Las Vegas, NV - Ted Nugent, producer and host of Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild was honored by Outdoor Channel January 20 during the Golden Moose Awards. In recognition of his tireless contributions in promoting the outdoor lifestyle, Nugent received the first ever Lightning Rod Award In presenting the award, Outdoor Channel's Chief Operating Officer, Tom Hornish, stated that Nugent is "on the radio or TV on a near daily basis promoting hunting and the outdoors to the entire nation. And he's not afraid of a little controversy!"Nugent responded, "I could not be more proud to stand up for what's right and good and ultimately be acknowledged for doing so by my great Outdoor Channel team. I shall increase the heat nonstop!" This year's GMA reception was held at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas as part of the National Shooting Sports Foundation's annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show and Conference (SHOT Show.) As the most popular and longstanding outdoor television awards extravaganza in the country, the GMA's honor producers and on-air talent from Outdoor Channel's industry-leading programming.     Rocker Ted Nugent promotes hunting lifestyle By TOM WHARTON The Salt Lake Tribune First published Feb 02 2011 07:04PMUpdated 5 hours ago Updated Feb 3, 2011 12:13AM Veteran rocker, outdoor writer and hunting show host Ted Nugent defies the stereotypes of a rock ’n’ roll star. He doesn’t do drugs, is conservative and is an avid advocate of gun rights and hunting. “I don’t play games,” said the 62-year-old Nugent in an interview from his Texas home. “I promote and celebrate hunting, fishing, trapping and the Second Amendment. If I drive my critics batty, it’s just a bonus. And doing the right thing drives them batty. If you are not making a--holes angry, you are an a--hole.” Nugent will be giving a bowhunting clinic, signing books and speaking at the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo, which opens Thursday at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center for a four-day run. The event features more than 500 guides, outfitters and manufacturers as well as conservation auctions to raise money for state agencies for habitat improvement and purchase. It is sponsored by Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife and the Mule Deer Foundation. Miles Moretti, head of the Mule Deer Foundation, said he expects about 30,000 people to attend. A record number of exhibitors have signed up, as well as record bids for some tags. “There is a lot of interest in the Antelope Island deer tag,” he said. “A lot of people want to be the first to hunt. There is big interest in the statewide deer tag in Utah and statewide tag in Arizona. It seems like mule deer are kind of the tags of the year. Our elk and sheep tags will go for good numbers.” Moretti said organizers invited Nugent because he is a popular figure within the hunting industry. “We brought him in purely as entertainment,” said Moretti. “He represents a lot of views that our members share. We thought he would be a good bet.” Nugent said he is participating in his 61st hunting season. After giving 65 concerts in 77 days in 2010, he dedicated the rest of the year to his pursuit of game and fish and said he has only missed five days afield since Sept. 6. He seems a perfect fit for the often politically active hunters who attend the annual Expo. In his “Spirit of the Wild” hunting show on The Outdoor Channel and his writing for more than two dozen sporting publications and Washingtontimes.com, the father of nine praises the contributions of hunters to the environment, blasts anti-hunters and defends the right to own firearms and carry a concealed weapon. He calls hunting “the last perfect positive force for a healthy, balanced, thriving environment” and says there are more deer, elk and mountain lions now than ever before. Nugent condemns what he calls the “curse of apathy” “Americans have just bent over for so long, so embarrassingly, to allow animal-rights people to have any say in anything,” he said. He is critical of sportsmen not involved in the game-management process at a political level. Nugent maintains that life is a lot like hunting because both pursuits rely on discipline. “For a good bowhunter to hit a damn bull’s-eye requires definitive discipline,” he said. “You cannot be disconnected from the mystical flight of the arrow. Great guitar playing, great parenting, great welding, discipline is the name of the game. ... I’ve been uninhibited and really adventurous, but not to the point to jump off the same cliff all those corpses did. There is a difference between adventure and stimulating creativity.” Nugent is on a roll creatively both as a host of a hunting show and as a rocker. The Outdoor Channel recently gave him its first ever Lightning Rod Award for his efforts in promoting the outdoor lifestyle. Nugent, who has sold some 30 million records, is hoping to get into the studio later this year to record new material.

