A group of youth campers with the Wilderness School learned first-hand about the hazards of rabid wildlife while at a Connecticut state park on June 30. Early that morning, one of the camp counselors was sleeping in a hammock when he was attacked by a bobcat. The camp counselor and two other adults were able to fight off and kill the bobcat, which later tested positive for rabies, according to a statement from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.It’s unclear how the counselor and his companions killed the cat, but all three were injured and taken to a local hospital for treatment. None of the youth campers were harmed in the incident, which took place at Selden Neck State Park roughly five miles west of Lyme. Because the park is located on an island, first responders had to evacuate the campers by boat.
“It could’ve been much worse,” said Peter Yazbak, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, which oversees the state-run Wilderness School. “We’re happy that everyone’s just doing OK.”
Yazbak added that to his knowledge, it’s the first time that a Wilderness School group has had a dangerous encounter with a wild animal. He another local officials praised the adult counselors for their brave response to the attack.
“Due to their courageous and outstanding efforts, the safety of the youth was maintained, and they were not harmed,” deputy commissioner Michael Williams told reporters.
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A Canadian man pled guilty on Wednesday to violating a federal hunting restriction in Jasper National Park, CBC News reports. The violation stems from an incident that took place in August 2022, when he brought a shotgun into the park and shot a black bear with it.Serge Painchaud, a 42-year-old Edmonton resident, claimed in court that he didn’t know it was against the law to carry a firearm in a national park. He said he brought the shotgun along and decided to use it because he was “scared.”Watch: Whale Nearly Swallows Two Kayakers
Justice Rosanna Saccomani soundly rejected this defense and ordered Painchaud to pay a fine of $7,500, or roughly $5,640 USD, within a year. (The prosecuting attorney pushed for heftier fines and a two-year probation on owning firearms, but the court was lenient because Painchaud cooperated and had no criminal record.)
“[That] would apply to pretty much every single person in your situation,” Saccomani told Painchaud. “We’re all afraid of bears.”
According to court records, Painchaud and two friends set out to hike the Overlander Trail on the morning of Aug. 6. He brought a Mossberg Model 510 20 gauge, which he carried loaded and openly on the trail.
Painchaud then “became scared” and fired a warning shot in the bear’s direction. The bear shuddered and took a few steps forward, at which point Painchaud fired a second shot, striking the bear. The black bear rolled down a bank and ran off into the woods.
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One of Painchaud’s friends heard the two shots and called park wardens, who came to investigate. They discovered two empty shotgun shells along with traces of blood at the scene, but the bear was never found.
“Injured bears can be very aggressive when encountered in close quarters, so any further searches must be approached with extreme caution,” Parks Canada said at the time, pointing out that a wounded black bear is even scarier than a healthy one.
My college buddy runs a sports-betting operation in Vegas, and he occasionally shares with me some of the surprising non-sports “events” that bookies make odds on. The number of named hurricanes in the Atlantic. The first song in a Taylor Swift concert. How many times President Biden says “fella” during a speech to union supporters.So I asked him the other day: Is there a Vegas betting line on when grizzly bears will be removed from the federal endangered species list? He laughed.“We prefer to bet on things that have a knowable answer,” he told me. Betting on grizzly bear recovery, he said, “is like betting on the existence of God.”
His perspective has lingered with me as I’ve watched skirmishes this spring and summer that will define the terms of grizzly bear management when (or if) state fish-and-game agencies take over from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It seems equally likely these preemptive moves could keep the legal status of this iconic species in a sort of administrative purgatory, with bears recovered in sufficient numbers to lift federal protections, but with courts and public opinion expressing doubts about states’ fitness to manage them.
That context makes a series of otherwise unremarkable recent events into something more, the terms that will define not only the legal definition of grizzly bears, but a window into how Westerners either choose to live—or choose not to live—with this large, disruptive omnivore.
Over the shoulders of state legislators, governors, state wildlife commissions, and federal agencies is a running clock, started in early February by USFWS’ announcement that the feds would initiate a 90-day status review of grizzly populations in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems. The agency was responding to petitions by the governors of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana to start the delisting process.
Grizzly numbers in the GYE have expanded well beyond recovery goals. Andrew Englehorn / NPS
That announcement by USWFS—and that ticking clock—has inspired a sprint to stake out what a delisted-griz landscape would look like. Montana’s legislature went first, passing Senate Bill 295, which among other state management actions authorized livestock owners to kill grizzly bears either actively attacking livestock or deemed to be threatening to. Nothing out of the norm of state protections here, but SB295 went further, allowing these grizzly kill permits to be used outside of any established hunting season, and even on public land.
That’s a radical departure from previous state management prescriptions, which limited kill permits to private land. Public land is categorically different, argues Derek Goldman of the Endangered Species Coalition, one of more than a dozen environmental groups that signed a letter to Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, urging him to veto SB295.
“We recognize that occasionally a landowner—working alongside bear specialists at FWP and having exhausted nonlethal efforts to prevent grizzly bear conflict—might need a lethal solution for a truly dangerous or habituated bear in their own barnyard,” wrote Goldman and other opponents of the legislation. “However, public land is a different scenario. Here, wildlife make their home, while livestock graze seasonally at the pleasure of (and subsidized by) the general public, often far from towns and ranches. We know of no other species managed by the Department that private citizens can obtain a permit to kill, on public land, outside of any established hunting season. Yet, SB295 creates this unprecedented authorization for our state animal—one of the slowest-reproducing and most mortality-sensitive species on the planet.”
Gianforte, who has told wildlife managers that one of his priorities in his first gubernatorial term is delisting grizzlies, allowed the legislation to become law. Goldman and other opponents say the sanctioning of a limitless season on grizzlies could persuade the Department of the Interior that states aren’t yet ready to assume grizzly bear management.
Grizzlies in the Upper Green
Conflicts between grizzly bears and public-land livestock aren’t confined to Montana. In Wyoming, environmental groups are dismayed that the U.S. Forest Service has approved a cattle-and-sheep grazing plan on the largest livestock allotment in the West. It’s in the upper Green River watershed, roughly between Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Range, a place where grizzly bears often come into contact—and conflict—with domestic livestock. Under terms of the grazing permit, livestock agents are authorized to kill up to seven grizzlies a year for the next 10 years.
