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What are the rules for hunting the Abominable Snowman? The government of Nepal was very clear about what people on mountain climbing expeditions should do if they encounter a Yeti. In 1959, Ernest H. Fisk, counselor of the US embassy in Kathmandu, summarized the rules for American travelers in Nepal. You can read the full memo at the US National Archives.
If you’ve ever wanted to own a car that was both stylish and armed to the teeth, then this vintage Rolls Royce might be the car of your dreams. Built to aid an Indian Maharaja in hunting tigers, this classy coup has built in double-barrel shotguns, a rifle stand, Lantaka cannon mounted to the bumper and a trailer mounted machine gun. This classy yet deadly ride is expected to bring in around a million dollars at auction, so this is probably yet another one-of-a-kind automobile that will end up in Jay Leno’s collection.
Link Image via AP Photo/Bonhams
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Punt guns were enormous shotguns used to hunt waterfowl in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. They were so heavy that they were normally attached to small boats called punts and the boats were then pointed as birds resting on the water’s surface:
Punt guns were usually custom-designed and so varied widely, but could have bore diameters exceeding 2 inches (51 mm) and fire over a pound (0.5 kilos) of shot at a time.
A single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water’s surface. They were too big to hold and the recoil so large that they were mounted directly on the punts used for hunting, hence their name. Hunters would maneuver their punts quietly into line and range of the flock using poles or oars to avoid startling them.
Generally the gun was fixed to the punt; thus the hunter would maneuver the entire boat in order to aim the gun. The guns were sufficiently powerful, and the punts themselves sufficiently small, that firing the gun often propelled the punt backwards several inches or more. To improve efficiency, hunters could work in fleets of up to around ten punts.
The practice faded as wild waterfowl stocks were depleted. It was eventually banned in the United States, though I gather it is still legal in the United Kingdom.
Link via The Firearm Blog | Photo: The Underhammer Society
Previously: World’s Largest Shotgun
In this scene from the BBC’s Human Planet, three men in Kenya approach a slain wildebeest. Fifteen lions are gorging over this fresh, delicious kill. The men, armed only with bows, decide to take it away from the lions.
via Geekosystem
You may have heard of locavores — people who prefer to eat food grown or raised locally — or freegans — people who dine on wasted food. Now there’s a new food movement that advocates curbing the growth of invasive species by eating them. Invasivors prey upon species that are taking over the established habitats of other animals. Jackson Landers is an adherent of this movement:
As the Locavore Hunter, based in Virginia, he teaches urbanites how to hunt and butcher deer. He has branched out from the locavore life to invasives, and lionfish are one target. But as he has pushed the envelope of the invasivore approach, he has hunted and eaten feral pigs, two species of iguana, armadillos, starlings, pigeons and resident Canada geese. He says that all of these activities will be chronicled in a book, “Eating Aliens,” and perhaps a television show as well.
Mr. Landers, who grew up in a vegetarian household, taught himself to hunt. He believes that eating invasives can have a real effect. “When human beings decide that something tastes good, we can take them down pretty quickly,” he said. Our taste for passenger pigeon wiped that species out, he said. What if we developed a similar taste for starlings?
Link via Glenn Reynolds | Jackson Landers’ Blog | Photo by Flickr user jon hanson used under Creative Commons license
This video, allegedly taken last September near Newfolden, Minnesota, shows a hunter in a tree stand. A black bear wanders by and decides to climb up the ladder of the stand to where the hunter sits.
via reddit
Previously: Bow Hunters Wed in Tree Stand, Clad in Camo
Here in Texas, it’s not uncommon to see chairs mounted on metal frames over pickup trucks. They’re mobile stands used by hunters who want to get a good view over an area. The Critter Gitter, pictured above, is a very fancy version of this specialized vehicle. It’s made by a company in Texas that builds custom hunting trucks. The Critter Gitter sits on 64″ tires and comes equipped with an iPod dock, a winch to haul game inside, cooler racks, and airbags. You can see more pictures and photos of other, similar vehicles at the link.
Link via OhGizmo! | Photo: Critter Gitters
Primatologists in Guinea have observed wild chimpanzees intentionally disabling snares:
On two occasions witnessed, the chimps successfully deactivated the traps set for them.[...]
A typical snare, for example one made by the Manon people of Bossou, consists of a loop of iron wire connected by a vine rope to an arched stick, often a sapling.
