The MeatEater

Brent's got his young hound Jessi out in the woods and her learning curve is falling flat. Patience is paramount during these times but Brent's is running thin until he realized sometimes, it's just the way it is. He's got two examples of that for you and a coon hunt with some folks that he donated as a fundraiser, which may have given him more than he gave away. 

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In north-central Alaska, up to 2.1 million acres of federal land could be transferred to state ownership, opening the door for new mining and road development. On February 25, the Department of Interior announced the revocation of Public Land Orders 5150 and 5180 in Alaska’s Dalton Utility Corridor, which traces the Dalton Highway north to the Arctic Circle.

The area, currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management, contains a portion of the proposed Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas pipeline, as well as the proposed Ambler Road—an industrial mining road that would be used to access rich copper, gold, and silver deposits in the region. It’s long been the desire of mining companies like Canada-based Trilogy Metals and Australian giant South32, and already the corporations are rushing to get bulldozers on the ground. Just days before the public announcement, Trilogy Metals announced a slew of new, high-level executive hires dedicated exclusively to permitting and building the Ambler Road.

Meanwhile, conservation and public-land groups are raising the alarm, as the transfer could reduce public hunting opportunities in the area. “These changes raise reasonable questions about the future of hunting and fishing access in this particular region—both subsistence and sport,” MeatEater’s Director of Conservation, Mark Kenyon, said. “But this is also just the latest of many examples in recent months of protections for Alaska’s public lands being removed.”

Specifically, the sport hunt in question is a unique, archery-only caribou hunt immediately adjacent to the Dalton Highway. Per state regulations, a five-mile non-motorized corridor extends to both sides of the highway, making room for a challenging but rewarding hunt—one valued by many Alaskans. Those hunters, however, fear that opening the door to development could increase industrial traffic on the highway (technically a gravel road) and disrupt wildlife with road-building and mining activities.

Additionally, the transfer would inhibit the ability of native and rural Alaskans to subsistence hunt on all but 62,000 acres of land in the Dalton Corridor. In Alaska, subsistence hunts are regulated federally by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as outlined in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). Thus, the transfer of ownership from federal to state jurisdiction would eliminate the “priority” subsistence hunt. In a memorandum of agreement between the feds and the state, the state recognizes that they will make “reasonable efforts” to allow harvest in accordance with state hunting regulations, but stops short of grandfathering in subsistence hunting rights.

Jumping out to a larger, more administrative perspective, the Department of Interior is employing a somewhat convoluted mechanism in transferring ownership of the Dalton Corridor to the state of Alaska.

A key component to understanding it is the 1959 Alaska Statehood Act, which authorized the transfer of 105 million acres of federal land to the state of Alaska when the territory became a state. Currently the state only has 5.2 million acres of that entitlement remaining—and they’ve identified a long list of parcels they desire. One of those parcels is the Dalton Utility Corridor. However, the Corridor has been protected (or “withdrawn” in technical lingo) from mining and utility development since the 1970s by Public Land Orders 5150 and 5180. As such, land has been considered “top-filed” and unavailable to state selection—until now.

Public Land Order 7966 in the Federal Register strips the protections afforded by PLOs 5150 and 5180. And when those protections are removed, the top-filed lands automatically transfer to state ownership. That process is currently underway in the Dalton Utility Corridor, and under Doug Burgum’s leadership, the Department of Interior is working with Alaska to pick and choose what land will be available for the taking. That move sets a dangerous precedent, and it’s easy to imagine the BLM working with Alaska to fulfill a substantial portion of their remaining statehood acreage while an extractive-resource-first administration is in place.

Bigger picture, though, it’s a reminder that the erosion of public-land protections happens in bits and pieces. Public Land Order 7966 is not out of the blue. It builds on the revocation of the BLM’s Central Yukon Resource Management Plan by Congress last fall and an executive order signed last January called Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential. Both are cited in a BLM document outlining the decision rationale.

“The frequency and pace of these changes are particularly noteworthy,” Mark said. “If this were an isolated incident, it would be one thing, but the larger trend it illustrates cannot be ignored.”

Taken alone, these types of high-level policy and legislative actions might seem abstract—and they are—but collectively they have real, tangible implications for the wildlife, the landscape, and hunters. In Alaska, sportsmen are about to see the effects of those implications firsthand—and there are likely more to come.

There are lines most hunters won’t cross, even without a game warden breathing down their neck. But one Washington man crossed those lines again and again, which recently landed him one of the stiffest sentences for poaching the Evergreen State has dealt in years.

Ronald Livermore, 77, of Okanogan County, was sentenced to 43.5 months in prison after pleading guilty to seven felony charges tied to big game poaching and illegal firearm possession, according to the Washington Attorney General’s Office.

State officials say it’s the longest agreed recommendation for a recreational poaching sentence in almost a decade. The sentence reflects what prosecutors described as nearly 20 years of poaching, animal abuse, and ignoring basic hunting laws across the Pacific Northwest.