That lethal take, amounting to 72 grizzlies over the next decade, prompted activists to sue both USFS and USFWS. That suit was settled last month in favor of Upper Green River livestock grazers.
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At the heart of the opponents’ suit was their claim that the Upper Green River, along with other drainages that fall off the high, wild Yellowstone Plateau, are vital transition lands as expanding grizzlies pioneer new landscapes outside their protected parklands. But that argument suffered a public setback last month when a federal bear biologist reported that griz expansion into new habitats has ceased, and in the last years has even decreased.
Data from GPS-collared bears and other geo-locations suggest that “we are reaching the limits of even marginal habitat,” said Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team leader Frank van Manen of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem “There’s more human influence [on the ecosystem periphery], and so we have a lot more human-bear conflict and higher [grizzly] mortality.”
Grizzly distribution is measured by GPS data from the dozens of bears collared in the GYE. The locations of grizzly deaths are also factored into the management picture. The data suggest that grizzly range has been stagnant over the last two years, van Manen told the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. It even retracted along the northern periphery of grizzly range in southern Montana. Overall the reduction in range amounted to 142 square miles—about 0.5 percent of the species’ total distribution.
Grizzlies on the Move
Distribution dynamics appear to be different in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, where grizzlies are steadily moving outside of wildlands and into transition zones heavily used by humans. The NCDE stretches roughly from Interstate 90 through western Montana north to the Canadian line. The wild area includes the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and Glacier National Park.
Significantly, it also includes adjacent wildlands that currently don’t have viable numbers of grizzlies. Like the Bitterroot Mountains south of Missoula, Montana. The Bitterroots, which range into Idaho, had earlier been identified as a grizzly restoration zone, and were on tap to receive as many as 25 transplanted grizzlies. But changes in presidential administrations and court rulings suspended that translocation work.
Grizzlies are expanding toward the Bitterroot.
Still, grizzlies have been naturally moving toward the Bitterroot, and in April a federal judge ordered USFWS to study the area’s capacity for supporting a grizzly bear population.
Meanwhile, bears have been spilling out of the Bob Marshall Wilderness into the adjacent eastern plains, where some bears routinely get in trouble with farmers and townspeople. Last month, a grizzly bear was killed near the wheat-growing town of Conrad, and other bears have ventured far to the east.
Will We Ever Hunt Grizzly Bears?
Most people reading this are probably eager to hear that with state management of delisted grizzly bears will come sport-hunting seasons. Not so fast, say both state wildlife agencies and a mixed chorus of bear defenders.
First, Montana’s Fish and Wildlife Commission, in considering rules that would direct state management of grizzlies, notes that sport hunting is “the most desirable method” for balancing the number of bears with available habitat. In that way, management of bears would conform to norms used to manage other big-game populations. But the commission also noted that it’s in no hurry to implement a hunting season, suggesting that the state would manage bears for at least five years before any hunting season would be proposed.
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Because grizzly bears reach sexual maturity relatively late in life, and because their reproductive potential is much slower than black bears, wolves, and any ungulate species, the species requires special management considerations, argues Dave Mattson, former grizzly bear biologist for the U.S. Geological Service.
Grizzlies’ reproductive potential is reproductive potential is slower than that of wolves, black bears, and other ungulate species. Kimberly Shields / NPS
As a consequence of their reproductive dynamics, “grizzly bear populations are unable to accommodate much human-caused mortality without declining, and even small rates of decline, if sustained, can result in catastrophic losses,” Mattson writes in a paper published by the Grizzly Bear Recovery Project that looks at the effects of sport hunting. “This sensitivity of grizzly bear populations to even small added increments of mortality leaves managers with little margin of error.”
There are two ways to look at that perspective. On the one hand, maybe hunting is the tool that state wildlife managers need to keep grizzly bears contained to small home ranges. The other way to look at it is that, if we are ready to take on the responsibility of sustainably hunting grizzly bears, then we should probably let them expand into as many areas as possible, in order that regulated hunting doesn’t push them back into endangered status.
All the variables—political, cultural, physical, and biological—that will influence grizzly bear management over the next decade can make your head spin. And they’re clearly too much for my Vegas bookie, who notes that, besides a knowable conclusion, the best bets also have the fewest variables.
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There likely isn’t a more quintessential .22 rifle than a western-style lever action. It’s a class of gun that’s equal parts utility, nostalgia, and fun. I vividly remember the first time I ever shot one—my dad’s Ithaca Model 72, when I was five years old or so. My dad got that rifle at a young age himself and, while raising me, we expended countless bricks of ammunition at tin cans, cottontail rabbits, and prairie dogs. Many of the classic .22 Lever action rifle designs like the Marlin 39A, Ithaca Saddlegun, and Winchester Model 94 are hard to come by—and very expensive these days. That doesn’t mean that you have to write off having a good-looking .22 lever gun of your own.
A couple years ago, Rossi introduced the Rio Bravo, a lever-action .22 that’s made in Brazil. It resembles the Ithaca Model 72, and carries a friendlier price than much of the competition. The rifle is available in four configurations: black with polymer furniture, black with wood furniture, a gold-Cerakote receiver with dark wood furniture, and, the model I tested, which they refer to as the Wood, Gold trim. It has a polished gold-colored, PVD-finished receiver and stained wood furniture. It rings up at a little over half the price of the similar-looking Henry Golden Boy. The real question is how well do these Brazilian imports shoot, and are they reliable? My 7-year-old son and I have been trying to wear out the Rossi Rio Bravo to answer that question.
The jazzy finish of the Gold, Wood model Rossi Rio Bravo does give it a look like the Henry Golden Boy rifle, while coming in at a more affordable price. Its gold-colored PVD finish is durable, flashy, and presents a posture of Old West showmanship. Finishes like this collect more fingerprints than the ATF, but when it’s wiped down it looks sharp. Aside from the eye-catching gold, it’s actually more similar to rifles like that Ithaca model 72 Saddlegun.
