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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2019

- CONSERVATION -
The American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and Keep Florida Fishing®, an advocacy arm of ASA, were proud to co-sponsor and participate in the “United for Everglades” fly-in and reception in Washington, D.C., along with the Everglades Foundation, the National Marine Manufacturers Association, and the Coastal Conservation Association Florida. 
- COOKING -
What do you do with all the extra bluefish or the bluefish that is in the freezer? That's easy—make mouthwatering, flavorful smoked fish with Hi Mountain Seasonings brine and seasonings.
- FACILITIES -
Hundreds of local youth and their families gathered Saturday, November 2, to celebrate the dedication of a new boardwalk and fishing pier at the Suncoast Youth Conservation Center (SYCC) in Apollo Beach, Florida.

- FIREARMS -
Henry Repeating Arms announces release of the new Side Gate Lever Action Rifle in .45-70 Gov’t and Side Gate Lever Action .410 Shotgun. The firearm’s loading gate is coupled with Henry’s historically inspired removable tube magazine. Having these two methods of loading and unloading allows the shooter to safely unload the firearm without working live rounds through the action and keep the magazine topped off through the side gate.
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. announces a new configuration of the popular 10/22 Carbine which ships with the new Viridian EON 3-9x40 scope factory mounted.
- INDUSTRY -
Recipients of the NMMA Freedman Award are individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the marine accessories industry through leadership, creativity, and personal motivation.
Trade squirrel tails from hunting season for Mepps Squirrel Tail Spinner lures or cash this fall.

Rogers Sports Marketing announces the addition of Scott Dubiel to their sales staff.
- MEDIA -
Narrated by award-winning actor Michael Keaton, Wings Over Water, a new IMAX film produced with the support of Ducks Unlimited, will showcase this important region of our continent through the stunning visual storytelling format IMAX is famous for when the film is released across the country in 2021.
- NEW PRODUCTS -
Viridian Weapon Technologies has announced the launch of Viridian Optics—an all-new riflescope line created to offer unique solutions for long-range shooting and hunting.
The Kopfjäger Ambush Support Assembly is a patent-pending stabilizing arm designed to mount to the interior wall of your box blind.  The Ambush combined with a Reaper Grip gives shooters of all ages and capabilities the confidence they need to make a precise shot. 

Luth-AR announces the latest addition to the Luth-AR MBA line of carbine buffer tubes. The new design allows a quick visual indication of the position of the buttstock by the number of scallops exposed.
- ONLINE -
Country music artist Nate Hosie, whose new album The Woodsman just dropped, is no stranger to life on the road with guitar in his hands or time spent in the woods hunting turkey with a shotgun. Listeners to Country Outdoors with Mary and Mitch podcast will get a real taste of what it’s like on both fronts as they welcome Nate Hosie to their show on Monday, November 4.
GUNS Magazine announced the release of the initial episodes of the GUNS Magazine Podcast. Featuring GUNS Magazine Editor Brent T. Wheat, the podcast offers gun enthusiasts interviews with some of the most interesting people in the shooting, hunting and outdoor industries.
- ORGANIZATIONS -
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is pleased to announce that YETI is now its official drinkware, cooler and cargo partner.

- PADDLE SPORTS -
The Sabine Sandbar Paddling Trail near Carthage opens this week, offering paddlers the opportunity to enjoy tree-lined river views and plenty of wildlife sightings.
- POLITICS -
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms declared there is a “hidden agenda” behind the impeachment efforts of House Democrats led by Nancy Pelosi and it is designed to tie up the U.S. Senate and derail efforts to confirm more pro-Second Amendment judges to the federal courts.
- PROMOTIONS -
Riton Optics is committed to creating the industry’s best Christmas event by giving a lucky winner a shipment of amazing industry gifts. In addition to a Riton Optics riflescope, binoculars and a red dot, the selected winner of the MCGA event will receive products from Aero Precision, InForce Lights, 1791 Holsters,and more.
Vihtavuori is excited to announce our 2019 holiday season rebate. The “Keep Your Cash” rebate, gives consumers up to $100 cash back on qualifying Vihtavuori powder purchases from November 1 to January 1, 2020.

