Editor’s note: For more information, visit uberti.com and taylorsfirearms. com. Most of the larger gun stores carry guns and ammo for cowboy shooters.

Bob Shell is a writer for international magazines, whose areas of expertise are old guns, reloading and various product reviews and similar topics.

He owns a small ammunition business which specializes in hard-to-get and obsolete ammo.

westernshootingjournal.com 49

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

gun reviews

RUGER’S NEW WESTERN BLACKHAWKS Reliable Six-shooter Comes In .357 Magnum, .45 Colt And More ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY MIKE BURCHETT

The author’s two teenage daughters tried out the .45 and the .357.

I

n the early 1950s, Sturm, Ruger and Company, also known as simply Ruger, released the Single Six. This was a six-shot single-action revolver intended to fill the needs of a Western-style pistol. Colt had recently discontinued manufacturing the Colt Single Action Army, yet there was still a high demand for this type of pistol.

Ruger went on to release the Blackhawk in 1955, chambered in the powerful .357 Remington Magnum.

Capable of hunting, plinking or self defense, many people found use of this new tool. Many calibers are available today as well as many barrel lengths; blued or stainless finish and

multiple grip options. Today we are going to take a look at the New Model Blackhawk in .357 Magnum and Super Blackhawk Bisley in .45 Colt.

I set out with my two daughters, ages 14 and 16, and headed for some space to send a few rounds down range. We gathered ammo, targets, glasses, ear protection, the camera and some cowboy hats. We have used these pistols in the past, but decided to really do some work. Sure, they don’t look as cool as the 1911; they take longer to reload, longer to fire the six rounds and weigh more, but they sure are fun to shoot. Pulling the hammer back for every shot makes you feel like you’re back in the Wild West. My youngest

daughter hadn’t spent much time with them, so we had the opportunity to really go over the controls and how they differed from the semiautos she is savvier with.

Ruger’s single-action Bisley in .45 Colt.

westernshootingjournal.com 51

gun reviews VBLACKHAWK CALIBERS

• .30 Carbine • .32 H&R Magnum • .32-20 Winchester Convertible • .327 Federal Magnum • 9×19mm Parabellum • .357 Magnum, Magnum Convertible • 10mm Auto/.38-40 Winchester Convertible • .41 Magnum • .44 Special • .44 Magnum (Super Blackhawk only) • .45 ACP/.45 Colt Convertible • .45 Colt

We shot some groups, shot some pictures and had an all-around great time. There was a huge difference compared to the usual popular Glock you see in films so often today. Let’s talk real quick about the pistol itself.

To load/unload, you must open a trap

door on the right side of the frame.

This unlocks the cylinder so you can rotate it with one hand while you drop one cartridge at a time into the cylinder. Once loaded, you close the door, locking the cylinder in place.

At this point the weapon is still safe.

No, you still need to maintain muzzle control and be aware of your target, however squeezing the trigger will not set the pistol off. You must pull the hammer back, cocking the pistol. You now have a short, crisp trigger pull to drop the hammer, sending the round down range.

As you pull the hammer back again, the cylinder rotates, bringing the next round into battery. To unload, simply open the trap door, align an empty cartridge with the opening and pull the spring-loaded underlug to push the case out of the pistol. There is a plate that drops out of the way to protect the firing pin. If the trigger is not manipulated, the plate stays in place,

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keeping the hammer from striking the pin if it were to fall.

With many options available, there is surely one out there with your name on it. Do you ride a horse and want a durable side arm to accompany you on the trail? Maybe you are looking for a well-priced revolver to teach your family how to respect firearms?

Do you want to step into the world of reloading and need a strong-framed pistol to start your journey? The Ruger Blackhawk has you covered in all these aspects. Check one out at your local dealer and just maybe start clearing some space in your safe for when you bring one home. WSJ Editor’s note: Mike Burchett was born in Washington and was raised in the shooting/outdoor sports. His favorite activities involve anything his family enjoys. From hiking and camping to surfing and shooting, nothing is too big to try.

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BLACK POWDER

ANOTHER TAKE ON THE 1855 LOW WALL IN .32-20 A Classic From Old West Days

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT

The author shooting the Low Wall in .32-20 with 26-inch barrel.

Not all black powder cartridges are big-bore blasters. In fact, far from it. Just as an example, consider the good old .22 rimfire. All of the .22 rimfires with the exception of the .22 Winchester Magnum were originally black-powder cartridges.

And what we call the .22 Short was our first cartridge, introduced in 1857. But what I really want to talk about now is the .32-20, which was introduced in 1882 as the .32 Winchester Centerfire.

The .32-20 became a very popular cartridge in both rifles and revolvers.

It was designed for the Winchester Model 1873 repeater, but it was quickly chambered in their single shot, what we today call the Model of 1885, the High Wall and the Low Wall.

These days, several companies such

as Buffalo Arms, Uberti and others manufacture the classic rifle, and C. Sharps Arms makes good versions of it in their line-up of fine single shots.

They are available in calibers from .22

came to me, it was such a pretty and well-made little thing that I just had to tell you about them.

Believe me, this is a rifle that anyone could easily fall in love with.

Maybe such a statement would be more appropriate at the conclusion of this tale than at the introduction. Well, if it is actually more proper to use it at the conclusion, I’ll just say it again.

THE RIFLE IS RATHER LIGHT in weight, or at least it sure seems that way after handling the heavier single shots. The Low Wall in .32-20 with the 26-inch octagon barrel weighs just 7½ pounds.

The length of pull was measured at just over 13¾ inches (but that length increases to just under 14 inches when the trigger is set). With the 26-inch barrel, this rifle has an overall length of 42½ inches. Let me simply finish this paragraph by saying, that’s about the size of it.

But the rifle being talked about is not a standard version; it is the 1885 Classic Low Wall rifle. Being a

The .32-30 became a very popular cartridge in both rifles and revolvers.

rimfire up to the .405 Winchester and what we often call the .45-110. When word leaked out that the Low Wall would be available in .32-20 caliber from C. Sharps, I felt a strong desire to shoot one of those new guns. I let such notions be known to the folks at the Montana company, and when the rifle

Classic, it comes with certain extras.

The crescent butt plate, made of casehardened steel, is one of them, and this rifle also has the raised cheek rest with accent line. The walnut stock on this particular rifle is a higher grade than standard too. Those Classic ingredients really add their flavor to westernshootingjournal.com 55

BLACK POWDER more very eager to do some shooting with this small rifle just to see how it would do on the range. In other words, would it shoot as good as it looked? I’m a long-time fan of the .32-20, and that was one of the reasons why I wanted to try a Low Wall in this caliber.

Before shooting, however, some serious thoughts were given to the idea of putting a peep sight on the rifle. That was actually planned, but somehow things didn’t come together for doing that, and all shooting was done with the standard buckhorn sight that was on the rifle as delivered.

Sight adjustments could have put this group in the bull'seye, and a peepsight would help "tighten it up" a bit.

the rifle’s color case-hardened action and the deeply blued barrel. Several more options are available.

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

All of those features and extras were quickly noted when the rifle was unwrapped. And they seemed to make

SOME NOTES MUST BE shared about the ammunition used in this rifle. All of the cartridges that were fired for groups were factory-loaded rounds.

Those were with some Winchester/ Western 100-grain Lubaloy-coated lead-bullet loads and some of the Black Dawge (no longer available) loads with black powder and 115-grain bullets.

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BLACK POWDER The shots with those two types of ammunition were chronographed and the best group was shot at 50 yards with the black-powder loads – but more about that in just a moment.

A few shots were also fired with cast bullets from an old Lyman/Ideal mold for the No. 3118 (that’s No. 311008 to you younger folks) loaded over five grains of Unique. Those were not checked for velocity, and they were primarily fired as “cleaning shots” following the black-powder loads. (No, they probably really weren’t needed.)

Those shots were also fired offhand, so we can say they were plinking shots. They certainly worked fine, and the targets fired at – sticks and stones – were all hit right on or very closely. That loading with the five grains of Unique under the 115-grain bullet is a good load for either rifle or revolver, easy on both the guns and the cartridge cases.

The first target fired at was a simple

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

bull's-eye posted at 50 yards, and it was fired at with both kinds of factoryloaded ammo. That resulted in a group, if you would call it that, with a rather large vertical spread. But more than that, the rifle was hitting low. I had hopes of correcting that, somehow, but not by making any “adjustments” to

C. Sharps' 1885 Low Wall features nice colorcase hardening; also note the single-set trigger.

the rifle’s sights.

With the full knowledge that this rifle was grouping a bit low at 50 yards, another target was posted at the very same distance, but then fired at while the rear sight had the ladder raised but with the sliding sight all of the way to the bottom. This was done

for two combined reasons: because the sighting notch in the raised sight could be seen just a touch clearer with my eyes, and I had the hopes that the resulting group might be just a little bit higher. Such was not to be the case, however, and not even with a close inspection could a single bullet hole be found through the target. My guess at the time was that the bullets fired with the sight raised had gone over the target.

AFTER GETTING BACK TO "THE RANCH,” my thoughts on shooting over that target were more or less confirmed. The top of the sighting notch in the rear sight with the ladder down – this is the buckhorn sight – is .3125 inch over the top flat of the barrel. When the ladder is raised, typically done for longer range shooting, with the sighting notch at its lowest position, it sits much closer to ½ inch over the top of the barrel. That quick “adjustment” of

westernshootingjournal.com 59

approximately .1875 inch in elevation was just as quickly noted with the target remaining bare.

So, the rear sight was dropped back to its down or normal position, and the good shooting continued. Please remember that no actual adjustments to the sights were made.

This rear sight, while we’re on the subject, is much like the buckhorn sights installed on the versions of the Sharps-style rifles from C. Sharps Arms. One difference on the Low Wall, and perhaps the High Wall too, is that the sight is mounted to the barrel only, with a dovetail rather than with a screw, and a dovetail in to the barrel.

This has two slight advantages; one, the rear sight can be drifted easier to make adjustments for windage, and, two, for shooters (like me) who would rather remove this rear sight and rely on a peep sight, the existing sight can be removed and the dovetail easily filled with a slot blank.

60 Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

For comparison's sake, a .32-20 cartridge sits between a .45-110 on the left and a .50-90.

When the shooting continued, the target was a single bull's-eye buffalo posted at 50 yards. The rifle was fired from a benchrest, with the sights held on the 6 o’clock position at the bottom of the “black.” This resulted in getting groups that were hitting just about at the point of aim. The silver front sight could have been quickly shortened to bring the point of impact up a bit for higher scores on the paper.

The best shooting ammo was the black-powder load, and those bullets did hit a bit higher than the W/W ammo. I must also say that the bullets from the black-powder load, which I can’t be more specific about, flew across the chronograph screens at only 980 feet per second. There is really nothing wrong with that velocity, as it’s still just fine for small game and great for shooting fun.

W/W’s loads were also checked for speed,and they crossed the instrument at 1,250 fps. Their voice sounded with a bit more “crack” too. And the group size was not bad, although not as good as the other.

Shooting the Low Wall in .32-20 is certainly a true delight, and this is a very easy rifle to fall in love with. WSJ westernshootingjournal.com 61

ALEX KINCAID: THE NEW FACE OF GUN RIGHTS INTERVIEW BY RACHEL ALEXANDER

Alex Kincaid holds a Bushmaster AR-15 with Magpul furniture and EOTech red dot sight. (AMANDA ALLARD)

A

lexandria Kincaid is a former elected district attorney and now an attorney in private practice with a Second Amendment practice in Idaho and Oregon. As a DA, she visited homicide scenes to lead a major crimes team in making determinations of whether shootings involved the lawful use of deadly force. Kincaid is chief counsel and public relations director for the Idaho Firearms and Accessories Manufacturers Association. She drafts and supports pro-gun legislation, which has been backed by the NRA. She is referred to as Idaho’s Second Amendment attorney and legislative advocate. She hosts the “Gun Law Podcast.” Her “10 Things Every Gun Owner Must Know About Deadly Force” is a must read for any gun owner.

Greg Pruett, Founder of the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance,

from creditors, bad family issues, etc.

I was living in a smaller county on the Oregon coast, so people knew me.

People started to come to me with criminal issues too, wanted to put me on retainer. I knew how to talk guns.

I didn’t want to take a retainer, but I started focusing on firearms issues that came up; issues in business or estates that related to firearms laws, and counseling people on gun laws.

There are so many gun laws that responsible gun owners don’t know about. Possession or transfer violations are much more likely to occur than having to use a firearm in self-defense. For example, a client received a firearm from a brother who lives in a different state. Private party transactions between states are regulated. It’s a federal crime to transfer firearms between states without going through a dealer. He should have used a dealer.

I advise people on how to avoid the accidental felony. Now, gun trusts have become a fad, but I’m not trying to market gun trusts. I want to help people recognize all the laws you

has said about her, “Alexandria Kincaid is Idaho’s most respected 2nd Amendment lawyer. She is top notch when it comes to defending Idahoan’s gun rights!” I was fortunate to interview this busy, ambitious gun gal who dwarfs me when it comes to women, firearms and the law.

need to know about in order to own a gun. Forefront in the last couple of years has been possession and transfer. Idaho enacted an enhanced concealed-carry permit law last year.

That new law requires an attorney or law enforcement officer to teach a two-hour legal portion.

I created my training to go over federal laws, state laws, national acts, and I go into depth on possession and transfer. Most people are amazed.

Everyone walks away saying thank you, they had no idea it was so complex. People might look things up on the Internet, and find an answer in one law, e.g. state law, but don’t realize there is a whole other level of laws at federal level.

RACHEL ALEXANDER How did you decide to become a Second Amendment attorney?

ALEXANDRIA KINCAID It happened after I went into private practice. I had been a DA for almost a decade. My goal was to keep people out of the court system if possible. I opened Asset Protection firm where I did estate planning to protect people

All my clients are gun owners, dealers or manufacturers. I started a Homefront Defense Team that provides 24/7 legal insurance. Now there are insurance companies and prepaid legal popping up with these plans, but they have attorneys who aren’t experienced in these areas. I have a screened 24/7 number now for referrals like that. I’m really big into education, and have created videos with a team to educate people. I am writing materials. They are live classes, since the enhanced concealed carry class in Idaho must be live instruction.

RA How did you get into shooting? I see you were raised in a family who shot guns, and you learned to shoot at age five. What kind of shooting did you do, and did you hunt?

AK I started shooting with my dad, then my brother and I shot .22 soda cans in the country. Next we shot birds, quail and pheasant. After high school, I became more interested in self defense, and purchased my first handgun. I went to college and law school and became a prosecutor, dealing with evil people. I am just now getting back into hunting; I have a tag for elk, turkey and wolf. Wolves here are a nightmare. We live outside of Boise, where it’s hills and not much else. We see wolves; there was a wolf killing of a family dog recently. As long as you get the tag here, it’s OK to shoot them.

RA Any favorite guns – I see your bio mentions a Walther PPK – or types of shooting?

AK The Walther PPK was my very first concealed carry gun and is still my favorite. My husband bought me a Kimber Solo for our anniversary. We have the Steel Challenge here, and I’m also getting into long range. My dad builds long-range rifles.

RA You’ve written, “Guns & Ammo recently ranked ‘the best states for gun owners 2013’, which yielded some surprising results. Idaho gun enthusiasts were surprised to see gunfriendly Idaho coming in at number westernshootingjournal.com 63

32.” (Washington is at 40 and Oregon is at 32) Since many of our readers are from Idaho, can you explain why this is so?

AK The ranking may not be quite accurate; they may be looking at statute wording more than case law.

It was self-defense laws where Idaho scored low, with a two out of 10.

It’s an archaic statute. Last session, I drafted a proposed new castle doctrine to match Florida’s statute, with a presumption in favor of the homeowner. A campus carry bill was passed, which took up the entire

Kincaid aims her 1939 German Mauser K98k, with original Nazi markings. (OLEG VOLK)

session, so the castle doctrine bill will come up next session.

Sporting an IWI Tavor. (OLEG VOLK)

RA When I was practicing law, I encountered interesting things because I’m female. After I was hired as a high-level advisor under the Maricopa County, Ariz., attorney, I would have people ask me, “So what do you do at the county attorney’s

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office? Are you a secretary or paralegal?” What has been your experience as a woman in the firearms industry?

