In the near past Marlin was purchased by the same company that owns Remington (Cerberus Capital Management) and under the Marlin company's umbrella part of the sale included the H&R 1871 brand. Now, in a move to consolidate its manufacturuing in Ilion, NY, Remington is closing the H&R plant in Gardner, MA. Some 230 jobs in MA will be lost when operation cease by the end of the year. Some employees will have the opportunity to transfer to other jobs within the company, but the rest will be offered severance, outplacement and referral services. If you have any experience with H&R shotguns and rifles, you know they are as ulitarian as they come. You can use one to bag a turkey in the morning and use the barrel as a jack lever in afternoon to fix a flat on your pickup truck. They are great single-shot guns that allow barrels to be swapped long before TC’s rifles came on the scene. And speaking of TC, this past month 36 jobs were lost due to abunmant inventory. S&W, which owns TC is laying off workers and will sell down its inventory of firearms. Seems there wasn’t a run on hunting rifles this past quarter. So if you are wondering how to spend your rebate check from George W., perhaps a TC Icon rifle or maybe an H&R single-shot shotgun. It’s too late to help those who are already on the street, but it will make a statement especially in this election year. To close on a cheerier note, Remington recieved a $1.5 million senate capital grant which translates into a 100 new manufacturing jobs at its Ilion facility.

Posted by robert at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Charity Navigator is a watch group that rates and evaluates charities. And we all want to watch where our donated money goes to don't we? This is the fourth year in a row that PF received a 4-star rating—the highest possible rating. Only 5% of the charities rated by Charity Navigator have ever received four consecutive 4-star evaluations. So you can feel good about writing a check or joining PF. Nearly 90 cents of every dollar goes into wildlife habitat and conservation education. Plus local chapters determine how 100% of their locally-raised conservation funds will be spent. Chapter members see first-hand the results of their efforts in their own home towns, while the larger PF organization has Washington D.C.'s ear on conservation policy.

Posted by SwampYankee at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ruger (NYSE: RGR) has been awarded a 5-year contract by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for 1,750 9mm KP95 model pistols. These are double-action only and feature a stainless steel slide, a polymer composite frame with a built-in picatinny rail. Nice to hear that a US firearm company is selling product to the federal government. If you have any experience with this model you know it is strong, reliable, and less expensive compared to other competing brands. If you are wondering these pistols are manufactured in Ruger's AZ factory. I'm sure you heard what has happened with Boeing being beat out by Airbus on the in-flight fuel tankers contract. How do you feel about the Fed buying products? Do you think contracts should go to US-made only or should the contracts go to the better product?

Posted by SwampYankee at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The RGS recently became flush with cash after two long-time supporters in PA anonymously donated $1 million. The RGS will use the contribution to fund existing activities in Wisconsin. So if you’re expecting a hefty inhertitance think again. And thank you, you mysterious, grouse seeker from PA for your generosity.

Posted by SwampYankee at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Nebraska, Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin are closer to enacting legislation to lower barriers that prevent new hunters from participating in the sport. And as we all know getting new blood into the pheasant fields and deer woods will keep our hunting tradition alive and well. Nebraska has passed a bill that creates an apprentice hunter education exemption certificate. This allows an experienced hunter to take a neophyte hunting before they’ve completed a hunter education course. It also lowers the age for deer hunting from 12 to 10. Virginia’s bills would create a two-year apprentice license allowing novices to take to hunt with a licensed adult hunter prior to the completion of hunter education. Indiana’s bill creates an apprentice hunting license that lets resident or nonresident newcomers, who are accompanied by a license adult hunter, to hunt for three years prior to the completion of a hunter education course. Wisconsin’s bill would establish an apprentice hunting license for those 10 years old and higher. It will also remove an old law that bans youth under 12 from target shooting.

Posted by SwampYankee at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What is Unboxing?: Unboxing originated with Unboxing.com, a site dedicated to helping people show off their new techie toys, favorite gadgets, consumer electronics, and more. As their tag line states "Vicarious thrills from opening new gear."

Back a few years ago when I was a pup, I had the great fortune to train a German Wirehaired Pointer otherwise known as a GWP or if have a Teutonic bent a Drahthaar. GWPs fall into the versatile hunting category and can be trained to hunt anything. And when I say anything, I really mean anything. My GWP, named Blue, was a natural-born hunter and anything I did help Blue’s training along he ignored. Back then there were no VHS tapes or DVDs to visually show you how to train a dog, just books. And since I had the time to train Blue, I thought I would do it myself. Blue obviously had read all the books and no matter how much I tried to teach him whoa and other gun dog commands he ignored me. He chewed a few of the books I read cover to cover in an effort to tell me he had everything under control. We finally reach an understand that if I would stop reading the gun dog training books he would oblige me and hunt birds. So that was how our hunting relationship ensued. I took no responsibility for his fieldwork prowess and he found birds where other dogs couldn’t. Now that Cooper is in the picture I pulled out my old dog training books for a refresher course. Blue never knew that I taped the pages back into the binding. If training Blue was an exercise in traditional dog training methods, then Cooper’s training would use 21st century methods. Electronic dog training collars, or ecollars, have been on the market since 1970s. These collars give the dog wearing it an electric shock stimulus. There are two sides of the fence with ecollars; those who think it is humane and those who think it is cruel. In a future post I will present both sides of the ecollar and let you know where I stand. The DT H2O 1810 series collar system is an example of an ecollar that can be applied in both basic and advanced training needs Some of the features are:

• Range: 1 Mile
• Intensity Levels: 16 adjusted from the transmitter
• Antenna System: built into the collar
• Power Source: rechargeable Ni-MH battery
• Waterproof: yes
• Functionality: 2 buttons; 1 nick stimulation, 1 continuous stimulation

Here’s what I found and what Cooper found when we opened the box.

Continue reading "Unboxing: DT Systems - H2O 1810 ecollar" »

Posted by SwampYankee at 08:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)