Wisconsin man gets 4.5 years in prison for assaulting game warden 🧑‍⚖️

I’m currently at the “it’s Thursday already?” phase of the workweek and am unsure as to whether or not that is a good thing as of yet. For those of you who have also made it through, a pat on the back is deserved.

With that in mind, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get this Thursday morning dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about today:

• Off to prison - Wisconsin man sentenced after brutal assault on game warden 👊

• Mammoth find - Texas deer hunter unearths prehistoric find 🦣

• Gun bill likely to pass - Colorado’s amended semi-auto bill is on its way 🔫

• The transporter - Alaskan transporter nailed for illegal bear hunts/transports 🚛

• Hot tubbin’ - With my neighborly cougar 😯

THE LINE OF FIRE
WISCONSIN MAN GETS 4.5 YEARS IN PRISON FOR VIOLENTLY ASSAULTING GAME WARDEN

’s no secret that our men and women in law enforcement are constantly in the line of fire and there is no exception to our state game wardens either. In a case wrapping up after over 20 months of waiting, a Wisconsin man that viciously assaulted a game warden is heading to prison.

In July 2022, a seemingly routine traffic stop in northern Wisconsin escalated into a violent and life-threatening assault on a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) warden, who remains unnamed to protect his identity. The incident began when the warden, who was patrolling alone, observed two Utility Terrain Vehicles (UTVs) traveling at 47 mph in a posted 25 mph zone. He initiated a traffic stop, pulling over the UTVs.

According to a criminal complaint by the state Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation, the driver of one of the UTVs was identified as the daughter of the accused, Mark A. Szczerba II. Upon approaching the daughter’s vehicle and asking for identification,  the warden noted that an annoyed Szczerba aggressively positioned his UTV between his daughter and the warden. In an attempt to diffuse a situation that the warden could see was becoming contentious, the warden explained why he had pulled over the vehicles and asked for Szczerba’s driver’s license. While he did produce his license, when asked to move his vehicle from the roadway, Szczerba suddenly turned violent…

🦣 Deer hunter unearths prehistoric mammoth tusk on Texas ranch. Well, some days on the deer stand are definitely more productive than others and one Texas deer hunter provided proof to that statement after stumbling upon a prehistoric find. Noticing something peculiar sticking out of a dry creek bed, the hunter turned his attention away from whitetails and instead to what he believed to be a large white fossil.

Recognizing the potential significance of the find, the hunter promptly contacted researchers from Sul Ross State University. A team of paleontologists and archaeologists from the university swiftly responded to the call, visiting the site to confirm the authenticity of the find. The sheer size and distinctive curvature of the tusk left no doubt in their minds — it was indeed a relic of a long-extinct mammoth. With utmost care, the team excavated the tusk and transported it to the university's campus for further analysis.

The unexpected discovery has generated considerable excitement among the scientific community as these tusks are traditionally found in more northern locales, far from the arid conditions of west Texas. The tusk is now being carbon dated by the team with hopes of revealing more information about the history of mammoths in Texas, particularly in the Trans-Pecos region.

🔫 Colorado Gun Control Bill Advances with Permit-to-Purchase Amendment. In what is looking like a bill that will require gun owners to obtain a permit to purchase semi-auto firearms, it is now headed to the House of Representatives for its first committee vote.

Colorado Senate Bill 3, which would restrict the sale of semi-automatic firearms with detachable magazines, appears more likely to pass now that a permit-to-purchase amendment has been added. The original version of SB3 would have banned the manufacture, sale, purchase, and transfer of semi-auto rifles and shotguns with detachable magazines, as well as gas-operated semi-auto handguns with detachable magazines, within Colorado. It also would have prohibited the purchase and sale of certain after-market accessories that increase a semi-auto’s rate of fire.

