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I just got an interesting press release from Jim Shockey's people, who want to clear up confusion regarding a Barrack Obama radio ad featuring Ray Schoenke. (If you listen to ESPN radio in Roanoke or Lynchburg you've probably heard the ad.) The gist of the release? Ray Schoenke is not Jim Shockey.

Who are they?

Jim Shockey is an outdoor personality, video host and writer. If you watch hunting shows or read hunting magazines, you've seen Jim Shockey killing everything from whitetails to African game.

Ray Schoenke is a former Washington Redskins player who is now the vice president of the American Hunters and Shooters Association, which could be called a moderate gun control group or moderate gun rights group, depending on your perspective.

The pronunciation's of Schoenke's name (SHON-kee) does sound kind of like SHOCK-ee. But "Ray" doesn't sound much like "Jim." At least not to me. But I guess it does to others because Shockey, according to his people, has been the target of criticism from people who think he is supporting Obama.

Here's a quote from the release:

"The fact that people don't take the time to investigate the facts before they lash out has caused substantial confusion. Many of Jim's TV sponsors, licensees and business partners have received e-mails and phone calls from angry consumers saying that they will never again buy their products."

Really? Could that many people have heard "Ray SHON-kee" and thought "Jim Shockey"? I doubt it.

I suspect that a few people (or maybe one person) heard this wrong and started sending e-mails and posting to Internet message boards. It went viral, prompting those angry e-mails from a lot of people who never heard the ad. In short: just another episode showing the potential powers and dangers of the Internet.

But, as long as we're on the subject of mistaken identity... At Sportsman's Warehouse in Roanoke there's a mount of a great 10-point whitetail killed by Mark Taylor. I get a lot of compliments on the buck. But, while I wish I had killed it, I didn't. It was another Mark Taylor.

If you have done much research into caribou hunting, you probably think it's pretty much one of the slam dunks of big game hunting. Once you get there, the tundra is covered up with animals and the hard part is deciding which bull you want.

Jim Grigsby knows better.

A couple of years ago the assitant city manager for Roanoke booked a trip to hunt in the Northwest Territories. He saw just a couple of caribou and they were miles away. Not that it was a bad trip, but when you commit the kind of time and cash it takes to get up there it's nice to come home with a bunch of meat and a nice trophy or two for your wall.

Well, it turns out the outfitter is so confident in its hunts that it allows hunters who don't have success to come back for "free."

There's a reason "free" is in quotes, of course. I'll get to that in a second.

I met Grigsby for lunch the other day and he told me about his recent hunt. It turned out much different from his first.

The first afternoon they were into caribou immediately. Memories of the last trip still too fresh, Grigsby didn't want to risk another blank, so he shot the first good bull he encountered.

After that he was able to be pickier and it paid off with the great bull above. He and the guide had to haul this thing (quartered, obviously) across a couple of miles of tundra, a real chore. Tagged out, Grigsby got to spend the rest of the stay fishing for northern pike and such.

The trip wasn't exactly cost-free. Yes, staying at the lodge and guiding was gratis. But he had to buy a flight to get there. Buy tags. Pay tips to the guides. And pay shipping for the meat and caped heads of his bulls. The trip ended up costing probably about what it would cost for an outfitted elk or mule deer hunt out west. Not cheap. But for a twice-in-a-lifetime adventure, a pretty good bargain.

This shot come courtesy of Moe, who no doubt knows the countdown is now at 10 days.

Moe said he suspected this buck wasn't responsible for the rub on that tiny twig in the background, and I think he's right.

It sure seems like the season got here in a hurry. It wasn't too long ago we were talking about it being only three months away.

I've been shooting the recurve and it's going OK. I can hit a vital-sized target about 90 percent of the time at 20 yards. It's the 10 percent that concerns me.

My consistency gets better at 15 yards and in, which means 10 yards probably should be hunting minimum. At least my flyers are typically high or low instead of right or left, which means I should either make a lethal hit or miss altogether.

I've had plenty of encounters at 10 yards and in. The earn-a-buck rule puts a little extra pressure on me. I want to be able to shoot the first antlerless deer (or two) I have and opportunity for. (That's my normal approach anyway, actually.) Not that I expect to shoot a second or third buck this year. I've killed only two bucks in 10 seasons of hunting up here. But it would be just my luck to have this be the year I have nothing but shooter bucks walking close enough to shoot. The other thing is the Bedford place where I hunt really needs lots of does shot and I feel somewhat guilty handicapping myself early in the season when it's best to make a dent in that effort.

For now I'm going forward of hunting with the recurve at first. But I reserve the right to change my mind.

I've spent the past couple of evenings at a place I hunt in Bedford County. The first night I was checking on stands and also trying to get deer pictures. Last night I went out for a dove hunt.

On the way out from my dove hunting area I spotted four deer feeding in a field. This was one of them. I thought he was a six-pointer but in going through the pictures I could see he actually has little G3s on both sides. I'd like to think he's a great yearling, but he could also be a small 2.5 year old.

I wish I could have gotten a better picture but the light was marginal so I had to shoot with a pretty slow shutter speed, even at ISO 400.

There are a few things in life that really drive me crazy. Things like whiny kids. Lying politicians. Sniveling celebrities. Obnoxious pro athletes. Paris Hilton. Cougar sightings in Virginia.

Some of you may find that offensive. Sorry. But I just can't stand Paris Hilton.