ZEISS Wins Petersen’s Editor’s Choice Award with the TERRA 3X Riflescope   NORTH CHESTERFIELD, VA. (October 5, 2015) –   Carl Zeiss Sports Optics, the world's leading manufacturer of high performance sports optics, has won the 2015 Petersen’s Hunting Editor’s Choice Award for the Best Budget Riflescopes with the TERRA 3X 3-9x42 riflescope.   The editorial staff of Petersen’s Hunting magazine has recognized this riflescope for offering the highest quality, the most innovative design, and the best utility for today’s hunter. Petersen’s Hunting, published by InterMedia Outdoors, is one of the leading magazines for serious hunting enthusiasts in the United States.   “This is an incredible honor,” said Mike Jensen, President of Carl Zeiss Sports Optics. “Carl Zeiss Sport Optics has accomplished what no other premium optics manufacturer has ever done before: successfully launching a premium entry optics line that continues to win prestigious awards, and now this award from Petersen’s Hunting confirms that ZEISS is truly the leader high performance sports optics.   ” For the past five years, the editors at Petersen’s Hunting have turned their love for premium outdoor gear into the Editor’s Choice Awards. Best-in-class products that embody the ideal combination of quality, craftsmanship, ingenuity, and value are given these awards. Hundreds of products are thoroughly tested by staff writers and editors in real-world conditions. Where scientific measures can be used for quantifiable results, they are. Where they can’t, years of hunting experience and practical field knowledge become the yardstick.   About the Terra Line: TERRA 3X riflescopes offer all the benefits of German quality, design, engineering and performance that hunters from around the world expect from ZEISS. Starting at $388 MSRP, the ZEISS TERRA 3X riflescopes outperform many other brands by featuring best-in-class image quality, low profile ergonomics, durable construction, and are backed by Carl Zeiss’ U.S. Limited Lifetime transferable Warranty.   ZEISS TERRA 3X riflescopes are currently available in the following models:   TERRA 3X Riflescope                               Models: MSRP: TERRA 2-7x32 Z-Plex Reticle            $388.88 TERRA 3-9x42 Z-Plex Reticle                      $444.43 TERRA 3-9x42 RZ6 Ballistic Reticle              $511.10 TERRA 3-9x50 Z-Plex Reticle                      $511.10 TERRA 3-9x50 RZ6 Ballistic Reticle              $555.44 TERRA 4-12x42 Z-Plex Reticle                    $511.10 TERRA 4-12x42 RZ8 Ballistic Reticle           $555.44 TERRA 4-12x50 Z-Plex Reticle                    $555.54 TERRA 4-12x50 RZ8 Ballistic Reticle           $622.21   For more information on ZEISS’ award winning products, please visit us at www.zeiss.com/us/sports-optics or join us at facebook.com/CarlZeissHuntingUS. About the ZEISS Group ZEISS is an international leader in the fields of optics and optoelectronics. The more than 24,000 employees of ZEISS generated revenue of about 4.2 billion euros in fiscal year 2012/13. Founded in 1846 in Jena, the company is headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany. ZEISS has been contributing to technological progress for more than 160 years. ZEISS develops and produces solutions for the semiconductor, automotive and mechanical engineering industries, biomedical research and medical technology, as well as eyeglass lenses, camera and cine lenses, binoculars and planetariums. ZEISS is present in over 40 countries around the globe with more than 40 production facilities, around 50 sales and service locations and over 20 research and development sites. Carl Zeiss AG is fully owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation).

Prois introduces cutting edge technology in lady’s hunting gear by Mia Anstine I am anxious to try out Prois' new Intuition line I viewed at SHOT Show last week. It is a revolution in concealment technology for the lady hunter. "Prois launches the new HECS Intuition line. At ATA and SHOT Shows Prois launched their new Intuition line. They are the only US licensee of the HECS [...] Read more of this post Mia Anstine | January 26, 2012 at 6:50 am | Tags: HECS, Mia Anstine, Prois, SHOT Show 2012 | Categories: hunting, Ladies hunting, Prois, Women in the outdoors,Women's hunting gear | URL: http://wp.me/pRUwK-q6

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   BADLANDS OFFERS TWO CORE PACKS IN REALTREE AP® SNOW FOR A LIMITED TIME   West Jordan, UT – Badlands will release two of its core pack styles, the 2200 and the Superday, in Realtree AP® Snow Camo for a limited time and in limited quantities starting in September 2015.   “There is definitely a demand out there for snow camouflage for the Western, Midwest, and Eastern hunters. It’s been several years since we last did a snow camo release so we felt it was time to offer them up once again” said Badlands Sales Manager Dominick Murphy. He added, “We’ve updated the designs on both the 2200 and Superday since our last snow camo packs so it was definitely time to make this happen.”   The Badlands 2200 and Superday packs will be available in Realtree AP® Snow starting in September and can be seen at www.badlandspacks.com.   Now in its 20th year, Badlands continues to focus on exceptional quality, continuing innovation, unmatched performance and as always the only unconditional lifetime warranty in the industry

North Dakota Outdoors North Dakota Game and Fish Department Doug Leier   When you’re talking fishing, it really doesn’t matter where you’re at.   Bait shop, coffee shop, boat landing or campfire, there’s plenty of stories, from forgetting to put the plug in, to a storm brewing up from out of nowhere, to the one that got away.   A lot of times, when the people involved in the conversations  know that I work for the North Dakota Game and fish Department, those “ones that got away” stories often lead to “Why doesn’t the Game and Fish Department…?”   Over the past few years, one of those “Why doesn’t Game and Fish …?” questions that comes up fairly frequently is something like “Wouldn’t fishing be better if we had a statewide minimum length limit for walleyes?”   Rather than try to answer that question myself, I’ll refer to Scott Gangl, the Game and Fish Department’s fisheries management section leader. Gangl authored an article in North Dakota OUTDOORS magazine last year, which covered that very subject.   When a walleye population has few young fish due to poor reproduction or stocking success, but those fish are growing well, a minimum length limit could help protect young fish to grow to a size that would provide more benefit to anglers. Of course, for any fishing regulation to be effective, angler harvest must have more of an effect on the population than other natural sources of mortality.   Lake Sakakawea’s walleye population today meets two of the criteria for a minimum length limit – low natural mortality and good growth. But Sakakawea’s walleyes in 2014 do not exhibit any signs of a population in need of a minimum length limit, such as low reproductive or stocking success, or high fishing mortality. In fact, natural and fishing mortality combined has been around 30 percent on Sakakawea in recent years, which is sustainable when compared to more heavily fished populations.   In addition, the combination of natural reproduction and good overall stocking success since 2010 has produced abundant young fish that are growing well and should reach a desirable size in another year or two.   The walleye population in the Garrison Reach of the Missouri River – from Garrison Dam downstream past Bismarck to the headwaters of Lake Oahe – and in Lake Oahe itself, is currently quite a bit different than Sakakawea’s. While small fish are abundant following strong natural reproduction in 2009 and 2011, a major decline in forage abundance after the 2011 flood has decreased their growth rate. A lack of food, teamed with a robust northern pike population, has also increased natural mortality. Given the current situation, anglers are encouraged to harvest some smaller walleye to prevent fish from dying. Thus, a minimum length limit is not advisable on this population.   At Devils Lake, rising water levels have led to strong natural reproduction in recent years. Currently, there is no shortage of small fish in the population, and growth rates have decreased substantially since 2008. Since overall mortality rates are not excessive, it would be better to allow harvest of small walleye at Devils Lake rather than restrict it with a minimum length limit.   While a few lakes and reservoirs in North Dakota do have special restrictions, those are unique. In the name of balancing angler opportunity with biological support, it makes more sense on both levels to provide anglers consistency for most waters across the state, rather than restrict anglers categorically based on social pressure.   Don’t forget, water conditions and fisheries populations have, can and will change. Which is why Game and Fish biologists conduct consistent research, evaluate scientific evidence and monitor waters, so future changes are never totally out of consideration. 

