Feral Jundi

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Fish And Game: Trout Fishing Bounties In Idaho!

The reward breakdown is: 300 of the tags are worth $50 each; 200 are worth $100; 50 are worth $200; 20 worth $500; and 5 are worth $1,000 each.
The competitive aspect is that the tags are invisible to the eye and can’t be detected by a standard metal detector. In order to tell whether a fish is a winner it must be killed and brought into the Idaho Falls Fish and Game headquarters to be checked.
Because the rainbow trout is a sport fish, it cannot be wasted. Anglers can keep the meat and turn in the head if they desire, or they can turn in the whole fish…….

Every lake trout of any size and rainbow trout more than 13 inches long harvested from Lake Pend Oreille pays $15.00!

Talk about cool?  Fishing trout and collecting a bounty for your effort?  lol It doesn’t get any better than that! Plus you get to enjoy the meat and you only have to turn in the head for verification.

So for you anglers out there that are looking for a good trout fishing vacation, try out the South Fork Snake River or Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. Read both ads for bounties below if you are interested and definitely check out the video they made about why they are doing this. –Matt

IDAHO FISH AND GAME UPPER SNAKE REGION NEWS RELEASE
Idaho Falls, ID
Fish And Game Offers Bounty On Rainbow Trout
Date:March 29, 2010
Contact:Gregg Losinski
(208) 525-7290
Since 1982 Idaho Fish and Game fisheries biologists have been monitoring the numbers of the different types of trout in the South Fork Snake River outside of Idaho Falls.
This monitoring has tracked the effects non-native rainbow trout are having on native Yellowstone cutthroat trout populations. Rainbow trout can interbreed with cutthroats and produce fertile offspring. The resulting generations of hybrids become more and more like rainbows, and less like cutthroats.

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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Fish And Game: Jager Pro Thermal Hog Control

     “I quickly found that hunting in the daytime, the traditional way, I wasn’t very effective… I saw how effective thermal technology was in combat, and from what I see, farmers and ranchers are at war with feral hogs in the United States. So, it just made common sense to me,” said Rod.

     Wow, this is cool. What do you get when you combine a combat veteran, thermal night vision equipment, military grade weapons, and cutting edge hunting methods for guided pig hunts?  You get one hell of a hog eradication service, and that is what this country needs right now.

    Enter Jager Pro Thermal Hog Control out of Columbus, Georgia.  This company is not only brutally efficient in eradicating these things, but they are also in the business of taking folks out on guided night hunts to turn a profit.  Just imagine if Jager Pro became a franchise and these guys were able to take this concept to the next level? (they do day hunts as well)

     Feral hogs are a huge problem and I have talked about this in the past.  Even here in Idaho there are sightings of feral pigs in the south and this state’s game officials are concerned about their possible growth here. In Texas and the rest of the south, they are really bad and it is an all out war to eradicate these things. The amount of damage to crops and land they do is costing millions and the reproduction rates of pig are worse than rabbits. It is often referred to as the ‘Pig Bomb’.

     The other thing that jumped out at me was the concept of the ‘Judas Pig’.  Basically this is a strategy derived from a method of eradicating goats in Hawaii back in the eighties. The way it works is they strap a locator beacon on a pig and let them loose in an area. Because these animals are social, they tend to look for their fellow pigs or goats and graze or mate with them. If hunters want to find their prey, they just follow the Judas Pig (usually a young female pig or gilt) and then kill her new found buddies.  It is a method that is being employed all over the world with excellent success.

     Does this sound familiar guys and gals?  Pseudo-operations is what this is, and this is a very simplistic example of how effective it can be when applied to hog hunting.  The trick for warfare is finding that pseudo operator (s) that will lead you to the enemy–either willingly or unwillingly. Which is an interesting question?  I wonder if any Judas Pigs figured out that they were causing so much death and purposely avoided contact with other pigs? hmmm.

     I was thinking what would be really cool for this deal was to combine the Judas Pig concept with a geo-locating mobile app for smart phones.  That way hunters could participate in following the various Judas Pigs that have been released into the wild, all by pulling out a smart phone and seeing what lights up on their GPS enabled map. Jager Pro could offer this app to customers on a subscription basis, or use some other method of monetizing the thing.  Each Jager Pro pin on the map could have different types of information, like if it was a female or male, or how many pigs have been eradicated by using this pig.  It would be one way of making it easier for hunters to do their thing out there, and quicken the eradication process.

     Also, in Texas I am told that you can sell wild pig meat.  But the animal has to be alive when you sell it. They want to test the pig for diseases and whatnot before slaughtering it and selling the meat.  But still, that would be one way of making a little coin off of this deal. Very innovative, and Rod Pinkston of Jager Pro definitely gets a thumbs up from FJ. –Matt

Link to Jager Pro website here.