- PUBLISHING -
Sales of safety-related products represent a key category for dealers and range operators in the competitive fight to win margins. The November issue of Shooting Industry explains how merchandising these products can have a significant impact on the bottom line in “Getting Your Safety Sales Strategy Right.”
- RADIO -
For Veteran's Day weedend Northwestern Outdoors Radio spotlights Hunting with Heroes, a non-profit group taking disabled veterans on big game hunts in Wyoming. 
- RETAIL -
For a limited time, Hunter Safety System is offering a promotion atwww.hssvest.com on any of its harness purchases — free shipping and a free 7 oz. bottle of the revolutionary ElimiShield Hunt Core Body Foam.
- STATES -
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham has issued a preliminary determination that the Nov. 15, 2019 start date for the California Dungeness crab fishery south of the Mendocino/Sonoma county line poses a significant risk of marine life entanglement.

Outdoor Indiana magazine’s November-December issue always includes a wall calendar for the coming year, but this year it also includes a bonus—an article and timeline reviewing 100 years of the DNR.
Michigan's DNR Outdoor Skills Academy will offer a snowshoe building workshop at Tahquamenon Falls State Park Saturday, December 7, and Saturday, December 14, 2019.
Starting this hunting season, Florida youth may take part in a Youth Waterfowl Hunting Day occurring the Saturday before the start of the first phase of the regular waterfowl season, which is November 16, and another one held the second Saturday after the second phase of the season closes, February 8. 
"Based on our initial review of the Empire Builder request, we are notifying the company today that we see virtually no scenario where the DNR would grant a water appropriation permit for the project, as it does not appear it could meet applicable statutory requirements, including significant restrictions on use of the Mt. Simon aquifer," says Minnesota DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen.

Due to unexpected construction delays, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will not re-open the Black Bear Boating Access Area on Lake James until November 6.
Mass Audubon is again offering military veterans and their families free admission to its 60 wildlife sanctuaries across the Commonwealth on Veterans Day, Monday, November 11.
- TELEVISION -
Major League Fishing (MLF) announced a 22% increase in viewers week-over-week of the Bass Pro Tour on Discovery.
- WASHINGTON -
American Sportfishing Association members that want to request exclusions, defined on List 4a of Section 301 tariffs, should register on USTR’s exclusion process portal as soon as possible, according to the ASA.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will make up to $50 million available to help create or expand state government and tribal programs that encourage landowners and land managers to allow public access to their land for hunting, fishing and other wildlife-dependent recreation.
- WILDLIFE -
November is Manatee Awareness Month, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is reminding the public to slow down and look out for these large aquatic mammals.
 

How do you repay someone who willingly offered their life, then sacrificed limbs to keep you safe?

We can’t.

But it’s a question frequently asked as we look at the men and women who have been damaged during their service.

We can’t repay their sacrifice. Instead, we must look for ways to make those changed lives more normal.

For someone whose life has been dramatically changed by injury, being able to participate in things many of us take for granted can be a life-altering change.

It’s a lesson I’ve learned watching my friend Trevor Baucom advance as a competitive shooter.

Confined to a wheelchair after a helicopter crash, Baucom’s determination, personality and ability to put people at ease around him quickly turned him from a curiosity in shooting sports to an inspiring example of perseverance.

Trevor’s shown how to take the things you can do and use them as the lubrication to overcome life’s challenges. He’s turned his own situation into a test-bed to help make life better for others.

When he cornered me last year with an idea for a shooting competition especially for people with disabilities, I was intrigued. While I’ve learned more about how not to hold competitions that most, I agreed to help.

Trevor’s idea morphed into the Adaptive Defensive Shooting Summit held this past weekend at the SIG Academy in New Hampshire.

On Friday, the shooters were given high-level instruction (above) to help them maximize their abilities. On Saturday (below), they took their instruction to one a eight stage shooting competition that, while adapted to their challenges, still required the kind of accuracy that could one day save their lives.

The group of shooters in this special competition were dealing with everything from losses to legs and arms to sight injuries that render them legally blind. Honestly, they looked pretty shaky during Friday’s instructional sessions.

Some were barely capable of doing things most of us take for granted. Anything from loading magazines to holstering handguns proved challenging for someone in the group.

But they didn’t quit.

Through a long Friday of training, they worked to determine what they could do- safely.

