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Today was my first day of hunting in Arizona, and my first objective was to wrap up my grand slam with an Abert’s. The limit is 5 per day, and I bagged 3 in what was one of the toughest small game hunts I’ve done. Not may squirrels, I saw 4, got shots at 3, and dropped all with one shot each. All were high up in the trees, I was using the Seneca Eagle Claw .25 cal with JSB Exacts, and man this combo makes an impact. The last squirrel was about 45 yards away and about 40 fee up, and the pellets blew right through side to side on a chest shot. I really liked this lever action rifle and will give more details in the video.Read More →

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I am going through my photo archives….. 175k airgun hunting photos in no particular order…. and came across this from a segment of American Airgunner that Rossi and I did several years ago. We’ve done some great hunts together over the years, but this was one of my favorites for a few reasons, not the least of which is we got two really nice hogs within 15 minutes. I hit mine and laid him directly over, Rossi’s took a hard hit but made it into the bush. The shots came in the last minutes of light, and we had to go after this pig in the dark, which is always interesting. After all my years of hunting, I still get the shakes from the adrenaline rush, some times before and some time after the shot. I’ve had it so bad, that I can’t climb down from a tree stand until I stop shaking, and it doesn’t have to be a huge trophy to induce it. The reason I mention it, was that not before or since have I seen Rossi with such a case of buck fever. On the first hog I told him to take it, nothing happened…….. then I heard a clattering and looked over to see him shaking so hard the gun was jumping off the sticks! I took the shot and we sat there high fiving, when we saw a second pig come in and challenge my downed hog. Rossi sucked in a breath, lined upRead More →

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A couple years ago I received my Airguns of Arizona BushBuck big bore air rife. This solid gun is perhaps the best looking big bore built (to my eye), but it is a rugged high performance powerhouse. I’ve decided that I will take this gun on one of my deer hunts in Texas this year, as well as using it for hogs and other big game. I have a lot of big bores to choose from, over 20 in my collection, but this is one I keep coming back to for the hunts that need a gun that packs a wallop! This is a big solid rifle weighing in at 10.5 lb without scope, though mine is a prototype carbine that shave about 3/4 lb off that. The rifle is generating over 600 fpe (at high power setting) when coupled with a 400 grain .452 cast lead bullet. A formidable air rifle that I’ll go into detail on after my deer hunt. What I also want to tell you is that I’ve been shooting with the Holland’s Game-Getter scope over the last several weeks and Have been really impressed with it. I really like the reticle with the built in range finder/firing solution fit-to-hit technology. To be honest, this simple to use and elegant solution is geared to the firearms hunter, however there will be an airgunners version at some point. But in the meanwhile there are some other features of the scope that make it a great option forRead More →

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As many of you know, a few years ago I wrote about a hunt I wanted to do, and called it the North American Grand Slam, which was to take a gray squirrel, a fox squirrel, and Abert’s squirrel, and a black color phase of any of them. This is an infrequent natural color phase to all three, though not common in any. However, the likelihood of finding one is higher in some areas where there seem to be population pockets. I’ve found them in areas of Michigan, but nowhere else with such a high prevalence. I was getting ready to do the 14 hour drive to Michigan, think I mentioned I like squirrel hunting, to try to get this one off my grand slam list early. I mentioned the upcoming trip for a black squirrel when one of my channels subscribers Jonathan sent me a message and said, we have the all over in N. Wisconsin….. only a 3.5 hour drive from home. Ironically, I’d plan to hunt my way across WI on my way to MI, calling a halt when I got my squirrel. Jonathan sent me a map with a couple places to try, so off I went. I will release a video from the trip, but I have to apologize in advance that the hunting footage is limited. My gun mounted camera failed on me, and I hadn’t realized until arriving home today. However there is some good travel footage and I hope you will enjoy.Read More →

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If you follow my videos or writing you know that I love squirrel season. I’ve been gearing up for the first hunt, and this morning was day. I’d been planning a 2-3 day hunt, however family plans required a change, and I needed to postpone departure on that trip until later in the week. But I wasn’t bummed, I figured I could still get out for a couple hours in the early morning, and be home by 10:00….. so everybody would be happy! I rolled up to a public land wildlife management area (WMA). It’s great that we have these available to us, but finding access without trespassing on private land can be a task. I lost about a half hour trying to figure this out, but finally after a 20 minute hike managed to get into the woods. My plan was to hike in, find some hardwoods with cuttings on the ground, and set up at the base of a tree and wait. I give myself about 20 minutes before moving on. The first set nothing happened. The second set nothing happened…until I was getting ready to move when I hear some noise. I stayed put an a minute later a fox squirrel came running by with a little red squirrel nipping at his heels. I’ve never seen this, and watched as the two squirrels raced by. Turning slowly, I saw the fox squirrel up a tree less than ten feet behind staring right at me. I slowly mountedRead More →

