Hunter Education, Boater Safety Students Navigate Real-Life Scenarios in New Interactive Online Courses

Just in time for fall hunting and fishing – hunters, anglers and boaters have a new option to earn the required recreational safety certificate before hitting the woods or water.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources now offers hunter education and boater safety as interactive online courses, giving students an enhanced experience that exposes them to real-life hunting and boating scenarios.

“We’re excited to offer students this new learning opportunity,” said Lt. Tom Wanless, DNR recreational safety, education and enforcement supervisor. “Both the interactive hunting and boating programs are offered in other states and have received ‘five star’ reviews.”

The interactive learning options are offered in addition to the existing traditional classroom and online learning options for both hunter and boater safety; hunter safety continues to be available as a take-home study course, too. Read more

Hunting

HEVI-Shot Ammunition Introduces New HEVI-18 Turkey Loads for 2023

SWEET HOME, Oregon –– HEVI-Shot is proud to announce new line extensions to its HEVI-18 Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) product line which brings best-in-class performance to the turkey market with 18 g/cc density pellets in No. 7 and 9 shot. The loads provide high pellet counts, long-range lethality, and incredibly tight patterns. Four new loads are now offered in 2-3/4-inch, reduced-recoil 12- and 20-gauge loads, as well as two 3-inch, 28-gauge options.

HEVI-18 TSS Turkey | Hevi Shot

“3-inch and 3-1/2-inch 12-gauge loads are commonplace in the turkey hunting world. But for 2023, we are excited for the introduction of our new reduced recoil 2-3/4-inch loads,” said HEVI-Shot product manager Scott Turner. “With the use of TSS, the shorter hull size delivers the ability to reduce the felt recoil, yet still have impressive results downrange. These new loads are ready for wild turkey hunting seasons this fall.”

HEVI-Shot’s HEVI-18 Turkey product line now consists of twelve total load options, available in 12-, 20-, or 28-gauge, and .410 bore. Read more

Ammunition

Thermal vs Night Vision Explained

Chris Wisecarver, owner of Fusion Thermal, talks to writers about the Avenger 55XR battery system.

Q: What got you into the optics industry?

A: I got into the optics industry about 25 years ago after a friend lent me a pair of his Steiner 10x50mm military marine binoculars. I used it on a deer hunt, and it changed my life. It started a lifelong passion for optics and looking for perfection in optics as I’ve gone along in the last 25 years and just studied and learned and got into all the details that I could, and ultimately, here I am with our thermal brand, Fusion Thermal.

Q: Fusion Thermal is a new company. How did it start?

A: I had a supplier friend who started a company. He found a physicist in Europe who had a fascinating and unique spin on thermal technology, and they made a presentation to me primarily for me to be their customer. I liked seeing a lot of thermal experience and that he had something radically different. So I was intrigued, and I agreed to become their customer. Ultimately, six months later or so, I owned the company and, rebranded it Fusion Thermal and designed it to be more Americanized and more user-friendly.

Q: What advantages do thermal optics have over other night optic technologies like light-intensified optics or add-on lights?

A: Thermal is a new technology to many people; sometimes, they lump it into the same category as night vision. It’s night vision in the sense that you use it at night. But thermals can be used very effectively in the daytime. That’s one of its advantages over traditional night vision. Read more

Optics

Gear For Deer Sweepstakes Supporting Wildlife Conservation

QuietKat, Performance Outdoors, First Lite, and Tethrd come together to raise funds for conservation.

QuietKat and The National Deer Association are excited to announce the launch of the “Gear For Deer Sweepstakes,” a thrilling opportunity for outdoor enthusiasts to contribute to wildlife conservation while winning fantastic prizes. All proceeds from this sweepstakes will directly support the National Deer Association’s mission to secure a sustainable future for wild deer, preserve vital wildlife habitats, and ensure hunting’s legacy for generations to come.

Participants can enter the sweepstakes by visiting https://deerassociation.com/gearfordeer and selecting from various entry options: Read more

Contests

Vortex Introduces Bantam HD 6.5×32 Youth Binocular

BARNEVELD, Wis. – The Bantam™ HD 6.5×32 Youth Binocular combines everything you love about Vortex® quality and lifetime service in a streamline, rugged binocular ergonomically designed for smaller hands and faces.

Compact and light weight so they’re easy to carry around. Ruggedly constructed to withstand knocks and accidental drops. Bantam™ HD delivers a wide field of view, clear glass, 6.5x magnifying power, and simple-to-use controls that make it easier to find distant wildlife fast.

And there’s more: Read more

Optics

CCRKBA: “Albuquerque Protesters Harmed Nobody, Burned Nothing”

BELLEVUE, WA – The country could take a lesson from the armed protesters who turned out in Albuquerque, N.M. this week in opposition to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s unconstitutional suspension of Second Amendment rights under the guise of a “public health emergency.”

“Justifiably angry New Mexico gun owners who showed up at the protest didn’t hurt anyone, didn’t burn anything, did not clash with police and nobody was arrested or even cited,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “What a stark contrast to the violent ANTIFA demonstrations and urban rioting we have seen in recent years.

