Dick Metcalf, the Group Technical Editor for Intermedia Outdoors, publisher of Petersen's Hunting and Guns & Ammo as well as several other shooting and hunting magazines, sent us a head's-up that the forthcoming May/June edition of Petersen's Hunting would coincidentally feature an article entitled "Hunting with AR Rifles" dealing factually with what had unexpectedly become an extremely controversial topic.

"It was on its way to press before all this happened," Metcalf said, "and was originally intended for those hunters - and writers - who it is now apparent share Jim Zumbo's basic opinion. They were the primary intended audience for the article; which is now, perhaps, a day late and a dollar short."

Indeed, if it had appeared just two issues earlier, it might have prevented one of the great career meltdowns in journalism.

From that correspondence with Metcalf, an unprecedented arrangement between Intermedia and our services has emerged. We believe Metcalf's dispassionate and knowledgeable examination of AR-style rifle hunting demands immediate distribution.

This feature appears in both Friday editions of both The Outdoor and Shooting Wires with the aim of cooling the inaccurate rhetoric still being exchanged between two groups that should be moving in lockstep: shooters and hunters.