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After a long winter, spring signals new beginnings, renewal and an emergence of new life. It also signals the time for a harvest that Heather and her family look forward to more than any other harvest, known as “herring egg time.” Presented by Work Sharp and CanAm

With Brent just getting home from chasing moose in Manitoba, Canada, he's sharing the overwhelming dream experience with us on today's episode. This hunt will be his first major film project with MeatEater, and there's barely enough time to tell even half the story here. We think you'll enjoy this context-setting lead-up to what will be the grand finale next week. Put your tray tables up! We're jet setting to The Great White North on this week's "This Country Life" podcast.

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Hosts Brody Henderson, Steven Rinella, and Cory Calkins, talk with Heather Douville about her new MeatEater show, Our Way of Life, attempt to defend some Indefensible Laws, chat with Guy Groenwald about the state of the skunk fur market, and lay down judgement on a Hot Tip-Off showdown.

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Many of the best shotgun shooters were fortunate to be born with natural ability. But, for the rest of us, shotgun accuracy is always a work in progress. Becoming proficient with a pump, break-action, or semi-auto can take years. Typically, those who shoot clays and hunt ducks, geese, pheasants, etc., with regularity advance in skill more rapidly.

However, most folks don’t have blocks of time to dedicate to such pursuits. We’re busy working our 9-to-5s, carting kids from one sport to another, and trying to keep up with the fast pace of daily life. When we get the opportunity to shoot or hunt, it’s far more enjoyable to be proficient. There’s no substitute for practice, but there are ways to improve if you’re short on time.

Doves are small and fast, which is not a great recipe for successful shooting, especially since dove season is in early September, one of the first hunts of the year. The mistake most hunters make is taking shots when doves fly fast, which is easy because doves are almost always rocketing over your sunflower field.

One way to make shots easier is to sit near a treeline that doves are using. Inherently, birds must slow down as they approach the limb of a tree, and that’s when you pull the trigger. It’s akin to shooting a mallard as it‘s about to light in the decoys.

But you don’t always have the luxury of a treeline, and not every duck (or goose) will settle down perfectly in the spread. What they all must do is turn, which requires them to slow down (in most cases). It also exposes more of their body, expanding the size of your target.

If I struggle to shoot accurately during a hunt, I’ll move so that I shoot birds as they swing around a spinning wing decoy (doves) or the decoy spread (ducks and geese). Preferably, the birds fly into the wind when they turn, slowing them down even more. Always watch how birds fly wherever you hunt. The patterns are often consistent, so when you start missing shots, you know where to move to catch birds on the swing.

There are different factors for upland birds. Ideally, you hunt with the wind in your face so the dog can pick up on the birds’ scent. This also helps the shooter because the wind blows against the bird, making it slightly more difficult as it springs from cover to escape.

Pheasants are not initially strong fliers. It takes them a moment or two to get going, so I like to shoot roosters (with an open choke) as soon as I can see blue sky, which means they are safely above the gun dogs. If you employ this method, use a smaller shot size (Nos. 5, 6, or 7), or there won’t be much left of the bird.

Smaller upland birds, like grouse, chukar, and quail, are harder to bag. They’re small, fast, and erupt from cover with more authority than a pheasant. Be ready to get a shot off at all times. Hunters casually walking through a field or forest won’t be able to get the safety off when the birds flush. But you have a chance if you’re locked in and can mount quickly.

Pattern-testing your shotgun with the choke and load you intend to hunt/shoot with (at various distances) is critical to becoming a proficient wing or clay-bird shooter. If you know what your pattern looks like on paper, you have a better concept of what your shotgun can and can’t do.

As a gun writer, I adhere to strict standards when pattern-testing shotguns, but for the average hunter or shooter, I suggest shooting twice from 20 to 50 yards in increments of 10 yards from a standing position. Start at 20 yards and move back after every second shot, changing the 35x35” sheet of pattern paper (a roll of butcher paper will work) after each shot. By the time you finish at 50 yards, you will have shot your shogun eight times and know its pattern density at each yardage.

That data set will be beneficial the next time you raise your shotgun to kill a grouse or break a clay. It will also show you that many shotgun-choke-load combinations are inconsistent past 45 yards unless you are shooting tungsten super shot (TSS) or a buffered lead or bismuth shotshell.

