BERNIE KUNTZ

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Some good news for gun owners

A few interesting events took place in the West last week that you probably did not see on the evening news. The first was a law initiated by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and presumably signed by President Barack Obama, that went into effect last week, allowing loaded firearms in national parks for the first time in three decades.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , March 05, 2010

Crabbing in Alaska is missed PressPass

It was 25 years ago on a cold, Southeast Alaska winter day when Laurie and I motored her Boston Whaler, “The Rabbit’s Foot” a couple hundred yards off shore in Amalga Harbor north of Juneau. As I remember, we were the only boat in sight, and we were on the water to catch king crabs.

February 26, 2010

NRA wrong on hunting issues PressPass

As a life member of the National Rifle Association since 1975, and a current Endowment member, it pains me to tell readers that the NRA is on the wrong side of two issues — one in North Dakota, the other in Montana.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , February 19, 2010

Wolves creating more headaches PressPass

Nothing the National Park Service (NPS) proposes ever surprises me, and neither did this latest article published in the February issue of BioScience magazine, which NPS researchers foster reintroducing wolves at many sites across the country.

February 12, 2010

Hunting for snowshoe hares PressPass

Oscar, the yellow Labrador pup, now 76 pounds, ran behind the couch and chair with his mangled tennis ball in his mouth. I don’t know if it was his tail or rump that struck the snowshoes leaning up against the wall, but they fell with a clatter, thoroughly scaring Oscar. We petted him and he soon returned to normal.

February 05, 2010

Where should the buffalo roam? PressPass

A staff writer for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle has written several excellent news features on the bogged down bison quarantine program in Montana. The Sun published part of one of Daniel Person’s articles a couple weeks ago, picked up from the Associated Press wire. So I won’t rehash everything here, but rather, will just touch on the high points and the politics behind this chaos.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , January 29, 2010

Oscar officially broken in PressPass

During the long weeks of frigid weather I thought about it a lot — the fact I still had not shot a bird over yellow Labrador pup Oscar. A few days before he turned eight months in age, I called up an older fellow who owns a small piece of bottomland along the West Gallatin River and asked if Laurie and I could bring out the dogs and see if we could shoot a duck or two. He told us to come on out.

January 22, 2010

Doesn’t feel like globe is warming PressPass

I suppose I shouldn’t poke fun of the people who have turned “global warming” into their own religion, but I am sincerely waiting for some warmer weather. I understand that global warming zealots are in line for billions of dollars of grants and other contracts, and I am fully aware of the almost comical e-mail leaks of scientists who manipulated data about the earth’s temperature.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , January 15, 2010

The red fox vs. the coyote PressPass

Red foxes used to be plentiful east of the Missouri River in North Dakota when I was growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s, but during the last few decades coyotes have displaced foxes on the landscape. I have read that foxes hunt a smaller area more intensely than does a coyote, so this may be advantageous to game birds and other prey pursued by these predators.

January 08, 2010

Predator control casuing problems PressPass

One of the best examples of the fallacy of complete predator control occurred a century ago when Theodore Roosevelt approved a massive predator eradication program in the Kaibab Plateau region of Arizona. Through shooting, poisoning and trapping, mountain lions, wolves and black bears were almost eliminated. As a result, the mule deer population boomed, increasing to more than 100,000 animals, in turn destroying the browse species deer needed to survive. A massive die-off of mule deer ensued, and it took decades for the range to restore itself.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , December 31, 2009

Nothing beats the .22 rimfire PressPass

Of all the useful creations in the shooting industry, the .22 rimfire cartridge ranks up there among the most notable. Receiving a .22 rifle chambered for a rimfire cartridge from a parent or guardian has been a rite of passage for generations of youngsters ever since the .22 rimfire was invented in1887.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , December 18, 2009

Meat cutting a hearty chore PressPass

A friend of mine just returned to southwest Montana from his original home in the Belfield, N.D., area where he and his relatives made 510 pounds of various types of game sausage. It must have been something to witness — grinding up deer and elk meat, adding fat and spices in making five different types of sausage, all in keeping with the wild game meat harvest that takes place at this time of year.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , December 11, 2009

‘Public trust’ largely a myth PressPass

The equivalent of the Hippocratic oath among wildlife biologists and managers is the notion of the Public Trust Doctrine of the North American Model of wildlife management, that is wildlife being held in a “public trust” to be managed for the benefit of the public. Notice that I said “notion,” because that is largely what it has become. In many cases, it is an enormous stretch to claim that the public owns North American wildlife, and in those instances the public trust idea is largely a myth.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , December 04, 2009

Bag limits rarely make sense PressPass

Not long ago I was discussing the puzzling nature of game bird bag limits with a friend who was for three decades a wildlife biologist and manager for a western wildlife agency. I pointed out that during an increase in the Hungarian partridge population more than 25 years ago, the State of Montana increased the daily bag limit from five or six birds to its current eight birds. Yet in spite of the fact that partridge numbers never have been as high as those years in the late ‘80s, the eight-bird-a-day, four-day possession limit of 32 has remained in place all these years.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , November 27, 2009

Nervous feeling for upcoming elk hunt PressPass

My first big game hunt was for pronghorn antelope when I was 12, and I remember to this day my father driving his pickup, my mother sitting in the middle of the cab, me next to the passenger door, the headlights illuminating golden September grass and the gravel road. And I was nauseated from anxiety, almost to the point of throwing up. The pressure was on me to perform, and it almost was too much.

By Bernie Kuntz, Outdoors , November 13, 2009

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