A mild winter and warm spring across much of the West have contributed to extremely below-average snowpacks and widespread drought conditions, prompting experts to use terms such as “historic” and “abysmal” when describing the current outlook. According to Climate Matters, the western U.S. snowpack was 65% below the 1991-2020 average as of March 30, marking the worst snowpack on record since 1981. Conditions vary depending on the subregion, but as of April 22, every region in the Westwide SNOTEL data provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is below average.The dismal snowpack has worrying implications not just for irrigators and…

It takes more than a single bad decision to lose your hunting and fishing privileges for life. For Tennessee resident Jerry “Trey” Truitt III, it came after years of poaching violations across western Montana.Truitt was sentenced to a lifetime hunting and fishing ban in early April in Ravalli County after pleading no contest to five wildlife charges tied to incidents in 2024 and 2025, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.Those charges included two counts of unlawful possession of wildlife (a turkey and a sandhill crane), hunting without a license, criminal trespass, and hunting during a closed season. Investigators say…

The AR-15/M16 vs. AK-47 debate is often framed in a Cold War West vs. East. The reality is that AR-15-type firearms are now made around the world, while plenty of AKs are made in the U.S. An example of the latter is the Stenzel American Kalashnikov – 2021 or SAK-21. More than an American-made AK, Stenzel Industries calls the SAK-21 “a modular, purpose-built firearm, developed to meet the demands of special operations forces and professional shooters.”  The SAK-21 is an American-made updated version of the Kalashnikov that includes such features as a free-floating barrel, tunable short-stroke gas operating system, and…

00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife, wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to conserving both dig shout out to onex Hunt for their support of this podcast. I’m your host, Lake Pickle, And on today’s episode, we’re gonna hear from a turkey hunter who’s been around since some of the original turkey conservation works started. We’re gonna go on a turkey hunt, and then we’re gonna sit down in the magical spring Woods with one of the individuals who championed the new Mississippi Turkey stamp. This episode has action…

00:00:10 Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cow’s Week in Review with Ryan cow Calahan. Here’s cal longtime listeners know that I am no fan of wild pigs. They destroy habitat, out compete native species, spread like wildfire raid nests. The list goes on. So I was interested in a video that went viral last week of a humanoid robot chasing a pack of pigs through a parking lot in Poland. The sleek white robot jogs along after the pigs, who scurry through the parking lot, crossover grass lane dividers, and finally disappear…

Spartan Blades makes some really nice knives. Unfortunately, most of them are a little pricey for plebeians like me. But beginning in 2019, Spartan Blades was purchased by KA-BAR and expanded their product line to include the more affordable Field Grade models. Spartan Elite and Pro models are manufactured in the USA, but their Field Grade line is made in Taiwan. The intent is “to provide a dependable knife or tool for anyone regardless of budget.” The Talos Folding Knife is a good example of the Field Grade line. It has a 3.12 inch long, 0.12 inch thick, straight back…

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  I was introduced to the M14 rifle in Basic Combat Training (BCT) in the summer of 1969, at Fort Ord, California and I fell in love with it. I was only 17-yrs old and weighed a whopping 135 pounds at the time. But when I graduated from Infantry School in December of 1969. I had beefed up to 165 pounds. I longed for my very own M14 – however it was not to be, you see the US military M14 was a select-fire rifle, capable of fully automatic fire. When I returned to my National Guard unit in Chicago,…

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On April 26, 1777, it is claimed that 16-year-old Sybil Ludington rode all night in a rainstorm for 40 miles to warn her father’s New York militia of the approach of the British army. — April 26, 1937: The German Luftwaffe’s “Condor Legion” destroyed Basque town of Guernica, in Spain. — Just one day left! We are running a two-week-long sale on all of our pre-1899 antique shotguns at Elk Creek Company, with deep discounts. This sale will end on Monday, April 27th, 2026. Please note that some of these guns have been re-sleeved and re-proofed for modern shotshells! —…