This is being typed with one hand as I load up my gear for the hunt with another hand and load my ammo for the hunt with another. And answer questions on the phone at the same time with the other. So if words are mispelled or out of sync, ignore it. Things are hectic. As of right now we will be leaving out of here tomorrow (Tuesday) evening about 10PM. If all goes well we should roll into the lodge lot about noon on Thursday. One of our group Dave Treathardt had to drop out due to problems at work but Brent Foy will be riding with Kase and me. It is a long drive (1700 miles each way) but the time off will be worth it. It has been extremely busy here for the past year and I really need a couple of days break.
The hunt should be a really good one with lots of Misfits attending, 46 at the last count, with a couple that had to drop out. Along with Dave, Russell Cottle had to drop out due to emergency surgery on his wife.
The list of animals at the hunt is a long one from wild boar to African game. The prices are usually about half of what all the other preserves charge and there are no hidden charges that seem to be the norm at other preserves. The good thing about the Wilderness Hunting Lodge is that it can be as easy as you want or as hard as you want. With many thousands of acres the hunt can take place in an open pasture or on top of a mountain or deep in a steep canyon. Many of the animals like Aoudad, Blackbuck, Nilgai, bull elk, Muntjac, Javelina and a lot of others are extremely hard to hunt and I know several hunters that didn't get their animal due to the hardness of the hunt. But that is why they call it hunting. Other game like Bison are easy to find and get up on but often hard to put down. If the bullet is not in the right spot you may be in for a long chase. Bison are dumb, which is one of the reasons they were almost decimated 125 years ago. So Bison hunting is more of a harvest rather than a hunt. I have hunted them in South Dakota in that big herd that was shown in the Dances With Wolves movie and they were no harder to hunt or stalk than the ones at the lodge in Tennessee.
Some other unusual animals that are available to hunt are the Scimitar Horned Oryx, Longhorn bulls, African Watusi bulls, the Yak and the exotic deer, like the fallow, Sika and Axis deer. For those that want to fill up a freezer, the big Longhorns, the Watusi, the Bison, the Australian Water Buffalo and the Yak would do so easily. Each will run from 1500 to 2000 lbs which would fill up most freezers to capacity. Of these my choice in eating quality would be the Water Buffalo. The yak and Longhorn can be a drier meat that takes a lot of basting while cooking, while the water buffalo doesn't seem to need it quite as much.
Another unusual animal is the Asian 4 Horn sheep. Often people see one of ours on the wall at the shop and think it is made up like a jackalope.  It is a true sheep, also called the Jacob's ram as it was mentioned in the Bible. They make a very unusual mount, guaranteed to get comments. He has all the other sheep there and they can be easy to hunt or extremely hard. The Merino sheep, also called the Mauna Kea ram, as they were originally found on the Mauna Kea island in the pacific. They are a big heavy sheep with several inches of snow white wool all over their body. They are slow and dumb but due to the heavy wool a good pointed or tapered bullet is often necessary to get thru it. The Corsican sheep and the Black Hawaiian are both very distinctive sheep. The Corsican with it's tan color and long black mane often hanging almost to the ground. The Black Hawaiian looks much the same but as in it's name, is often solid black. The hard one to hunt is the Aoudad, or Barbary Sheep from North Africa. They graze at 30 mph, and shit at 25 mph. Have your running shoes on if you plan to hunt one of these.
Alan has several Muntjac on his place and for something really unusual this is the little guy for you. He is a very small deer, weighing maybe 20 lbs. His distinctive features are fangs coming out of his upper jaw and hanging down maybe 2 inches. He also barks like a dog and is very aggresive.  His horns are short but the fangs make up for his little horns. This little guy deserves to be a full mount. And I am sure your wife would want him to be sitting in the middle of your dining table.
If you have wanted to hunt bull elk, this is the place. Out here in elk country the average price for a mediocre 4X4 bull is a bit over $8000. Add to that your airfare, the hotel, meals, your tag, plus all the other expenses you encounter hunting out of state and you have a $12,000 to $15,000 hunt. Alan has 5X5s, 5X6s, 6X6s all priced at $2495 to $3500, and no hidden charges. he also has some real monsters at higher prices for those that want a one of a kind monster. Kase and I both have taken 6X6s there and they make for some really good eating plus a very nice mount. Alan also has spike elk and cow elk for those only wanting the meat and hide. And at a reduced price too.
Whatever animal you choose to hunt, and however you like to hunt, whether easy in a ground blind or a tuff stalk, this is a hunt you will enjoy. Plus getting to spend 3 days with a lot of the Misfits you have read about for years on my forum. And there are always dozens of custom guns to look at, handle, shoot if you like and hunt with if you like. All in all, a great time.
One other thing to mention here. I have already mentioned the requirement of an orange vest and hat so nuff said on that. Also if it should rain (which it isn't supposed to) don't bring a ton of extra clothes. There is a large commercial washer and dryer up in the big 3 story lodge and you can just pitch them in there. Charlie Herf doesn't feel the need to bring his 100 lb duffle anymore due to this, so now he only brings a 75 lb duffle. A boy has to be prepared you know.
Not a lot going on in the industry these days. Sort of a same old, same old. Ammunition is beginning to be a bit more available in some calibers like 223, 308 and 7.62X39. Handgun ammo like 9mm, 40 caliber and 45 ACP is still scarce with some showing up here and there. The rimfire ammo, 22 LR and 22 Magnum is still almost non existant and going for 2 to 3 times retail when you can find it. Dealers are getting blamed for the price hikes which is total bullshit.  All dealers have to buy thru distributors and they have been out for over a year. There are some distributors that we call gray distributors, as they sell on the gray market. They buy up from the real distributors and then sell at full retail or well over that to the gun shops. It is not unusual for a gun shop to have to pay $40 for a brick of 22s, or even more. The 22 Magnum ammo is running closer to $50 a brick. This puts the gun shop having to sell it at $50 or more for a brick of 22s and $60 to $70 for a brick of 22 Magnums. We don't play those games at our gun shop. I don't have bricks of ammo to sell so what little we do have is sold by the box of 50 and a limit of 2 boxes.
If you are looking for an AR-15, now is the time to buy as prices are half of what they were last year this time. Some unusual guns coming out to hopefully be able to sell in the states that have banned the AR-15. Taurus has a space age Star Wars carbine coming out in 9mm and 40 S&W called the CT9 and CT40. This one looks so different from the AR-15s that there is no way anyone would associate it with them. They also only hold 10 rounds in the mag to appease the politicians in California and the upper Northeast. These guns are obviously semi auto and have a fixed stock, adjustable rear sight, full accessory rails, ambi slide catch and mag release and weighs a bit over 6 lbs. Suggested retail is a bit under $900.
If you have been wanting one of the red dot sights for your rifle or handgun but balk at the $500 to $600 price, Bushnell has good news for you. They have 2 models coming out and both are well under $200. There are already copies of these 2 red dot sights being made in China and they will probably flood the market with them at under $50. So make sure yours says Bushnell on the side.
Glock is catching up with what a lot of custom gun makers are already doing, including Kase with his Zombie proof and his new Venom. They are nickel plating the slide on several of their new Gen 4 guns.
The gun industry is beginning to be just a couple of huge conglomerates that own a lot of companies. The Freedom Group is one of the largest owning remington, Advanced Armament, Barnes Bullets, Bushmaster, Dakota Arms, DPMS, H&R, Marlin, Para ordnance, Parker Shotguns, and several accessory companies. Somehow the rumor got out that Remington had bought all these companies which is not true. The Freedom group owns them along with remington. Now comes ATK who previously had owned mostly accessory and ammunition companies likeFederal Ammunition, CCI, Fusion, Speer, Estate Shotshells, Blazer, Blackhawk, Alliant Powder, RCBS, Weaver, Champion Targets, Gunslick, Bushnell scopes and Outers. They also own Lake City Ammunition where most of the government's ammo comes from. Now they are adding firearms companies to their line up. They have recently bought Savage and Stevens along with Sacage Range systems.
I guess all these companies under one unbrella makes them stronger companies, to a point, But if one company begins to falter, it would probably be good business, tax wise, to let it go under and write it off as a loss instead of working harder to make it a viable company again. Plus should times get bad, or worse, the whole unbrella could fold and we could lose a lot of America's few remaining gun and ammo companies left. I guess there are 2 ways to look at it but the latter one does bother me a bit.