AK There are pros and cons. It can be easier to get noticed, because there are not a whole lot of women. Some regard me with skepticism initially. I get asked frequently if I’m an attorney.

In every audience, there is some

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guy who doesn’t think I have the answers. It just pushes me to be the best. I always go in prepared with the answers and shut them down. I know the law. There will always be stalkers and haters.

I don’t want to be portrayed as a “victim,” but I am a survivor of domestic violence – my ex strangled me. One of my passions

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

is empowering other women to not be victims – I hold free concealedcarry classes (in conjunction with an NRA instructor who volunteers) for women, and love helping women understand the ins and outs of gun ownership and self-defense.

on educational pieces.

RA What kinds of situations might a person consider hiring you? You also practice other types of law.

AK I can help with almost anything firearms related: Second Amendment rights, restoring gun rights, planning to protect firearms, defending selfdefense situations. I can assist dealers who have had their license revoked.

I obtained a pardon for a client who was in jail, in order to get his gun rights restored. I still do estate and business planning.

RA Are you available for representation in just Idaho and Oregon or any other states?

AK I’m only licensed to practice law in those two states, but I can always hook up with an attorney in any state and be the specialist.

RA Is your HomeFront Defense Team available yet?

AK It is, and the website should be up by the time this comes out. The team is available; they are currently working

RA I see you’ve been on my friend Austin Hill’s radio show. What is that like?

AK Austin is awesome, he always brought up the right points. He had me on quite a bit.

RA You’ve accomplished quite a bit. Any future plans, like running for governor of Idaho or president of the NRA? AK I will do whatever it takes to protect the Second Amendment. I can do more through education than political office. I am working on a book about the gun laws and was hoping to have it done by now. I just started an export company to get people into the international market. WSJ

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TOP COP SUE RAHR From The Street Beat To Sheriff And Training Chief

S

ue Rahr was the King County Sheriff in Washington state from 2005 until 2012. She resigned to head up the Washington State Criminal Justice Training System. I spoke with her about how she was able to rise up through the ranks as a woman to become one of the top law enforcement officials in the state, and about the intriguing changes she has made to the training system.

ARTICLE BY RACHEL ALEXANDER

Keep the engine block between me and the bullets. So I pulled my car around sideways, blocking the road.

Thankfully they both complied with my directions, and got down on the ground. I cuffed them and put them in my car. I felt very calm, very much in control.

But then I walked up to the truck and looked in the window, and as soon I saw the shotgun on the seat, I got an adrenalin dump and felt ice cold, wondering, why did I do this? My brain went RACHEL ALEXANDER How into slow motion. I knew did you get into the we’re supposed to wait for criminal justice field? backup, but I also knew if SUE RAHR I decided in I did, those guys would get college that I wanted to away. I couldn’t live with be a lawyer, specifically myself, plus I was 22 and full a prosecutor, but I ran of invincibility. out of money. The King It was just a few weeks County Sheriff ’s Office before that I got into my was just starting to first physical fight. I had recruit. At that time, a great FTOs. They taught me $30,000 annual salary how to talk and persuade was great. I thought and manipulate people into I’d save money for law doing what I had to do. I’d school. My major was never had to demonstrate in criminal justice, that I could fight someone with an emphasis on to the ground. There was prosecution. One of the a lot of skepticism when I parts of it was going on started out, since I hadn’t a ride-along with the demonstrated I could fight.

Sue Rahr was the first female sheriff of King County, Wash., the state’s most populous county. (KING COUNTY SHERIFF) police. I fell in love with A month or so later, I the profession. One of got into my first fight in my FTOs (field training officer) just the field, in an unincorporated part backup back then. I was dispatched laughed watching me, he said I was of the Renton Highlands. It was to a residential robbery alone. I never leaving this profession. I was important for my fellow officers knew the neighborhood, and that 22 at that time. to discover this; it was even more there was only one way out of that Now I found homicide work important for me. It was the highest neighborhood. Sure enough, here boring; I realized I was not cut high adrenal rush. It was a ridiculous comes the pickup that matched the out for it. I am not detailed. The routine call, a drunk at a mini-mart. description. I thought, “Oh crap, they investigation is meticulous and In that situation, you just talk the guy taught us how to do felony stops from tedious. Look at the Carnation case. into the car and take him to detox. behind a vehicle, not approaching That family was murdered in 2007 I thought I was being very cool and from the front.” I thought over the and the case is still ongoing. persuasive, but he pulled back and important fundamentals slowly.

RA When you were a police officer, did you ever encounter threatening situations?

SR Many times. One of the most dramatic incidents happened very early in my career. We didn’t have fast

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punched me in the head. I never felt the pain. The first thing that went through my mind was, “you son of a b***.” Then I got the adrenaline rush.

I did not revert back to any of my academy training, since at that time, that kind of training wasn’t good for women without upper body strength.

I thought, “I need to get this a-hole on the ground.” It was the late ’70s so he had a nice head of hair. I dragged him by the hair down to the ground.

I kicked him in the crotch as I hard as I could. As soon as he went down, I did that thing with my arm, “Yes!” I had half a second of feeling glory; he had both of his arms under him. I had no idea if he had a knife or gun.

But I got him cuffed. My sergeant, “Iron Mike” Connelley, an old-school Irish cop, did a four-wheel drift into the parking lot, probably 100 mph. He told me later that night, “You were standing there with the biggest smile on your face, and blood dripping from both hands – I knew you were a keeper.”

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I never felt pain, because of the adrenaline. My hands hurt later from the asphalt. But it was worth every bit of the pain. Iron Mike told everyone, so everyone soon knew. It built up my confidence, enabling me to handle those two armed robbery suspects.

RA How has crime changed during the course of your career, especially in regards to gang violence?

SR Between 1979 and today, the volume of crime has gone down, but the level of violence in fewer crimes has gone up. The public has a skewed perception of crime. Back then, driveby shootings were rarely heard of. I used to talk to parent groups about them. Once our society moved to drive-through stuff, things became less personal and the violence went up. It may be related to increased substance abuse, since there is the need to make money to afford the substances. When you get to gang violence, it is less about money, it’s more about the typical testosterone-

driven fighting of young men. Half or three quarters of violence in the gang unit is over typical disputes like girlfriends. They’d rather shoot somebody rather than beat the crap out of them.

RA Do you have any favorite guns?

SR I still love my old .357 revolver. My oldest son, who is an engineer, is a gun nut. He likes them because of the mechanical aspect. He has all kinds of guns and does his own reloading.

RA Any reflections on being a woman in the law enforcement industry? Any advice for women considering a law enforcement career, and rising up in the ranks?

SR In the early years, the only disadvantage was being under the microscope, since I was such a novelty. That was difficult. Every mistake was amplified. On the converse side, the male officers didn’t see it as a big deal. On the positive side, it also opened doors for me.

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People would want to talk to me, get my point of view, because they were curious. A guy with my average police skills wouldn’t have the same opportunities. I consider myself a very average cop. I have really come into my own in positions of leadership, because that is a different skill set. I am very lucky I had the opportunity to work as an officer in the street to learn the profession, but I feel I’m better in leadership.

RA Do you have any key tips for women to stay safe from crime, besides carrying concealed?

SR Plan ahead, don’t be stupid.

Ninety-nine percent of the jams that women get into can be avoided by planning ahead. Always have a cell phone, especially if going to a location where there might be risk. When you dial 911, even in rural areas you can get help pretty fast. If you don’t know how to use a gun, and are not 100 percent sure that you could use it, don’t rely on it.

RA You got rid of the “boot camp” atmosphere at the police academy, which seems like a good move to me, although my background is as a prosecutor so I’m by no means an expert there. A couple of recruits have spoke glowingly of the change. How is it working out?

SR It has been an interesting journey.

This is not me trying to infuse my political views on the academy. It goes back to pragmatism. Police officers operate independently and they make decisions. It’s common sense. We need to train police officers to be independent-thinking leaders. We have a lot of material in the training, 720 hours. I have learned about training and how the human brain learns. When you impose article stress, you interfere with the learning process. There is a lot of stress at the academy, but it is imposed at the right level.

I discovered there were some people at the academy on power trips. Our society puts such a high value on being tough and viewing police as soldiers – yet the roles are completely different. I’ve gotten support and letters from all over the country, and lots within the state.

I have tremendous support from military veterans; the ones who have seen combat completely understand that it makes sense for police officers.

I admire really great cops, and all the ones I’ve worked with over 35 years are not the macho, chest-beating cops. Instead, they show up on the scene and calm things down.

The informal class leader of the first class cadets take is a decorated military veteran and Black Hawk helicopter pilot in his late 30s. My first reaction was this was going to be awful. I asked him about the philosophical change and whether he could understand it, and I gave him my whole spiel. He responded, “Ma’am, if I wanted to continue being a soldier I would have continued staying in the military.” I could not have found a better informal leader for the first class who truly understands the philosophy. WSJ westernshootingjournal.com 73

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HOW TO HUNT MOOSE WITH A TODDLER AND WHILE PREGNANT Hardy Alaska Mother Doesn’t Let Kids Slow Her Down ARTICLE BY CHRISTINE CUNNINGHAM • PHOTOS BY HEATHER WILSON

I

t was the fall of 2010 when Alaskan Heather Wilson, six months pregnant, took off in her Super Cub headed for the Yukon River. Her husband, Paul, flew his floatplane alongside, carrying the couple’s 1½-year-old son, Coal.

Flying the wide-open country was like a homecoming. She had logged hundreds of hours working federal waterfowl surveys over terrain similar to the lakes and marshes, willows and wetlands, winding rivers and sloughs below.

Heather looked for the area they had selected for a camp; she and Paul had seen and shot moose there before, and there were two good lake-landing options. This year, they chose their hunting grounds strategically, given that Heather

Heather Wilson triumphantly bagged her moose, with a child on her hip and one in her belly.

would be carrying Coal and her pregnancy would require easier walking conditions than usual. They were also looking for a place where Coal could walk around, with a good spot for a tent, and enough trees around to hide them. They needed to be far enough away from the main moose areas that they could spot moose with binoculars but not spook them – if there was one variable Heather could count on, it was that with Coal, they were going to be loud.

After a simple dinner, prepared on the camp stove, they crawled into their tent. Coal slept between them, snuggling against whomever was closest all night.

That next morning, frost brimmed sharply on the low vegetation around the tent, a perfect morning for the hunt on the ground. Heather and Paul woke up before Coal and moved carefully and quietly as they made coffee and organized their packs and gear. They had done most of this the night before to minimize any fumbling around in the dark which would risk waking Coal.

Paul carried a pack with most of the bulky heavy items – game bags, saws, knives, and water. Heather carried Coal on her back in a light pack. Coal enjoyed riding in the pack, and tolerated the ear muffs he was used to wearing from riding in the plane. Heather attached two fanny packs to her hip belt, which she loaded up with supplies and ammo. She filled her jacket pockets with snacks, diapers, and milk, and had rigged up a small tab on her shoulder strap to hold her rifle in place while they walked.

The walking motion kept Coal asleep and the ear protection – intended to protect his ears from the sound of gunfire – had the added benefit of keeping things quiet for him as they walked. He fell asleep quickly, only waking up when they stopped to call.

They had walked for a little over an hour along the side of lakes or game trails, and Coal was still sleeping.

Paul began his cow calling, and, in very little time, Heather could hear raking. For half an hour, they listened to the guttural responses from bulls westernshootingjournal.com 75

and debated whether they should go into the marsh – the ground was wet with lots of tussocks that would make carrying hindquarters difficult. But in a few moments, the decision was made for them. Coal woke up screaming.

THE COUPLE LOOKED AT EACH OTHER – they both knew the bulls were now long gone. By the time they got to another place, there was every bit of a chance the same thing would happen again. Heather knew that the sole purpose of flying all the way out into the wilderness was not to prove that a baby makes noise in the morning, it was how to accommodate that fact that she had to solve.

Quitting wasn’t an option, and Heather was determined to make it work with Coal along. They had committed to trying for at least four days. Paul had a moose tag in another area, but they hadn’t seen many moose there. Heather had a subsistence tag for the area they were in, and she pushed to fill her tag first,

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Coal poses with his mom’s Alaska bull moose.

since they had seen plenty of moose in the area and there was a higher probability of using her tag to put meat on the table. Her subsistence tag encouraged shooting “the first bull you see,” since it required a hunter to destroy any “trophy value” in the antlers by cutting them in half, whilst Paul’s “trophy” tag allowed the harvest of a moose with antlers of trophy proportions. “You can’t eat the antlers,” Heather thought.

After the second incident of Coal spooking the moose away, Paul suggested that they split up; he would stay in camp with Coal, and Heather would go out and shoot a moose on her own. He would come out only after

he heard shots. They talked about it at length and, in the end, decided to reserve it as an option, but to try at least one more day with Coal on Heather’s back. It was important to Heather to have everyone together, participating in all aspects. They had come as a family, and they would succeed or fail as a family. She also thought it was wiser to stay together, in terms of having a backup if something went wrong.

THE THIRD MORNING, THEY AWOKE in the dark to the sound of a bull raking his antlers in the brush near camp. The sound came through the dense fog, like a foot dragging in a graveyard.

They were standing side by side, motioning with hand signals, trying to pinpoint the direction of the sounds.

Coal was still asleep in the tent. Paul motioned for her to grab a gun and check it out.

“Maybe he’ll come out and you can shoot him from camp,” Paul whispered.

“Maybe,” Heather said.

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They stood as still as possible, holding their breath and straining to hear the bull. They sensed his presence 50 to 100 feet away. He was just behind their camp. “Please don’t wake up,” Heather thought. Just then, Coal woke up and let out a loud cry. At first the moose replied to Coal’s wail, as if it was a strange cow call. Then they could hear the moose running off through the brush, still cloaked in the dense fog. “Maybe this is why people don’t bring kids on hunts,” Heather thought. They were all frustrated, and Paul looked at Heather as if to say, “Are we wasting our time here?”

Every moose within 10 miles had probably heard Coal’s screaming. But Heather also knew that the area was teaming with moose. In the overall scheme of a moose’s existence it was hardly a memorable occasion. They regrouped, fixed a cup of coffee while changing and consoling Coal, and decided to go a different direction – an option they had discussed the night before. “What do we have to

lose?” Heather said. Paul’s expression conveyed that he could think of a few answers to that question, but he agreed that they should try.

They fed Coal breakfast, dressed him in his warm gear, put him in Heather’s pack, and started walking in the new direction. The fog had not yet lifted as they reached the edge of a meadow. They stopped, listened, and could hear sucking noises made by a moose somewhere in the distance as it lifted its feet in the marsh. Paul gave a loud cow call, followed by Heather raking with an old scapula.

They waited. They could hear raking in response. They waited a bit more to see if he would come closer before deciding to stalk their way to an island of trees in the middle for cover.

The dense fog made it possible for them to get across the open area unseen, and Coal seemed content in the pack, sleeping with his ear muffs turned off to sound.

Heather moved as stealthily as she could, her senses on edge with

the fear that as soon as she stopped, Coal would wake up. But he didn’t.

Paul called again and got a response.

They were much closer now. The bull grunted and raked from 100 yards away. They stood stock-still and waited patiently, hoping for a window in the fog that would allow a glimpse of the bull before he saw them.

Heather positioned herself in front of the trees by a small willow bush. Coal was still with her in the pack, while Paul stayed behind the trees and gave one more grunt on the call.

Heather still couldn’t see the bull, but as the heat from the morning sun began to penetrate through the fog, there was a perfect moment when the bull suddenly appeared out of the fog, looking for the cow he had heard earlier. He stopped and turned toward her. Heather motioned to Paul that she had the bull in sight.

Paul was behind the trees, a few yards away, and both her children were on her person. “Take him Wilson,” she could hear Paul whisper.

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HEATHER HAD HELD THE RIFLE UP to her shoulder in the direction of where she had heard the bull raking so that, as soon as she saw him, she would be ready. She made sure Coal’s head was tilted to her left side, braced her legs, leaned into it, and shot. The bull was 75 yards away and it was a clean shot to the vitals. It was the first time Heather had heard and seen her bullet hit. She could see the entry wound in her scope. The bull reeled around, and she shot again, hitting the other side, this time a little higher at the top of the shoulder. She stood steady, ready to take another shot or mark wherever he moved to next, but he fell right where he was.