Facebook for Jager Pro here.

The War On Wild Hogs Using Military Tactics

Using thermal-imaging technology to put the crosshairs on feral hogs.

By Drew Hall

June 2008

 It’s 0100 hours and pitch-black dark as my team and I await our target’s arrival. We’d been briefed just hours before of the mass amount of damage our targets have caused. These beasts have destroyed other’s means of life, they’ve taken hard-earned crops away from farmers and they’ve had little to no regret about any of it. At least, not until tonight. For most of them, tonight will be the end. And for those who survive the assault, they won’t be returning to this area any more.

We lay in silence — waiting. Our team leader whispers the targets should be arriving any minute, their nightly routine rarely changes much. Little did they know, their own routine would be the death of them. They spend the heat of the day hiding in the swamps and thick woods, then they leave the safety of the swamps to devastate the land around them.

Suddenly, we spot a group of targets at more than a half-mile away. Our thermal-imagery optics allow us to view the presence of heat at extreme distances. We decide to start the stalk instead of waiting them out. We need to complete the mission quickly; we don’t have time to wait. After an hour-long stalk in a tactical formation, we are within 50 yards of our targets which have no idea anything is amiss. We spread out in kneeling and prone positions and take aim. The first shot rings out as muzzle fire exits our leader’s rifle. A barrage of rifle fire follows as all but a few of the targets fall to the ground. Some manage to escape, but the chain of command has been broken, and they won’t return.

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Parachuting: Special Forces Get The New MC-6, Marines Get The New T-11

   I perked up when I saw a story mentioning smokejumpers in the Stars and Stripes, and this is what they were talking about. Strategy Page just posted about it as well.  The parachute that they were discussing is called the MC 6,  and it has a different name in the smokejumpers. It is called the FS 14 canopy.  It is a round (shape of the canopy) chute, and it is great for steep descents into tight jump spots surrounded by tall trees.  It is also steerable, and you can get different sizes of chutes, depending on the weight and size of the jumper.  I jumped a large when I was using the canopy in the Forest Service, and they are the ones who primarily use this canopy. I think the smallest spot surrounded by trees that I ever jumped with this parachute was the size of a small house. This parachute struggles in higher winds though, and I like a different parachute for that stuff.

   When it comes to a great all around parachute for rough terrain parachuting, I preferred the RAM Air DC 7 canopy or square canopy. The MC 5 is the military equivalent.  This parachute looks like the sport parachutes you see in the civilian world, and they are very nice.

  This parachute is primarily used by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service is slowly transitioning to this parachute. As we speak, they are doing cross training between the two organizations in order to gain proficiency. The BLM uses this parachute for the Great Basin in the western US, and up in Alaska.  Both areas have higher winds, and big open areas.  But both areas also have their mountains and trees to jump into.  Having jumped rounds and squares (parachute types), I would have to go with squares as being the best all around parachute to use for all types of terrain. What I imagine the SF is doing, is just having the option to use either the MC 5 or the MC 6, depending upon the mission. That is smart, but hopefully they are proficient on both, and muscle memory doesn’t screw them up while using one parachute or the other.  You definitely have to know each parachute and it’s deployment system very well in order to get a good parachuting strategy for getting on the ground safely and in rough terrain.

   As for the T 11, it looks interesting, but I really cannot comment on it.  Just as long as it is stable, easy to control, and gets the guys on the ground safely, then I am all for it.

   Now what is exciting about the T-11 and the MC-6 is that both of these parachutes will make parachute operations a tad more safer, and make the option of airborne operations in war a little more feasible for future missions.  Who knows, maybe the military might take another look at Fire Force  type operations as a viable way of attacking enemies?  Parachuting troops in places like Afghanistan, might be a safer option than flying in with helicopters or driving in via convoys.  Parachuting also distributes the forces more.  One missile or one IED can take out a multitude of troops in a helicopter or vehicle.  Parachuting soldiers who are only exposed in the air for around 40 plus seconds, can make them very spread out and very hard to shoot.

    And because the Taliban are such poor shots, I don’t think they could be very effective at shooting soldiers out of the sky as they parachute to the ground. Especially if there is a sniper team on the ground, or some airship circling around and lighting up any enemy forces that want to take a shot. With good night vision kit, and safer parachutes, night time operations might also be more feasible as well.  I am sure airborne troops have thought about all of this stuff for our current wars, and it would be interesting to hear some of their ideas. You just don’t hear a lot about parachuting operations in this war, and it might be worth some further exploration.  Especially if the military is going to invest millions of dollars into two new canopies for the troops, as well as cycle thousands of troops through airborne training. By the way, bravo to the guys at Paraflite for making some awesome parachutes. –Matt

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MC 6

MC 6 parachute.

T 11 parachute. 