Rossi Rio Bravo Receiver and Action
The heart of the Rossi Rio Bravo is its aluminum alloy receiver that has a cover plate that encloses the top and sides of the receiver. It’s held in place by four Phillips screws and can be removed for cleaning the barrel and bolt. This style of receiver is characteristic of many .22 LR lever-action rifles, and features a small dovetail for mounting a scope with tip-off rings on top.
The lever loop is also finished in gold PVD, and in the closed position there’s a half-inch gap between it and the stock. This might seem odd to those accustomed to loops that touch the stock, but it’s not unprecedented. The action operates smoothly and, when closed, the lever has no play or wobble.
The Rossi Rio Bravo has an external hammer and a crossbolt safety. Unlike some lever-action rifles, it does not have a half-cock position, but does have what I’d call an eighth-cock position. When the hammer is retracted slightly, it clicks into a position that keeps the hammer approximately an eighth-inch off the firing pin. The trigger is good for a lever gun. It has a two-stage pull with a long first stage and a crisp, reasonably light break that makes pinging steel rimfire targets a cinch. I measured the overall trigger pull weight at a consistent 5 pounds, 5 ounces on my Lyman trigger pull gauge.
The receiver cover is easily removed for breech-to-muzzle cleaning and lubrication of parts. Tyler Freel
Furniture and Fasteners
This Rossi Rio Bravo is stocked with an unspecified species of wood furniture, with a decent finish that’s in line with the rifle’s price point. I don’t expect the finish to hold up well to a lot of exposure to moisture, and the wood seems to dent easily. Fit of the wood is also in step with the price tag. It’s acceptable, but not at the level you’ll see on more expensive rifles—particularly the fit between the receiver and fore-end.
The finished fit of the fore-end and barrel to the receiver could be better-executed, along with the serial number engraving. Tyler Freel
The stock is capped with a plastic ribbed recoil plate that’s secured by two Phillips screws. It shoulders well, and should hold up just fine. One of few quibbles I have with the rifle’s build is the plastic construction of the two barrel bands—the front one features an integrated sling swivel stud. They are perfectly functional, but steel, or even aluminum, would make a big difference in the aesthetics and overall appeal of a western-style .22 rifle.
Barrel and Blued Parts of the Rossi Rio Bravo
The barrel, magazine tube, bolt, trigger, and hammer all have a blued finish—as do the steel iron sights. The rear sight is a classic buckhorn sight with a steel graduated elevation ramp for adjustments. The front sight is a simple drift-adjustable blued steel blade with a brass bead.
Although Rossi lists the barrel as a 6-groove barrel, I count 12 on my sample. It reminds me more of the old Marlin Model 39A microgroove barrels than what many contemporary .22 LRs use. The outer magazine tube is steel, and uses a typical removable brass magazine tube and bullet-shaped loading port. It holds 15 rounds of .22 LR, and uses a plastic follower.
The business end of the Rio Bravo features a rounded muzzle crown with 12 small rifling grooves visible. Tyler Freel
The finish on the blued parts is consistent, and the level of wear I’m seeing is in line with what I’d expect. The barrel-to-receiver interface isn’t as nicely executed and tight as I’d like, but it’s within the parameters of a rifle of this price. There’s a small gap where the receiver meets the barrel and some powder fouling has escaped through that crevice onto the barrel. The fit is secure and functionally satisfactory, but it’s a flaw that wouldn’t go unchecked on a more expensive rifle. I’m not a fan of the characteristically Brazilian style of laser-engraving the serial numbers on the barrel and bolt either.
How Does the Rossi Rio Bravo Shoot?
Many imports and lower-priced guns will automatically draw more scrutiny than their domestic counterparts—understandably so. It’s especially true for rimfire rifles. These cartridges are inherently dirty, and the ammunition is prone to foul just about any rifle. Guns like the Rossi Rio Bravo are affordable, sure, but how well do they run?
My 7-year-old-son and I put more than 500 rounds through this rifle without a single cleaning and we found it to be pleasantly reliable. The action cycles smooth and feeds many flavors of .22 LR ammunition well. It ejects cases smartly and the only issue we encountered was when my son tried to cycle the lever hesitantly. Sometimes that would cause a cartridge to feed improperly. I never encountered it myself. After firing approximately 400 rounds, we would see an occasional case stick in the chamber and slip the extractor. This is a typical .22 LR issue when wax lubricant from the ammunition builds up in the chamber. Swabbing the chamber with a pipe cleaner and a dab of solvent quickly remedied it.
My son was quickly smitten with the looks of the rifle and took to it right off. After getting a feel for the action, he was hitting steel targets out to 50 yards from a bench. It’s a little heavy for him to shoot offhand for long periods of time, but the only thing I regularly have to help him with is twisting the small magazine cap to the closed position on a full stack of .22’s. It’s stiff, but locks up securely.
The Rio Bravo functioned well with a variety of ammo. Tyler Freel
Rossi Rio Bravo Accuracy
For accuracy testing, I temporarily mounted a Leupold VX2 2-7×33 scope to the Rossi Rio Bravo and fired 15 5-shot groups at 50 yards with three different types of ammo: Browning 40-grain Pro 22, Remington Eley Match, and CCI Mini-Mag. The overall average group size was 1.9 inches, and the Remington Eley ammo was most accurate, averaging 1.68 inches.
What the Rossi Rio Bravo Gold Does Well
This Rossi Rio Bravo looks good, and runs reliably. It’s a load of fun on the range and just a great nostalgic .22 rifle that’s priced and built to be used rather than kept in the safe.
Where the Rossi Rio Bravo Gold Could Be Better
I think the rifle falls right into the quality and finish level of its price point, but a couple simple touches like cleaner serial numbers, nicer receiver screws, and steel or aluminum barrel bands would make an appreciable difference at a minimal cost.
Final Thoughts
I’ve been very happy with the performance of the Rossi Rio Bravo and, in Gold trim, this one looks good too. It’s priced well, functions reliably, and is easy to clean and maintain. It’s not a collectors item that you’ll be hesitant to take out of the safe or cabinet, but I don’t have much interest in guns that are built to collect dust. Shooting it will put a smile on just about anyone’s face.
Wisconsinite Bill Foster arrowed a huge black bear in September 2022 that officially ties the state record for the largest black bear ever taken with a bow. It also ties the No. 4 all-time black bear in the Pope & Young record book. A group of big game scorers from several record-keeping agencies met multiple times over the winter to confirm the new record.A panel of local scorers with the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club first measured the bear’s skull in November and gave it a score of 22 11/16 inches. This matched the standing state record for a bow-killed black bear, which was taken from Chippewa County in 2003 by Duane Helland. It also made Foster’s bear an all-time top five animal in the P&Y book, which required him to send the skull to the organization in January and again in February to be panel scored at the Reno convention.
“They have confirmed the score, and I can officially say I have a trophy that sits at No. 4 all time in the Pope & Yound record books,” Foster wrote in an April Facebook post. “It’s also the largest black bear at the convention and the largest taken since I believe 2015.”
Foster, 45, harvested his bear on Sept. 8 during the third day of the state’s fall black bear season. He used bait to draw the bear into bow range and killed it on private land in northwestern Burnett County near the Minnesota state line.
“I had a trail camera out over a bait pile, which is legal in Wisconsin, and first got pictures of him on Sept. 6,” Foster tells Outdoor Life. “A visiting friend of mine, Scottie Layman from Tennessee, sat in that stand on opening evening, and he shot a 250-pound bear that may be large enough for Pope & Young.”
Foster’s black bear had an estimated live weight of 552 pounds. Courtesy of Bill Foster
“I spotted the bear beyond my bait pile, and he was nervous because he was coming in downwind,” says Foster, who was shooting an Obsession Turmoil bow with a 62-pound draw. “I knew I had to take the first good shot I had because I sensed he was going to wind me and spook. He offered a perfect shot at 28 yards, and I took it.”
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Foster’s arrow, tipped with a Slick Trick fixed broadhead, hit the bear behind the shoulder and made a complete pass through. He found the bear dead only 45 yards away from where he’d shot it.
The bear weighed 478 pounds dressed (with an estimated live weight of 552 pounds), and Foster says he’s having a full-body mount done. When asked what kind of bait he used to bring the bear into range, he chuckles.
“I crushed a bunch of Jolly Rancher candies,” Foster says. “Bears just love ‘em.”
Not only did humans transmit Covid-19 to deer, but deer might have returned the favor, a new study published in Nature Communications on July 10 reports. Researchers from the University of Missouri, the USDA, and the CDC collected 8,830 nasal or oral swabs from free-ranging whitetails from November 2021 to April 2022, including hunter-harvested deer. Across those samples, which came from 26 states in the Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest, plus Washington D.C., humans likely transmitted Covid-19 to deer at least 109 times.Watch: Grizzly Bear Released from Trap Steals CameraAs a result of those 109 transmissions, 39 deer then likely transmitted Covid-19 to other deer. Beyond that, deer might have transmitted Covid-19 back to humans on three separate occasions, twice in North Carolina and once in Massachusetts. The authors of the study qualify this by referring to the cases as “potential” instances of spillover back to humans, but this is some of the most concrete evidence of deer-to-human transmission to emerge yet.
In each instance of potential deer-to-human disease transfer, the nucleotide sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 strains found in sick humans was 99.93 percent or more identical to strains found in tested whitetail deer. But the evidence doesn’t stop there; the makeup of these viral strains didn’t show up in any public database of recorded strains sourced from humans. In other words, whitetail deer (and one random lion from a zoo in North Carolina) provided the closest match to the strain these individuals were infected with.
What complicates these results is the fact that, when researchers contacted some of these people, they didn’t report having any close contact to deer or to the zoo where the lion resided in the prior month. It would be one thing if they were all avid deer hunters who just came off a successful 2021 season. But they weren’t.
This opens up a host of questions. How did Covid-19 jump from deer to humans if those humans weren’t in close contact with deer? Did whitetail deer transmit Covid-19 to the family dog, who then passed it on to these people? The mystery of whitetail deer-to-human transmission of Covid-19 remains.
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While the unedited, non-peer-reviewed nature of the study raised eyebrows when Canadian researchers first published it in February 2022, it was later accepted and published nine months later by Nature Microbiology, a research journal that boasts a “rigorous peer-review process.”
A girl was bitten by a rabid beaver while swimming at the north end of Lake Lanier outside of Atlanta on July 8, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and local news sources. The girl’s father came to her rescue and beat the beaver to death.Upon the agency’s request, the dead beaver was obtained by Hall County Animal Control for testing, then shipped to Georgia’s Public Head Lab, which tested the animal and discovered it was positive for rabies. The condition of the young girl and her name were not made available to the public.
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“There was nothing to indicate that there were baby beavers in the vicinity that were being protected, or that the beaver was sick, or whether it was just an otherwise angry beaver,” said DNR Lt. Judd Smith.
One recent Facebook report stated that two people had encountered a rabid beaver in the same general Sardis area of Georgia. But no one was reported bitten by the animal.
While beaver attacks on humans are rare, they aren’t unheard of. In most cases the animal attacks to protect its young or its lodge, or—as in this case—because it’s rabid.
Karen Bond detailed in a Facebook post how she was attacked by a beaver in 2016 while swimming in the Quinnebaug River in eastern Connecticut. Her report is accompanied by gruesome photos resulting from the attack.
“I shoved my hand in its mouth to get it to release me and tore the ligament in my thumb,” she writes. “I had no idea what it was while screaming bloody murder until Gahrett Bond jumped in and unclamped its jaw from me and pushed me away. While he was swimming away it grabbed his leg and he was bit. We did not provoke this beaver, we had no idea it was there because he attacked underwater. We did nothing to this beaver. But they do attack viciously.”