Coal had not been awakened after two shots, and Heather approached the bull with Coal still sleeping. She bent down to make sure the moose was dead before she and Paul started to get things out for butchering, and figuring how to lay out the tarps. It wasn’t until she was bending over to start butchering the animal that Coal

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woke up.

Heather carried smaller loads by placing Coal on the front of her person and carrying the meat in a frame pack on her back. It took some repositioning to get him in a comfortable spot with her pregnant belly, but it worked. She had an evenly-weighted load, front and back, and as long as the backpack was placed on her hips and shoulders, and she had Paul to help her stand, she knew she was capable of helping with the dozen or so trips they would make to the plane. Paul watched as she loaded her pack – he would have to admit that his wife was determined and had pulled off something remarkable, but he also had to draw the line somewhere, “I don’t want you carrying hindquarters pregnant,” he said. Heather smiled.

Heather could have stayed home; she knew Paul was perfectly capable of bringing home the family’s winter meat and, of course, that would have been the safest choice. But Heather wasn’t built that way, never had

been, and probably never would be. She had given it a lot of thought and considered the “conventional wisdom” that would prohibit her participation, but her life had never been structured like that. Before this hunt had ever started, she had decided to incorporate her children into everything she did in life.

With enough planning, energy and motivation she could find a way to share most, if not all, her experiences with her kids, including them in as much as possible. Even if their participation meant considering more options than she had ever had to consider before, and even if her kids were too young to really take it all in, she would tell them about it later. She would tell them that she didn’t leave them behind; they were always there with her and a part of it all. WSJ Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the author’s book Women Hunting Alaska, available through Tonyruss.com and Amazon.

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ONE GIRL’S FORAY INTO THE SHOOTING SPORTS

Advancing From 4-H To The Challenges Of Collegiate Shooting ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY RUTHANNE CONNER

G

rowing up in rural America, north of Spokane, Wash., introduced me to many unique and special opportunities in life, not the least of which is rifle shooting.

I started shooting through cowboy action (Single Action Shooting Society) and 4-H clubs. While in 4-H, I joined a club that focused on shooting primarily pump or CO2powered pellet rifles. As a club, we learned how to shoot in threeposition air rifle competitions. As our club developed, we were able to buy precision air rifles, target .22 smallbore rifles, shooting coats, and other needed equipment with NRA grants. Because of this, I was able to improve and take my shooting skills to higher levels.

Through the encouragement and counsel of influential coaches, I began to pursue precision shooting in the disciplines of air rifle and smallbore.

One of my coaches told me that I could get scholarship money if I could shot collegiately. He informed me of important upcoming junior matches and potential universities to attend.

He gave me tips on how to become a better marksman, and helped me acquire the guns and equipment I needed to participate and improve in this sport.

I competed throughout high school at local, state, and national matches. Becoming a member of the NRA, USA Shooting, and the Washington State Rifle and Pistol Association helped enable me to participate in most junior matches.

When I approached completion of high school, I started to pursue the prospect of shooting in college.

After a series of interesting events and searching for the university and

Ruthanne Conner with her Walther air rifle at the University of North Georgia.

team that I was going to be a part of, God led to me to a perfect fit.

In August of 2013, I knew that God wanted me to go to the University of North Georgia (UNG), so I signed a letter of intent stating that I committed to attend and shoot on their rifle team. Knowing that I was in God’s will, I left my rural community in northeast Washington for the hills of the Appalachians with confidence.

Having met only a handful of people, I began my journey as a collegiate shooter in a far away place.

UNG IS SMALL, FRIENDLY AND BEAUTIFUL. Soon I met many people and started developing wonderful friendships.

There were struggles though. I had never been away from my parents for any great length of time, nor had I been confronted with such an onslaught of differing worldviews and conflicting values. Processing and responding to the actions of others and the material I was studying while pursuing a degree in English

education was a daily struggle.

At UNG, I have the privilege of being a part of a coed NCAA rifle team. I received an out-of-state waiver on my tuition and a $1,000 scholarship for my participation on the team. Our team practices four days a week and works out three days a week. NCAA rifle teams compete in 60-shot three-position (kneeling, prone, and standing) precision-.22 smallbore rifle, and 60-shot standingprecision air rifle (.177 caliber). Both of these events are shot indoors at 50 and 33 feet respectively. We often travel to compete at other colleges, and our team is a part of the Southeastern Air Rifle Conference.

In this last season, we competed in13 matches both at home and away.

Our season begins in September and continues into March with the exception of school holidays and the time surrounding school finals.

Breaking a school record at almost every match, our team continued to improve this year. We placed westernshootingjournal.com 83

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Ruthanne Conner at the 2013 USA National Championships at Fort Benning. She is shooting a .22 smallbore in the prone position at 50 meters.

second in our conference, earning the title of Most Improved Team, and we had the most improved player in the conference as well. A

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team member and myself earned the opportunity to shoot in conference championship finals, going in as first and second place, and coming out

sixth and fourth. This was a very special opportunity for me, because I had never before shot in a final. A final is a shoot-off between the top eight marksmen of the match, or in our case the conference. The final determines, through a process of elimination, first through eighth place.

Shooting on a NCAA rifle team is an exciting opportunity that has opened doors of personal growth.

Fortunately, God has helped me to develop character and relationships through the team, classes, and dorm life which will prepare me for future situations. With confidence I can say that, though the year has held its share of struggles, the growth and learning have been worth it all. I look forward to improving in rifle marksmanship and gleaning the beautiful takeaways from future classes, situations, and interactions. WSJ

Editor’s note: For more on what Conner’s UNG rifle team accomplished this year, visit ungathletics.com/sports/Rifle/index.

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TODAY’S MODERN W Behind The Camera With Anson Mount, Star Of Hell On Wheels ARTICLE BY FRANK JARDIM

I

had the pleasure of talking with Anson Mount, who plays Cullen Bohannon on AMC Network’s Hell On Wheels.

The show is about the building of the transcontinental railroad right after the Civil War, but unlike Mount’s former Confederate soldier who is seeking revenge on the Union soldiers who killed his family I found the actor to be personable, engaging, impressively perceptive and very good humored.

up in the country. The woods were my playground. We lived right on Highway 70, which as you may know is a straight shot coast to coast. If you crossed over the highway, there was just miles and miles of forest. My parents taught me to look both ways before you cross the highway, but once you get in the forest, you’re safe. It was a great way to grow up. Joining the Boy Scouts was a great decision. I first learned riflery in the Boy Scouts.

with everything else going on. It’s kind of like rock climbing. You can’t kinda rock climb. You have to commit. You can’t kinda deer hunt. You’re either all in or it’s nothing. Fishing was my go-to. In my house, we grew up with a gun in every corner of the living room and I’m not exaggerating! Neither me nor any of my friends ever touched any of those guns, because we knew it would be our ass if we did. That was the way it was.

FRANK JARDIM What was it like as a kid in the 1970s growing up in the South?

ANSON MOUNT It was great, really great.

I had a fantastic childhood growing

FJ Did you and your folks hunt?

AM Yes, mostly squirrel and turkey.

I never really got into deer hunting, mostly because I never had time for it

FJ How old were you when you learned to shoot?

AM I started begging for an air rifle when I was 9. My mom had let me pop

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Cast members of Hell on Wheels include (from left to right) Robin McLeavy as Eva, Christopher Heyerdahl as The Swede, Phil Burke as Mickey McGinnes, Chelah Horsdal as Maggie Palmer, Colm Meaney as Thomas “Doc” Durant, Mackenzie Porter as Naomi, Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannon, Jennifer Ferrin as Louise Ellison, Jake Weber as John Campbell, Tayden Marks as Ezra, Kasha Kropinski as Ruth and Dohn Norwood as Psalms. (JAMES MINCHIN III/AMC)

WESTERN TV SHOW off a couple of shots on the .22, and that’s what got me salivating. In terms of having my own gun, they started me on an air rifle on my 10th birthday.

As soon as it became time for my older friends to take me out hunting – just us kids – my mother made me take the hunter safety course. I took the hunter safety course when I was 14 and scored a 99.

FJ What are your observations on the blackpowder-era firearms on the Hell On Wheels set?

AM They are real guns. It doesn’t matter if we are doing an episode where there’s no shooting at all, or

if I’m coming back from lunch and strapping on the gun; every time the props man hands me a gun, he tells me “This is a cold gun,” and he shows me. It’s a ritual you have on film and television sets that is very, very serious. As we saw from Brandon Lee’s tragic death … that was a series of seven or eight things that all went wrong in a row. If any one of those things had not happened, he would be alive today. We take it very seriously, especially when you’re working with blackpowder firearms – a charge can get left in there.

Nobody else handles my guns but me and props.

FJ Here’s a fan question. You starred in the movie Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden, and on Hell on Wheels, you fight with “the Swede.”

Would it be more gratifying to kill the Swede than Osama Bin Laden?

AM [Laughs.] Well, are we talking about killing bin Laden in a movie?

FJ Yes. AM That’s a very different thing.

[Laughs.] We have to make that very clear. I feel very honored to play someone I’ve never met who served his country in that way. I can only hope that we caught a fraction of the heroism involved by those Navy westernshootingjournal.com 89

SEALs and all-American Special Forces. The irony of having that be the climax of a movie is that from the time they took position in the helicopters over the compound to the time bin Laden was dead, it was something ridiculous, like not even a minute. It was like 39 seconds or so. In making a movie, your writers want to restructure everything for that ultimate climax, and stuff like that is unfortunate. But I feel very honored to have been a part of portraying that story … regardless of how well we did. And you know, the Swede is a fictional character and we don’t even know which way we are going to go with the story. You kind of write as you go. Personally, I really like working with Chris Heyerdahl, so I really hope he doesn’t die. We have so much fun playing off each other. He’s a hoot.

FJ You’ve mentioned that Clint Eastwood and the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns were favorites of yours growing up. What about John Wayne and The Lone Ranger?

AM We had The Lone Ranger syndicated when I was kid. I watched it when I was quite young, but I eventually grew out of it. But look, The Lone Ranger is the reason my folks bought me a holster for my cap gun, you know, and John Wayne … I loved Rio Bravo and Stage Coach. He had an amazing quality, but I see a lot more versatility and growth in someone like Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef. I loved Lee Van Cleef. What an amazing actor that guy was.

You can see the transition from the popcorn Westerns if you watch the movies of Budd Boetticher. They have this bright, shiny, perfect leading man quality, and then you have this pure evil descend into the movie. It goes so dark. And then you get to Sergio Leone and nobody gets off the hook.

You don’t have white hats and black hats anymore. You have grey hats in Sergio Leone films. That’s why I love Sergio Leone. Everybody is complex and conflicted.

FJ What are your top five Westerns?

of history that was very close. It was not unthinkable that society could collapse or that things could not work.

Nowadays, we have become pampered.

So now we have these dystopian movies like Hunger Games and Divergent. They’re dystopian, but they manage to survive by forming a thing teens recognize, which is social cliques.

That sort of lack of civil structure or dystopia to kids now is science fiction.

They can’t imagine it every happening so they call it science fiction. I think that’s a bit of a sheltered idea. All these genres are a lot more closely related than most people think.

Though he plays a former Confederate soldier on Hell on Wheels, actor Anson Mount’s dream roll is to play pre-Civil War abolitionist John Brown. (CHRIS LARGE/AMC)

AM That is an obscenely unfair question. [Laughs.] That’s horrible. I can give you five Westerns off the top of my head that I like in no particular order: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Unforgiven, Duck You Sucker, Once Upon A Time In The West, My Darling Clementine. I could keep going. I left out The Magnificent Seven.

There are so many great Westerns out there.

FJ You’ve said some unique things about the Western film genre comparing it to the zombie apocalypse genre. When I heard that, I was completely embarrassed I’d never thought of it before.

AM It’s not a very nuanced comparison.

It’s a broad comparison. It’s probably a bigger part of the zombie apocalypse film than the Western. There’s an aspect of the Western where we wonder if our gut would get us through in a place of lawlessness. I find it interesting that the zombie apocalypse stuff started really in the ’70s right after Vietnam. I find it interesting that our generation finds escapism into that sort of dark night of the soul; lack of civil structure, every man for himself kind of thing … but to our parents and our parents’ parents, that was a piece

90 Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

FJ Westerns are precivilization survival on the frontier and the zombie apocalypse is postcivilization survival.

AM Yeah.

FJ Would you ever do a zombie apocalypse movie?

AM Oh, hell yeah. Absolutely. You know what I’d really like to remake?

It’s not really a zombie movie per se, but it is a really interesting take on American society. It’s John Carpenter’s They Live. I really want to remake it. It deserves to be remade.

FJ Is there some historic character you’d like to recreate if you get the chance?

AM Yes. I’m probably 10 years too young to play John Brown, the famous abolitionist of the 1800s. I’ve heard there are a couple of John Brown projects kicking around, and it’s making me very scared that someone is going to do it first … but I’ll do it somehow, I don’t know.

FJ Anybody else you’d love to play?

AM I really want to play Rasputin. I’ve never seen that story done here. The end of Rasputin’s life within the last Russian royal dynasty? You couldn’t write that stuff.

FJ I suspect that this is just a thinly veiled attempt to keep your beard.

AM Yes. [Laughs.] I’d have to have a similar look, wouldn’t I? WSJ

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THE GOLDEN AGE OF WESTERNS Most of the Baby Boomer generation was raised during the golden age of television, a time when the Western was clearly an American favorite. During the 1950s and ’60s, over two dozen Westerns were airing during primetime.

They were part of the American lifestyle. Kids toted Daisy Red Ryder Carbines and Hubley Cowboy Cap Guns with studded leather holsters, Woody-style cowboy hat perched askew on their heads, and maybe a lawman badge pinned to their chests. Radio was rich with the songs of Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens – even now we can hear Marty Robbins singing “El Paso.” As Americans surged into the Sunbelt states, Western books, paperbacks and pulp magazines dominated the bookshelves.

Against this backdrop, the TV Western flourished.

It wasn’t just about Cowboys and Indians, either.

Controversial lines were being crossed. Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Bonanza, The Rifleman and others broke new ground and explored powerful social themes, including racial inequality, single parenthood, alcoholism, honor or dishonor, war crimes, and Native American rights.

Yet it was also about the American heritage of honest hard work, helping your neighbors, righting wrongs and injustices. History was relived and revisited with Daniel

Boone and Davy Crockett. There was light fare and laughs with Maverick and The Wild Wild West. We had the singing cowboys, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, and megastars came prancing in on horseback – Steve McQueen in Wanted Dead or Alive, and our favorite rover, Clint Eastwood, with Rawhide.

Westerns crossed over generations. Gunsmoke ran for a record 20 years and lives on in syndication. Others, like Bonanza, had long runs and high ratings. Spin-offs followed, and the influence of the classic theme can be found throughout TV now and will be forever to come.

Clayton Moore, known to us as The Lone Ranger, had this to say from his biography, I Was That Masked Man: “But I can’t help but long for a real return to the Western.

Westerns are true Americana. They tell of the struggles of our ancestors who came West seeking new homes, new ways of living, freedom and the promise of a bright future.

The story of the West is inspiring and terrible, idealistic and bloody, sublime and atrocious. It embodies this country’s best and worst characteristics. The good parts of the story inspire us. The bad parts warn us of what we have to do to make things better.”

Here then is a pictorial look back at the richest vein of TV’s golden age, the Western.

c

s s The Rifleman starred Chuck Connors (right) as single widowed father Lucas McCain raising his young son in the fictional town of North Fork, in the New Mexico territory. McCain bore a uniquely modified Winchester 1892 oversized lever-action rifle that provided him with rapidfire action. This highly popular Western ran from 1958 to 1963. (ABC TELEVISION) Highlighting the firepower of its lineup of Western-themed TV stars, Warner Brothers Studios staged this group shot of its quickdraws, including James Garner as Bret Maverick (third from right in image at left), as well as lead actors from Sugarfoot, Lawman, Bronco and Colt. 45. (ABC TELEVISION)

s s ABC’s Western The Big Valley starred Barbara Stanwyck, and was unusual (in its day) for portraying the lead as an independent and successful woman. The drama essentially revolved around Stanwyck as a wealthy widowed ranch owner, her three strongwilled son’s Nick, Jarrod and Heath as well as daughter Audra. The show ran from 1965 through 1969.

