Montana: Conservation License Required to Access Most State Lands

HELENA – Working with the 68th Legislature, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) simplified licensing requirements on state lands as part of Governor Gianforte’s Red Tape Relief Task Force.

The two agencies consolidated the conservation license and state lands recreational use license into one annual conservation license, supporting the maintenance of places like fishing access sites (FAS), wildlife management areas (WMA). On Montana school trust lands, conservation license sales will help fund Montana schools and other state institutions.

Effective July 1, Montanans who access state lands will be required to have a conservation license. Hunters, trappers, and anglers in Montana who have purchased licenses and tags this year already possess this license. Read more

Fishing, Hunting

SK Customs Partners with “Crispy” Avila to Honor our Nation’s Heroes this Independence Day

HAYMARKET, Va. — SK Customs® is proud to commemorate Independence Day along with Omar “Crispy” Avila to honor recipients of the Military Badge of Merit, the modern-day Purple Heart Medal.

“As Independence Day approaches, we recognize the sacrifice and unwavering dedication of those who have served our great Nation,” said Simon Khiabani, owner and founder of SK Customs. “Last year, we partnered with Purple Heart Homes, the Purple Heart Integration Project and U.S. Army veteran and content creator, Omar “Crispy” Avila. This partnership pays homage to our combat-wounded veterans through the limited-edition 240th Purple Heart Colt 1911 firearm, representing the spirit of freedom as we celebrate America’s independence.”

After being deployed to Iraq in 2007, Avila’s vehicle was struck by a 200 lb IED, resulting in burns up to 75% of his body and amputation below the knee of his right leg. Sergeant Avila retired from the U.S. Army in 2010 after serving for nearly a decade and devoted his life to serving other Veterans and helping wounded warriors across the Nation. Read more

Firearms

Walker’s Disrupter Electronic Ear Buds Available Both In-Store and Online

Walker’s Disrupter Electronic Ear Buds—All-New for 2023—Now Available Both In-Store and Online

Irving, TX –– The wait is over. After announcing the launch of their most innovative hearing protection and enhancement technology earlier this year, Walker’s newest product is now available both in-store and online through various retailers nationwide.

The all-new best-in-class Disrupter electronic ear buds up the ante by delivering the reliable noise protection and sound quality required everywhere from the range to the backcountry—cancelling dangerous-level noises, enhancing desired environmental sounds and delivering superior audio from cell phones, tablets and other devices through Bluetooth® connectivity. And they do so based on five programmed ambient sound settings—Universal, Clear Voice, Hi-Frequency Boost, Power Boost and Custom—each selected by the wearer to best suit the needs of their activity. Read more

Firearms

Dorsey Covers Unbroken Bonds of Battle in Forbes

The journey from rural roots in small town Georgia to the Fox News studio was a long and treacherous one for Johnny Joey Jones. While he may have grown up poor in the financial sense, he was blessed with a large, close-knit family that would later become his life support following a horrific encounter with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that took his legs in Afghanistan in 2010.

In Unbroken Bonds of Battle (part of Fox News’ Modern Warriors series), Jones showcases his life growing up in the rural South and the days and years leading up to his enlistment in the Marine Corps where he served as Staff Sergeant. Like many Marines, the Corps would become part of Jones’ extended family, a brotherhood of soldiers who were made inseparable through the experiences of combat.

Jones became an EOD Tech, short for Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician, one of the deadliest jobs in the War on Terror—the real-life Hurt Locker. The book consists of personal accounts from soldiers and others close to Jones, including fellow Marines and EOD techs—a special subset of warfighters who have the unenviable task of staring death in the eye daily to save fellow soldiers. While a sniper may provide a similar battlefield life insurance policy, if an EOD tech misses, they’re often dead. In the bloodiest years of the War on Terror—including the year in which Jones’ suffered his injuries—staggering percentages of bomb techs were killed or injured in combat.

To read the rest of this column click here.

General

NRA America’s 1st Freedom: Hispanics and the Second Amendment

Now on A1F.com: Raul Mas leaps into a topic the media is loath to acknowledge: More Hispanics today are buying guns than ever before. Mas argues that our Second Amendment freedom will be better protected at the ballot box if this growing community understands this constitutional right. To help bridge any divide, Mas gives a detailed list he learned from personal experience.

Find this and other articles related to your right to keep and bear arms at A1F.com.