How much is a deer worth? The answer to that question may have nothing to do with dollars and cents. by Keith Sutton What is the value of a deer? Thought about that when I ran across a news story about Texas deer breeders who paid $450,000 for a deer named Dream Buck. That’s correct: $450,000; almost half a million smackaroos for a deer. What made this white-tailed deer so dreamy were his antlers, which scored an astounding 301 3/8 points when this buck was four years old. Dream Buck was purchased for selective breeding to produce other big-racked deer. His owners had no problem recouping their investment by selling the deer’s semen to other breeders. Of course, deer like Dream Buck are as rare as 20-pound bass. The price paid for this animal was a record and in no way reflects the value of an ordinary deer pursued by an average hunter like you or me. Which leaves me still begging the question: What is the value of a deer? In centuries past, when deer hides and venison were common items of trade, those doing the trading knew quite well the value of a deer or part thereof. In 1718, for example, every frontiersman knew one tanned deerskin could be traded for one pound of black powder, 40 bullets or 20 flints. A rifle could be obtained for 25 deerskins, a pistol for 12, an ax for four, a coat for 12 and a blanket for six. Using the word “buck” as a synonym for “dollar” originated from these trading practices. Each skin originally was referred to as a buckskin, which later was shortened to just buck as in “A pound of black powder will cost you one buck.” Rarely was a buckskin worth a dollar, however. During the nineteenth century, U.S. prices ranged from 20 cents per pound to 75 cents per hide. Deer hides were made into clothing, rugs, wall covers, upholstery, bellows, harnessing, saddles, handbags, bookbinding and more. Venison also served as an important exchange medium. Prices ranged from a halfpenny per pound in 1831 to a high of about 30 cents per pound in the late 1870s. By the turn of the century, however, as citizens became less dependent on wild animal foods, venison prices had fallen to 8 to 15 cents per pound. Today, you’d get some funny looks if you threw 25 tanned deer hides up on the counter at the gun shop and asked for a rifle in return. And if you try selling wild venison, you’ll be a law violator. Nevertheless, we still find reasons to ask now and then, “What is the dollar value of a deer?” Fortunately for us, people have figured out exactly what that value is. For example, when studying economic losses resulting from deer/vehicle crashes, economists can’t compute bottom-line losses without first knowing the estimated value of each deer thus killed. So, someone in this group did all kinds of arithmetic and came up with the figure of $1,250. That is, one deer is worth, economically speaking, approximately $1,250. Other researchers disagree. They say the dollar value of a deer is twice this amount, even if the total is based on hunting expenditures alone. Therefore, depending on who you want to believe, one deer — the regular type and not big-antlered breeding stock like Dream Buck — has a dollar value somewhere between $1,250 and $2,500. That’s a big spread, so last season, I figured I’d do some economic research myself in hopes of pinpointing a more exact figure. I did this while deer hunting with sons Matt and Zach. My first computations were based on reasonable expenses incurred by the three of us while pursuing whitetails on a two-day hunt. Those expenses were: • Three refuge hunting permits: $60 • Motel room for two nights: $100 • Meals for two days: $115.70 • Travel expenses: $93.15 • Ammunition: $1.30 (for the one and only one round fired this trip) This totals $370.15. Our hunting trip produced one doe deer killed by Matt. This deer weighed 91 pounds on the hoof. It therefore cost us $4.06 a pound. Had Zach and I killed a deer, too (neither of us saw one that was legal), the cost per pound would have been considerably lower. Had the three of us traveled to Alberta, Canada, to hunt, the cost per pound would have risen exponentially. Can these cost-per-pound figures help you calculate the value of a deer? Of course not. I present them here just to show you how foolish it really is to try and come up with an accurate figure that shows the true economic value of a deer. In the end, however, a deer’s economic value is pretty meaningless to most of us anyway. Dollars and cents have nothing to do with the reasons we value deer and other wildlife so highly. I’ve decided to think of it like that old MasterCard commercial: All expenses-paid trip to your favorite deer hunting area: $370.15 Getting to spend some time in the deer woods with family and friends: Priceless! There are some things your bucks just can’t buy.               

By PERRY BACKUS - Ravalli Republic Photo courtesy of Mahar family Geoff Mahar poses with the mountain lion he shot in his front yard Saturday evening after it attacked a goose. The mountain lion killed a sheep on the Mahar property earlier that day. After an eventful day, Geoff and Karen Mahar were sitting down to a late dinner Saturday evening when their prayers were answered. That morning, the couple had discovered that one of their sheep had been killed by a mountain lion at their home northwest of Hamilton. Geoff followed a 50-foot-long blood trail from his backyard pasture to find the sheep's carcass buried under some leaves and sticks. "It was a real obvious lion kill," Geoff said. "It had teeth marks on the back of its neck and rake marks down its sides. The front shoulder had been eaten away." Local Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Lou Royce gave Mahar permission to shoot the mountain lion. A friend showed up with his hounds, but they weren't able to find the predator. Later, a U.S. Wildlife Services trapper set some traps around the carcass. Geoff spent the rest of the day working on a new shed. The day was nearly over when the couple sat down for their evening meal at about 8:30. "I remembered that I hadn't asked the blessing," Geoff said. "I prayed: Lord, it would be a small thing in your sight if we could get this lion thing finished." About 10 minutes later, the couple heard a ruckus coming from in front of their home. When they looked out the window, they saw a mountain lion race up the driveway and leap over the fence to pounce on their goose, just 10 yards from their front door. "Karen was immediately outside yelling at the lion," Geoff said. "I told her to get back in the house, and I grabbed my gun. All of this was happening in a flash." Geoff shot the lion in his front yard. This wasn't the first time that a mountain lion has killed domestic animals in the area, but Geoff said it did seem odd that it didn't show any fear when his wife started yelling at it. "It didn't shock me at all to have a sheep killed, but it was disconcerting that the lion wasn't at all afraid of us," Geoff said. Royce said it was unusual for the mountain lion to return so quickly to the Mahar home. "Typically, you would see them return at night," Royce said. "Having it come back so soon and kill a goose, it was probably a good thing that Geoff had a chance to get it before it could kill anymore." "I think it probably would have kept getting in trouble," Royce said. With the late winter and cold spring, Royce said people who live in the wildland/urban interface should be aware that predators may stick around in the lower elevations a little longer than normal this year. "Bears are just now starting to come out in force," Royce said. "They didn't have a great summer last year to put on weight, and now they're facing this long, cold spring. "They're hungry and there's not a lot of feed up high yet. People really just need to get rid of attractants. Those birdfeeders and cat and dog food on the porch attract bears." In some cases, people are going to find that bears aren't going to be afraid of them while feasting on food that's been left outside." "It's not the bear's fault," Royce said. "They're just hungry and they want to get some calories. It's not their fault that it's right up against people's homes." Royce also cautions homeowners against using attractants like salt or grain to bring in deer. "Many times, when we have a problem with predators, we'll find that someone in the neighborhood has been feeding deer," Royce said. "I've seen 30 deer in a front yard of someone's home. I understand that people like to see wildlife, but they often don't realize that it also brings in predators." Mahar's place was not the problem, Royce said. "He has livestock, but he keeps it cleaned up," Royce said. "There are not a bunch of turkeys or deer eating the leftover grain that his livestock wasted, but I'd put money on a bet that within a mile of his home there is someone feeding wildlife." Geoff is happy that he doesn't have to worry about the mountain lion anymore, especially since there are young children residing nearby. The mountain lion was estimated to be about 3 years old and weighed somewhere between 100 and 130 pounds. "It couldn't have worked out better for us, although my wife was pretty upset to lose her goose," Geoff said. "It was 2 years old. It was a mean old thing, but you still hate to see your animals killed like that. It didn't have a chance." The lion was a powerful animal. "The wether was big," Geoff said. "I couldn't drag that wether 5 yards. The lion had no problem dragging it 50 feet." Reach reporter Perry Backus at 363-3300 or pbackus@ravallirepublic.com.  