A few years ago, I had the chance to duck hunt with four-time Olympic skeet gold medalist Vincent Hancock. The first thing I learned from him was that focusing on the task at hand is paramount, even when buddy hunting. Sure, talk to friends and have a good time in the duck blind or at the range, but stay locked in. Retell old stories and poke fun at your buddies, but never forget that shooting a shotgun accurately is hard and takes all your focus to succeed.

Here’s where visualization comes into play. At the skeet or trap range, it’s easier to do this because the birds come from the same clay target house every time. See that clay leaving the house, and where you want to break it every time before you call for the bird. Hunting is more difficult because you never know when a rooster may spring from cover or a mallard will buzz the decoys. But you can use past experiences to visualize how to properly mount the gun, track the bird, and pull the trigger.

Pro athletes often use positive self-talk to keep themselves in the game, especially when things aren’t going their way. Shooting is more mental than physical, so you must consistently tell yourself that you’re a good shot (whether you are or not) to stay in the right frame of mind. Remember, negative thoughts only lead to misses.

I’ll use dove hunting as an example again. It’s easy to whiff on such a small, fast-moving target, and misses can add up quickly, causing you to lose confidence. You may also feel embarrassed or pressured if you’re hunting with a group and can’t connect on a bird. You have to tune the bad thoughts out and keep thinking of all the shots you have made in the past. Stay aggressive and be ready for the next bird that flies in range.

When you hear the terms “long-range shooting,” “competition rifle,” and “sniper,” what gunmakers come to mind? “Tikka” might not top your list, but I think that could be about to change.

Especially in disciplines like NRL Hunter, competitive shooters are turning to Tikka’s T3x platform, swapping out the factory stock for a chassis, and hitting the circuit. Tikka has taken notice of this trend, and their new line of Ace rifles is designed to give shooters an out-of-the-box option with no need for a stock swap.

I think they’re onto something. As long as this test rifle isn’t an outlier, the Ace has a shot to become one of the best factory competition rifles on the market today.

The Target model I received from our friends at Scheels was chambered in .308 Winchester and featured an all-black chassis and 23.6-inch barrel. The Target is also available in .223 Rem. and 6.5 Creedmoor, and all three chamberings can be had with a black or tan chassis. The barrel on the .223 Rem. model measures 23.6 inches, but the .308 Win. and 6.5 Creedmoor are available with 23.6- or 26-inch barrels, so you can match the barrel length to your muzzle brake or suppressor setup.

The Game version of the Ace is designed with hunters in mind. It features a slimmer profile, fluted barrel, a shorter handguard, and a smaller, more flush fitting magazine. Weighing between 8.8 and 9.3 pounds unloaded, it’s still on the heavier side for a hunting rifle. But it might be the perfect hunting/competition crossover, provided that slimmer barrel can handle long shot strings. It’s being offered in 223 Rem., 22-250 Rem., 7mm Rem. Mag., 308 Win., 300 Win. Mag., 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, and 7mm PRC.

The price for a Tikka Ace ranges between $1,700 and $2,000. That’s a nice chunk of change, but it’s easy to spend twice that on a rifle with similar features and performance. You have to decide for yourself whether the Ace is worth it, but I would say Tikka’s price is totally fair based on the other options on the market.

Here are more specifications for the model I used in my testing:

Cartridge: .308 Winchester

Barrel Length: 23.6 in.

Twist Rate: 1:10

Thread Pitch: 5/8x24

Overall Weight: 10.4 lbs.

Overall Length: 43.7 in.

Trigger: Two-stage, adjustable

Safety: Two-position

Price: $1,799

Buy Now at Scheels

There’s something utilitarian about the all-aluminum Ace chassis, but it includes all the features you might want on a competition rifle.

Starting at the rear, the buttstock has a simple mechanism for adjusting the comb that doesn’t require any tools to operate: you simply rotate the wheel to the desired position, press the button, and the comb pops up to the pre-set height. The unit appears to be sturdy and well-built, and the comb never slipped or moved throughout the course of my testing.

The recoil pad can be adjusted vertically and horizontally using a single screw, and the length of pull can be reduced by removing the two stock spacers that come with the rifle. The pistol grip is also adjustable. One grip screw adjusts the angle while the other allows it to be moved forwards and backwards. This allows users to maximize comfort and adjust the grip depending on shooting position or hand size.

Speaking of comfort, the Ace also features a small post designed to allow shooters to rest their thumb along the side of the receiver. This post can be rotated to three different positions or moved to the other side of the rifle.