Livermore’s record dates back to at least 2008, when he was convicted for spotlighting deer in Central Oregon and for hiding a sawed-off .22 rifle and a homemade suppressor in a secret compartment in his vehicle. That conviction stripped him of firearm rights, making any future offenses automatic felonies.

But Livermore’s hunting violations didn’t stop there. His most recent case involved incidents in 2023 and 2024, when Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers caught him spotlighting and recklessly "shooting into the woods whenever he saw something he thought might be an animal.”

He pleaded not guilty to those charges and was released to home confinement with an ankle monitor.

While Livermore’s case was working its way through court, WDFW officers initiated an investigation, “diligently conducting night patrols and increasing their presence in the backcountry to discover illegal activity,” according to a WDFW statement.

During the investigation, wildlife officers found a deer near Livermore’s home that had been shot through the spine with a small-caliber round and left alive. Deer hunting with cartridges smaller than .24 caliber is illegal in Washington. The discovery of the injured deer led to a search warrant.

Inside the home, officers uncovered multiple functional homemade firearms built from umbrella handles, canes, and PVC pipe hidden in a bathroom compartment. Officers also found another shot deer and evidence that Livermore had been baiting deer to his porch and shooting them at close range.

“Washington’s hunting laws maintain opportunities for hunters while ensuring that hunting is as safe, ethical, and sustainable as possible,” Attorney General Nick Brown said in a press release. “Cases like this remind us why those laws exist.”

“We hope this will deter future illegal activities, sending a clear message that violating fish and wildlife laws may land you in jail for a very long time,” WDFW said in a social media post.

Livermore ultimately pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful firearm possession, along with charges related to illegal big game hunting and possession of a short-barreled rifle.

This week on the show I’m joined by Thomas Mlsna of Untamed Ambition to break down the habitat projects that actually move the needle for mature whitetails. We dive into the difference between busy work and impactful improvements, why most habitat plans fail, and how access and pressure often matter more than the habitat itself. From small properties to long-term land investments, this episode focuses on what truly changes deer behavior - and helps you consistently kill older bucks.

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Join Rich Froning and the Mayhem crew as they talk about why fitness matters for every kind of hunter. From getting into the woods easier to hauling gear, dragging deer, and staying sharp at camp, being in shape makes the whole experience better. They break down Murph prep, rucking, and the track built for hunters who want a simple place to start.
The crew also tackles the idea that CrossFit is dangerous, explains why high-intensity training works so well, and shares how training with other people helps you stay consistent. Whether you’re getting ready for your first hunt or trying to make sure you can keep doing this for years to come, this episode is all about finding the track that fits you and putting in the work now so you’re ready when it counts.

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Unreliable rifles are the worst. Whether it’s a bolt-action or semi-auto, a rifle that doesn’t load cartridges smoothly and quickly can put a real damper on a trip to the range or the field. Most hunters point the finger at some component of the firearm itself, but the real culprit is probably something much simpler and easier to fix: the magazine.

Whenever someone tells me about an unreliable rifle, the magazine is always the first thing I recommend changing. Eight times out of 10, that’s the real problem: the feed lips have cracked, the spring has worn out, or the follower is poorly designed.

It’s best to select a high-quality magazine from the outset so you never have to deal with reliability issues in the first place. The problem is, they all look pretty much the same from the outside. How can you sort the wheat from the chaff without finding out the hard way? That’s the question I aim to answer below.

Rifle magazines incorporate a ton of geometrical engineering, but they don’t have many parts.

The body of the magazine houses all the components and determines durability and geometry. It’s usually constructed from steel, aluminum, or polymer.

The feed lips are incorporated into the body, and they’re one of the most critical features. They keep cartridges from being pushed out the top of the mag and hold them in place to be stripped by the bolt.

The spring provides the upward pressure pushing the next cartridge into position after the top one is stripped and loaded.

The follower is the flat(ish) piece attached to the spring on which the cartridges rest.

This is the piece on the bottom of the magazine that holds the spring in place (it doesn’t have to be made of metal).

Mag failures are a greater concern in semi-automatic rifle platforms than bolt- or lever-action, but it’s always a headache to clear a jam. And if you think all magazines are created equal, consider this: the U.S. Army deployed an improved M-16/M-4 magazine in 2009 that reduced the risk of magazine-related stoppages by more than 50%. With that kind of reliability improvement on the table, it’s worth figuring out why magazines fail.

Here are four of the most common reasons.

1. Cracked, Worn-Out Feed Lips

Faulty feed lips can’t contain the spring’s tension and allow cartridges to pop out the top of the magazine. Rounds can jump out if a loaded mag is jostled in a bag or case, or even while the rifle is cycling. The latter scenario can result in jams and double feeds.

Feed lips can wear out or crack with heavy use, or they can slowly spread out if you store magazines fully loaded for an extended period of time.

This is one way you can identify a high-quality magazine. The feed lips on Magpul’s Gen 2 PMAGs would crack if stored fully loaded, but the Gen 3 version fixed this problem, and I’ve never had any problems.

To test if the feed lips on a magazine are still functioning properly, load a mag to the top and tap the bottom on the ground with some force. If a round pops out, it might be time to throw that mag in the bin and replace it.