(HELEN FERGUSON PUBLIC RELATIONS)

s s Maverick featured James Garner and Jack Kelly as gambling brothers Bret and Bart Maverick who wandered the Old West looking for a card game or easy money.

The tone of the series was generally comedic. Several additional Mavericks, including Roger Moore, were added throughout the show’s five-year run from 1957 through 1962. (WARNER BROTHERS TELEVISION)

THE MAN WITH NO NAME REVEALED The Virginian’s James Drury Discusses Life On The Popular Western ARTICLE BY RACHEL ALEXANDER • PHOTOS BY JAMES DRURY

James Drury was told on sets to get on a horse with a gun and don’t get off.

The Virginian was a Western TV show that ran from 1962 to 1971. It was based on the 1902 Owen Wister novel The Virginian, A Horseman of the Plains. The star was the foreman of the Shiloh Ranch, played by James Drury. He was known only as The Virginian, the man with no name. The series circled around the foreman’s quest to maintain an orderly lifestyle at Shiloh. It was set in Medicine Bow, Wyo., around the year 1898. The Shiloh ranch was named after the twoday American Civil War battle of Shiloh, Tenn.

The Virginian ran for nine seasons; it was television’s third-longest-running Western after Bonanza and Gunsmoke. Towards the end of its run, spaghetti Westerns were becoming popular.

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Considered a classic golden age Western, Rawhide introduced us to Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates (left). The story of Texas cowboys herding 3,000 head of cattle north won numerous awards from 1959 to 1966. The long-running series featured hundreds of popular actors from the era, and strong scripts with an occasional hint of the macabre. (CBS TELEVISION) Wagon Train featured stories revolving around passengers traveling westward. Ward Bond was Wagonmaster Major Seth Adams. After he passed away in 1960, John McIntire took up the reins.

Robert Horton was scout Flint McCullough. Wagon Train ran from 1957 to 1965, and at one point was the topranked show in the ratings.

(ABC TELEVISION)

Drury grew up on a ranch in Salem, Ore., and moved to Houston, Texas in 1974. Besides The Virginian, he appeared on Walker Texas Ranger, Kung Fu, The Red Skelton Show, Perry Mason, Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Forbidden Planet and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1991, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

I had an opportunity to talk to him about the show, and discovered that he is a real authentic Old West individual.

RACHEL ALEXANDER Did you grow up shooting or hunting on the ranch where you lived?

JAMES DRURY I did, both, my first .3030 Winchester when I was 6 years old. My grandfather taught me how to shoot. I fell down on my butt with the first shot. I learned to brace myself with the second shot. I’ve been a natural shooter all my life. My dad was a professor at NYU and my mother took courses there and married the professor. He would come back during the summer and holidays. They had a successful marriage living like that for over 50 years, even though my dad was never there in the wintertime.

Grandfather helped me with

woodcraft and doing things in the countryside. I based the character of The Virginian on him. He was raised in Missouri and came west on the wagon train when he was 15 or 16.

When he was 12, he was driving a 20-mule team in the coal mines of Missouri. Nowadays, I don’t know of anyone who’s qualified to drive a 20mule team. That’s the kind of a man he was, a working man his whole life; cowboy, rancher, he did everything on the land.

RA How did you get into acting? Was that due to your mother and acting in a children’s theater group play at age 8?

JD I spent some of my boyhood in New York during the wintertime. I think my mother was an extra in a couple of silent movies. She always wanted to be an actress and wanted my brother and I to be actors. I went down and auditioned for the part of King Herod.

I wasn’t that interested, she had to boot me onto the stage. But I knew my lines and my march. At the end, people clapped. That encouraged me, so I made a lifelong decision to be an actor. I started studying acting in junior high and high school, and majored in it at NYU. I went to Southern California and signed a movie contract

with MGM, a real Cinderella story.

Blackboard Jungle was my first movie.

I said just two words: “Thank you.”

Mostly they looked at me and said “Here’s a gun, get on the horse and don’t get off.” I spent most of my acting career on a horse!

RA How did you end up doing Western movies and shows?

JD I have the skills to do Westerns.

I knew my way around a horse and I’m firearm savvy. We were a closeknit unit back then; there were a few actors and directors who appeared in all the Westerns. I didn’t have to keep auditioning since they knew me.

Nowadays, you have to read every time. You have to memorize the script because you can’t act without memorizing it.

RA What was it like working on The Virginian?

JD It was wonderful. We had all the resources that we needed. We had a tremendous advantage because we were the first and only 90-minute show with continuing characters, Western or otherwise. Our writers had the chance to write big juicy guest roles for men or women. Actors would walk over glass to get those

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s s Bounty hunter Steve McQueen was featured for three seasons (1958-1961) on Wanted: Dead or Alive. Unique to the show was McQueen’s Mare’s leg, a shortened Winchester 1892 carbine. This series is often credited with helping to launch McQueen’s career in “cool.” (CBS TELEVISION)

JD It’s just the nature of the job. You can’t help but be excited. I usually got to the studio about 6 a.m., and usually got out of there around 9 or 10 p.m. . And then I had to learn my lines for the next day, if I had any time at all.

parts, like George C. Scott, Robert Redford, Barry Sullivan, Bette Davis, and Joan Crawford. Every day, I’d go down to work and know I would work with somebody tremendous.

It brought our level of acting up; we had to bring our A-plus game. I never had a bad day on The Virginian. If someone told me that I’d grow up to do that in high school, I would have told them they were crazy.

RA I saw the immense amount of work you had to do on the show; besides having a photographic memory, how did you endure it?

RA Did you carry a real Colt .45 on the show, or was it a replica? Any other types of guns on the show?

JD It was real and I did a lot of shooting with it. All of my handguns are highly modified for fast draw and accuracy.

I traveled 10,000 miles last year attending events, such as horse shows and benefits for boy scouts.

RA Any funny or embarrassing memories from the show?

JD The Westerns they make these days are designed to make people hate Westerns. Deadwood – the language was way more foul than it needed to be. I may use foul language, but not on the Westerns I played in. There’s nobody to root for when you do that.

Today’s movies have massive rounds out of automatic weapons yet nobody gets a scratch. They’re fake. The shooter never hits anything, couldn’t hit the barn with a hat. The truth is, a .45 would chew up a fence.

RA It was such a wholesome show. Was there ever anything controversial?

JD At the time, a lot of our scripts were controversial. Once every few shows I’d have a bad guy come to town and I’d have to shoot him.

RA How was The Virginian different than Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West and other Western shows of that era?

JD I appeared at the Weird West Fest and Steam Punk World’s Fair recently.

The Wild Wild West covered the era when steam power was starting. It was the steam age. Those people celebrate the era; they make their own costumes and have competitions.

Switches and gauges are sewn into the fabric, so they look like a man inside a machine. It’s phenomenal. The women dress in Gay ’90s outfits with extremely obvious cleavage. Some of them actually have steam coming out of their shoulders. It was an era that went beyond what we did.

Bonanza and Rawhide took place during our same period. Some had a different slant. Jim Garner of Warner Brothers did a Western, Maverick.

Mel Gibson did a motion picture version of it somewhat recently. The movie Support Your Local Sheriff had

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Gunsmoke is nearly every Western viewer’s perennial favorite. On the radio for nine years and for 20 more years (635 episodes) on CBS, the show centered around Dodge City’s Marshall Matt Dillion, played by James Arness (left, standing at right) with a supporting cast including Doc Adams and Dillion’s longsuffering Miss Kitty. Sidekicks through the years included Chester, Festus, Quint, Thad and Newly O’Brian. After cancellation, the series spun out five more Gunsmoke TV movies. (CBS TELEVISION) Perhaps no real-life Western lawman has seen as much screen time as Wyatt Earp.

Hugh O’Brian took a turn at playing Earp from 1955 through 1961 in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Notably, Earp was armed with a Buntline Special, a pistol with a 12-inch barrel.

(ABC TELEVISION)

comedy in it.

The Viriginian was designed to be an adult show. The girl always had to die at the last minute, so I could be involved with another lady in the next show. There were lots of love stories.

RA Any Western shows or movies you particularly enjoy today?

JD Open Range was a really good Western, with Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner. I think the recent Lone Ranger was done well.

RA Any advice you’d give you folks interested in getting into acting?

JD It’s a very difficult profession, but it’s very, very rewarding. The rewards that you remember from your acting career are not financial. I’ve made a lot of money acting, but I’ve never acted for money. You’ve gotta love it, and do it better than anyone. Do it right, and it is the most gratifying feeling. Study it and work on the stage as much as they can. Of course, acting in plays is not very good training for motion picture acting. I played the Montgomery Clift role in From Here to Eternity, and I ranted and raved around the stage –it was terrible. If you raise your eyebrow, it goes up 10 feet on the big screen.

You need slight movements. Some

of the greatest close-ups are where the actor does nothing. The camera captures the truth in his eyes. It’s easy to learn the difference.

RA You’ve been a regular participant in the shooting sports, including skeet, trap and cowboy shooting.

You’ve said, “Cowboy action shooting is the best way I know to promote our Second Amendment rights. It teaches all kinds of people, men and women, young and old, to handle firearms and shoot safely and responsibly. We share a sense of history and connection with the Old West.” What is your favorite kind of shooting?

JD I love to shoot skeet, some trap. I look forward to more skeet shooting. I love BB gun shooting. For five dollars you can shoot a bunch. Put your eye on the target, put the gun to your eye and pull the trigger. We started with a Coke can, then moved up to shotguns, then .45s, .38s and .22s, then BBs. I can now shoot 18 BBs at 18 feet and never miss. It brings your marksmanship way above what you have ever done. My accuracy with those weapons has increased 300-fold since I started BB gun shooting.

RA Any favorite guns you enjoy

shooting?

JD In the movie King Solomon’s Mines, I carried a .370 caliber. It was an elephant gun, designed to bring down elephants and rhinos. The Marlin .45-70 is another big caliber I like. For long-range shooting, I prefer a lever action with iron sites. I’m partial to Ruger, Remington, Winchester, S&W, Colt, and Marlin. I just haven’t shot the others. I like guns period! I have a pair of Colt army revolvers that were supposed to have been owned by the foreman of the Easter Egg Ranch in Wyoming when he was writing The Virginian. They were presented to me

by Red Skelton at the studio in NBC. RA Where can folks catch you?

Where do you make public appearances around the country? I see there are a few upcoming events posted on your website.

JD I do most of my travelling in the summertime. Photos with me are free.

RA What are you up to these days, besides oil and gas and other business opportunities in Texas?

JD I’m pretty much retired from business. I’m open to acting opportunities and doing personal appearances. WSJ

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s Running from 1949 through 1957, early in the golden age of TV Westerns, The Lone Ranger told the story of the soul survivor of a group of six Texas Rangers who were ambushed. Discovered badly injured by Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s black mask was to hide his identity and honor his fallen brothers. Tonto called the Lone Ranger “Kemo sabe” meaning “faithful friend.” The show is also remembered for a fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and the hearty call of “Hi Yo Silver!

Away!” Between his faithful companions, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early days of the West. (ABC TELEVISION)

s

REFLECTIONS FROM THE BIG VALLEY’S LEE MAJORS On Acting, Farrah Fawcett And Never Retiring

Lee Majors in 1972.

BY BARRY ROGERS • PHOTOS BY WIKIMEDIA

Lee Majors decided to become an actor after suffering a back injury, which sidelined his sports ambitions. After graduating from college, he moved to Los Angeles. From there, his path to superstardom included a year of acting school, and then small roles on television shows like The Alfred Hitchock Hour and Gunsmoke. Majors finally got his first big break on a Western series called The Big Valley. Then he put his cowboy hat back on for The Virginian, which followed not long after. His career continued to soar during the ’70s with The Six Million Dollar Man. We caught up with this superstar by phone to find out more about the man who’s never stopped working.

Lee Majors and Elizabeth Ashley from the televison program The Six Million Dollar Man.

BR I read that The Big Valley was your favorite series to have worked on.

LM Your first show is always your favorite because it got you started in the business. It was all new and exciting.

BR How was it, working on The Six Million Dollar Man?

westernshootingjournal.com 103

LM A lot of hard work, seriously. I didn’t know at the time that it was going to be such a big hit. I did know that it was going to be a family show.

We didn’t do much of the blow ’em up and all the bloody stuff that they do now, even in these video games.

Six Million was OK, but I really enjoyed The Fall Guy. It was written more to my personality, and an easy role for me to play. We tried to put a lot more comedy in it. Six Million was a lot more stern.

BR What kind of life perspective has being famous for 50 years given you?

LM For me, it’s given the perspective of wanting to give back, being friendly, and saying hello to people who recognize you and want a picture. It’s also good to visit people who have less than me.

That’s why charities are important.

BR You’ve also worked in the Dallas area on Walker Texas Ranger. How was that experience?

LM I’m a little upset with Chuck

(Norris), because that’s the only fight I ever lost on television. I was always the hero kind of guy. In the episode I did for him, I had to play a bad sheriff and he beat me up. I’m wanting a rematch [laughs].

BR Let’s go back just a bit. When you were married to Farrah Fawcett, you were both on hit shows at the same time.

Was that level of fame overwhelming?

LM It was at the time. Well, it’s the same today with some very famous couples.

I’m sure it’s difficult for them to go out in public, especially now with the invention of the cell phone cameras.

Everything you do is immediately put on the Internet, so you really have to be careful when you’re out. Back then, it wasn’t quite as bad.

BR How tough was balancing work with your marriage to Farrah?

LM One of the main reasons we didn’t continue our marriage was that at one point, we only saw each other two weeks in an entire year. It was very

tough when you’re both working in different parts of the country.

BR Did you two stay friends after the divorce?

LM Yeah, we stayed friends. I spoke with her many times before her passing. She was trying to get stronger. We were thinking about maybe doing a project together. I would mainly just encourage her to stay strong when we spoke. But unfortunately she succumbed to that unbearable disease.

BR You seem to have always had this persona of someone who’s very grounded.

LM What you see is what you get [laughs].

BR Do you ever plan on retiring?

LM One of my idols was Earnest Borgnine. He passed away at 93, just as he was finishing his last film. I like that idea of continuing to work, and just doing what you love. WSJ

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

INSIDE THE PRIVATE SECURITY WORLD PART II

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So, You Want To Be A Private Investigator? ARTICLE BY FRANK JARDIM • PHOTO BY CANSTOCKPHOTO

eventy-five percent of private investigators (PIs) are employees of security/ investigative service companies, ranging from momand-pop shops like JJK Security up to Pinkerton’s, the granddaddy of all private detective services, which was founded 164 years ago. On average, a full-time PI earns around $48,000 annually but there is the potential to earn much more if you are in the 25 percent of PIs who are self-employed. Your ability as a selfpromoter and business manager are as important as your skill as an investigator here. In addition, if you work solo, your earning ability is limited to the number of clients you can serve effectively. What you charge for your services is governed by the free market. A successful PI will seek clients where the money is.

Where the clients are depends on your specialty, but there are some statistics showing where PIs as a whole have found employment.

Seventy-eight percent have worked for lawyers, 55 percent for private clients, 41 percent for private companies, 37 percent for insurance companies

and 35 percent for corporations.

What types of cases you work on also depends on your specialty.

PI’s are required to be licensed in all states except South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri and Mississippi. Licensing requirements vary. Normally, the fees for those licenses and the associated fingerprinting will run a few hundred dollars.

To use California as an example, applicants must apply at the state’s Bureau of Security and Investigative Services to qualify for a license. An applicant must be at least 18 years old and pass a criminal history background check at the state and FBI level. They must also demonstrate three years of paid experience (6,000 hours) that can be verified in writing by their past employers. A person with a four-year police science or law enforcement degree can qualify with only two years experience.

The experience can be as a civilian or military police officer, insurance adjuster, arson investigator for the fire department, investigator for the public defender’s office or work as an investigator with a licensed PI

or property repossessor. The rather extensive experience requirement almost precludes any 18-year-olds from qualifying.