Continuing our march down the length of the stock, the magazine well features a robust and aggressively textured barricade stop. The mag well itself only accepts Tikka’s proprietary 5 or 10 round magazines, though you can swap out mag wells if you want to use the T3x metal or polymer magazines or (for some reason) the T1x rimfire magazines.

The mag well is, in my opinion, one of the only big misses on the Ace chassis system. Most aftermarket chassis can accept ACIS magazines, and most hunters and competitive shooters already have a box of them. I’ve heard that Tikka plans to release an ACIS-compatible magazine well, but it seems like they should have gone with that out of the gate.

They did release a suite of accessories that can be used with the Tikka Ace chassis, including a bagrider and weights for the stock, and weights and an upper rail for the handguard. There are also two different handguard lengths and colors that can be purchased separately if, for example, you buy the Ace Game but want to use the longer guard that comes with the Target model.

The handguard itself features M-LOK slots at the 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions and an ARCA rail along the length, which allows for easy attachment to a bipod or tripod.

Overall, while the Ace chassis may not be compatible with some of the more popular aftermarket accessories, it’s still a well-built, feature-rich system. Plus, it’s compatible with current T3x or T1x rifles, so you can purchase an Ace Target for competition and swap in a lighter barreled action for the field.

The chassis is thoughtfully designed, but how does the rifle shoot? In a word, great.

I had no issues feeding or extracting while operating the T3x action. I single-load when I test for a bolt gun for accuracy, but I try to take time to run it quickly to make sure I don’t uncover any cycling issues. (As a side note, it’s important to test this whether you’re hunting or shooting competitively–the field or a match isn’t the time to discover your gun can’t feed the ammo you’re using.)

I’m pleased to report that the Ace Target ran through all three ammo/bullet types without so much as a hiccup. The bolt is smooth, and it stripped each cartridge from the 10-round magazine without issue. The Sako-style extractor and spring-loaded ejector also functioned flawlessly as they ripped spent cases from the chamber and tossed them to the side.

The bolt features dual lugs and an oversize polymer knob with a 70-degree throw. This, combined with the overall smoothness of the action, made it easy to operate the gun quickly, as you would in a match.

The two-stage trigger is adjustable via an adjustment screw that can be accessed by removing the receiver from the chassis. Mine came from the factory set at exactly three pounds, and I had no complaints about it as I tested the rifle through multiple range sessions. It’s clean, consistent, and will help rather than hinder making a good shot.

I tested for accuracy at 100 yards using a Sig Sauer TANGO-DMR (5-30x56) mounted to the built-in 20-MOA rail. I tested three different bullets and two different weights, and I shot five, five-shot groups with each. As you can see, the Ace Target (as with most rifles) prefers some load combinations over others.

The results with the Accubond were a little disappointing, but I was blown away by the GameKing and OTM bullets. I’ve tested dozens of rifles in .308 Win., and this may be the most accurate factory rifle I’ve ever shot. I know the .308 can be accurate, but my limited success with that cartridge is what convinced me to switch to the 6.5 Creedmoor. The Tikka Ace Target has me thinking about switching back.

The Ace Target retained its point-of-impact consistently from group to group as well as during long shot strings. As you can see in the image above, the middle, top-left, top-right, and bottom-left groups all landed about a half-inch left of the point of aim. If I had shot all 20 shots at the same bull's eye, they would have ripped a single, ragged hole with a diameter of approximately 0.75 inches. The last group, the one on the bottom-right, shifted simply because I adjusted the scope to try to center the group on the bull's eye (obviously, either I messed up that adjustment or the scope didn’t track properly).

What’s more, the final three groups (top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right) were all shot without allowing the barrel to cool. A competition rifle should maintain its point of impact even as the barrel heats up during a stage. The Tikka Ace Target handled that test without any trouble, and I wouldn’t worry about POI shifts during a 10- or 5-round stage.

My only gripe about the Target is that it doesn’t come in a wider range of calibers. The 6.5 Creedmoor is a fine competition cartridge, but it’s hardly the only one, and the .308 isn’t designed for those high-BC bullets that buck the wind at long distance. A .308 can get the job done, but I’d love to see the Ace Target in a 6mm Creedmoor or 7mm PRC.

Still, a half-MOA gun out of the box is the kind of thing previous generations of hunters and sport shooters could only dream about. Based on other reports of the Ace I’ve seen, I think you can expect the same if you decide to pull the trigger and order one of your own.

