Outdoor notes (OK, a few days late)

Ohio is losing its top wildlife biologist though Montana is going to gain a new fish and wildlife chief.

Leaving as the Ohio Division of Wildlife's wildlife administrator is Dave Risley who will become the newest chief of the Montana Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Risley's been with the Wildlife Division for heaven only knows how many years and brought a human face and dry humor to an agency badly in need of both.

SAY IT AIN'T SO - Rats, just as I own two Knight muzzle-loading rifles comes word that after 24 years Modern Muzzleloader/Knight Rifles has gone belly up. This firm was the spear point in the in-line muzzle-loading design movement but fell victim to the decline in the economy.

Parent company Pradco could not find a buyer for either the company or the product line and so there will no longer be any more Knight rifles. That includes my .45-cal. model and my recently purchased .50-cal. Long-range Hunter that is supposed (or was) the most accurate production in-line muzzle-loader.

Even though Pradco promises that it will still provide gunsmithing and repair services along with accessories, I am afraid that I'll have to go out and buy the necessary primer holders and horde them. Either that or I'll have to sell one of the rifles (the Long-range model likely) at a fire-sale price.

PYTHON POSSE - That's what Florida is calling for in an attempt to combat the highly invasive and dangerous explosion of Burmese pythons - one of which killed a toddler only a couple of weeks ago.

It seems that once the pet pythons grew too large that pet owners released them into the Everglades. The critters took hold, bred and the population rapidly expanding and now numbers in the thousands. This expansion has threatened native predators - including alligators - as well as prey such as wild hogs, 'gators, deer, and smaller mammals.

The concern is too that the species will spread further north. As a result, Florida has authorized posses to round-up the pythons, offering a bounty on them.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@N-ews-Herald.com