New York has a new number-one gobbler in the record books, and it was taken by an unlikely hunter in a location that some might find surprising. First-time turkey hunter Christopher Tellone killed the giant tom on Long Island in Suffolk County, which held its first-ever spring turkey season this year. And if Tellone’s state-record bird is any indication, the season was an even bigger success than state wildlife officials had hoped.The 28-pound gobbler sported a 10.5-inch beard and a pair of 1.75-inch spurs, and using the National Wild Turkey Federation’s scoring system, it had a total score of 84.2. This makes it the highest scoring “typical” wild turkey ever killed in New York. (The state maintains a separate record book for “nontypical” wild turkeys—those with more than one beard—and the highest scoring nontypical bird was taken in 2002 by hunter Roland Palmer in Chenango County. Palmer’s gobbler weighed 25 pounds, had seven total beards and a total score of 160.)
A Deer Hunter’s First Tom
Tellone, 32, lives in New York City but is no stranger to the woods. A lifelong deer hunter, he grew up chasing whitetails with his dad upstate. So, when he heard Long Island was holding its first-ever spring turkey season, he figured he might as well give it a shot.
“I love to hunt deer, and have most of my life, but I don’t know much about turkey hunting,” Tellone tells Outdoor Life. “The places I’ve hunted deer are a long way from the city, and when New York opened a firearms turkey season in Suffolk County for the first time this year, I decided I was gonna get after the birds because there are turkeys just 90 minutes from where I live in the city.”
In March, he started scouting on public land in the county and set up a few trail cameras. It didn’t take long for him to locate some turkeys near a large open field, and he went out for the first time on May 2, the second day of the spring season.
Tellone used trail cams to locate some birds on public land in the county. Courtesy of Christopher Tellone
“I got to my hunting area late that morning after sunrise, and toms were going crazy, gobbling everywhere,” Tellone says. “On my way back to the truck, I spotted the birds, tried calling to them, but they wouldn’t come close.”
Realizing that his lack of experience with a call might be doing him more harm than good, Tellone bought a full-body strutter decoy before going back to his spot on May 7. But it was 25 degrees warmer by then, and the gobblers had gone silent. He hunted another full day without seeing or hearing a bird, and was starting to think his window of opportunity had already closed.
“Then I read a story about hunting later in the season when it was hot and the birds weren’t gobbling much,” he says. “The story said to be aggressive, and not to give up, and that’s what I did. My dad taught me never to give up.”
Late-Season Turkey Tactics
On May 10, he left New York City by 3:30 a.m. and made it to his spot by 4:30, roughly 45 minutes before first light. He walked to the area where he thought the birds were roosted and heard some activity right away.
After sunrise, he spotted a couple hens and some toms 80 yards away in an open field. He stopped and called, but after not getting a response, he figured he could close the distance by half and get in shotgun range.
“There were four big toms and they were pushing two hens around in the field,” Tellone says. “The only way I could get closer was to belly crawl through the cold mud toward them. I used my turkey decoy as cover in front of me as I wiggled into the field.”
Noticing a slight depression in the field, he crawled down into it and got on the opposite side while the six turkeys headed his direction. The entire stalk took about an hour. He came out of the depression near a small pine tree, and he placed his decoy beside the trunk for additional cover.
“They hadn’t seen me, and right then the hens turned my way, pulling the four gobblers along behind them. One hen passed by me, and the first gobbler walked within range. I figured he was the alpha tom, so I shot him with my Mossberg 500 from about 35 yards.”
A Shocked Taxidermist
Tellone hid behind a strutter decoy while he put an hour-long stalk on the birds. Courtesy of Christopher Tellone
His turkey choke (which he had just received in the mail the night before) did its job, as did the Federal turkey loads he was using. (He says he can’t recall what size shot he used.) The bird folded on the spot.
“It was the first time I’d ever seen a dead wild turkey, and of course it was my first tom,” he says. “I called my dad from the field and told him the bird was huge and really heavy.”
Still, he didn’t realize how big the bird really was until he brought it to his taxidermist.
“The taxidermist told me it was the biggest bird he’d ever seen, and he’s an ardent and well-traveled turkey hunter.”
This prompted Tellone to score the bird using NWTF’s system. Had he not done so, he never would have known that his gobbler was the highest-scoring wild turkey ever taken in New York, surpassing a 24-year-old state record.
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Tellone’s gobbler wasn’t the only bird of note taken during Suffolk County’s first-ever spring season, either. Just four days before he sealed the deal on the 28-pounder, another hunter tagged a record-book tom on public land there.
“When we checked with NWTF, we learned that another big Suffolk County tom had also been taken this year,” Tellone says. “I think that bird now ranks as No. 3 in the state’s record book.”
On December 13, 2021, Logan Harlan carried a late-season buck tag onto New Mexico public land in hopes of finding a good-sized whitetail. After a few unsuccessful days with his dad Larry and sister-in-law Lorri, the group eventually eyed a large 6-by-6 on public land—a rarity in the heavily checkerboarded region they were hunting. Logan watched the buck for a grueling five and a half hours and belly-crawled a few hundred yards before eventually firing a shot with his 6.5 Creedmor. The buck went down instantly. This perseverance and grit shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows the Harlan family. They own a taxidermy studio and booking agency and, according to their Instagram and Facebook profiles, they live to hunt.Whitetail deer aren’t exactly a top game species in New Mexico. Coues’ whitetails and Eastern whitetails, which New Mexico Game and Fish refers to as “Texas whitetails”, comprise roughly five percent of the annual deer harvest statewide. Mule deer make up the other 95 percent. This skewed ratio lends to a rather jarring statistic: Only two New Mexico whitetail deer have ever graced the Boone & Crockett record book.
Or, at least, that was the case until Harlan took his shot in late 2021. After the requisite 60-day drying period, his typical 6-by-6 scored 176 ⅞ inches. This score would have been even higher had the buck not broken off its left main beam, but it was still enough to edge out the previous record holder, Samuel Beatty, by a half-inch. (The scarcity of New Mexico whitetails is so extreme that B&C doesn’t maintain non-typical records in the state even though the first two record-book whitetails were 6-by-5s.)