Contact: Brook Chiasson

bchiasson@nrahq.org

(703) 267-1327

Self Defense

NWTF Introduces New Initiative to Combat Turkey Declines in Southeast

EDGEFIELD, S.C. — At its National Leadership Conference in Ridgedale, Missouri, the National Wild Turkey Federation revealed its new Habitat for the Hatch initiative, a southeastern landscape-scale effort that will directly combat the decline in wild turkey populations and improve overall ecosystem health.

Habitat for the Hatch will be laser focused on creating essential nesting habitat in close proximity to quality brood range. This new initiative seeks to create 1 million acres that fit these specific criteria in the next 10 years.

“We will continue our critical work addressing the complete annual cycle of wild turkey habitat needs,” NWTF co-CEO Kurt Dyroff said. “However, we must significantly increase the available acreage of quality nesting and brood-rearing habitat that is necessary for poult recruitment year after year. Habitat for the Hatch will do just that and on a scale that makes a quantifiable difference. This will result in more turkeys across the Southeast and ensure our beloved bird is conserved into perpetuity.”

Habitat for the Hatch encompasses all or portions of 17 southeastern states.

(The initiative area consists of NWTF‘s America‘s Mid-South Rebirth and America‘s Southern Piney Woods Big 6 Regions. Those regions include all or portions of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.) Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

New Nikon Nikkor 180-to-600mm Zoom Lens

The new Nikon Nikkor Z 180-to-600mm Super-Zoom Lens.

An unprecedented super-telephoto zoom lens for Z-series mirrorless cameras – the Nikon Nikkor Z 180-to-600mm f–5.6-to-6.3 VR Super-Zoom Lens provides outstanding sharpness across its entire zoom range. Created for the demanding needs of outdoor enthusiasts, sports photographers, and bird photographers, this lens covers an expansive telephoto range allowing you to take thrilling photos and videos with this versatile super-zoom lens in a relatively compact and lightweight design.

Relatively economical in price, the 180-to-600mm f–5.6-to-6.3 VR is a powerful zoom lens, and with only a 70-degree twist of the lens you can transition from close to maximum zoom for quick framing of stationary, moving, and flying birds. The built-in optical Vibration Reduction (VR) system automatically reduces camera shake when hand-held. This Nikkor Z Lens features 6 ED (extra-low dispersion) glass elements to increase light transmission and reduce light dispersion, effectively eliminating chromatic aberration and color fringing throughout the zoom range for added clarity and color accuracy. Read more

Optics

Bird Songs

A male Orchard Oriole sings its spring song to the delight of nearby residents (photo by Paul Konrad).

While we are still enjoying the variety of bird songs that have provided background music for a couple months now, we uncovered a recent article that provides a new research on bird songs, especially the songs of female birds. We have long known that bird songs serve 2 primary purposes: To establish and defend a territories and to attract mates. Songs often carry long distances and display the singer’s health and vigor, which should warn potential competitors and attract a potential mate.

Although we generally think of male birds as being the ones that sing, in recent years, ornithologists have turned fresh attention to female songs. Female song has now been documented in 70 percent of songbird species, but it’s especially prevalent in birds that live in the tropics, which helps explain why it’s been largely overlooked. The birds of North America and Europe have historically been much more thoroughly studied than their tropical counterparts, creating something of an information bias.

Female birds sing for similar reasons as males, including to defend territories and communicate with mates or potential mates. Women researchers have been the key drivers in recent studies of female bird songs, which stands an example of how opening up science to underrepresented groups leads to new challenges toward established assumptions, adding new ideas, and uncovering new information.

Learning Species-Specific Songs

Young birds typically learn their songs by listening to and imitating adults. Because songs are passed down from one generation to the next, some species have regional dialects, with noticeable differences between individuals’ songs that live in widely different parts of a species’ range. Read more

Wildlife

Federal Ammunition HammerDown 444 Marlin Now Available

ANOKA, MN – Federal Ammunition’s HammerDown is in the industry’s only ammunition product line truly designed for optimal cycling and overall performance from the time-tested, lever-action rifle platform. Federal successfully launched Its HammerDown line in 2020, and today the product lineup includes options such as 357 Mag., 44 Mag., 30-30 Win., 45-70 Government, and more. Currently, the new 444 Marlin, 270-grain load is now available at select dealers. Read more

Ammunition

The Rowdy XL from Bond Arms, a New Take on a Proven Design

Granbury, TX – The Rowdy was an exciting release from Bond Arms® in 2022 and has quickly become a staple in the brand’s lineup. