I’ve bird hunted for almost a decade. I know it’s not that long for some of the “seasoned”,to put it nicely, hunters but it has been a journey turning into great passion. And for that I have to thank few folks at CZ-USA for introducing me to this wonderful way of spending time with a shotgun. Our first hunt together was for chukkars in Idaho’s Hell’s Canyon.

I’ve put many different species of upland birds in my vest over the years but the desert quail tops it every time. The birds are beautiful,fast,smart,tough and wise as we found out the last weekend of Arizona season. read more »

The state of Wyoming is well known for its big game and trophy hunting. We’ve all seen tv shows and articles about the big bull elk hunt, mule deer buck, pronghorn or some trophy animal like mountain lion or bear.
Very few people ever think about coming to Wyoming, especially the western part, to just hunt birds. Some of my friends will probably give me hard time now that I’m exposing our “neighborhood” to out of state hunters. I’m not worried about the out of state hunters having too much impact on our birds. It is just too hard of a bird hunt only very few will enjoy and even less will come back.

Wyoming has three species of grouse.
Ruffed grouse in the mountains and forests, blue (also called dusky) higher up in the mountains and sage grouse spread throughout the state in the vast sage brush covered space.

This past hunting season(actually still ongoing) the weather played significant role. We had heavy snowpack last winter that melted gradually throughout the summer. There was really no rain to speak of. By the early to mid August all the snow was gone, even in the backcountry and the high mountains. The creeks, streams and rivers slowed down their flow significantly. Great time for fishing but I don’t fish. read more »

We are all living in a different world today. It’s always changing but the latest changes like cancellations, restrictions, lockdowns etc. because of the virus sped up this process to a level of change that has not been seen in a long time, if ever.
The events where people could try CZ shotguns were initially postponed then cancelled altogether. I absolutely love going to these events and representing on behalf of CZ-USA. You not only get the shotguns into hands of people who, sometimes, never heard of the world renowned firearm manufacturer before, but most importantly you meet and talk to so many people from all around the country.

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As our republic is thriving under president Trump’s leadership the “opposition” also known as the Democratic Party is trying figure out who the best candidate to defeat the president is. They all want to change everything or basically just oppose everything president Trump is doing. Oppose what? Historically low unemployment amongst minorities, booming economy, rising wages, strong foreign policy statements against terrorism and rogue nations like Iran. Yes there is more to be done, always will be, most importantly finishing buildings the border wall so we can finally start working towards new immigration policy. By the way I am an immigrant and I am pro immigration but there has to be physical barrier on our southern border to be able to have functioning immigration policy. And many years from today there might be necessity to have physical barrier on our northern border as well. The world is always changing and our security needs should be changing with the world. But I digress. Immigration is not where I wanted to make my point today. read more »

The year 2019 brought two great anniversaries to my mind. 50 years since Czechoslovakia defeated Soviet Union twice in the same hockey world championship only few months after the Soviet reoccupation. 30 year anniversary of the so called “Iron Curtain” coming down partially due to the events in 1968 that led to the invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia.

The initial idea was to write and reflect on the bird season I have had this fall but while visiting friends in Florida for Thanksgiving my inspiration for the blog changed. Thanksgiving 2019 was full of admiration, appreciation and recognition of the real life heroes who sacrificed for us young people and young hockey player so much. Twenty years after their heroics in 1969 the world changed for most of communist Eastern Europe and us forever. read more »

This year’s Fourth of July was quiet and less exciting than we’ve had last few years. It was with us all. We stayed home, no travel, no horse competitions, no hockey camps to attend or anything like that. I actually prefer it this way but life and responsibilities usually do not take calendar into the account. We spent the day and the long weekend just staying home and working on our little horse farm in beautiful northwestern Wyoming. read more »

Finally, the time has come to reflect on my experiences throughout the last hockey season. I feel very fortunate to be able to help, mentor and teach hockey youths in the States and abroad. It was my second season with Jackson Hole high school team as an assistant coach and my first as a head coach with the Israeli national teams. I was given great opportunity to oversee and coach their national hockey program. Tremendous honor it is. I ended up traveling far more than I’ve traveled in many years but the experiences I had were all worth it. read more »

This piece was initiated the moment I finished reading the article about the latest workplace murder in Illinois. There is so much political “noise” generated after each and every shooting. Nobody takes time to learn the facts, the story behind what happened. Everyone(including the Republican Party officials) just use the moment of spotlight on guns and Second Amendment to grandstand and score some political points.

I always expect it from the Democratic Party whose sole agenda is to grab more power for them selves. They have no principals, they have nobody’s interests in mind other than the party itself. There is so many radicals in their midst at this point the common sense democrat is being squeezed out.

You can say that about the Republican Party as well but at least we have moral and philosophical values that guide through the difficult times. At least most of us do. read more »

Here we are again in December and I have few more great memories to share. I always look forward to the end of the summer for couple reasons. College football season starts and with that comes time to chase some birds. This year was quite hectic but I made sure there was enough time to get out and bird hunt.
Bird hunting for me is not only the number of birds you end up with in your vest but it’s an opportunity to roam through steep and sometime very snowy mountains of western Wyoming.
This year was no different. read more »