Read Next: The True Backstory on Why the Mitch Rompola Buck Was Never Entered as a World Record
This is usually the moment where the hunting media frenzy hoists Harlan in the air and celebrates his success. But that didn’t happen in February 2022, when the drying period would have ended and the record would have changed hands. In fact, not many people really knew about the buck until North American Whitetails published the first known article about Harlan’s hunt on July 17, roughly 17 months after the drying period ended.
It’s unclear why it took so long for the story of Harlan’s buck to surface. As of right now, NMGF hasn’t updated the record book on its website. (NMGF didn’t immediately respond to OL’s requests for comment.) But Harlan’s name and scoresheet now reside in the B&C book at the top of the New Mexico records, right where they belong.
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Best for Hunting
Browning Citori Hunter Grade I
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Best for Clays
Browning Citori 725 Sporting
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Best for Gun Collectors
Browning Citori High Grade 50th Anniversary
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There are more than 100 different models of the Browning Citori. The over/under shotgun debuted in the early 1970s as a more affordable option to John Moses Browning’s final firearm design, the Browning Superposed. The Citori is the most successful over/under in American history with more than 2 million sold. The sheer number of variants makes choosing the best Browning Citori a complicated task. Because when you get down to it, just about every Citori is the same. They are all built on the same boxlock action, though some are lighter or heavier than others. Some have longer or shorter barrels and some have ported barrels. Most older models have fixed chokes and modern ones have screw-in chokes. You get the idea.
However, a select few Citoris do stand out above the rest. On paper, these shotguns only have slight differences when compared to the many models Browning has produced over the last 50-plus years. But veteran hunters and clay shooters know that small refinements to a shotgun can result in improved accuracy. So those differences aren’t so slight to those of us with a keen eye. And, if you’re a gun collector, the craftsmanship, ornate engravings on the receiver, and polish of the high-grade walnut may draw more appeal. This year Browning is celebrating 50 years of the Citori with two new models that are vastly different: a high-grade special edition and a workaday composite version. No matter what features you find most desirable in an over/under, there’s likely a Citori made to your liking.
Best for Hunting: Browning Citori Hunter Grade I
Best Field Model: Browning Citori Feather Lightning
Best for Clays: Browning Citori 725 Sporting
Best Hunting/Clays Crossover: Browning Citori CX
Best for Gun Collectors: Browning Citori High Grade 50th Anniversary
Browning Citori Composite
How I Picked the Best Browning Citoris
There are a wide variety of Citori shotguns designed for hunting and clays shooting. Joe Genzel
I’ll admit that I have not shot every Citori variant in existence, but I have handled many of them, both in the field and on the skeet range. Much like every other shotgun line in history, there has been an evolution of the Citori since it was introduced in the early 1970s. For instance, today’s 725 series is a step above the older 425, 525, and 625 models in fit, finish, and overall shootability. The same can be said for the Hunter lineup of Citoris.
Over time, the engineers at Browning and the Miroku factory in Japan where the guns are made, have improved the Citori’s functionality and aesthetic beauty. That’s why many of the modern versions of this gun are best—though an “old” or pre-owned Citori is not a poor choice. They are all fine shotguns that shoot straight, and rarely break down, but only a handful are among the best Citoris.
Best for Hunting: Browning Citori Hunter Grade I
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Key Features
Gauge: 12, 20, 28, .410
Action: Boxlock O/U
Capacity: Two
Chamber: 3-inch; 2 -inch (28-gauge only)
Barrel Type: Chrome-lined steel
Barrel Length: 26 or 28 inches
Chokes: IC, M, F (Invector-Plus: 12- and 20-gauge; Invector: 28-gauge and .410)
Sights: Silver bead front
LOP: 14¼ inches
Weight: 6 pounds, 14 ounces to 7 pounds, 11 ounces
Cost: $2,180 to $2,250
Pros
The Citori Hunter Grade I 12-gauge retails for less than $1,900, making it one of the best over/under shotguns on the market for the money.
Cons
It’s a fairly standard break-action shotgun with no engraving on the receiver.
Because of its ease of use, reliability, and low cost, this Citori is often the O/U many American hunters start with. For a do-all break-action shotgun, you’re not going to find a better option than the Hunter.
It’s available in four gauges—12, 20, 28, and .410-bore (26- or 28-inch barrels)—and can be used for just about any kind of small game or bird hunting pursuit. I had an older model of the Hunter more than a decade ago and killed everything from squirrels to Canada geese with it, though I would not suggest regularly shooting 3-inch, 1⅝-ounce waterfowl loads through any Citori—the recoil will rattle you to the bone.
It’s not uncommon to see turkey hunters in the woods with the 12- and 20-gauge or even .410-bore (where legal). Turkey payloads are stout and can punish your shoulder, but you’re only shooting once (hopefully). The Hunter also delivers an even 50/50 pattern from either barrel—ideal for connecting on a longbeard, or any game for that matter. The only thing that ended up separating me from my first Citori was its weight. The 12-gauge is nearly 8 pounds, and after one too many long slogs chasing rabbits through a muddy field, I ended up selling it and bought an Italian-made 20-gauge auto-loader.
Best Field Model: Browning Citori Feather Lightning
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Key Features
Gauge: 12, 20
Action: Boxlock O/U
Capacity: Two
Chamber: 3-inch
Barrel Type: Chrome-lined steel
Barrel Length: 26 or 28 inches
Chokes: Invector Plus (IC, M, F)
Sights: Silver bead front
LOP: 14¼ inches
Weight: 5 pounds, 13 ounces to 7 pounds, 2 ounces
Cost: $3,180
Pros
Lightweight alloy receiver takes almost a full pound out of the 12-gauge Feather Lightning in comparison to the Hunter Grade I, making it more manageable to carry afield.
Cons
A drop in shotgun weight can have a negative effect on accuracy, and you will certainly experience more felt recoil.
When I ditched the 12-gauge Citori Hunter because of its weight, I wish I would have considered the Feather Lightning before making the transition to a 20-gauge autoloader. In fact, the 26-inch barrel, 20-gauge version of the Feather Lightning weighs less (5 pounds, 13 ounces) than any shotgun in my safe that’s not a .410. It’s true that a lighter shotgun can be difficult to shoot because less weight makes it harder to hold steady on stationary targets or maintain your swing on moving targets. But since most Citoris are barrel-heavy (this one included) there will be less of an adjustment for hunters transitioning from an 8-pound over/under to the Feather Lightning. Plus a 6-pound gun is far more enjoyable to carry.