Don’t be afraid – Be educated (Kids and Firearm Safety) by Mia Anstine I feel all families should teach their children about firearms. Whether you intend to own one or not! What if your child comes across a firearm or visits another friend's home where there are firearms. Will you child know what to do? Firearm safety is a very important thing in our lives. It has been [...]

An Illinois lawmaker wants gun owners to shell out extra taxes in order to finance a new grant program for trauma centers, a move firearms advocacy groups say amounts to a "sin tax" on law-abiding hunters and target shooters.  State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, in a bill introduced earlier this month, proposed a 2 percent surtax on ammunition. The proceeds would go toward a "high-crime trauma center grant fund," which would then send the tax money to trauma centers in "high-crime areas."    The idea is to begin to offset the high cost of gun violence. Mark Walsh, campaign director for the Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told FoxNews.com that cost often ends up being shouldered by these urban trauma centers.  "(The money would go) into communities here in Illinois that have been damaged with gun violence," he said. "I think it's a legitimate way to pursue funding."  But Richard Pearson, director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said the bill effectively saddles gun owners -- hunters, target shooters and those who own firearms for self defense -- as a whole with the cost of gang violence in high-crime areas like Chicago.  "We aren't causing the problem. They are," Pearson said. "It's an attack on firearm owners and their rights. ... They think that because we like to target shoot and hunt, we're bad people, and we should pay for all the ills of the city of Chicago."  Since gun owners in Illinois have to have a special ID card which requires a background check to obtain, Pearson said those committing crimes of gun violence aren't likely to be paying much into the proposed tax fund.  "They're not buying their ammunition (legally). They're not paying any part of the tax. They're getting their stuff illegally," he said.  He estimated a typical box of ammo runs for about $25 in Illinois, meaning the average tax per box would be about 50 cents.  Cassidy, a Democrat who represents a district in the North Side of Chicago, did not return a request for comment.  Her proposal would exempt ammunition purchases by the state's Department of Natural Resources.  All the surtax proceeds from other ammo sales would go toward the grant fund.  The National Rifle Association is also opposed to the bill. Spokeswoman Stephanie Samford said "law-abiding citizens should not be saddled with a tax on ammunition to pay for the acts of violent criminals."  "This sends a message that responsible gun owners are somehow responsible for violent crime, which is certainly not true," she said. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/21/gun-rights-groups-decry-proposed-surtax-on-illinois-ammo-sales/?test=latestnews#ixzz1n81HVJoS

From all of us – Happy Thanksgiving by Mia Anstine We hope you were lucky enough to harvest your turkey dinner. What is your favorite, most amazing recipe? Share it with us! It has been an excellent year and we are very thankful for each an every blessing. Thanks to you, one and all, who have touched our lives. We are happy to know you [...] Read more of this post