Finally, California applicants must pass a two-hour multiple-choice test on relevant laws and regulations, civil and criminal liability, handling of evidence, the conduct of undercover surveillance and investigations, and the jargon of the trade.

In order to carry a firearm during the course of your work, which is highly recommended, the successful licensee must get liability insurance and apply for a special permit from the bureau, even if you already possess a concealed weapons permit. This involves getting fingerprinted again and taking and passing both an eighthour course on the powers of arrest and a 14-hour course (eight hours in class and six hours on the range) on the carry and use of firearms. Permits must be renewed every four years, and holders must requalify on the range at least twice a year. Ironically, this is more qualification firing than many police officers do.

The range of cases that PIs do is as varied as their special talents, westernshootingjournal.com 107

and though mainly civil, can include criminal investigations.

On the personal civil side, PIs often investigate martial infidelity, alimony reduction, child custody and recovery, asset checks, background checks, fraud, judgment recovery, identity theft, wrongful death, missing persons, and skip tracing. Corporate investigative work includes insurance claim investigation. arson, international background checks, pre-employment background searches, undercover work to root out internal theft, workers compensation cases, and accident reconstruction. Since a great deal of investigative work can be done through the Internet, PIs need well-refined computer skills.

Cyber investigations can include electronic data discovery, electronic surveillance, computer forensics, and online slander or libel cases.

To be a success, the PI must have a sharp, inquisitive, organized mind and a good memory for detail.

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Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

Personal charm and social skills are critical to obtain both clients and the information they are paying you to find out for them. This is where former police are often at a disadvantage. While sworn law enforcement officers with police powers, they often get accustomed to people cooperating with their investigations because the law compels them. By contrast, nobody has to answer the PIs questions so they must be artful in their information gathering.

The physical requirements vary with the PI’s specialty. A PI may have to stay awake day and night outdoors and operate in a stealthy manner to do surveillance, or participate in searches for stolen property or the bodies of missing persons, or travel far and wide to perform interviews or examine crime scenes.

Unlike a police investigation, a private investigator’s work is private.

The PI answers only to his client and cannot be forced to divulge

information discovered during the course of the investigation, unless a criminal act is discovered. In the latter case, the PI is ethically bound to report the crime. The successful conclusion of a case may require the PI to testify to his findings in court, but he need not answer questions that his client does not want answered.

Naturally, discretion is a trait that all successful PIs share.

The limited scope of this article can only graze the surface of this subject.

For more detailed information check the state licensing agency and the professional organization for PIs in your state. Private Investigator Magazine (pimagazine.com) is an informative resource worth looking into as is pinow.com. The State of California’s Bureau of Security and Investigative Services is also a wealth of detailed information on the profession’s requirements there. Visit them at bsis.ca.gov before you run out and rent a shabby office in L.A. and buy yourself a fedora. WSJ

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makers Charles and Jeremiah Chubb established the company now known as Chubb Fire & Security in 1818 – the same year they patented their Chubb

detector lock. The firm introduced its first safe in 1835; then in the 1870s it expanded to the USA. At the time, the country was suffering from violent bank robberies, so Chubb responded by producing a time lock to be attached to the doors of vaults and safes. In 2000 Chubb sold its lock division and switched its focus to security systems. Since 2003 the firm has been owned by U.S. multinational conglomerate United Technologies Corporation, and it is today based around the world. In the U.K., services include mobile patrols, remote surveillance and response, and key holding. Meanwhile, South African extras comprise armed response teams, electric fencing, and a special Chubb911 24-hour emergency hotline.

In Australia, the company also offers a cash-in-transit service.

INTERNATIONAL 18 ANDREWS

Established in Los Angeles in 1988, Andrews International is a California-based private security

firm with offices across America.

It also boasts branches in Mexico, Honduras and Colombia and has operatives in Canada and India.

Andrews International provides armed and unarmed security guards for businesses as well as offering specialist government and defense department solutions. In 2009 it bought Canadian global security giant GardaWorld’s U.S. and Mexican guarding services for a sum exceeding $44 million. Andrews International 112

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describes itself as “one of the premier professional providers of a comprehensive range of superior security and risk mitigation services.”

It adds that its security personnel protect “national landmarks, major tourist attractions, industrial sites, educational and financial institutions, healthcare facilities, and other locations where security stakes and client expectations are high.”

challenging the environment.” Erinys International was launched in 2001 by former British soldier Jonathan Garratt. Erinys South Africa was added in 2002, and the company has had a presence in a number of locations in Africa and the Middle East. In 2003 the firm worked with the Iraq Ministry of Oil, training and supplying a 16,000-strong “Oil Protection Force” guarding 282 sites.

17 ASIA SECURITY GROUP

PROTECTION SERVICES 15 TSU

16 ERINYS INTERNATIONAL

1999, and it now claims to be one of South Africa’s top private security firms. “I realized that whilst there were lots of security companies across the country, very few were specializing in executive protection and the higher risk services, largely due to the lack of trained staff in these areas,” explained Beukes. “As a police officer the pay was adequate but not great, so I decided to launch TSU Protection Services to meet the gap in the market.” Now, with a force of highly trained operatives, the company serves high-profile businesses and other clients. Its specialties include armed personal escorts, executive protection and support, crowd control, and maritime security.

Asia Security Group is a somewhat mysterious seeming Afghanistan-based private security company that, according to its LinkedIn profile, offers “a range of consultancy and manpower support services to government and corporate clients to improve capability and ensure security.” The company has branches in Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad and Kandahar and boasts a team of licensed armed troops, promising “comprehensive security solutions tailored to your business needs, while mitigating risks, across Afghanistan.” Asia Security Group has worked with the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, guarding supply convoys in war-torn parts of the country. The company’s personnel have also joined up with U.S. private military firm DynCorp. Services include security, risk assessment and management, and “business development.”

British private security firm Erinys International has a head office in Cyprus as well as branches in the U.K., South Africa, and the Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The company operates within the mineral extraction, oil and gas, public, and NGO markets, and it also boasts an infrastructural development division. In each of these areas, it

helps clients to appreciate risks they may face no matter how “remote and

Former South African policeman and Special Forces officer Chris Beukes founded TSU Protection Services in

INTELLIGENCE LIMITED 14 INTERNATIONAL

International Intelligence Limited is a British firm that focuses on counterespionage and investigations. It was formed in 2002 by ex-aide to the British Royal Family Alex Bomberg.

The company offers private investigation, technical surveillance counter-measure, intelligence,

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counter-intelligence, countersurveillance and counter-espionage services, among others. Employees comprise former law enforcement, military, financial investigation and intelligence personnel. And specialist services include financial forensics, computer forensic analysis and satellite tracking. International Intelligence Limited has operated in the private, corporate and commercial sectors, as well as with government agencies, embassies and different police forces.

RESOURCES GROUP 13 UNITY

Australian firm Unity Resources Group was founded in 2000, and although its personnel are largely Antipodean, the company’s head office is in Dubai, UAE. Unity Resources Group offers crisis, risk, security, logistics, aviation, executive and medical services. It describes itself as “a trusted and reliable solutions provider of land, sea and air services in complex, challenging and fragile environments where dependable infrastructure may not be present.” The firm has offices in Europe, Australasia, Africa, North and South America, the Middle East and Central Asia, and it employs more than 1,200 people. Unity Resources Group provides event security, security in high-risk zones, asset security and guarding, and more.

In 2007 some of its operatives were involved in a controversial incident in Baghdad in which two civilians were killed, but the firm defended the conduct of its employees.

12 SENACA GROUP

The Senaca Group is a wideranging private security firm. Based in Ireland, the company includes Senaca EU and Senaca Canada and conducts operations around the world. Subdivisions comprise Senaca Guarding, Senaca Cash Management Services, Senaca Training, Senaca Tech, and private security company Integrated Risk Management Services. The firm works within the

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oil and gas, transport and logistics, financial, tourism, government, health, property, maritime, energy, NGO, and policing sectors. Integrated Risk Management Services offers guards, patrols, corporate security, alarm response and key holding, while Senaca Cash Management Services specializes in the transportation of money. At the same time, Senaca Tech affords a range of surveillance and “access control solutions” technology. Ex-Irish Army Special Forces major Jim Farrell and security veteran Terry Downes co-founded the Senaca Group in 2009. They also cofounded Integrated Risk Management Services in 2005.

11

PINKERTON GOVERNMENT SERVICES

Spy and detective Allan Pinkerton founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago in 1850.

Nowadays, Pinkerton Government Services “offers a full range of cleared protective services designed to meet the specific requirements of the U.S. government.” It provides regular security services such as guards, fire fighting and emergency medical technicians, as well as specialized resources like sniffer dogs. In 2003 Pinkerton was acquired by Swedish security giant Securitas AB, and it is in the process of switching its name to Securitas Critical Infrastructure.

Pinkerton has a lot of history: the company was tasked with tracking down notorious criminals such as Jesse James and Butch Cassidy, at one time worked with Abraham Lincoln, and has received mention on TV shows such as Boardwalk Empire.

10 THE BRINK’S COMPANY

Although based in Virginia, The Brink’s Company has a network that dots the global landscape: the firm operates in over 100 countries,

with a staff of roughly 70,000. Perry Brink established Brink’s City Express

in Chicago in 1859 and began using a horse-drawn wagon to move customers’ suitcases from local railroad stations to hotels. In 1891 the company made its first cash-in-transit delivery, transporting half a dozen bags filled with silver dollars. These days, Brink’s is perhaps best known for its fleet of armored vans, which it uses to help see to the needs of governments, mints, banks, jewelers and other businesses. It also offers ICD and airport security, guarding, and logistical and cash management services. In 2011 Brink’s brought in $3.9 billion in revenue.

9 CACI INTERNATIONAL

CACI International was founded in Santa Monica, Calif.,

in 1962 as the California Analysis Center, Incorporated. In 1967 the acronym was switched to signify the Consolidated Analysis Center, Incorporated; and the acronym itself became the company’s formal moniker in 1973. Although based in Arlington, Va., CACI International has more than 120 branches and employs around 15,000 people throughout the U.S. and Europe. The firm’s area of expertise is information technology, and it provides, in its own words, “information solutions and services in support of national security missions and government transformation for intelligence, defense, and federal civilian customers.” CACI International plays a role in assisting with matters concerning global threats and the readiness of America’s armed forces.

In 2012 the company’s revenue was $3.8 billion.

8 BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON

U.S. tech consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton has head offices

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in Tysons Corner, Va. Edwin G. Booz, James L. Allen and Carl L. Hamilton founded the firm in 1914, and fastforward to 2012 and its revenue reached $5.859 billion. Booz Allen Hamilton’s areas of service include engineering, management consulting

and technology, but it also operates as a defense contractor. The company works with civilian and government institutions, and its website describes its main goal as providing “trusted consulting and professional services in an increasingly complex and growing world.” As far as civilian agencies go, the firm serves the financial, policing, transport, Homeland Security, and government health and management sectors, among others. It also works with the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as defense organizations, space agencies and intelligence groups.

7 CONTROL RISKS

Based in London, England, but with 36 offices around the world, Control Risks is an international professional services and consulting firm dedicated to “helping organizations manage political, integrity and security risks in complex and hostile environments.” Control Risks began as a division of insurance firm Hogg Robinson in 1975 and then became independent in 1982. As major companies around the world began working in lesser-known areas in the 1990s, Control Risks focused on developing its intelligence and investigation services. In its website statement, the company boasts that it provides “strategic consultancy, expert analysis and in-depth investigations

through to handling sensitive political issues and providing practical on the ground protection and support.”

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generated $223.32 million in revenue in 2010.

6 GARDAWORLD

Canadian firm GardaWorld claims to be the “largest privatelyowned security company in the world.”

The company’s headquarters are in Montreal, Quebec, but it employs around 45,000 people across North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

GardaWorld secures individuals and resources in at least 140 cities and protects 28 North American airports.

Its international protective services department aims to safeguard “clients in complex and emerging markets.”

Meanwhile, the company’s cash management services process $5 billion a day. In August 2013 GardaWorld acquired G4S’ Canadian cash management division in a deal thought to be worth around $110 million. And in December 2013 GardaWorld agreed upon a 12-year cash management deal with Bank of America valued at $1.4 billion. At the end of April 2012, GardaWorld’s quarterly revenue totaled some $300 million.

5 DYNCORP

The history of Annandale, Va.based private military contractor DynCorp stretches back to 1951,

when Land-Air, Inc. was obtained

by California Eastern Airways to form what would become California Eastern Aviation, Inc. In 1962 the company was renamed Dynalectron Corporation, which was renamed DynCorp in 1987. DynCorp’s services include security, aviation support, intelligence, and contingency ops.

The firm’s yearly revenue exceeds $3 billion, and over 96 percent of that figure is generated by U.S. government contracts. DynCorp has provided support for the U.S. forces in countries like Peru, Colombia,

Somalia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Bolivia, Angola and Haiti. The company was also called in to help with recovery action in Louisiana and the surrounding regions in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

4 ALLIEDBARTON

AlliedBarton is a Pennsylvaniabased private security company that was established in 1957. Staffed by over 55,000 employees, who are divided among 120 offices around

the USA, AlliedBarton is the biggest U.S.-owned security officer business in America. The company focuses on various different areas, including higher education campuses, commercial property, aerospace and defense sites, housing, malls, healthcare facilities, and chemical industries. Through its “Hire Our Heroes” program, AlliedBarton recruits former members of the armed forces, reservists and their relatives to bolster its staff of “highly trained security personnel.” In November 2013 Victory Media included AlliedBarton on its 2014 lists of Top Military Friendly and Military Spouse Friendly companies to work for. The firm specializes in “local response” and “national support.” In 2012 its annual revenue exceeded $1.9 billion.

3 ADT

ADT Corporation was founded in 1874 and today is one of America’s

leading alarm and security monitoring companies. Based in Boca Raton, Fla., the company operates in 35 countries

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around the world, supplying alarms, monitoring equipment and peace of mind to homes and small businesses.

In South Africa, ADT provides armed response teams and around-the-clock surveillance. Originally known as American District Telegraph, ADT started out as a telegraph delivery business. Then from 1910, under new leadership from AT&T, it started to switch focus to other fields such as fire and intruder alarms. In 2011 ADT boasted an estimated 6.4 million clients and yearly turnover of $3.1 billion. And in 2012 it split from Swiss parent company Tyco International and commenced trading on the New York Stock Exchange as an independent company.

2 SECURITAS AB

Established in Helsingborg, Sweden, in 1934, Securitas AB is a worldwide security company with head offices in Stockholm. In 2012 the company had around 300,000 workers spread out over 53 countries

and an annual revenue of over $10 billion. Securitas AB’s services include

guards and patrols, investigations, home alarm systems, loss prevention, security consulting and guard dog supply. Its three chief departments are Security Services Europe, Security Services Ibero-America and Security Services North America. To facilitate its cash in transit service, Securitas AB operates specialist vehicles with metal safes as well as a fleet of bulletproof jeeps. It also specializes in securing sporting, business and recreational events.

1 G4S

G4S describes itself as “the world’s leading global security and

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outsourcing group,” specializing “in outsourcing of business processes in sectors where security and safety risks are considered a strategic threat.” The British multinational security giant was set up in 2004 when London-based company Securicor amalgamated with Danish business Group 4 Falck. Currently, G4S employs more than 620,000 people, which makes it the third biggest employer in the private sector globally. In 2012 G4S turned over well over $12 billion. The company offers a

range of services, including the supply of security personnel, monitoring equipment, response units and secure prisoner transportation. G4S also works with governments overseas to deliver security. WSJ

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COMPETITIONS

SHOOTING COMPETITION BRINGS MARKSMANSHIP TO HIGH SCHOOLERS Inside The Fast-growing Scholastic Pistol Program ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY ROBIN TAYLOR

Team Gotta’s Jordon Castro attacks one of the practice stages while coach Tony Castro runs the timer. (JAMES COFFEY)

S

eventeen-year-old Jordon Castro’s pistol settles into the start position. Body tensed, he waits for the start beep. His eyes drill into the first of five big steel plates. He can’t miss.

He needs one more “clean” run.