The Ace Target combines that stellar accuracy with excellent ergonomics and a comfortable shooting experience. Especially with a MeatEater Banish suppressor attached to the 5/8x24 threaded muzzle, the rifle’s 10+ pounds of weight control recoil and make the rifle extremely pleasant to shoot. It might not be the kind of thing you want to lug around the backcountry, but it would excel in any scenario that didn’t require much transport and in which a hunter could get into a stable position from a bipod or tripod. I had my 10-year-old son shoot the Ace while he was with me at the range, and even though the large, black rifle looked more intimidating than his usual stable of .22’s, he reported zero discomfort firing at 300 and 400-yard targets.

I often read reviews of a rifle I’m testing just to see what others’ experiences have been. I don’t always agree with the consensus, but in this case, I do. One reviewer said the Ace Game is the most accurate 6.5 Creedmoor he’s ever shot, and I’d say the same about the Ace Target in .308 Win. This thing just shoots, plain and simple. There's really no higher praise, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Ace rifles popping up on the competition circuit very soon.

This week on the show I'm joined by Mark Drury to discuss all things related to how deer use wind and thermals and how we can use that knowledge to kill mature bucks.

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In this episode of In Pursuit, Rich sits down with fitness trailblazer, Nate Ilingsworth, to explore how transforming your body can revolutionize your life and your hunts. Nate shares his journey of harnessing fitness to boost resilience, sharpen focus, and conquer the challenges of the wild. Packed with practical advice and inspiring stories, this episode delivers a powerful blueprint for leveling up your performance in the field and beyond!

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There’s a long history of record fish being eaten by the angler who caught it. The world record walleye, coho salmon, northern pike, and several others were all consumed after being weighed and measured, including the world record largemouth bass, which was famously eaten for three straight days by the angler’s family.

Many of these anglers hadn’t realized that their monstrous catches were records at the time and simply saw them as a grand prize for the dinner table. But when Andrew Oestringer caught what could have been the Vermont State Record smallmouth bass back in August, he not only didn’t realize the fish was a potential record breaker, he also never intended to eat it.

When Oestringer launched his small kayak in the early morning on a local public pond near Ryegate, Vermont, he had no idea what would happen that morning. He was simply looking forward to a day pursuing one of his favorite fish.

“I’ve fished for smallmouth my whole life,” Oestringer told MeatEater. “Between fishing in Canada and Western Maryland and now Vermont, they became some of my favorite fish to hook into because they fight so hard and love topwater lures. I knew that pond had some big bass, but I had no idea there was one that big in there.”

Oestringer was paddling his kayak around and casting his favorite lure, the Heddon Tiny Torpedo, when the giant bass suddenly struck.

“I knew it was big as soon as it hit and leaped out of the water,” Oestringer said. “It fought like a beast and got all wrapped up in the weeds and it took me nearly 15 minutes to get it to the net. When I saw how big it was, I realized I’ve never seen a fish like that. I got excited. I’m almost 65 years old, but when I fish, I still feel and act like a 10-year-old. I looked down at this giant bass and knew I needed a picture of it.”

Oestringer is a man of the old school who doesn’t own a smartphone, and his old flip phone doesn’t take good pictures. So, holding the net with the bass in the water, he paddled one-handed over to a nearby beach where he could see a cabin with lights on, which showed someone was awake at 6:15 in the morning. He beached the kayak and, standing on the shoreline, called up to the cabin while holding the fish in the water until the owner came outside and agreed to take a picture of the fish and send it to his wife at home.

Then Oestringer took the bass down to the water to let it go, and tragically found out that the bass wasn’t going to survive.

“I’m primarily a catch-and-release angler,” Oestringer said. “Aside from yellow perch and a few trout, I try to let everything else that I catch go, especially a big smallmouth like that one, so they can be caught again. Unfortunately, the bass had been hooked deep, and my lure had gotten caught up in its gills. I hoped it would be okay and tried like hell to revive it, but it was too far gone. It crushed me to see a fish like that die; I had wanted to see it swim off. But there was nothing else I could do, so I did what I believed to be the responsible thing.”

Once he realized that the bass had expired, Oestringer put the fish in his kayak and paddled back to the put-in. He loaded the boat and the bass into his vehicle and then returned home with the smallmouth to do what he felt was right.

