Some outdoors gadgets simply miss the mark

Every once in a while you see something that just makes you shrug your shoulders, raise your eyebrows and ask, ”What were they thinking?”

Oftentimes, such scenes are replayed on video segments titled ”Dumb Criminals” or ”Scarred,” but sometimes you’re not quite sure where they belong. Such is the case with a couple of products whose information was forwarded to me. One is the Go 2 Gobbler turkey decoy, and the other is the new Ranch Hand lever-action pistol by Rossi.

I’m still a neophyte when it comes to turkey hunting, but with its ground-dragging beard and imitation fan, the Go 2 Gobbler looks as if it would attract a mature tom within shooting distance. Marketing materials tout the decoy as ”the most innovative and versatile turkey decoy on the market. … It will certainly go down in history as the decoy which changed the way turkey hunters attack ‘henned up and call shy’ Toms.”

It might be innovative and versatile, but the Go 2 Gobbler might also bag something other than wild turkeys.

Consider the instructions that direct a hunter who is having trouble coaxing a nervous gobbler into shooting range to ”simply clamp the Go 2 Gobbler to the end of your gun or bow, crouch down low behind it and move slowly to the gobbler. Anything can happen as you move toward the bird.” I suspect it could.

After reading these instructions, I envisioned the decoy perched on the end of my shotgun just a couple of feet from my camouflaged head and torso. Then I remembered the most common spring turkey hunting accident involves a victim who is mistaken for a turkey.

Wallhanger Outdoor Products, LLC, maker of the Go 2 Gobbler, does warn customers to make sure there are no other hunters in the area when holding or moving its innovative decoy, but because I am not ready to appear in a turkey hunting edition of ”Scarred,” the decoy won’t be perching on my shotgun anytime soon.

As for the Ranch Hand lever-action pistol, no matter how long I stare at photos of this new firearm, I can’t help but think it looks an awful lot like a lever-action rifle with a cut down butt stock and an extremely short barrel rather than a handgun.

In fact, the only resemblance this firearm has to a pistol is found in the available cartridge offerings — .38/.357, .45 Colt and .44 Magnum.

Making a rifle chambered for these cartridges is a good idea, but cutting down the barrel and buttstock, then calling it a pistol, probably isn’t. With its 12-inch barrel, the Ranch Hand measures just 24 inches in length. While I am unfamiliar with the firearms statutes in other states, Nevada’s is pretty clear when it says ”a person who knowingly or willfully possesses … any short-barreled rifle … is guilty of a category D felony and shall be punished.” (NRS 202.275).

The same statute defines a short-barreled rifle as one having a barrel less than 16 inches in length or ”Any weapon made from a rifle, whether by alteration, modification or other means, with an overall length of less than 26 inches.” Though there is an exception for licensed collectors and importers, it looks to me like the average Nevada resident who owns this firearm probably could be tagged out.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His “In the Outdoors” column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at intheoutdoorslv@gmail.com.