Varmint Fall 2024

As a child, I remember going varmint hunting with my Ruger 77/22 chambered in 22 Hornet. Growing up on a horse ranch, I had a lot of area to do so. Most kids start with a 22 Long Rifle but I started out with that 22 Hornet chasing squirrels, rabbits, and on occasion, rockchucks and coyotes. ...Read More >

Varmint is a term tossed about loosely among hunters with many inclined to include any small-game species. Varmint is an American-English colloquialism of vermin, which might be best defined as animals that are considered a nuisance to man and/or generally unprotected by game laws. Further, varmints are animals widely believed to spread disease or inclined to destroy crops, livestock or other private property. Edible cottontail rabbits, snowshoe hares or tree squirrels with applied hunting seasons may not constitute varmints, though a western jackrabbit ravaging a farmer’s alfalfa would certainly qualify. Common predators such as coyotes, foxes and bobcats, though regularly afforded seasons and license requirements, often incur the varmint label, especially if they are killing livestock or a farmer’s poultry. Nearly all burrowing rodents – ground squirrels, prairie dogs, woodchucks and marmots – garner varmint status, given their propensity for wrecking agricultural fields and pastureland. ...Read More >

I’m so old that answering the phone used to be a dicey endeavor. Sometimes, I got to speak to someone I liked, and sometimes, I wished I had dodged the call. When my phone rang a few months ago, Siri’s melodic voice announced that the caller was Cole Bender. That’s a call I want to take. ...Read More >

I grew up on a farm and like most men of the soil in our small part of the world, my father was not on good terms with crows. Corn was an important crop and immediately after a field had been planted, a mob of the highly-intelligent birds would descend and become quite efficient at scratching up and devouring the seeds. Dad put me in charge of predator control at the age of 11, and when the crows were feeding in a field bordered by trees and brush, I occasionally managed to stalk close enough to ventilate one with my Marlin 39A lever-action rifle. I was quite proud of it and the Marlin Micro-Vue scope of 4x magnification with a 3⁄4-inch tube it wore. A solid hit with a high-velocity 37-grain hollowpoint never failed to send one of those black bandits to that big rookery in the sky. But they wised up fast and avoided feeding within range of the 22 Long Rifle cartridge. Soon after informing my father that a rifle with more reach was badly needed, he rounded up a slightly used Savage Model 219 break-action single shot in 22 Hornet with a Weaver K6 scope along with a generous supply of Remington ammunition. ...Read More >

I stopped in about once a year, usually around mid-October and usually with a black-tail buck in the back of the rig. The place was called Blackpowder Jack’s and it was in a one-horse town in Oregon called Idleyld Park, located along the North Umpqua River. A person could get just about anything they wanted in that store, I reckon. This time, it was like Jack had been expecting me. ...Read More >

The 6mm Dasher has made its mark as a 600- and 1,000-yard benchrest juggernaut, establishing numerous world records in the relatively short time it has been in circulation (including Jim Richards’ 2.6872-inch/1,000-yard/Light Gun Class world record set in 2014). Gunsmith Dan Dowling, the “Da” in Dasher, and his friend, Al Ashton, the “ash” in Dasher, created the round in 1999 by fireforming 6mm Benchrest (BR) brass to produce a 10 percent increase in powder capacity with a 40-degree shoulder and .260-inch neck. ...Read More >

The sounds of a jackrabbit in distress from my electronic caller echoed through the frigid early morning air. The small valley was still frosted and in the shadow of the rising sun. Suddenly, a coyote appeared like a phantom, an easy rifle shot away. The 80 yards may have well been a mile as I gripped my 12-gauge shotgun. After presenting a broadside shot for a full minute, the coyote dipped back into the wash and vanished. Two sets later, another coyote crested a hill and stared at me 150 yards away. It would have been a chip shot for a rifle. The coyote trotted off, never coming close enough for the shotgun to be effective. I had already been toying with getting a rifle in 223 Remington and those two close calls cemented it. ...Read More >

My rabbit-hunting obsession didn’t begin with Elmer Fudd, though, I must admit, he taught me what not to do. My earliest memory of rabbit hunting was as a five-year-old child with my BB gun on the Saturday before Easter, when I learned that the Easter Bunny had laid hundreds of plastic eggs at the local Easter egg hunt and was trying to take the focus of the holiday off of Jesus. ...Read More >

In his comedy routines, the late Rodney Dangerfield repeatedly made a comment that became a trademark – “I don’t get no respect!” On a recent hog hunt in Texas, it occurred to me that if any species of big-game animal has earned that motto, it would be wild hogs. ...Read More >