“Beep!” His Browning .22 rakes left, then right across the targets. “Pingping, ping-ping-ping!” All hits! Elapsed time is 1.46 seconds. The red-clad high school teammates behind him cheer – he’s set a new course record!

If “high school” and “pistol shooting” don’t fit together in your head – that needs to change. Scholastic Pistol Program (SPP) is coming to a range (or a school) near you, riding on the heels of the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP). Even the Boy Scouts, through the “Venture” program, are showing interest.

“We’ve seen amazing growth at this year’s Junior/Senior Nationals – over

50 percent,” says Scott Moore, SPP’s national director. “With more than 320 athletes, we’ve become the largest youth action event in the country.”

I’m here at the SPP Junior/Senior National Championship, watching more than 300 kids shooting 9mm and .22 LR pistols as fast and accurately as they can. Some are shotgun shooters trying out pistols for the first time, but many, like Castro’s “Team Gotta,” are high school teams that specialize in speed pistol.

I’m accustomed to big pistol matches, but a sea of teenagers carrying pistols while wearing their school (or club) colors is something new. Virtually everyone here was under the age of 18, and a great many under 16.

“This is awesome,” said Zane Coffey – he’d reached the minimum age of 12 years old four days prior to the shoot, and posted a very respectable

61-second time (average is about 80).

“I want to win top junior next year!”

HOW DOES SPP WORK? The SPP courses couldn’t be simpler.

Each of the four courses has five steel plates, arranged according to a specific plan. You shoot each course five times, then discard the slowest run (100 shots total). If you miss a target, you keep shooting until you hit it. Add up all the times for all four people on your team, and that’s your score – fastest fourperson team wins.

New shooters typically start with an inexpensive .22 autoloader, and in a year or two, progress to a 9mm service pistol like the S&W M&P or Glock. The program’s corporate ammunition supporters (notably Winchester, ATK, and Fiocchi) help the teams find ammunition at a reasonable rate. Here at the nationals, teams could purchase 4,000 rounds of westernshootingjournal.com 121

COMPETITIONS

Team Gotta – Jordon Castro, Jake Overstreet, Adam Thomas, Dan Harris III and the author – walks tall between stages at the Scholastic Pistol Program Jr./Sr. Nationals. (ROBIN TAYLOR)

Winchester M22 .22 LR for just $204.

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The military academies (Army, Coast Guard) were early adopters of the SPP program, with men like Chad Barber (Coast Guard Academy pistol coach) using SPP as a way to train his newest cadets. Duston Saunders at West Point put together a formidable team as well. They collided with gun-club based youth teams like Team Gotta, and college-based groups like the University

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of Vermont, whose single-minded focus on speed pistol made them formidable competitors.

Castro’s quick, accurate shooting set the rimfire course record that day, but victory would go to the South Texas Speed Shooters – whose faster average time won the day, 184 seconds to 192.

Critically, SPP is a team event, and that’s a major part of its charm.

Nobody runs out to recruit more shooters for an individual event they’d like to win. If they do, they’re

manufacturing their own competition.

In SPP, the game turns on the leastskilled member of the team, so big teams with deep benches have a distinct advantage.

POTTERFIELD CONNECTION Larry and Brenda Potterfield deserve a knighthood for what they’re doing for America’s shooting sports these days.

The Potterfields and some likeminded others set up the MidwayUSA Foundation, which creates endowment accounts for the benefit of local teams.

By competing at the big matches, teams can earn money for their endowment accounts (courtesy of the Potterfields), giving the team the longterm financial resources needed to compete. According to Castro’s father Tony (Team Gotta’s assistant coach), their team already has an endowment account worth more than $125,000. The team can draw 5 percent per year in the form of a grant, which offsets the costs

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of ammunition, travel, uniforms, etc.

The pistol team at the Citadel holds the title for the single largest endowment – more than $400,000! If you were their coach, what could you do with an annual budget of more than $20,000?

PERSPECTIVE Not many people have realized this yet, but the “center of gravity” in steel shooting is shifting rapidly toward youth. I did a little looking around, and the Steel Challenge World Championship, for example, drew 110 individuals in June. Many of them shot the course several times, but only 110 people actually competed, including some staff. This SPP event I saw – for high school students only – drew three times as many. SPP has a separate collegiate event too, hosted by the US Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) at Fort Benning, Ga., which draws a completely separate crowd. You’re looking at thousands of students

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SPP director Scott Moore gives instructions to some of the teams participating in the Jr./Sr. Nationals held in Sparta, Ill. (ROBIN TAYLOR)

program wide, and the program is just now getting off the ground!

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE Moore and his associate Tammy Mowry have wisely followed the track laid down by SCTP and taken on the trappings of NCAA-like competition. They’ve begun awarding an all-American-style designation, and program sponsors like S&W and HiViz Shooting Systems have begun bankrolling small college scholarships for successful athletes. Considering this program didn’t exist five years ago, that’s amazing! While nobody’s getting a full-ride-scholarship as yet, a few thousand here and there makes a tremendous difference both in the financial life of the students, and in the attitudes shown by parents.

PROFOUND CULTURAL CHANGE Take a moment and contemplate what this program has done, and could do long-term. In just five years, the SPP crowd and its supporters have brought action shooting into the scholastic universe. In a postSandy Hook environment, that’s no small thing. High school and college rifle and pistol teams used to be a normal part of American life. Today, my daughter attends a high school where one cannot wear a T-shirt with a picture of a gun on it, much less shoot competitively. I’m hoping SPP will help change that – if not for my kids, certainly for theirs. WSJ Editor’s note: You can find more about SPP on the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation website at sssfonline.org.

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BEHIND THE BADGE

POLICING THE EAST BAY

On Patrol With The Men And Women In Blue And Black – The Oakland, Calif., PD ARTICLE BY ANDRE’ M. DALL’AU • PHOTOS BY OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT

The Oakland PD’s MD-500 provides excellent protection for the department’s officers, local citizens and even perps by making sure situations remain under effective command and control.

D

uring an attempted traffic stop by the Oakland Police Department for a reportedly stolen car, the driver opted to flee. That dangerous

act turned the white SUV into a wildly driven, multi-ton hazard to both officers and innocent residents of the East Bay. Oakland, Calif., is part of the East Bay, which is located

across the San Franciso Bay from San Francisco. After nearly colliding with several vehicles and persons, the recklessly driven SUV solidly struck another car, disabling both vehicles and nearly killing three people, including two children. The driver of the now immobile and smoking SUV fled the scene into a nearby suburban residential area. The on-scene Oakland officers immediately blocked off the two-block area and established overwatch of the perimeter to make sure the criminal did not flee.

To facilitate a thorough search, the Oakland PD organized a designated arrest team (DAT) to perform a houseby-house and yard-by-yard searches.

The team included experienced, wellarmed and well-prepared officers as well as a K-9 and her handler, both of whom were experienced in tracking and locating subjects hidden in urban, suburban or wooded terrain. As the team was prepared, the air asset of Oakland PD, a McDonald Douglas MD-500 “Little Bird” helicopter was alerted, and within a few minutes started the engine, increased power, pulled pitch and was in the air over the scene. Unlike other choppers built more for the light civilian market, the immensely successful and powerful MD-500 is excellent for providing aerial observation and extended surveillance. Officers know that when the chopper is in the air the bad guys have nowhere to run and have to sit and hide, and sometimes that doesn’t even work.

I was on a ride along with the OPD and had gotten a seat in the MD-500.

I was able to clearly see the huge westernshootingjournal.com 127

BEHIND THE BADGE

one accessible on the island’s Anof Oakland officerstream trains with a Noveske road N4,systems among the best carbines available.

spotted the DAT apprehending the subject, who had gone to ground, fearful of his movements being observed by the all-seeing eyes in the sky. The pilots watched as the DAT extracted the now-humble criminal from between two fences knowing that he was outmatched, outclassed and outmaneuvered by the Oakland teamwork of air, land and K-9!

advantage of overhead observation for command, control and surveillance of a tactical event. The sworn officers and pilots maintained contact with the DAT, and continually advised them of threats and what they were going to see as they cleared the backyards and gardens of the lockeddown neighborhood. The officers and K-9 cleared the first yard, then the second, but at the third house, the K-9 alerted to a threat that only a well-trained K-9 could have sensed.

The chopper swung overhead and

TO COVER THE CITY OF OAKLAND, named after the local forests felled to build San Francisco across the bay, OPD employs over 600 sworn officers. There are about 400,000 residents living in 56 square miles of “The Flatlands” and “The Hills” that comprise the city.

Once the West Coast terminus of the intercontinental railroad as well the busiest port on San Francisco Bay, Oakland always had “big city” issues.

Oakland PD faces similar issues of hard drugs, gangs and crime associated with them, plus the effects of a large

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transient population of commuters and tourists. As a result, the OPD needs a variety of specialty units including K-9, animal services, patrol, intelligence and maritime support to handle the busy waterfront and over 22 square miles of inland waterways.

The OPD has 30 qualified SWAT members, trained by their own SWAT school in tactics including entry, with some operators specifically trained in long-range precision shooting and both kinetic and explosive breaching.

The OPD SWAT team is comprised of patrol officers who are stationed at department headquarters and respond up to several times a week to calls all over the East Bay. Both the patrol officers and the SWAT team have AR patrol rifles, with the incredible Noveske 5.56 NATO AR being used by SWAT operators.

Based on an informal poll of officers on what pistol they would like to carry on duty, the Oakland PD chose the

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BEHIND THE BADGE Glock G22 Gen4 .40 auto pistol for most of the uniformed members of the OPD (including the SWAT team), with others preferring to stay with their Glock G17 and G21 pistols. Overall, the Glock system won the day because of its reliability, simplicity and the three independent safety systems that secure the weapon against accidental discharge but shoot every time the trigger is pulled.

Oakland PD officers receive frequent in-service training as well as periodic weapons’ requalification.

All the OPD officers are trained in the classroom as well as static shooting drills and dynamic scenarios based on actual events. Part of the instruction includes reality-based scenarios against active role players who are armed with training pistols loaded with Simunition-marking rounds. They are primer-powered, paint-covered BBs that sting when hit, requiring mandatory protection

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for critical areas such as face, neck and groin. The kinetic feedback using live-action opponents allows the training to be both unpredictable and memorable as mistakes are seldom made twice! The creative training staff makes each scenario different and unpredictable so that the officer has to think their way through and apply force only as required. They replicate recent operational experience events or complicated situations such as

OPD relies a great deal on use of designated arrest teams, or DATs, for coordinated efforts including house and structure searches.

a traffic stop with noncompliant persons or room clearing with other officers. The officer has to make decisions on the amount of force applicable for each situation and then thoroughly discuss their performance in the post-event critique.

Oakland PD has been challenged with doing a tough job that is just getting tougher every day. While use of force by the bad guys has been escalating throughout the nation, OPD (like other law enforcement agencies) has to maintain a response-based posture. That means officers cannot act unless they have probable cause or if a crime has been committed, a weapon is displayed or violence has been used. Even with that, with the high caliber of OPD officers, their excellent training and superior equipment, they still can effectively do what they do every day, to protect and serve the citizens and visitors of the East Bay. WSJ

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AGGRESSIVE ELK MOVES

Multiple Types Of Calling, Long Hikes Pay Off ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY SCOTT HAUGEN

On this mid-October, general-season elk hunt in Idaho’s Snake River drainage, Haugen called in many bulls. Don’t be afraid to work calls in the post-rut, as many bulls are still gullible.

S

even miles in to our doit-yourself wilderness elk hunt, I was growing discouraged with the number of hunters my buddies and I were seeing. Then, at about the 13-mile mark, camps began to dwindle. Leading our pack string of horses five more miles, we found the isolation we desired.

That night – two days before opening day of Wyoming’s archery season – the mountains were alive with bugling bulls. On opening morning, the three of us hiked four more miles, to over 9,000 feet in elevation.

By 9 a.m., two of us had big bulls down, with the third member of our party arrowing a 355-inch brute the following morning.

The next two days were long, hot and extremely tough, but we got all the meat and our gear off the mountain. We quickly filled those tags because we traveled farther into the wilderness than other hunters, and we called very aggressively.

Shortly after that hunt, I went on another elk adventure on my own in central Montana. I was on a chunk of public land that’s landlocked by private grounds. Public pressure had pushed many elk over the mountains and into the drainage I hunted, just as I’d hoped.

Rather than call to these elk with straight bugles or timid cow chatter, I mixed cow, calf, young bull and aggressive bull talk. The approach

worked, and soon a big bull came charging in. I wasn’t in what I’d call the ideal shooting spot, but I hunkered

There’s nothing like the allure of bugling bulls. Whether you hold an archery, special muzzleloader or rifle tag, calling elk can be very effective through September and into much of October. (JOHN HINDERMAN)

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ROAD HUNTER

Elk country is big, and hunters will want to be in the best shape possible in order to fill a tag.

Horses and mules offer a big advantage, both in accessing land and packing out animals.

down in the waist-high grass, amid shade, with a few straggly aspens behind me.

THE BULL CAME IN BUGLING and agitated.

When he started walking from right to left, I hit him with a cow call, and he stopped. I’d already reached fulldraw, and the Gold Tip arrow buried tight behind the bull’s leg, piercing the upper heart and both lower lungs. He

went a short distance and piled up.

A few days later, I went to Oregon to chase elk. Though I called six branch bulls to within 25 yards, I didn’t let a single arrow fly, as I was hoping for a monster bull or nothing. I was aggressive, called a lot, and learned a great deal; a successful hunt, for sure.

A couple weeks later, I traveled to central Idaho for the rifle season opener. Temperatures were hot, and

while many hunters stuck to spotand-stalk, hunting only during the early morning and evening hours, I hunted daylight to dark, calling the whole time. The number of bulls I had answering my calls was mind boggling, unlike anything I’d experienced in a rifle season, before or since.

On the second evening of the hunt, a big bull finally stepped from the reprod he’d been bugling from all day.

At just over 400 yards, I took a rocksolid rest in my Bog Pod shooting sticks, and the Nosler custom .325 WSM roared. A 200-grain AccuBond hit the mark, and another elk tag was filled. The family ate well that season, and we were fortunate to smoke, can, and freeze some great tasting meat.

When that elk season came to a close, I’d called 47 bulls to within 40 yards. It was a good year, full of

WHERE TO FIND ELK Many states offer great elk hunts, but some are tough to draw tags in. I have more than 15 preference points in two states, and am not too optimistic about drawing tags in either, any time soon. But if looking to put meat in the freezer and find bulls in the 280-to-320-inch class or even bigger, here some solid options.

1

WYOMING My buddies and I have taken many big bulls out of the Absaroka Range over the years, near Cody, Wyo., but don’t waste your time there as wolves have decimated elk herds.

Instead, look farther to the south, to the Wind River Range, or better yet, to the Bighorn Mountains, west of Sheridan, where elk numbers are coming back strong.

2

CENTRAL MONTANA There are many small, isolated mountain ranges found in central Montana, between Great Falls, Bozeman, Billings and Lewistown. I’ve drawn multiple tags with only a couple points in some of these areas, and experienced the best elk hunting of my life. Limited access can find you covering long distances (some folks hire helicopters to drop them in the middle of public land), if you can’t get permission from local ranchers for access, but the elk hunting can be world class.

3

CENTRAL IDAHO Wolves are also hammering northern Idaho’s elk herds.

This has forced elk to move lower in elevation, often on

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private land where they find safety.

But there’s still good hunting to be found north of Orofino, and to the east, in the Clearwater Mountains. The Snake and Salmon river drainages also hold an impressive number of elk these days, but be in shape, as this terrain is some of the most rugged in the country.

4

OCHOCO MOUNTAINS, ORE. For years, Oregon’s Blue Mountains and Eagle Cap Wilderness have received a load of press, and if you go there, don’t be surprised if you run into fellow hunters every day.

There are still lots of elk around, but there are also good numbers in the Ochoco Mountains, northeast of Bend, Ore. Don’t overlook the Deschutes National Forest lying between Gilchrist, Chemult and Silver Lake, which holds a consistent number of elk.

5

SOUTHWEST COLORADO Drawing a tag isn’t too tough in this part of Colorado, and there’s a lot of public land. The San Juan Mountains, near Durango, offer everything a hunter looking to put meat on the table needs. There’s plenty of easy access on both Forest Service and BLM grounds, and there are a lot of elk.