Both students and instructors were exhausted by the end of their training day.

On Saturday, the same group that seemed challenged by the most basic gun-handling skills didn’t just perform those administrative tasks, they competed.

Moving across eight stages of competition designed by Match Director Chad Barber they dealt with scenarios any of us might find ourselves facing, from carjacking at the airport to home and hotel invasions.

They didn’t all shoot “clean” stages. But they demonstrated their abilities to accurately put shots on targets.

That might sound like an anathema to most of us because we’re taught the best fight is one you never have. And that’s always the “best” answer.

If, however, you’re unable to run from dangerous situations, it’s a huge deal. Criminals aren’t looking for people who seem capable of defending themselves, they’re looking for easy pickings.

The ability to defend yourself is a life or death skill if you lack the ability to run away. And the confidence that you could is obvious to those looking for victims.

Viewed through those optics, everyone who competed was a winner.

And while it might embarrass them to hear it, they were inspirations to the rest of us.

Being told what you can’t do often enough crushes the spirit. It discourages trying to find ways to do the things you want to do, but lack the energy or knowledge to do without assistance.

Everyone in attendance left convinced we really haven’t done everything we could to accommodate everyone into shooting sports.

That’s why the world of physically challenged shooters contains a lot of “rigging” - holsters are “rigged” to wheelchairs, solutions are found to enable a shooter dependent on a cane to walk to draw and aim a gun safely- and still have their cane at hand.

Competitors at this event learned new “tricks” to make it possible for them to shoot better. But they also shared some of their own adaptations (above), then saw the AR-style pistol brace- in its correct application (below) is exactly what it’s supposed to be: an enabling device, not a way to dodge federal law.

This first Adaptive Shooting Summit made its point - adaptations can be made. And we need to all work to be making them. It might not be pretty in its first iterations, but we can make the tools necessary to allow the physically challenged to come to the line, load and make ready with the rest of us.

Instructors can teach that missing an arm doesn’t mean you can’t shoot -or compete. They can teach how to reload magazines, or rack pistol slides using holsters, wheel chair arms or tabletops. Learning those lessons means you can compete - and protect your families in an emergency.

That’s big.

As Rick Cicero told me, “it’s not about what we can’t do. It’s about helping other disabled shooters realize that we might do things differently from most people, but we can still do them.”

That sounds high-minded from most of us, but watching him enthusiastically wave his arms when teaching quickly reminds you that one of those arms is artificial. Like Trevor, he teaches and encourages from experience.

As I watched him run the competitors through their training day like an over-caffeinated drill Sargeant, I watched as attitudes changed. Instead of being embarrassed or quitting as they struggled with “simple things” for most of us, these students didn’t quit.

They adapted and overcame their challenges - to the best of their abilities.

And I began to realize that their scoring was different from mine. I look for “A” zone hits. They become winners the first time they draw a pistol and break an accurate shot.

It isn’t possible to repay the price they’ve paid for us, but it’s imperative to let them know we realize the debt- and want to include them in our activities.

Bringing them into our sport rather than treating them like broken toys is something they need. They want to belong again.

Belief in something larger than themselves is why they went into harm’s way.

This event, like those held by HAVA or Camp Freedom (more on that another time), Aiming for Zero and others like them are about a simple idea - inclusion.

An unexpected by-product is having the many blessings most of us don’t appreciate put into perspective.

If we look at our lives through their optics, we don’t have much to complain about, but plenty to be thankful for.

Inclusion works two ways - that’s why I’m looking forward to our Wires taking part in next year’s competition. I was welcomed into their world - and realize one accident or medical issue could make their world my world.

Learning how to navigate through physical challenges it isn’t just a part of us saying thank; to those already there- it’s part of prudent planning for the rest of us.

Everyone learned valuable lessons at this event.

—Jim Shepherd

OUTDOOR WIRE
Event Calendar

JANUARY 21-24
SHOT SHOW

Las Vegas, NV

JANUARY 24-26
Houston Safari Club Foundation's Annual Worldwide Hunting Expo and Convention

George R Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas

https://hscfdn.org/convention/attendees/

FEBRUARY 1-9
Great American Outdoor Show

Harrisburg, PA

 
Outdoor Wire - 2271 N Upton St., Arlington, VA 22207
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