Special Forces look to smoke jumpers for new parachutes

By Warren Peace

May 4, 2010

STUTTGART, Germany — Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group recently got a chance to try out the Army’s new MC-6 parachute, which they say will be put to good use when dropping into tight combat zones in Afghanistan.

The MC-6 is more maneuverable than the aging MC-1, which has been used by Special Forces soldiers for years, and the Stuttgart-based soldiers are the first unit in Europe to train with the new chute.

When searching for a new parachute that could drop them into a small landing area, Army Special Forces looked to the smoke jumpers, who are tasked with descending into the heart of Rocky Mountain forest fires, said David Roy, program leader for the MC-6.

“The U.S. forest services have been using this canopy for about 16 years now,” Roy said. “They use it to get into postage-size drop zones in the Rockies as they go to put out fires.”

Plus, the small drop zones and high altitudes of the Rocky Mountains are very similar to the conditions faced by airborne soldiers in Afghanistan, said Maj. Jason Morneault, assistant product manager for Program Manager Clothing and Individual Equipment for the Army.

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Monday, April 26, 2010

Medical: Xe Contractor, Wounded In Iraq, Works To Help Others

   This is a great story about a wounded contractor giving back and helping out our wounded veterans.  If you would like to contact Ron, just follow the TBI link below.  On his profile page, you can also see pictures of him in the hospital and with his Mamba team in Iraq.

   The other thought that came to my mind, is the treatment of wounded contractors versus wounded soldiers.  The amount of resources available to the wounded soldier far surpasses the resources available to a wounded contractor.  What I mean by that, is family support networks and support from a soldier’s command is a given, and with the companies, it isn’t.  Some companies do a good job at supporting their guys, where others fall short.  That is the down side with contracting, and just expect that if you get wounded, that you will need all the help you can get from some kind of support network you can form.  That is why guys like Ron are so inspirational.

   You also need someone who knows how to navigate insurance and medical claims, while you are injured.  When I was injured with the smokejumpers, I was assigned a nurse/advocate who did exactly that.  She knew how to navigate OWCP and was there to insure I didn’t get screwed over while I was mentally ‘out of it’.  Because when you are seriously injured, and especially if you have a TBI, a nurse who can help you make sound decisions about your health will be vital.  If there is nothing but pain on your mind, or you can’t concentrate, a lot of stuff can get messed up unless you have someone who can watch your back. An advocate is necessary even if you don’t have TBI, just because some of the processes for getting care can be confusing at times.

   Even your family life needs a support mechanism, because when you are at that level, you are in no shape to be the guy that can watch out for your family.  TAPS , Special Operations Warrior Foundation or Wounded Warrior Project are networks to get a hold of, that can help contractors.  Lining up some trusted friends or family to help out is another.  Planning and being prepared is key, and you cannot expect the company to do this for you.

   Another idea is talk it up on your contracts about what the company did for injured contractors in the past, and formulate a plan from that information. Hell, some companies like in the case with Xe, have continued to employ their wounded contractors. That is awesome and those are the little things that make a world of difference in the life of a wounded warrior, so bravo to Xe and bravo to Ron Grigsby.-Matt

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Idaho man, wounded in Iraq, works to help others

April 26, 2010

By BILL BULEY

Ron Grigsby didn’t know the man who bought him and his wife and sister drinks the night after an awards ceremony in which he was honored.

But when he went to thank him for the Coke, the man looked Grigsby in the eye and squeezed his hand.

“Bulldog, I was there that day. I watched you die,” he said.

The ever-tough Grigsby stopped, stood and stared. Then a big smile broke out and he gave the man a hug.

“He thought he’d never see me again,” Grigsby says.

The 48-year-old Hayden man did die that day in Iraq. Four times. Each time, they brought him back.

“I went down for the count that day. They had to keep jump-starting me,” he says with a little laugh. “That’s what I call it.”

Grigsby was nearly killed March 21, 2007, while working as an independent contractor for Blackwater in the Middle East. He was part of a convoy, assigned to protect a convoy, when it was hit by enemy fire. The blast threw him more than 40 feet. His helmet was caved in an inch and a half. He suffered multiple injuries that included a broken neck and a traumatic brain injury.

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Monday, May 12, 2008

Weapons: Cheytac .408 Precision Rifle Systems

Filed under: Idaho,Weapons — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 1:03 PM

Boy, this is an impressive weapon system.  The company is located in Arco, Idaho too.  I have not fired the weapon, but to give you an idea of how specialized this weapon is, it costs about 125 dollars for a box of 20 rounds.  The bullets themselves, are lathed and are made of a propietary mixed metal component.  Check it out. -Head Jundi

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http://www.cheytac.com/
Mack from Future Weapons fires the weapon.

The Round.

The 408 Round
The Weapon.

.408 Cheytac

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