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ROAD HUNTER ALASKAN OUTFITTER PACK FRAME Some elk hunts can find you spending more time packing out meat than actually hunting. For this, make sure to have the best packframe possible. Packing heavy weight for miles, in rough terrain, is not the place to skimp on a pack.

I’ve gone the cheap route and paid for it; I’ve also invested in packs costing nearly $800, which is a bit pricey for me. The past few seasons, I’ve relied on Cabela’s Alaskan Outfitter Pack Frame. I’ve loaded it with elk, bear and deer, in multiple states, and was impressed with its ability to maintain balance on heavy loads.

Weighing under 6 pounds, the frame’s multiple, well-placed compression straps and freighter shelf help balance and secure loads. For added security, I attach two LoopRopes to my frame when packing in, then to my load when packing meat out, to ensure there’s zero shifting. The shoulder straps and lumbar support are comfortable, making jobs efficient and safe. It’s also very affordable, which is appealing. I’ll be using the Alaska Outfitter Frame again this season, because I love how well it performs.

learning. I stuck to my aggressive calling style, basing it upon on what was happening with the elk that season.

Now is the time calves start venturing a bit farther from the cows,

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and they often communicate with their voices to keep track of one another.

Small bulls will pick up on this and often bugle; big bulls will have a heck of a time keeping their harems in

line. This is why I like calling using a mix of calf, cow, young and mature bull sounds. Hot weather seems to prolong or even delay the rut, which is why calling in so many October rifle seasons out West can be very effective Play the wind, call aggressively, cover ground and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. I’m a firm believer that many elk tags go unfilled because hunters are too timid, too afraid of botching stalks. As long as the wind is in your favor and you can work the shade, go for it. Let the elk, terrain and wind determine your next move, and you’ll fill more tags, no matter where in the West you’re hunting elk this time of year. WSJ Editor’s note: For signed copies of Scott Haugen’s popular adventure book, Bowhunting The West & Beyond, send $20 (free S&H), to Haugen Enterprises, P.O. Box 275, Walterville, OR 97489 or order online at scotthaugen.com.

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Caliber: .308-7.62 NATO Action: Semi-automatic Magazine capacity: 1-20 rounds Overal length: 32.5 inches, 36 inches extended Extnd barrel length: 18” HBAR Rifling: 1:10 Weight: 10 pounds Receiver: Forged 7075-T6 Front sight: Optic ready Butt stock: Hogue Grip: Hogue Forearm: Free float modular Flash hider: Anderson knight stalker

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Sporting CZ-USA’s new push-style bolt-action 557, the author bagged this black bear during a hunt in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness with guide Adam Beaupre. The rifle features a Sako-style extractor and comes in several stock configurations and calibers. Scope rings come standard with the gun. MSRP starting at $792.

THE BEARS A Long-range Wilderness Hunting Adventure

A

fter leading our horses down 1,500 vertical feet of switchbacks, we finally reached the creek and got back in the saddle.

Adam Beaupre, owner of Horse Creek Outfitters, and I had spent the day glassing a remote side canyon of Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness without seeing any hint of bear activity. That’s the way it sometimes goes during the spring season here. One day the bears are scarce as hen’s teeth; the next day they’re out in force, lazily grazing the steep hillsides. Thankfully, today the weather had taken a much-needed turn for the better, and yesterday’s blustery, sleeting haze has lifted, making our time on the mountain pleasant – although unproductive.

I was putting a CZ-USA bolt gun through its paces on this trip. The 557 is a new offering in the company’s lineup, and mine was chambered in .30-06, topped with a Bushnell 3200

OF THE FRANK CHURCH ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY DANA FARRELL

3x-9x scope – a seemingly good combination for the task at hand.

Worn out from the long, dusty walk down the mountain at the end of the day, we were now making our way back to camp and a much needed hot supper a few miles up Horse Creek.

The previous day had ended badly, when I took a 300-yard shot just before dusk – against my better judgment and without a solid shooting rest. In a rush to close the deal in the dimming light on a boar browsing high on a mountain across Horse Creek, I opted to steady my gun against a sapling; rushing the shot and cleanly missing the mark sent the blackie on a zig-zag course out of range and over the distant ridge. To make matters worse, trying to rack in a round for a follow-up shot, an uncrimped handload separated in the heat of the moment, leaving a bullet firmly lodged in the chamber of my gun. I was left with the sinking feeling

that my gun was rendered useless for the remainder of the trip. Not a good way to end the day – and I wondered if I could find a way to dislodge the bullet from the barrel.

Lucky for me, back later at camp that evening, one of the wranglers straightened a length of stiff wire into a makeshift rod, allowing the bullet to be tapped from the gun. Notes to self: Always pack a rifle rod when hunting in the wilderness, and uncrimped handloads may not be the best choice when hunting the backcountry.

The rugged, mountainous landscape is a hardscrabble place to eke out a living, and although their numbers are good, the bears in “The Frank” are not known for their size.

Six-footers here are sought-after trophies, with 5½-footers much more commonplace. Although the local bear population may not produce many record book entries, a good percentage taken each season are westernshootingjournal.com 139

WINNERS OF THE IDAHO TAXIDERMISTS ASSOCIATION 2014 CONTEST The Idaho Taxidermists Association held their annual convention and competition this past June. There were more awards, prizes and money given out than ever, and some talented taxidermists won multiple categories.

BEST IN SHOW – David Ferguson won a trophy and $500 from ITA for his cougar mount.

COMPETITORS AWARD – Tyler Ono of Tricity Taxidermy in Kennewick, Wash., won the McKenzie Best Lifesize and the Clinton Hall. Every taxidermist Taxidermists Choice Best in Show / Artisian Award entering four or more mounts for his black bear mount. (JAY PARKE) was automatically entered for a special $100 award. Award went to the competitor with the highest average score on four mounts, entered in the same category or different categories, in Open or Masters Divisions.

SUNRISE AWARD – Colter Ferguson won a trophy and $150 for highest-scoring mount by a competitor under 16 years old. The award was sponsored by Safari Club International, Treasure Valley Chapter BEST ALL-AROUND TAXIDERMIST – Allen Burrel and Troy Rose won this trophy that went to highest combined score for four mounts – one each in Birds, Fish or Reptile, Gamehead, and Lifesize, in the Open and Masters divisions.

WASCO AWARD – Pete Ceraulo received this for most artistic entry, his bluebill BEST MULE DEER MOUNT - Clinton Hall won this $250 award, sponsored by Brian Nobbs and Friends of Mule Deer BEST EXOTIC OR AFRICAN MOUNT - Ross Richard won $250 award, sponsored by Central Washington Chapter SCI, for his painted desert ram.

BEST ELK - Clinton Hall won $200, sponsored by MiDee Stitch Saddle & Tack BEST HABITAT - Allen Malaise won $100, sponsored by RMEF, for his brown bear BEST WATERFOWL, MASTERS - Pete Ciraulo won $200, for a mallard BEST NON-WATERFOWL, OPEN - Allen Burrill won $150, for a prairie chicken BEST BIRD GROUP, OPEN - Jay Parke won $100, for redheaded ducks BEST FISH, MASTERS - Allen Burril won $200, for a bluegill BEST FISH, OPEN - Derek Harryman won $100, for a walleye For a full list of awards, visit idahotaxidermistsasssociation.com.

chocolate, cinnamon or blond – an enticing opportunity for hunters hoping to add a color-phase rug to their trophy room.

DESPITE ITS RUGGEDNESS, the base elevation of the surrounding country is deceptively low, with the Salmon River sitting at only around 3,000 feet above sea level. What the area lacks in altitude, however, it more than makes up for in sheer leg-burning 140

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vertical relief. Mountainsides rise in a dramatic, rocky fashion, and looking around, you’d swear you were sitting thousands of feet higher in elevation. Canyons and rock chutes are interspersed with multi-tiered meadows, chock-full this time of year with lush grasses and the colorful blooms of balsamroot and lupine, providing excellent graze for hungry bears fresh out of their winter sleep.

Gnarly mountain mahogany clings

to the rock outcrops like overgrown bonsai, and ponderosa and white pine – charred from wildfires – timber the draws. The highest peaks rise 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the river valleys, topping out at around 8,000 feet. Although navigating this huge roadless area is possible on foot, the distances involved and the difficulty of packing gear in and out will give you a newfound appreciation of a surefooted mountain horse.

THE RECENT RESURGENCE of the gray wolf has significantly changed the elk hunting game in central Idaho – and the lives of the many locals whose life blood is deeply linked to it. A good elk population roams these mountains, but the wary bulls are less vocal than 20 years ago. Like it or not, this region finds itself smack dab in the middle of a period of profound transition, and with the reluctance of elk to announce their presence to the hungry wolf packs, bugling for bulls during the rut has taken a back seat to the spot-andstalk approach. The area’s ecological pendulum is still swinging widely – and wolves, protected for many years after their reintroduction in the mid-1990s, are once again legal game, with hunters now doing their best to reduce the apex predators’ numbers to a more balanced level. Wolves are notoriously hard to hunt, and due to lower than hoped for wolf-hunter success rates, in 2014 the state of Idaho extended the wolf season in some areas through June 30, making combination spring bear/wolf hunts in the Frank Church a very attractive option. Bang for your buck is good: In 2014, wolf tags were a paltry $31.75 on top of other tags.

Targeting them specifically is difficult, but chance encounters make buying a wolf tag a no brainer. A guide and client from our party, while hiking to a ridgetop to look at a bear den found last season, witnessed a rare sight. A white wolf mother jumped from the den and ran off as they approached, leaving a litter of seven black wolf pups inside, nestled around a bear skull. Perhaps the unlucky

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An historic mansion built in 1896, the beautifully appointed Watermark Inn in Challis is owned by Adam Beaupre of Horse Creek Outfitters, the author’s bear guide.

bruin met its fate at the hands of a wolf pack, which then took over the den for its own use – an eye-opening reminder of the predatory pecking order in this zip code. Not even bears are safe from this highly adaptive and opportunistic canine predator.

BACK ON THE TRAIL and with the sun at our backs, I spotted a bear high on the same hillside where I took the shot the evening before.

Dismounting, we quickly tied up the horses and climbed a nearby rise to better position ourselves for a shot.

Five minutes later we were breathing

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hard from the climb and watching the bear across Horse Creek at about 450 yards – a little too far for my comfort level. As we were considering hanging it up for the evening, Adam Beaupre pointed to different part of the mountain and said, “There’s another bear!” The second bear was lower on the mountain at a distance of around 300 yards. Wanting to close the gap a little further, I suggested moving to a finger ridge a hundred yards nearer, which meant a hasty descent down the loose rock and a quick climb back up to the new spot. “If we’re gonna do it, we better do it,” Adam said. “We’re running out of daylight.” With the sun slipping behind the mountain, we hurriedly made our way down the slope and up the next ridge in the fading light. The bear was high in a pocket meadow surrounded by rocky ledges and a few trees, maybe 400 vertical feet above the creek. We settled on a pile of rocks, and found a good one for a rest. Adam ranged the bear at 190 just before it stepped

out of sight behind a tree. “I need to catch my breath anyway,” I said, trying to slow my breathing.

A few seconds later the bear made its way out from behind the tree at 195 yards and stopped. With a solid rest and the scope dialed up to 9X, I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder. This time it felt right, and I touched off the round. Upon impact, the bear jumped and ran along a high ledge for several yards before tumbling down the embankment towards the roiling creek below.

Local outfitters tell campfire stories of dead bears lost when they rolled off the mountain into the swollen creek. Luckily for me, mine came to a stop 50 yards before reaching the water. WSJ Editor’s note: Idaho’s spring bear season runs mid-April through June. Over-thecounter hunting licenses for nonresidents are $154.75. Bear tags are $186, wolf tags $31.75. For more on the author’s guide and outfitter, see horsecrkoutfitters.com.

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scattergun trail

THE RISE IN POPULARITY OF AFTER-MARKET CHOKES Tips From Expert Designer L.P. Brezny ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY LARRY CASE

An assortment of choke tubes from Remington, CZ-USA and Wad Wizard.

W

hat a wonderful and blessed country we live in. Walk into any supermarket, department store or Wally World and you are slammed with choices in everything from toothbrushes to pantyhose. We Americans usually do not know much of want. The same is true in the shotgun and choke tube world. I think there is a choke tube made for every conceivable shooting and hunting scenario.

KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY? I really do not think that most of you shotgun pilgrims reading these words need much of a history lesson about shotgun chokes, but let’s just take a short drive down that road. Thirty years ago, almost all shotguns had fixed barrel chokes, and screw-in choke tubes were an oddity.

Now the reverse is true. I distinctly remember dragging out the first shotgun with a screw-in choke tube in my crowd of crusty, dysfunctional, selfrighteous shotgunners. I was treated

as one who was going to be tried for treason or possibly be remanded to a mental institution. My oh my, how times have changed!

In the late 1800s, shotgun makers first discovered that by “choking” down the end of the barrel of a shotgun, the shot charge was restricted, held together longer – and thus greater ranges were achieved. As near as I can tell, Winchester introduced the first production model shotgun with a screw in choke tube in 1959, the Model 59 semi-automatic. The Model 59 was discontinued in 1965, and a new line of shotguns – Models 1200 and L.P. Bresny

1400 – came out with choke tubes that Winchester named Winchoke.

Most gun makers followed after that; Remington came out with Rem Choke in 1986, and Mossberg introduced a Model 500 with a screwin choke in 1978, called Accuchoke.

Weatherby introduced its Multichoke system in 1982.

A WORD FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP Somewhere in here I want to introduce you to Mr. L.P. Brezny. Mr. Brezny hails from South Dakota and is a real-deal, bona-fide shotgun legend. He has spent years (since the early ’70s) toiling in the shotgun-barrel and choke-tube fields.

He has helped more than one choketube company develop a choke tube that works. L.P. does a lot of shooting on all kinds of game, including feral pigeons, which he and his buddies sometimes stack like cordwood. Let’s just say he has a lot of experience.

I will feature more about Mr. Brezny in the future, but in speaking with him recently, he had some very good westernshootingjournal.com 145

SCATTERGUN TRAIL

Mike Vrooman, Remington Shotguns

advice for shotgunners both novice and experienced. Keep it simple. That’s right, keep it simple. Find a choke that works for you and shoot it. L.P. is big on a plain ol’ modified choke, although I am sure he would like for you to take a look at his own choke tube, the Dead Ringer, which can be found at metrogun.com. I have shot this choke myself and I think that you will be pleased with its results.

Like any experienced shotgun professional, L.P. will tell you that there

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is no substitute for putting the gun on paper. You have to get out there and pattern some chokes and loads to see what works best for you.

I also spoke with Mike Vrooman, shotgun product manager for Remington, and a very experienced shooter. He told me something similar. Anytime you get a new gun or a choke, you have to put them on paper. Whenever you change chokes, Mike explained, something could be different, including your point of aim. He also reminded me that most steel and nontoxic loads shoot tighter patterns than lead. If you are going for waterfowl, you probably want to go from full choke to modified.

FIND YOUR CHOKE-TUBE SOUL MATE Nothing has fueled the evolution of choke tubes as much as the increase in popularity of turkey hunting and sporting clays. Turkey hunters are seemingly forever looking for that

choke that will shoot “tighter.” Or as my old game warden, turkey-slaying buddy Tomcat says, a shotgun that will “shoot through a house.” Many seem to think that a gun that will shoot a coffee-can-sized pattern at 18 steps is a desirable thing. I am in disagreement with this, but that is a debate for another time. Sporting clay addicts like the idea of being able to change chokes for different stations, as the situation calls for; I do too.

The thing to do here I think, as you travel down the shotgun pilgrimage road, is to explore many possibilities.

Look around and try some different chokes for your gun until you find the one that will lead you to shotgun nirvana. Choke tubes are like guns after all, you really can’t have too many. WSJ Editor’s note: The author is a lifelong shotgunner. When he misses, he usually admits it, and when he hits it, he tries not to brag.