“Even as a catch-and-release angler, you take a chance every time you catch a fish because it may die,” Oestringer told MeatEater. “I’m not someone who goes out and kills every fish I catch, and sometimes you mean to release a fish, and it dies, so you do the responsible thing and fillet it and cook it, which is what I did. It’s about not wasting meat and making the best out of a regrettable situation.”

According to Vermont Fisheries Biologist, Shawn Goode, taking the fish home and eating it was the responsible thing to do.

“Andrew attempted to let the fish go, but it struggled and wouldn’t swim away,” Goode told MeatEater. “So instead of leaving a large dead bass floating in the lake, he did the responsible thing, in my opinion, and took it home to eat.”

Before he cleaned the bass and after a bit of coaxing from his wife, Andrew decided to weigh it on a scale he had at home just to see how big it really was. When he saw 7lb 6oz on the scale, he knew it was the biggest smallmouth he had ever caught, but still had no idea the smallmouth was a potential record until after he had cleaned it.

“Several hours later, I suddenly wondered what the Vermont State Record was,” said Oestringer. “So, I went on my wife’s phone and looked it up and was absolutely shocked to see that the bass would have been the new record.”

While this revelation would have thrilled most other anglers, for Oestringer it was simply a bright end to what he considers to be a rough day on the water. Not only did the big bass die, but when the picture and story of Oestringer eating the bass were posted on the internet, Oestringer received a lot of backlash from the bass-loving public.

While Oestringer legally harvested the fish in public waters, people believe that he somehow deprived other anglers from catching more smallmouth like that as he removed the fish from the population. However, this is simply not true.

“Fishing regulations are in place to allow for harvest to take place within certain boundaries, such as size, season, number,” Goode said. “If there was some concern over the harvest of exceptionally large bass in individual waters—that such a thing would negatively affect the overall health of a population or the quality of the fishing opportunities they provide—then biologists would set rules to protect the largest individuals in the population.”

Goode believes that all the negative comments that Oestringer has received from other anglers have nothing to do with the morality of keeping and eating a large smallmouth but more because bass are held in such high esteem by the angling public.

“Bass fishing in general has naturally moved to a heavy catch-and-release ethic over many decades,” Goode said. “We know from our angler surveys that harvest rates of bass are already low.  Many anglers just tend not to want to keep bass.  But harvest does not harm a population at these low levels, even when a large fish is kept now and then. I often hear people say that those big fish are ‘the breeders’ in the population, and removing the biggest individuals hurts the population by reducing reproductive potential and spawning. That’s not true.”

Goode continued: “Reproductive potential and fecundity (the number of eggs a bass produces in any given spawning year) decline with age.  Very old bass produce fewer eggs than younger fish, and the eggs they do produce are often lower quality with lower hatching success. The reality is that this big bass was probably 15-18 years old and past its prime.”

While this may mean that removing the smallmouth from the pond may have helped the overall fish population by removing a large, non-egg-producing predator from the waterway, it brings little consolation to Andrew.

“I kind of wish I had never caught it,” Oestringer told MeatEater. “Or at least that it hadn’t died, and I certainly could do without all the hateful comments from fellow anglers thinking I killed the fish to chase a record. I didn’t think of the record, I never did, but I acted like a responsible angler. My arm was killing me from holding it in the net and paddling with one hand, trying to keep it alive. I’ve fished for smallmouth my whole life and I’ve never seen a fish like that, and it saddens me that it won’t be out there for somebody to catch again.”

Oestringer’s smallmouth will not be listed as an official Vermont State Record, as it was weighed on a non-certified scale. Despite these circumstances, Andrew is quite happy with the situation.

“It’s not a state record because I didn’t follow the proper procedure, and I kind of like it that way,” Oestringer said. “I still get to honor the person who holds the actual record, and I get to remember how happy I was catching that bass. I didn’t think of a record, I was just thinking about what big fish it was and how much I enjoy fishing for smallmouth in that place.”

Oestringer said the pond was particularly special to him because he fished it with a good friend, Mark Hamilton, who passed from cancer a few years ago.

“Every time I catch a smallmouth, I think of him,” Oestringer said. “I wished he was on the water with me that day, but come to think of it, he probably was, and that’s what matters. So, in the end, I’m really glad the original record still stands.”

With hunting season out West comes a slew of grizzly attacks every fall. In the latest incident on October 2, an elk hunter was mauled by a sow with cubs about 60 miles north of the Montana border near Fort Steele, British Columbia.