2. Poorly Designed Follower

The follower is where the magic happens from an engineering perspective. The primary purpose of a follower is to keep the cartridges at the correct angle as they move up the magazine. If a cartridge arrives at the top at the wrong angle, it will almost certainly jam as the bolt attempts to strip it off. The bullet might get stuck going up the feed ramp or nosedive into the front of the magazine.

It’s tough to tell whether a follower is well-designed without using it, but there are a few features you want to look for. The most important is “anti-tilt.” When you press the front or back of the follower, it shouldn’t move very much. It should stay flat, which will ensure that the cartridges do the same. Modern designs use extended front and rear legs to keep the follower level throughout its travel.

The follower should also slide smoothly inside the body without getting hung up on anything. This is easy enough to test, but the real challenge comes when it gets dirty. Grit inside the magazine can cause the follower to seize up and stop working properly. Well-designed magazines have enough clearance between the follower and the body to allow for smooth operation even with some grit and grime.

I’d encourage you to put a magazine follower through its paces before taking it into the field. You might throw a mag into the dirt as if you dropped it by accident, load it up, and see if it functions. You might also make sure the rifle cycles smoothly with a fully loaded magazine and on the last round. These are the points at which a bad follower will rear its ugly head because the cartridge variance makes it difficult to maintain the correct upward pressure. I was recently testing a handgun and found that with hollow-point ammunition, the last cartridge always got stuck moving up the feed ramp. This kind of failure is usually resolved with a different magazine—either a different brand or just a simple swap.

3. Old Springs

Contrary to what you might think, springs don’t wear out as the result of storing a magazine fully loaded. Springs primarily wear out through use—by being compressed and decompressed again and again. Over time, they can no longer impart the force necessary to push the next cartridge into position at the correct time, which results in failures to load. This is a problem for semi-automatic rifles more than bolt-action rifles because unless you’re some kind of wizard, you can’t cycle the action faster than the mag spring can operate.

A mag spring can also wear out thanks to rust, which is why good-quality magazines use stainless steel as the spring material.

4. Damaged Body

If the mag body gets dented, cracked, or otherwise deformed, the follower won’t travel smoothly, and the mag will fail to function properly.

Metal magazines are durable, especially steel varieties (as opposed to aluminum). They’ve been proven over decades in the field, and the feed lips don’t crack or wear out. However, once they get dented, the follower will bind, and they’re pretty much useless.

Polymer magazines can have issues with the feed lips (depending on the construction quality), but the plastic offers better flexibility and impact resistance. The material “bounces back,” so to speak, which allows the mag to keep functioning even after receiving a blow. That doesn’t mean they’re invincible—they can still crack and break. But the feed lips are more likely to fail than the body of the magazine itself.

Magazines can fail for other reasons, too. I once purchased a 30-round magazine for a 10/22 that almost always caused feeding issues because it didn’t fit securely in the receiver. It canted forward, which caused the rifle to jam every other round.

But I think what I described above are four of the most common reasons. If that’s the case, it follows that a high-quality rifle magazine does three things well:

There are plenty of high-quality magazines on the market that do exactly these things. But don’t assume they’ll be around forever. Magpul will probably be making PMAGs until the Second Coming, but if you hunt with a rifle that uses a special kind of ammo feeder, find one you like and buy five or six (or 10 or 20). Even good-quality mags wear out over time, and you don’t want to be stuck with a rifle you can’t use because you assumed your magazine would never fail.

Spencer Neuharth hosts MeatEater Trivia with Janis Putelis, Brody Henderson, Randall Williams, Maggie Smith, Nate Mason, and Laura Mascari.

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On this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast after a full day of hog hunting in Oklahoma, host Clay Newcomb sits down with Dale Brisby of Rodeo Time and Turnpike Troubadours frontman Evan Felker along with Donnie Daytona, Andrew Stubbs, and Bear Newcomb to swap stories about catching yearlings in the woods, bronc riding, training horses, and the realities of ranch life.  Evan discusses what life is like on the road playing music and working on a new album for "The Troubadours."

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Steven Rinella and the MeatEater crew discuss: Mark Kenyon’s upcoming new podcast; Kimi Werner’s cookbook: Kimi's Kitchen; clarifying what a porterhouse cut is; an interview with Olympic Gold Medal-winning ice hockey goalie, Connor "Bass Head" Hellebuyck; how you can’t hunt turkeys close to church in Mississippi; gonad jerky; the multiple uses of Cornell University's e-Bird; beavers as fish; getting arrested for breaking a wooly mammoth tusk; Colorado's fur ban; South Atlantic states to manage red snapper; frog and toad surveys; getting "seal finger" from a grizzly bear; watch "Steve and Seth Get Rich on Bobcats"; the financial implications of the recreational economy; Save Tuckertown!; and more.

Outro credit: "The Screaming Song" written by George Alan Sparhawk

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This week, Tony discusses how all serious whitetail hunters should be working year-round to find new ground to hunt because they never know when they'll need it.

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