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ARCHERY

GETTING STARTED WITH INTERNATIONAL BOWHUNTING The Dos And Don’ts Of Archery In Africa ARTICLE BY TOM CLAYCOMB III

Mark Kayser with a trophy gemsbok taken in Namibia, Africa. (MARK KAYSER)

I

t wasn’t but five, maybe six decades ago that hunting with a bow was still archived with the dinosaurs. I give credit to Fred Bear for being the catalyst who brought it to front and center. I remember as a kid watching shows of him hunting Alaskan brown bears, shooting pheasants out of the air and all kinds of remarkable feats.

Fast forwarding to today, the

popularity of bowhunting is rising fast, and I don’t see it slowing down. Years ago I never heard of someone going on a safari with a bow, but now it’s commonplace and many guides cater to bowhunters. They’re not stupid – they saw a new business opportunity and jumped on it.

So let’s say that you’re entertaining the idea of going on an international bowhunt. Where do you start? First, don’t go on third-hand info. Talk

directly to a friend who has gone and get his advice. Having a good guide will largely dictate if you have a good or bad experience, just like anywhere.

No knowledgeable friends? Don’t panic. I conduct seminars at the Dallas Safari Club Convention & Expo and the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas. Who do you think shows up at these events? There will be more guides, experienced hunters and marketing companies than you westernshootingjournal.com 149

ARCHERY can imagine. There are also countless seminars that will help to educate you.

I love attending both of these events.

On top of these two, you can also join and attend a local SCI chapter.

Another option is to find a reliable marketing company that specializes in lining up safaris. But whichever route you go to find a guide, get references.

Our Roadhunter columnist, Scott Haugen, scans the African plains for game. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

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I HUNT AND FISH in multiple states. It’s hard for me to keep up with all of the laws, even in my own country. What do you think it could be like in a foreign country? So get advice and a reliable guide who can walk you through all of the hoops.

For bowhunters, the rules are not too stringent, though. It is a lot simpler with no real declarations to make as with firearms. You can carry your bow and arrows in the same case, unlike firearms and ammo. Mark Kayser, a well-known hunter and TV show host whom I spoke to for this article, says

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152 Western Shooting Journal // September 2014

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Not just the prey of cheetahs – impalas are hunted by archers who travel to Africa.

that two bow-friendly countries in Africa are Namibia and South Africa.

Check with your guide for poundage, arrow and broadhead restrictions. They will be a little more stringent for dangerous game of course.

The next item to discuss is immunizations. They’ll tell you which ones that you will need; the list will probably include tetanus, malaria, typhoid fever and hepatitis. You’re not hunting in a wheat field in rural Kansas.

Without a doubt, your mom or worrying grandma will be panicking due to the current world situation. Mark suggests that you Google U.S. Department of State and search for updates on danger areas. You don’t want to become a kidnapping victim and have one of your fingers wrapped inside a ransom note mailed back to your family.

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The vital zones on African animals are more forward than you may be used to, so study charts depicting their heart and lung locations. Be ready to shoot more into the shoulder area.

As you have likely heard, African trackers are legendary. Mark says that he has found them to be as good as you’ve heard, which could be a whole article in itself. If you get a good guide, they’re more than likely to find your animal.

And what about camo? Like anywhere it can be seasonal as to what you need, but again, get advice from your guide. Same with all of your clothing needs.

WITH AN INTERNATIONAL SAFARI, you also have the opportunity to help locals more so than on any other types of hunts. It always amazes me how the uninformed feel-good group does an amazing amount of damage to not only the item that they are

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supposedly trying to protect, but also to all those surrounding the topic.

Probably the best example that I can give is that they use a hand grenade to remove a tick. It’s better that they don’t even get involved.

Let me explain: The people who actually supply money to help preserve animals overseas (as at home) are hunters. A rancher doesn’t have to be too smart to realize that if he manages his animals, there is a good profit in store. It is a big incentive to stop poachers and overhunting.

On top of that, hunting is a big boost to the local community. It supplies jobs for guides, trackers, cooks, hotel workers, and expands out immensely. Outfitters have to hire locals to build blinds, process your game – the list goes on and on.

Mark says that it is not necessarily impossible, but it would sure be expensive to fly your meat home.

In most cases, it would involve somewhere around a two-day trip, a disincentive for safari hunters. But the meat can help provide a huge amount of protein to badly impoverished residents. As you can imagine, this is a huge blessing to starving families.

I constantly read clips from SCI about how some group is trying to prevent this hunt or that hunt. They can throw a wrench into a system that is literally the life blood to not only the local community, but to the individual species and the whole ecosystem itself.

When you’re trying to explain to your wife why it is necessary that you go on a bowhunting safari, tell her you’re just trying to do your part to help out! WSJ Editor’s note: Tom Claycomb writes for Bass Pro Shop and has outdoor columns in newspapers in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He freelances for numerous other magazines, newspapers and websites. He teaches 60 outdoor seminars each year and is on prostaff for numerous companies.

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pistols

AN AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE TO GLOCK The Patriotic Pistols of FMK Firearms ARTICLE BY AMY RIDGEWAY • PHOTOS BY FMK FIREARMS

FMK Firearms’ 9C1 Gen II comes in various finishes.

F

MK Firearms, one of only two pistol makers operating in California, has slowly and subtly been refining its flagship product, the 9C1 Gen II handgun, to become a world-class competitor. Introduced to the public in 2010 after a laborious 10 years in development (Jim Pontillo, the company’s founder, began designing the pistol way back in 2001), FMK Firearms was peppered with requests and demands, which the startup nimbly jumped to respond to.

The result: The company is now poised to challenge that venerable and ubiquitous offering from Austria. The 9C1 Gen II stacks up nicely against Glock’s most popular Model 19, and most users consider the gun more comfortable and less unruly when firing.

The 9C1 Gen II is well liked by great big guys as well as petite women, a truly notable achievement as it is rare that one product could be so well liked by such a range of potential clients.

Known as the “Bill of Rights” gun in some circles, an abridged version of the complete Bill of Rights is engraved into the slide on many models offered to the public. Concerned about many of America’s waning freedoms, the company’s owner’s manual included

with each pistol is not your typical fare; it comes with patriotic vignettes at the back to get your mind thinking.

Additionally the companion booklet, “Red State Coalition,” with its short and provocative essays, is followed up with the complete text of our Constitution.

This is truly an American company!

With sales increasing every year, the company already sold more guns through July 2014 than all of 2013 combined, and with new models (a .40 caliber, and .357 SIG) right around the corner, the company now believes law enforcement and military clients are in its sights, as the requests have been coming in.

And not just from the US; Switzerland, Canada, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, South Africa, and Germany are just a few of the international clients that have come knocking.

FMK Firearms is making these inroads quickly, because like his revered predecessor Gaston Glock, Mr. Pontillo’s expertise and experience runs back in the plastic industry more than 30 years, and many of these skills are instrumental in responding to market changes and requests in a hurry.

While many firearms companies must contract out many of these processes, FMK Firearms does almost everything inside under their own roof.

At $100 to $150 less than Glock’s street price, these guys are going to be real contenders going forward. There is nothing else in the class that compares as favorably, and the 9C1 Gen II, unlike Glock, has interchangeable triggers. So, if you want a long, extrasafe DAO trigger for concealed carry or a quick-firing fast-action trigger system, FMK Firearms has got you covered either way.

The 9C1 Gen II is legal in all states, even in California, Massachusetts and New York, so go ahead and embrace your inner patriot. Is there an FMK 9C1 Gen II in your future? WSJ Editor’s note: FMK Firearms can be found at local dealers and big box stores. Have your dealer give them a call and request one from any major distributor. The patriotic manuals can be downloaded from FMK Firearms’ website, fmkfirearms.com.

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PRODUCT FEATURE RMJ TOMAHAWK rmjtactical.com

WHY A TOMAHAWK? Tomahawks have been carried by frontiersmen, soldiers and outdoors enthusiasts for well over 250 years.

The reasons for carrying a tomahawk have not changed much in that time.

So, what can you do with a tomahawk?

• Cut wood for fire and shelter; • Make feather stick and use in conjunction with ferrocerium rod to make fire; • Clear brush; • Dress game; • Extend your reach for grabbing things; • Use as a climbing aid (think ice axe); • Defend yourself; • Breach doors and windows, and break locks and chain; • Break ground for digging; • Punch holes in various materials; • Hammer things; • Sharpen and shape wood; A tomahawk does not replace an axe, knife or crowbar. But it does a wide range of cutting and tool-related tasks while remaining easy to carry and lightweight. For more, visit RMJ Tactical at rmjtactical.com.

LYMAN

lymanproducts.com LYMAN INTRODUCES NEW UNIVERSAL CLEANING ROD SYSTEM Lyman – a leader in the field of reloading and shooting accessories

– has introduced the new Universal Cleaning Rod System. The comfortable, chemical-resistant handle is interchangeable for all rod lengths and calibers. The rods can be purchased individually in sizes of 12, 26, 36 and 44 inches, and in calibers ranging from .17 to .45. The Universal Cleaning Rod System includes the universal handle plus the four most popular rods: 12 inches (.22-.26 cal.), 12 inches (.27-.45 cal.), 36 inches (.22.26 cal.), and 36 inches (.27-.45 cal.).

This system is designed to handle all handguns and rifles with two 12- and two 36-inch rods that thread into the ergonomic swivel handle.

Like the handle, the cleaning rods are chemical resistant. In addition, the rods are machined from spring steel and have a tough, nonabrasive proprietary epoxy coating. They are threaded to mount standard 8-32 jags and brushes like those in Lyman’s new 26 Piece Complete Jag and Brush Set.

All Lyman products and brands, are available nationally through firearms and sporting-goods dealers and mail-order companies. Visit lymanproducts.com.

alongside. What he learned was that there were no knives suitable to his taste. In 1966, when he finally found

one he liked, the price tag of $30 was not acceptable. In light of his history working at Weirton Steel Mill as a blacksmith’s assistant, he knew that he had the skills to make his own knife at a much lower cost. Setting out to accomplish just that, he put his best craftsmanship into the knife and ended up selling it for $35. When he made a second to replace the first, it also was purchased. Before he knew it, he realized he had become a knife-maker.

As he crafted more and more knives, he never sacrificed the craftsmanship, each one being made as though it was for his own use.

It wasn’t long before RW decided it was time for the tomahawk to complete his muzzleloader set that started this all.

In 1968, the first RW Wilson Tomahawk was made. Following RW’s typical fashion, each tomahawk was crafted with the highest attention to detail.

If you would like to learn more about what RW Wilson offers, visit his website at rwwilsonknives.com, find him on Facebook, or just give him a call at (304) 723-2771.

RW WILSON

COOKSHACK

THE TOMAHAWKS OF RW WILSON RW Wilson began shooting muzzleloader rifles in 1965. It was suggested by his friends to get the typical tomahawk and knife to go

COOKSHACK OFFERS DEALS ON SMOKER OVENS, PLUS $120 VALUED SMOKED JERKY AND COLD SMOKE BAFFLE Cookshack proudly manufactures smoker ovens in the USA. Featuring

rwwilsonknives.com

cookshack.com

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PRODUCT FEATURE stainless-steel construction, Spin-Glas insulation, and electric temperature controls these smokers are built to last.

Cookshack is offering a “Sportsman’s Special” from Sept. 9-26. With the purchase of select models, you will receive a free set of Jerky Rods and Cold Smoke Baffle, a savings of up to $120!

Use Promo Code SPORT14 when the order is placed online at cookshack.com or when you call (800) 423.0698 to place an order.

The four models that are eligible for the special are the Smokette (SM0092), the Smokette Elite (SM025), the Super Smoker Elite (SM045) and the

Amerique (SM066).

The Jerky Rods and the Cold Smoke Baffle are free with the purchase of a

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smoker and are the perfect accessories for the avid sportsman.

Cookshack offers serious customer service and offers a 100-percentsatisfaction, 30-day, no-risk moneyback guarantee. Visit cookshack.com.

HUNTWORTH

HuntworthGear.com THE “JUST RIGHT” HUNTING SHIRT Hunters need go-to hunting gear that’s “just right,” the kind of clothes they can just grab and go and count on without a second thought about reliability and versatility. Such gear allows them to focus fully on the game at hand.

Huntworth introduces the Men’s Long Sleeve Shirt Mid-Weight, bound for glory as the “just right” hunting shirt for the widest range of field conditions and uses. As an outer garment or a midlayer, this shirt is an undisputed, all-around champion.

The Men’s Long Sleeve Shirt Mid-

Weight comes in Huntworth’s exclusive camouflage pattern, Oak Tree EVOTM, at the suggested retail price of just $49.99, a true bargain for the perfect just-right hunting shirt you might wear every single day of the season!

Look for the new Men’s Long Sleeve Shirt Mid-Weight from Huntworth at your favorite outdoor or online retailer.

For more information and Huntworth products, visit us at HuntworthGear. com. WSJ

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KNIVES

THE TOMAHAWK OVER THE YEARS PART 1 OF 2

From Native American Axe/Offering To Overseas War Weapon ARTICLE BY RACHEL ALEXANDER

While they originated further east, this Plains Indians tomahawk circa 1900 is comprised of wood, buckskin, beads and metal. (BROOKLYN MUSEUM)

T

he tomahawk, also known as just hawk, is a type of axe originally designed by Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes as tools, weapons and ceremonial pieces.

Until Europeans introduced metal in the 1700s, the striking element was initially composed of stone, bone or wood. Metal didn’t break as easily as stone, and once the Native Americans switched to it, they were able to add a hammer, spike or pipe onto the side opposite the blade, creating what is known as a tomahawk’s poll. They became known as pipe tomahawks. The two sides symbolized war and peace.

Most Native Americans owned a tomahawk, which could be used for both hand-to-hand combat and throwing at an enemy from a distance.

Pipe tomahawks were exchanged as gifts, usually in return for expensive furs. They were also used to confirm friendships and establish treaties.

These special tomahawks were made

from nicer material, such as silver or pewter, and ornately engraved.

Some were decorated with rawhide, brass, paint, or stonework, including turquoise and onyx inlays. They often contained medicine bundles, which were supposed to bring good luck in battle. Eagle feathers were earned for bravery and attached to the tomahawk.

Tomahawks were placed on the ground during some tribal council meetings. If the war leader picked up the tomahawk, it meant the decision for war was approved. If the war leader

A pipe tomahawk dating to the early 19th century. (U.S. GOVERNMENT)

“buried the hatchet,” it meant an end to warfare.

Tomahawks were used by our soldiers during the Revolutionary War as a backup to their flintlock guns, as well as to chop wood and dress game.

Today, tomahawks are typically a little under 2 feet in length and made with hickory, ash or maple handles.

Some modern tomahawks have synthetic shafts instead of wood. They come housed in a leather sheath.

Those used during the Vietnam War are often called “Vietnam tomahawks.”

They became popular during that war in part due to the efforts of Peter LaGana, a World War II veteran of Mohawk descent. He sold thousands of tactical tomahawks featuring a sharp spike to U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. His company, American Tomahawk Co., brought back his design in 2000. SOG Knives is another major manufacturer of Vietnam tomahawks, with its Fusion Tactical Tomahawk.

The tomahawk continues to be westernshootingjournal.com 163

KNIVES A traditional tomahawk. (MIKE CUMPSTOM/WIKIMEDIA)

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used by the military, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is used by soldiers for both hand-to-hand combat and as a tool. It is helpful for breaking locks, deflating tires, removing road obstacles, smashing windows, digging trenches, breaching doors, chopping through cinder blocks, detonating land mines, and opening crates. The Vietnam models can also pierce a Kevlar helmet.

Law enforcement agencies also use tomahawks, notably SWAT teams.

Specially made “tactical tomahawks� include additional features such as a shaft designed as a prybar.

For regular Americans, the tomahawk is a lighter alternative to a hatchet, useful for camping and walking through dense foilage.

In part 2 of this series next issue, we will cover tomahawk throwing, which includes reenactments and competitions, such as the new martial arts known as Okichitaw. WSJ

RW WILSON KNIVES Custom Made Tomahawks, Knives & Supplies

304-723-2771 rwwilsonknives.com rwknives@comcast.net westernshootingjournal.com 165

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DURY’S GUN SHOP 819 Hot Wells Blvd, San Antonio, TX 210-533-5431 www.durysguns.com

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