“Instead of setting fires”, he continued, “these gun owners set an example. They didn’t vandalize public or private property, did not engage in physical assaults or looting, and yet they are the people who are repeatedly penalized by left wing politicians, now to include Democrat Gov. Lujan Grisham, for crimes they did not commit, and would never consider committing.”

Crowd size estimates have varied between 100 and 200 citizens, and while at least one report said many of those in attendance were “heavily armed,” it was a peaceful protest during which the loudest noises were the comments from honest gun owners expressing their legitimate fury at an action by the governor that members of her own party are denouncing. Even New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, himself a Democrat, has announced his office will not defend the governor or other state officials named as defendants in at least five federal civil rights lawsuits filed by several gun rights organizations and New Mexico residents. Municipal police and county sheriff’s departments will not enforce the governor’s order. Read more

Gun Control

SAF Wins 1st Amendment Case Against Calif. Gun Advertising Law

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has scored an important First Amendment victory before a federal appeals court panel in San Francisco which unanimously reversed a lower court’s denial of a preliminary injunction in a challenge of California’s law prohibiting advertising of firearms products in a way that may appeal to minors.

At issue is California Business and Professions Code § 22949.80, which prohibits advertising of any “firearm-related product in a manner that is designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.”

Writing for the three-judge panel, District Judge Kenneth K. Lee noted, “California has many tools to address unlawful firearm use and violence among the state’s youth. But it cannot ban truthful ads about lawful firearm use among adults and minors unless it can show that such an intrusion into the First Amendment will significantly further the state’s interest in curtailing unlawful and violent use of firearms by minors.

“But given that California allows minors to use firearms under adult supervision for hunting, shooting, and other lawful activities,” he continued, “California’s law does not significantly advance its purported goals and is more extensive than necessary. In sum, we hold that (the statute) is likely unconstitutional under the First Amendment…” Read more

Gun Control

SAF Sues California Over ‘Sensitive Places’ Legislation

The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit in California seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from the freshly inked Senate Bill 2 (SB 2), which makes nearly every public place in the state a “sensitive place” and forbids the carrying of firearms even by citizens who have gone through the lengthy and expensive process of obtaining a concealed handgun license.

SAF is joined by Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, Gun Owners of California, the California Rifle & Pistol Association and eleven private citizens. Named as Defendant is California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division. Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys C.D. Michel, Sean A. Brady and Konstadinos T. Moros at Michel & Associates in Long Beach, and Donald Kilmer, Law Offices of Don Kilmer, Caldwell, Idaho.

“SB 2 is designed to frustrate and ultimately discourage individuals from exercising their right to bear arms by creating a patchwork of locations where Second Amendment rights may, or may not, be exercised,” noted SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “That is not how constitutional rights work. SAF is happy to add California to the list of states that we have sued for adopting so-called ‘Bruen Response Bills’ that make it impractical, if not impossible for people to exercise their rights by essentially making carry permits useless.” Read more

Gun Control

Franchi Short Film Unguided Celebrates the Soul of Waterfowl Hunting

The September 12 launch of Unguided—a new short film presented by Franchi in association with Fiocchi and Banded—drives right to the heart of the waterfowl hunting. Delivered through the experience of friends and fellow Wyoming big game outfitters, Unguided perfectly underscores the true reasons dedicated waterfowlers return to the stubble fields, marshes, and flooded timber year after year.

For Dustin Decroo, owner/outfitter of Bighorn Outfitters and Tony Larsen, owner/outfitter of American Outfitters, a waterfowl adventure is a much-needed respite after four grueling months of guiding clients on their dream hunts.

“Being an outfitter, there’s a lot of stress involved,” says Decroo. “You care about that client who’s saved up a bunch of money over the years to go on this hunt. Sometimes the money is not as important as it is the preference points because it takes so many points to draw these tags that you don’t want to feel like he wasted the last six, seven, eight, ten years on this hunt. So, there’s a lot of pressure involved. And that’s why I love bird hunting…nobody asks me, ‘What does that duck score? What’s that goose score?’ The whole burden of all that’s lifted and it’s 100-percent about having a good time with your buddies.” Read more

Hunting

Court Grants TRO in SAF New Mexico Gun Rights Lawsuit

GW: Patently unconstitutional and a predictable outcome. Easy to pull this BS, because the cost of the fight doesn’t come out of the anti-American politicians’ pockets; it comes from those that pay taxes.

A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order in a Second Amendment Foundation challenge of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Sept. 8 edict suspending the constitutionally-protected right to bear arms, in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County.

District Judge David H. Urias issued the TRO, which extends to Oct. 3, when a hearing on the preliminary injunction request will be held. The TRO was effective immediately.

SAF is joined in this action by the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association, Firearms Policy Coalition and a private citizen, Zachary Fort, who resides in Bernalillo County. They are represented by Jordon George of Aragon Moss George Jenkins, LLP. The lawsuit and motion for the TRO were filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.

In addition to Gov. Lujan Grisham, defendants in the lawsuit are Patrick M. Allen, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health; Jason R. Bowie, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, and W. Troy Weisler, chief of the New Mexico State Police.

“We are delighted that the court wasted no time in clamping down on Gov. Lujan Grisham’s clearly unconstitutional suspension of Second Amendment rights,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “No governor has the authority to arbitrarily deny constitutional rights, especially on the flimsy argument this is a public health emergency.” Read more

Gun Control
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