The sapling puts tension into the rope and once an animal passes through the wire loop, the trap is sprung and the sapling pulls it tight, around the neck or leg of an animal.
Such traps cause indiscriminate damage, ensnaring any and all animals that come into contact with them.
But male Bossou chimps have worked out how to outwit the hunters and deactivate the traps.
“They seemed to know which parts of the snares are dangerous and which are not,” Mr Ohashi told the BBC.
Link via Marginal Revolution | Image: Fox
Joseph Wasilewski, Desiree Dov, Mario Aldecoa with a captured 13-foot Burmese python. Photo: Wick Beavers
Thanks to some irresponsible pet owners releasing their snakes in the wild, thousands of 10-foot Burmese pythons roam the Florida Everglades, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem. To help control the situation, the local Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission declared an open season on the giant pythons. For 6 weeks, all you need is a hunting license to kill yourself some snakes.
Catherine Skipp of The Daily Beast went to catch her first "Burm," as the Burmese python is lovingly called by those who hunt it, in the first ever Great Python Hunt:
No sooner does he have the snake in hand than another sound distracts him; he spies a second, smaller python heading for the water about 20 feet away. “Here, hold this,” he barks, handing me the back end of the writhing monster. Fobb runs off to try to capture its companion. But I dare not watch him go, focusing instead on the gift he’s just given me: a shovel-headed constrictor that suddenly seems all mouth, as it stretches its jaws wide, exposing soft, white gums that I know from careful research conceal 100 teeth in four rows. They’re now pointing toward my throat, and lunging straight at me.
Link – Thanks Brian Ries!
After a football injury at the age of sixteen, Jamie Cap became paralyzed from the neck down. Now, thirty years later, he controls a shotgun attached to his wheelchair with a breathing tube. Getting legal permission was a substantial struggle, but now he’s been cleared by a court to start shooting:
Cap, 46, recently won a 2 1/2-year legal battle to allow him to use, with the help of a partner, a 12-gauge shotgun fitted with a battery-powered machine that is operated by a breathing tube.
He described firing that first shot last week with a combination of wistfulness and enthusiasm another person might use to describe rekindling a decades-old romance.
“I don’t know if there are words,” he said. “I’m so happy. When you find you can do something again after 30 years, you can’t put a price on that. Some people think it’s nothing, but try being paralyzed for 30 years and then come talk to me.”[...]
Cap might not have embarked on his bureaucratic odyssey had he not found Indiana-based Be Adaptive Equipment during a random Internet search. The company, which has made wheelchair mounts for shotguns since 2002, sells about 20 per year, according to owners Brian and Renee Kyler. Cap’s model cost about $1,600; a new 12-gauge shotgun starts at about $250.
For a quadriplegic, firing a shotgun requires help from a companion. In Cap’s case, a friend sets up the contraption, safety on, on Cap’s wheelchair and Cap aims the shotgun by moving the toggle switch with his mouth. Once his partner releases the safety, Cap fires by sipping on the breathing tube.
Link via Geekologie | Photo: AP
I have to love this stripus africanis sample. When you purchase them, you even get a nice little biological info about the species. The strupus africanis enjoys grass, cereal and Snickers bars.
“This ideal stripus africanus specimen has been stuffed and retains all of its original features. This bust would be an excellent trophy to add to your collection. A small plate on the bottom identifies its genus and species. The wood plaque that it is mounted on measures 5×7″ (or 13x18cm for our continental friends) and is pre-drilled on the back for easy hanging.”
Link Via Cute Overload
Randy Goodman of Sedalia, Missouri, thought that he had killed a deer with a well-placed shot to the neck. As he marvelled over his lucky catch, the deer came to life and exacted a little revenge:
As the nine-point, 240-pound buck lay lifeless the unexpected happened. The buck stood up and knocked Goodman on his butt, attacking him with his antlers.
“It was 15 seconds of hell,” Goodman said. Goodman thought the deer was trying to go through him as he fought it off the best he could. A few seconds later, the deer was off and running. “I felt his front legs go over my face,” Goodman said.
The buck ran 30 yards and fell down again and Goodman was worried the deer wasn’t done yet. “If he was going to come back I would be in trouble because I was in too much pain,” Goodman said.
Link (Photo: Randy Goodman)