Browning kept the weight down by building this Citori variant with an alloy receiver, though the breech face and hinge pin are both steel. The receiver has intricate floral engraving on each side, plus the oil finished American walnut is of a higher grade (III/IV) than that on the Hunter. Polished, blued barrels are available in 26 or 28 inches with IC, M, and F extended Invector Plus chokes.
Like all Citori 20 and 12 gauges, the Feather Lightning was designed with Browning’s Total Barrel Dynamics. This includes their Vector Pro process, which is a gradual tapering of the forcing cones into the barrel that compliment Invector Plus and DS chokes. The barrels are also overbored, a process that enlarges the bore to its maximum diameter, which can result in improved patterns. In fact, after extensive testing, Field & Stream Shooting Editor Bob Brister—one of the best live pigeon shots of all time—had many of his shotguns overbored for this very reason.
Best for Clays: Browning Citori 725 Sporting
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Key Features
Gauge: 12, 20, 28, .410
Action: Boxlock O/U
Capacity: Two
Chamber: 3-inch; 2¾-inch (28-gauge only)
Barrel Type: Chrome-lined steel
Barrel Length: 30 or 32 inches
Chokes: Extended SK, IC, M, IM, F (Invector DS: 12- and 20-gauge; Invector: 28-gauge and .410)
Sights: HivViz Pro Comp front sight
LOP: 14¾ inches
Weight: 7 pounds, 5 ounces to 7 pounds, 10 unces
Cost: $3,530 to $3,600
Pros
Browning’s premium Invector DS chokes are available in the 12- and 20-gauge.
Cons
No system to add or remove weight from the gun and alter its overall balance.
The 725 lineup is its own branch of the Browning Citori series. Offered in a myriad of field, clays, and trap models, the 725s are built with a lower profile receiver than other Citoris to make target acquisition easier on the shooter. If I were to buy a Citori today it would be a 725, but not because of the sight picture it offers. They are simply less cumbersome shotguns that swing exactly how you want them to. The other Citoris are a bit blocky, and though they are not a burden to handle, the feel of the 725s suits me better. You may find the opposite to be true. Each shooter has different preferences, after all.
With the 725, you also get top-of-the-line Invector DS (double seal) chokes. The goal of the DS system is to ensure that propellant gasses from the shotshell exit through the choke only, and don’t intrude between the choke and barrel wall. This design makes it easier to remove the choke for cleaning. They also have a larger pattern difference than competitors’ chokes as you move from one constriction to another, according to Browning. I can’t confirm that claim, but I have seen DS chokes perform well on the pattern board.
During our best duck hunting shotgun test, the Browning A5, which uses DS chokes, placed 116 of a possible 140 steel No. 2s (82 percent) inside a 30-inch target from 35 yards, one of the best results of the week. Browning incorporated a mechanical trigger into the 725s as well so if the first shot does not go off the second round can still be fired, giving you a chance to break the target.
Best Hunting/Clays Crossover: Browning Citori CX
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Key Features
Gauge: 12
Action: Boxlock O/U
Capacity: Two
Chamber: 3-inch
Barrel Type: Chrome-lined steel
Barrel Length: 28, 30, or 32 inches
Chokes: Extended Invector-Plus (IC, M, F)
Sights: Mid bead, Ivory bead front sight
LOP: 14¼ inches
Weight: 8 pounds, 1 ounce to 8 pounds, 5 ounces
Cost: $2,480
Pros
The Citori CX is designed for hunters who also shoot clays, but don’t want to spend the extra money on a dedicated clays gun.
Cons
If you choose the 32-inch barrels, this gun weighs 8.5 pounds unloaded. That’s a lot of wood and steel to carry afield.
Truthfully, just about any over/under can serve as a dual-purpose clays and hunting shotgun, but the Citori CX was designed specifically for those who enjoy both pursuits. It’s a heavy break-action, tipping the scales at over 8 pounds. That’s good for clays but not many of us want to lug that much weight during a long day in the field. Luckily, the gun is well balanced, so it’s not as much of a burden to haul around the uplands. Just don’t go chasing mountain chukar with the CX unless you’re built like Paul Bunyan.
Browning’s Triple Trigger system (found on many modern Citoris) allows you to choose from three different trigger shoe profiles to find a comfortable position. There are also three extended Invector-Plus chokes (IC, M, F) though it would be nice if Browning added SK and IM as standard since this is a gun for clays and hunting. For instance, shooting skeet with an IC and M choke is not ideal, and there are times an IM tube would be handy for late-season roosters or Canada geese. Browning does sell its chokes separately, so you can pay a little extra, for additional chokes. Lengthened forcing cones and back-bored barrels are also included in the CX.
Best for Gun Collectors: Browning Citori High Grade 50th Anniversary
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Key Features
Gauge: 12
Action: Boxlock O/U
Capacity: Two
Chamber: 3-inch
Barrel Type: Chrome-lined steel
Barrel Length: 30 or 32 inches
Chokes: Extended Invector Plus (SK, IC, M, IM, F)
Sights: Ivory mid-bead, HivViz Pro Comp front
LOP: 14¾ inches
Weight: 7 pounds, 15 ounces-8 pounds, 1 ounce
Cost: $8,400
Pros
Extensive receiver engraving, plus grade IV Turkish walnut stock and fore-end with gloss oil finish.
Cons
Inertia trigger. When you’re paying over $8,000 for a break-action it would be nice to have a mechanical trigger.
If your passion is shooting beautiful shotguns, then the Citori High Grade 50th anniversary edition is the perfect choice. Unlike standard Citoris, this over/under features a Turkish walnut stock, that includes a nameplate inlay for the owner’s initials, and fore-end (most Citoris use American walnut). The floral engraving on the silver nitrate steel receiver also features a gold “50 Years 1973-2023” inlay on the underside of the receiver. There is more floral engraving work on the trigger guard and fore-end release latch.
