Start ‘Em Young!

Ted Nugent Kamp for KidsAhhhh… if it isn’t my effervescent, ultraFUN NugeBlog #40 right here right now at deeranddeerhunting.com! Like my one of many lovesongs over so many years clearly illustrates, “I Won’t Go Away!”

By Ted Nugent

And why should I? If you’re not having fun with me, well, you’re weird. My life is so much fun it’s stupid, and why would I ever want to be so selfish as to fail to share it with my fellow venison addicts? I wouldn’t, of course, and so I Blog-on like I mean, because I do.

So at this 40th juncture here at this very special electronic campfire, may I sincerely thank you all for your support and joining me here as I pass along the self-evident truth, logic and wild wisdom as passed down to me by my father, Fred Bear, Howard Hill, Elmer Keith, Bob Munger, Ed Bilderback, and many other brilliant woodsmen/hunters and outdoor writers in my life, and show my genuine appreciation for allowing me into your lives with the written words and beliefs that so powerfully drive our quality deerhunting lives.

Pity the poor souls who don’t deerhunt, for they will never know the glory of God’s creation as do the hands-on predator participants. Can you imagine a life without backstraps and the sport needed to procure them? Not me.

Godbless us all.

In my relentless travels, I am blessed to communicate with good people at every deercamp, shooting range, sporting event, airport, restaurant, gas station, hardware store, grocery store, school, church, rock-n-roll joint, literally everywhere I go who stop me to talk hunting, guns, freedom, guitars, rock-n-roll and the tragic condition of America at the hands of criminally corrupt, power-abusing America haters infesting our government, media, academia and beyond.

You can join me at wnd.com and newsmax.com to wrestle with the political outrages of the day, but here at deeranddeerhunting.com we will continue to escape those painful situations to focus on our love of wildlife and the hunt.

Of all the topics brought up to me everywhere I go, I would say a close second to our sacred 2nd Amendment gun rights would be how to get new shooters into the sport.

And though I have dealt with this critical issue here in the past, it is worth revisiting again.

Bows and arrows had a powerful hold on me (a Stranglehold, if you will) from the very beginning. And I do mean the very beginning!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO TED’S CLASSIC STRANGLEHOLD

Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1948, ensconced deep in the shadow of his majesty Fred Bear, the standard operating procedure of bows and arrows for kids took on a whole new dimension due to his ubiquitous influence in those early years of bowhunting’s rebirth.

Lucky me, my dad was already a follower of Fred’s, so archery at the Nugent house was a regular affair. We couldn’t shoot .22 rifles or any other firearms in our Redford neighbor yard, but flinging arrows into bales of straw or cardboard boxes stuffed with newspapers was A-OK.

And so I did, (and still do) pretty much on a daily basis. Then of course there was the suburb wilderness of Skunk Hollow along the banks of the Rouge River directly across Hazelton Street from our house, so more often than not, my targets were wary, elusive small game critters and rough game in this wildlife rich riverine habitat.

It was on these daily excursions into my beloved wild that my hands-on lessons of animal behavior and reasoning predator relationships took on a life of their own. I simply could not get enough of it, and I would stalk fur, fish and game constantly until I learned how to get close and occasionally get off a killer arrow.

All the other kids were busy with baseball, football, hockey, golf, kites, horseshoes, roller derby, all kinds of normal childhood play for the 1950s. But it was the forests and swamps that called my name, and I could not be happier that I was so fortunate to discover my passions at such an early age.

Of course by the age of seven or eight, the electric guitar started to take up an increasing percentage of my time, and other than school, chores, my paper routes and odd jobs, it was hyper rock-n-roll and bowhunting for this terminally hooked American Dreamer.

Ted, in 1984 with daughter Sasha, at an early age developed a lifelong love affair with bows and bowhunting!
Ted, in 1984 with daughter Sasha, at an early age developed a lifelong love affair with bows and bowhunting!

Many years later when I became a father myself, I made it a point to encourage in my own children those things in life that brought me so much happiness and fulfillment.

A good education is essential for a productive American Dream, but other than the basics of honesty, courtesy, health, reliability, kindness, hard work and respect, the aim small miss small discipline as maximized by projectile management is right up there with the most important aspects of life.

We set up a little archery range right in our small living room, and with a good sized backstop up against the fireplace, we were able to shoot any day we wanted to at a range of about 20 feet, about perfect for kids with kids bows and arrows.

We also shot our BB guns, pellet rifles and even .22CB caps at our old Outers bullet trap. The kids and their friends loved it, and nobody got hurt, more than can be said about the football and hockey kids.

At our annual Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids charity fun in NE, IA, CO & SD, there is no question that the archery range sees the most exuberant participation. Something about that mystical flight of the arrow that rings true in the instinctual psyche of man, particularly young boys and girls.

Ultra-light draw recurves and longbows in the 10-20 pound range, shooting proper arrows with feather fletching instead of plastic vanes is the ticket. And of course the Genesis line of introductory bows from Mathews cannot be beat as the ultimate break-in bows for new archers.

Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids 150It is also important to break in new shooters at close range on targets that allow the arrows to stick so they can grasp the cause and effect of hand-eye coordination next arrow improvement.

I would say that no other issue in our lives is more important than all that goes into recruiting new sporters, and I am convinced that archery is the ultimate attractant, bait if you will.

Every state and every sporter club has the capability of getting the right equipment and manpower for proper, safe guidance and direction.

Let us all put forth maximum effort to introduce a new shooter each week of our lives. It will take some sacrifice and extra effort, but believe you me, you will feel real good about yourselves and the pride of not only saving our beloved sport, but helping it grow, all the while driving the hunter-haters batty.

Who could ask for more!

Want more from Ted, including 2014 Tour Dates, new music and more?
Check out www.TedNugent.com

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