Recruit Retain Reactivate is known as the 3R battlecry for the future of conservation in America. With the tragic, and what I believe to be the self-inflicted decline in hunter numbers across the country over the years, if those of us who truly cherish this extraordinary American conservation heritage and vital lifestyle fail to step up and get cracking to reverse this scourge like we mean it, believe me when I tell you, all is lost.
I know all about the dramatic change in the geographical population drift from rural to urban. We all know about the intentional dumbing down of America by leftwing dingbats in academia, media, Hollywood and government to deny the necessity of annual hunting season harvests. It is painfully apparent that certain technological advances in the world have attracted more and more sedentary homebodies to avoid the great outdoors.
There are many dynamics at play against us here, but I am convinced that with a genuine, united effort by those of us who care, these unacceptable cultural suicidal trends can be reversed forthwith.
More powerful than those negative forces noted above are two areas that we can attack and fix rather expeditiously, if strategized effectively.
I have just wrapped up another cross-country musical tour where I met with an average of six to 20 or more hunting enthusiasts per night for 42 nights in 38 different cities.
Coupled with the last 50 years of doing the same for 6,756 concerts, I can assure you that I have met with and listened to more hunting families face to face and up close and personal, than maybe any human that has ever lived.
I will give the naysayers a moment to take a deep breath and recover from the presumptuous recoil brought about by that statement, for I am well aware of how outrageous it sounds.
But upon an honest examination of the actual facts and evidence, I sincerely hope most of you can come to grips with the critical opportunity that such intimate communication with fellow hunters provides for making intelligent, fact-driven decisions for the future of our sport.
First and foremost on everyone’s mind are the mind-numbing volumes of nonsensical regulations that literally scare sporters en masse out of the sport, scared to death of getting busted for such ridiculous arbitrary rules like bow case and gun case laws.
It has been stated many, many times that the average state hunting and fishing regulation booklets are so voluminous and confusing, oftentimes illogically contradictory, that one would require a team of wildlife specialist lawyers to translate them for us.
And we would still get in trouble!
We all need to relentlessly hammer our elected employees and state and federal game departments to demand a major overhaul of state-by-state and federal hunting regulations to simplify the rules to address safety and wildlife management 101, and nothing else.
Hunting and fishing regulations should make the activities as attractive and simple as possible, and what works in one state should be the model for all states.
Wildlife biology does not change at some mysterious line between regions. Habitat and population dynamics, along with annual game counts should dictate harvest rates and policy. Period.
Another area that could easily be upgraded is the inexplicable hyper promotion of high-velocity bows.
If I hear another bowhunter say they are going to quit bowhunting because they have damaged their shoulder and can’t draw their 70-pound bow, I think I’m going to scream.
I share campfires with hundreds of bowhunters every season, and I can pretty much predict that 75-85% of them will share tales of woe because they have difficulty drawing their bows back. And almost to a man they admit they have always shot a 70-plus-pound bow draw weight.
I repeat, and shall continue to repeat, how my killer Queen of the Forest wife Shemane kills everything with a 35-pound Mathews bow, a 400-grain arrow and a knife-cutting two-blade broadhead.
I kill everything with my 50-pound Mathews. Dead!
Everybody shoots a more lightweight draw, graceful bow much more accurately, and quite honestly, more enjoyably! Shemane’s 35# Mathews delivers more efficient, penetrating, killing energy than a 60# bow of old.
We have the body count and backstraps to prove it.
Archery shops and bow manufacturers will have to get on board promoting, recommending and selling easier-to-shoot, more graceful bows if they wish to reverse the current inexcusable engineered attrition, and create sport-saving recruitment.
If you are sick and tired of bureaucrats wasting our hard-earned tax dollars hiring so called “sharpshooters” to kill our deer, bear, elk, cougars and wolves for us, start that essential American activist fire in your deerhunting world to demand accountability and fairness in our sport.
The list of absurd rules and regulations ruining our sport across the country would take up an entire Gone With The Wind tome, and we all know what they are.
At deercamp this season, at the range, at work, school, church, everywhere you connect, fire up your fellow sporters to get engaged with the We The People do-or-die political process. Do it now!
Visit us at HunterNation.org to unite and galvanize the most powerful voting force in America; the licensed hunting families of the United States.
Are you a wimp on the sidelines or are you a real American in that swirling dust in the arena?
Let’s get it on.
Multi-platinum guitar legend TED NUGENT has a new full-length album THE MUSIC MADE ME DO IT, released on Friday, November 9, on Round Hill Records. The album is available now for order everywhere, and the title track “The Music Made Me Do It” is available to download and stream wherever music is sold.
Ted Nugent – “The Music Made Me Do It” (Official Music Video)
With more than 40 million albums sold, rock legend Ted Nugent is equally well known as the nation’s most outspoken proponent of our 1st and 2nd Amendment rights, conducting thousands of pro-gun, pro-freedom, pro-American interviews in major media worldwide. Nugent is a New York Times best-selling author whose works include Ted, White & Blue —The Nugent Manifesto; God, Guns & Rock ‘n’ Roll and Kill It & Grill It.This year, his award-winning Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild TV show celebrates its 500th episode! For all things Nuge, visit www.tednugent.com