Every upgrade that Browning offers in the Citori—with the exception of mechanical triggers and an adjustable comb—is built into the 50th anniversary edition. Barrels, available in 30- or 32-inch options, are back bored and Browning used its Vector Pro forcing cone lengthening process to optimize patterns downrange. Longer forcing cones gently transition shotshell pellets as they travel from the chamber through the barrel and exit the muzzle so that they experience less deformation. Only a few hundred of the 50th anniversary Citoris are being made at the Miroku factory in Japan. The gun comes in a felt-lined hard case.
Browning Citori Composite
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Key Features
Gauge: 12
Action: Boxlock O/U
Capacity: Two
Chamber: 3-inch
Barrel Type: Chrome-lined steel
Barrel Length: 26, 28 or 30 inches
Chokes: Invector Plus flush (IC, M, F)
Sights: Ivory bead
LOP: 14¾ inches
Weight: 7 pounds, 4 ounces
Cost: $2,200
Pros
Adjustable stock and durable synthetic finish
Cons
Hard plastic cheek pad has a bit of bite
The trigger breaks consistently around 3 pounds, 2 ounces. Alex Robinson
Folks who fancy the Citori High Grade should probably avert their eyes from the Citori Composite, which was introduced new in 2023. But then again, the Citori Composite is not designed for traditionalists. Its sleek, all-black appearance and composite stock were designed for shooters who prefer the look of synthetic shotguns over the classic walnut.
While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the Citori Composite does have some performance features that merit a close look. First, the stock is adjustable for comb height. You do so by simply loosening a nut in the recoil pad and then adjusting the cheek piece to your liking. It adjusts up and down, and also left and right. The only downside is that the cheek piece is made of hard plastic which has some bite when shooting heavier game loads. If you’ve already got a synthetic stock, why not make it one that’s soft on the cheek?
Happily, the Composite is slimmer and lighter than many of its Citori cousins. Compared to my Citori CXS, my Composite test model was more than a quarter-pound lighter and the fore-end was about 25 percent slimmer when measured with calipers. The grip and section of the fore-end where you place your lead hand are finished with grippy rubber, so the gun doesn’t feel slippery even when wet. The trigger was excellent by shotgun standards, breaking consistently at about 3 pounds, 2 ounces. The slimming down of the Citori composite was noticeable while handling and shooting the shotgun. It felt light and lively on the skeet range and I would have been happy to carry it in a pheasant field—even if it would have raised eyebrows among my traditionalist hunting partners. —Alex Robinson
History of the Browning Citori
The Browning Citori Composite sits above the Citori CXS. Alex Robinson
Production costs doomed many of the well-made shotguns our fathers and grandfathers grew up shooting. Such was the case with the Browning Superposed. By 1970, a new Belgian-made Superposed cost $750 (more than $5,500 today). The Japanese Citori, which was never meant to replace the Superposed, but eventually did, retailed for $325 when it came to market in 1973. There are many differences (and similarities) between the two over/unders, but the one that really matters is that the Citori is not a handmade shotgun like the Superposed. There is some hand fitting of parts done at the factory, and according to Browning it can take four months to build a Citori, but the machine work at Miroku cut down on labor costs. That allowed Browning to sell the Citori at a price more hunters could afford.
Unlike the Superposed, the Citori is available in every legal gauge but 10, though not every variant will have every option. The receiver is cut from a solid steel block, and the boxlock action pivots on a single hinge pin that locks into an underlug and bolt. Citioris can be fit to individual shooters by using spacers at the end of the buttstock. The new Composite and several sporting models feature an adjustable comb as well.
Early versions of the gun were offered in fixed choke models only, but that changed in the late 1980s and into the early 1990s when Invector-Plus screw-in chokes became standard, making the Citori a more versatile shotgun. The single-selective trigger was carried over from the Superposed to the Citori. In fact, most double-barrel shotguns were built with double triggers until the Superposed came along. Most Citori triggers are inertia-driven, so they require recoil from the first shot to reset, before a followup can be fired.
FAQs
Q: Is the Citori a better buy than the Superposed?
Citoris are so widely available and affordable, that they are a better buy for most hunters and shooters. But even the best Citori is not as valuable (I’m not talking about price here, but the legacy and quality behind John Browning’s last shotgun) or well-made as a Superposed. So it all depends on what you are after. If you are looking for a moderately-priced over/under to take afield or to the range, then the Citori is a fine option. Those who want to spend a little more (you can find a used Superposed in pristine condition for around $5,000) and like the idea of having a gun that was designed by a shooting icon in their hands, will prefer the Superposed.
Q: Has Browning ever tried to replace the Citori?
Citori loyalists worried that the shotgun would be discontinued in the early 2000s when Browninging debuted the Cynergy, another over/under that costs slightly less than most Citoris. But the Cynergy has essentially become Browning’s composite over/under lineup that caters to turkey and waterfowl hunters. They have adjustable combs and come in a variety of camouflage and Cerakote finishes, though there is one wood and steel model—the Cynergy CX—in production. With over 2 million Citoris sold and counting, I doubt you will see the Citori dropped from the lineup anytime soon.
Q: What is the meaning of the word Citori?
The word Citori actually has no meaning. It was conjured up by former Browning president Harmon G. Williams in the early 1970s during a staff meeting. When he said the name “Citori,” someone asked, “What does it mean?” He responded, “I don’t know. The name just popped into my head.” No one objected, and it stuck.
Final Thoughts on the Browning Citori
The longevity of the Browning Citori is remarkable when you consider the number of low cost Turkish-made over/unders that have flooded the market in recent years. There are now several manufacturers importing these shotguns into the U.S. But Browning has stayed on top by continuing to build a price-point break-action for more than 50 years that has few equals in terms of value. Those who choose to buy a Citori get more than a CNC-cut, assembly line shotgun. It’s an over/under that still has many components that are hand-fitted. There’s not many over/unders on the market (only Fausti’s Caledon comes to mind) that you can find for around $2,000 that can say that.