A bit of unusual news. Colt has just bought out Colt. It is a confusing sale as there are actually 3 different names for Colt, Colt Defense, New Colt Holding Corp, and Colt manufacturing Company. These 3 are now merged and will build guns under the name Colt. Got that?
And speaking of Colt, Walther (the maker of the very popular PPK, PPKS and many others) is making 22 LR copies of the Colt AR-15 along with copies of the H&K and the UZI.
With Christmas coming up (hadn't thought about Christmas, had you?), there is a gun out for that little girl in the family. Rossi now has a PINK shotgun/rifle combo out. It comes in either 410 gauge or 20 gauge with extra barrel in your choice of 22 LR, 223, 243, 44 Mag or 17 HMR. Just what any little girl would want under the tree this year. And for your little boy, maybe the UZI copy from Walther mentioned above.
For those into Duck Dynasty, the Robertson family on the popular TV show will be using only Mossberg shotguns from here on out. They have reached an agreement with Mossberg to promote duck hunting with Mossberg shotguns. And you can look forward(?) to a Duck Dynasty model coming in 2014.
With time running short and needing to get some guns I just blued over the weekend put together for customers, this Gun Notes is a bit short. There are supposedly a lot of new items for Christmas giving and I will try to get into them next time. Until then, take a youngster or lady shooting and hunting. They are our future.
This just happened. We barely squeaked by on the UN vote. There are 46 Senators that need booting out of office badly.

Subj: 46 Senators abandon their Oath of Office


In a 53-46 vote, the Senate narrowly passed a measure that will stop the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, which would have nullified the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. Let us hope that Obama will not try to take the power of the Legislative branch into his own hands in this case.

The Statement of Purpose from the Bill reads:



Astonishingly, 46 out of our 100 United States Senators were willing to give away our Constitutional rights to a foreign power. They acted in opposition to their Oath of Office to uphold the Constitution
Baldwin (D-WI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bennett (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Cowan (D-MA)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hirono (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

Folks: This needs to go viral. These Senators voted to let the UN take OUR rights.
They need to lose their next election.
We have been betrayed.


God bless,