Details released by the Canadian Conservation Officer Service indicate that the hunter, whose name has not been released, may have unknowingly drawn in the bears with elk calls. “We believe the hunter was calling and we believe the calls attracted the grizzly bear family group towards him,” Tobe Sprado, a Conservation Officer Service inspector, told a local news outlet. “And then obviously there was an encounter where he was mauled and sustained serious injuries.” The hunter is also thought to have fired a gunshot in self-defense, but officers are unsure if the bear was hit.

Following the attack, game wardens conducted an on-foot ground sweep, aerial surveys with a thermal drone, and a low-level helicopter flight to find the bears, but the efforts failed to turn them up. The hunter was also airlifted to a nearby hospital in critical condition, but has since shown positive signs of recovery.

The mauling was the second in British Columbia this fall. On September 29, another hunter was bitten by a sow further north near the town of Fort St. James.

Though only a small handful of hunters are mauled every year by grizzlies in the US and Canada, the number of overall human-bear encounters is on the rise as a result of growing bear populations throughout the Rocky Mountains.

The grizzlies involved in the Forte Steele attack last week were likely part of the Northern Continental Divide population of bears, which inhabit an area stretching from north-central Montana well into British Columbia. The population, like others in the region, is at an all-time high. In the 1980s, the total number of bears was thought to be just 380. Now, that number is upwards of 1,100 animals, based on U.S. and Canadian estimates.

Similarly, grizzly numbers in the nearby Cabinet-Yaak and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem populations are higher than they’ve been in decades. As a result, the bruins are increasingly venturing out of the mountains and into areas more densely inhabited by humans—leading to an increase in human-bear interactions, and subsequently lethal bear removals.

The most recent, detailed information on these incidents comes from a newly released report by an interagency study team in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The new data shows that the region is once again on track for a record number of grizzly mortalities, with 63 bear deaths already reported between April 22 (when the first post-hibernation mortality was identified) and September 16 of this year. On average, that’s one bear death every two and a half days.

Over half of the deceased bruins were “problem” animals dispatched by state wildlife agents. The reasons listed range from cattle, pig, alpaca, and sheep depredation to food habituation and frequenting campgrounds or residential areas. The remainder of the deaths were mostly from vehicle collisions or unknown causes, with a handful thought to be natural deaths from bear-on-bear fights.

If the current mortality rate continues through hunting season—much of which still remains in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming—it’s a safe bet that the final tally will exceed last year’s record of 72 dead bears. It’s an unacceptably high number, according to many, including state legislators.

Armed with data outlining both record numbers of bears and human-bear encounters, state agencies have been actively seeking to remove grizzlies from Endangered Species Act protection for years. A federal bill (HR 281) introduced in Congress earlier this year by Wyoming representative Harriet Hageman and co-sponsored by Montana representative Ryan Zinke aims to do exactly that, regarding the Yellowstone population.

“Instead of moving the goal line, we should be celebrating the win—the Endangered Species Act worked for grizzly bears in Greater Yellowstone,” Zinke said earlier this year. “If we are managing based on science, there must be an off-ramp for wildlife on the list once their goal is reached. Montana and Wyoming share more than a border, we share wildlife, ecosystems, and the shared responsibility to manage it properly.”

Just this month, on October 3, the bill was reported out of the House Natural Resources Committee, meaning it is up for consideration by the entire chamber. However, it’s sure to face headwinds. Over 50 wildlife groups, many from far beyond the Rocky Mountain region, have signed on in official opposition of the bill.

Concurrently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering a remapping of grizzly bear populations that would consolidate the six current subpopulations in the Rocky Mountains into one “metapopulation.” It’s unclear if the proposal would help or hinder the delisting process, and it’s also possible that the entire plan could be upended or scrapped entirely by the Trump administration. No new updates have been published since the announcement this winter, but a final decision is expected this coming January.

For now, though, the delisting offramp remains a rocky one, as does the road to recovery for the BC hunter who was recently mauled. Metaphorically, the dinner table is set for the region to confront its grizzly problem, it’s just a matter of time until the feast.

If you bought a tractor with plans to sell the tires for profit, you might be a redneck. In this episode, we head to Georgia to visit the farm and home of comedian and actor, Jeff Foxworthy. From his sunflower dove field to his historic octagon hunting lodge, Jeff guides us on a tour of his little slice of heaven he calls, Beloved Farm. Presented by Stor-Mor