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When I first move to the midwest about 18 years ago, I had hunted a lot in the US, Europe, South Africa, for a lot of different game. But I’d not done any real squirrel hunting. What I mean by “real” squirrel hunting is I hadn’t hunted tree squirrels. I’d shot literally hundreds of ground squirrels growing up in Southern California, but the closest I got to a tree squirrel was when one of these climbed up into the desert brush. When my wife and I moved back to the States after many years away, we were back in Cali for a couple years before my work took us to Indiana. As I looked for hunting options in my new home, and started scoping out deer hunting areas, the potential for squirrel hunting became clear. I read up (not much online content in those days), but didn’t have stellar success at first, taking a squirrel or two after a hard day in the woods. But at the same time I started getting first hand experience and (I hope) learning from it, I meet Randy Mitchell through one of the early airgun forums. He invited me to drive down to Kentucky to go squirrel hunting with him new years day, I think it was 2004 or 2005. And it turned out this guy knew what he was doing. I watched and learned more! I think I’m a pretty good squirrel hunter these days, and while I get to hunt a lotRead More →

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Getting ready for a prairie dog shoot this weekend in South Dakota and received this FX Dreamline Tactical in .25 in time for the trip! The Dreamline is a rifle I’ve been waiting for, it comes in several variations but the .25 caliber tactical currently sitting in my gun rack is the design that resonated with me.  This version is very streamlined, with the air reservoir serving as the forestock. I selected the Hogue FDE adjustable stock and grip for my rifle, and the guys at Utah Airguns did another great hydro dip for me in the Tiger Stripe ACU pattern…… it looks great! The second rifle I’ve ordered through this shop and these guys do top rate work! Like all the guns in this line it implements the smooth twist barrel that FX is famous for, and the efficiency and efficacy gained though FX’s design of the air reservoir direct mount to the breech is impressive on first pass. I’ll do a full write up on the Dreamline on the range and out hunting soon. My rifle is fitted with the 16 round high capacity magazine, cycled with the side lever cocking mechanism which FX does particularly well. The rifle fills to 230 BAR using a proprietary fill probe and has two manometers for the reservoir fill pressure and the regulator. I’ll start getting sighted in tomorrow, and will update the website as I go. Sometime after my South Dakota trip will get a video posted over on YouTube.Read More →

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I’ve been wanting to visit the Utah Airguns shop for awhile, and finally got the chance last week. Well worth the trip down from Idaho where I’d been visiting. They have a large and varied selection of rifles, optics, and accessories. But what I really wanted to see was their camo finish selection, they offer both dips and Cerakote finishes. If you follow this website or my YouTube channel you might have seen the FX crown they did for me last year. I also enjoyed the 35 yard shooting range they’ve built….. the owner (Justin Jacobson) said they have both rentals and memberships available. The shop is about 1200 miles from my home base of Minneapolis, but if I lived closer I’d be a fixture here….it would be a great place to terst rifles! I ordered a new rifle while I was there, an FX Dreamline Tactical with a Hogue stock and grip, and a camo dip you’ll have to wait to see. Taking this rifle with me in a couple weeks on a prairie dog shoot in SD. There will be an article coming up in Airgunner magazine in which I look at the Utah airgun shop, and discuss trends in the US airgunning market in some detail.Read More →

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Hello everyone, as I recently posted several new ATN optics arrived and I’ll be using them a lot for hogs and predators in the upcoming season. As you probably know, I live in Minnesota but get down to Texas pretty much monthly, sometimes more, to hunt. I am really looking forward to getting on those night time hogs during the warmer months. But in the meanwhile, I want to get started on the predators closer to home, before heading out prairie dogging in South Dakota next month. I decided to put together the rig I want to use locally, more of a closer range urban predator rig. I have permissions on a couple farms and a pheasant hunting reserve near home and on the boundaries of city limits. The scope I’ll start off with is the ATN ThOR LT, which is the companies entry level thermal imaging scope (around $1100.00). On paper this looks like a pretty well spec’d scope: it compact and light weight (1.4 lb), has an integrated with very low power consumption and long battery life, has white hot/black hot displays at a display resolution of 1280×720. I also like the fact that it uses standard 30mm rings, I’m using a set of UTG Max Strength Picitinny/Weaver ring on my set up. The rifle I chose is a standby urban predator gun I’ve been using for years, my Evanix .357 sniper carbine. The gun gives me a solid 7 shots, using a sidle lever action to cycleRead More →

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I am often asked what shooting positions I prefer when in the field when hunting. The easy answer is that prone is the most stable, followed by sitting, kneeling, and standing. As you move higher your center of gravity shifts and your anchor points to earth become more tenuous. I’m going to discuss this in terms of offhand shooting, though even if shooting of sticks, this holds true. The more relevant answer is that it depends on the situation. In many of the places I hunt, a prone position is not possible, and you need to pick the best position that will work in the terrain your hunting in. For instance, when hunting prairie dogs on the gently rolling hills of South Dakota in early spring, I’ll often go prone. But as spring progresses, the grass gets too long to see over so I shoot more from a sitting position. When spot and stalk hunting through a prairie dog town, every once in awhile a dog pops up close and offers a shot. Sometimes you might be able to take a knee, but more often it will require an offhand shot. For this reason its good for hunters to practice shots from these field positions, a bench is great for working up a rifle and getting sighted in, and it’s great as an end point if you’re into benchrest competitions, but it can throw you off if that the only way you practice. I frequently see guys that shoot theirRead More →