The amended bill now requires buyers to be vetted by a local sheriff, including criminal background checks, and obtain a firearms safety course eligibility card. Buyers would then need to complete either a hunter safety course and a new firearms safety course (to be managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife) or an as-yet-undefined 12-hour firearms safety course. Despite Gov. Polis showing skepticism towards the original version of the bill, the amended version is expected to pass the Democrat-heavy Colorado House with flying colors. If passed, the legislation will be signed into law by September 2025.

🚛 Alaskan transporter nailed for illegally killed black bears.  Homer, Alaska-based big game transporter, Travis Larson, has been sentenced to five years' probation, along with a $40,000 fine, $2,400 restitution, and a $150,000 forfeiture, for his role in the illegal hunting and transportation of black bears. 

Larson, 49, who has been a licensed transporter since 2010, ran his company, Alaska Premier Sportfishing LLC, to offer multi-day hunting trips, including black bear hunts with a price tag of $3,500 per hunter. According to reports, in May of 2018, Larson transported foreign hunters who illegally killed black bears in the Nuka Bay and Beauty Bay areas without  being accompanied by a licensed guide and by killing the bears on state and Alaska Native Corporation land.  Larson then transported the illegally harvested bears to Homer, where they would later be moved across the state and internationally.

In October 2024, Larson pleaded guilty to four counts of violating the Lacey Act, which covers illegal wildlife transport. As part of his sentence, he is also prohibited from hunting and providing big game commercial services during his probation.

U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman emphasized that “Mr. Larson’s actions put profit over the law and will cost him dearly, as he’s now banned from the industry and will face significant fines.” 

🛁 Watch as this mountain lion crashes the party in a BC backyard. You’re finally chilled out after a long day at the office and a mountain lion decides he wants to join you out in the hot tub.

⛺️ Chasing the Wait: It was one of those nights—quiet, almost too quiet. The kind of silence that wraps around you and pulls at something deep inside, like a memory you can’t quite catch. The fire was low, the coals just barely glowing red beneath the ash, and I found myself staring at them like they held some kind of answer. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn’t. I’ve spent too many nights like this to count, lost somewhere between the crackle of the fire and the memories that come unbidden when the world around you finally shuts up for a minute.

We’d been in the bush for three days. A simple hunt, or so it had seemed. Just me, a good friend, and our guide—a local who could tell the age of an elephant by the way it bent the grass when it walked. I wish I could remember his name. There was a time when I could recall every name, every face, but these days … well, let’s just say my mind has become more of a sieve than a steel trap. Read the full story.

🦆 A Lesson in Courage: There is an island I used to hunt. Through the blurry eyes of aging memory, I can still see its scrubby willows leaning sideways in a stout west wind, smell its pungent, algae-covered boulders, hear the unrelenting waves pounding its banks. A half-mile into Lake Michigan, obscured in the kind of gray gloom that often accompanied my early morning adventures, the island always enticed me to break free from the sandy shore and everything else that kept me safe and protected. I cherished that place. It's where I cut my teeth and formed my identity as a waterfowler.

When you're a budding hunter growing up in the sprawling suburbs of a larger city, it seems like it takes forever to escape the traffic lights to go duck hunting. I made it work by cutting class and faking sick notes, aided by my ex-schoolteacher father, who had done the same in his day and understood that his son was a lot like him.  Read the full story.

🐂 Life After the Ride:  It was 2005, and 18-year-old bull rider J.B. Mauney couldn’t shake the feeling that something was growing inside him. He knew the pain’s origins, of course. The previous night, at an event in Raleigh, North Carolina, a bucking bull weighing roughly 1,500 pounds (give or take a couple hundred) had stomped on Mauney’s chest. Yet as recounted by Sports Illustrated, Mauney made the kind of decision that has cemented his status as the GOAT and the epitome of cowboy grit: He didn’t go to the hospital; he just went home.

There are many Mauney stories like this. At a time when bull riders meditate and do yoga, these tales — which all ring true when you meet the chain-smoking, rail-thin, real deal in the flesh — are at once nostalgic and aspirational. The young Mauney did eventually go to the hospital, because even the toughest cowboys can’t survive long with a lacerated liver. Read the full story.

Oh, and one more thing…