As for the cougars, people I know, like and trust swear they've seen them. I want to believe them. I really do. But based on the number of reported sightings, there would be some hard evidence. But there's not.

Maybe there's a former pet big cat or two running around out there. Maybe. Wild cougars? I'm not buying it.

I believe these folks are seeing something. But what? I'm guessing bobcats like the one above -- a monster caught on a trailcam in Franklin County -- account for a lot of "cougar" sightings. No. It doesn't have a long tail. Yes it has spots. But if you just catch a glimpse, are you really looking for the tail and spots?

Coyotes probably account for a lot of other sightings. And deer. And foxes. And house cats. And stumps.

It's not always easy to ID wild critters when your looking at them in pictures -- as evidenced by a current vaturkey.com message board discussion about two canines caught on a trail camera. They are clearly juvenile coyotes. Or maybe they're foxes. And is that a turkey in the background?

When you catch just a fleeting glimpse of anything in the wild It can be really tough to know exactly what you saw. I mean, on a deer hunt last year I saw a deer run by me so fast I couldn't even tell it was a deer. So, maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was a cougar. Or a sasquatch. Or a yeti.

The point is, until there is hard proof, there are no cougars.

You hear tales about hunters who have killed them, but didn't want to tell anyone for fear or getting in trouble. Yeah, right.

The one I really love is the story about bear hound hunters treeing cougars, but not shooting them or even reporting the sightings because they knew no one would believe them. Well, if you show up with a dead cougar, they're going to believe you. Heck, if you show up with a picture of an actual cougar in a tree they will believe you. And don't tell me these houndsmen don't have cameras. They do. They don't take pictures because they don't tree cougars.

Then there are the trailcams. Anyone want to guess how many trailcams are out there in Virginia? I wouldn't be surprised if it's 25,000 or more. And a lot of them sit over piles of bait that attract things like deer, squirrels, turkeys, raccoons and other cougar food. I've seen great trailcam shots of bobcats attacking deer. Eventually, a camera would get a picture of a deer getting nailed by a cougar over a bait pile. If there were cougars around. Which there aren't.

Cougars are verified in the Midwest. They can travel great distances. Eventually one or more will actually end up in Virginia. And when it happens, it won't take long for actual proof to appear.

For now, there is no proof. To me, that means no cougars.

I'm intrigued by a dilemma Radford city leaders are facing. At issue is who should get priorty use on a tract of 250 acres in Montgomery County that the city owns.

The short of it is the city has long permitted hunting on the property by special permit. Recently some bikers helped build about 6 miles of trails. Bikers surprised to find out that hunting is allowed during all open seasons, not just the two-week general firearms deer season, as they assumed, recently asked the city council to change its policy and allow hunting only those two weeks. The council is waiting to decide what to do, and will hear public comments at a meeting in October.

As I wrote in my Sunday column, I'm confident a reasonable compromise can come out of this. No one will have to give up much.

Apparently, others aren't so confident. Our lead editorial today discussed the same topic, and the writer/writers are much more pessimistic.

Maybe I'm a hopeless optimist. I know there's no perfect solution. But I have full confidence the hunters, hikers, bikers and Radford City leaders will prove me right and come up with a good solution.

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This morning did not start out well when I opened the paper and saw that the wrong picture had run with today's Fishing Report.

This picture of catfish expert Travis Patsell of Vinton and this awesome 28-pound Smith Mountain Lake flathead was supposed to run. Instead, due to a production glitch, we had a picture of Harry Townsend with a huge smallmouth bass he caught earlier this summer. That picture had run in the report in July.

The error was my fault because I attached the picture of Travis to the wrong story in our publishing software database.

I've gotten a lot of snide phone calls and e-mails already, and I'm sure more are coming. I'm glad some people are able to laugh about this because, at this point, I'm not.

After a few years of a regulations review process that didn't exactly encourage interaction between its staff and its constituents, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is returning the system. The new program includes extensive public "town hall" meetings, during which sportsmen will be encouraged to ask questions and offer suggestions.

Included below is the list of meetings.

Again, this is early in the process. Official proposals won't be made until next year. But this is where it starts. If you have ideas, be heard now. It really can help shape the rules.

Read more »

A friend forwarded this shot to me a few weeks ago. I was led to believe that just a few people had seen this picture so I respected my buddy's request to keep this picture under my hat.

However, I have since learned that this picture is making the rounds so now I don't feel guilty about posting it here. Plus, my good friend Christian Berg at the Allentown Morning Call in Pennsylvania keeps pestering me about all of the buck shots he's putting up on his blog and I need to remind him what real deer look like.

The deer in the back is a great trophy, but the buck in the front is truly special. Drop-tined bucks are rare enough, and this giant has three big ones. I count at least 16 points.

The rack isn't wide but with it's pretty high. With all the points I think it would push 190 gross B&C. Score doesn't really matter. This is just a great, unusual buck.

Where is he? Well, I don't know the guy who took the picture so I can't be sure. But I was told that this buck is in Roanoke County, in a neighborhood. I've heard that from several people who also got the shot.

If this is a suburban buck I suppose it could be hunted, although the neighborhood that I've been hearing this is from is not a huntable neighborhood. It will be interesting to see if this buck gets killed this year, and then to hear the story.

If anyone knows more about this deer or picture I'd love to hear about it.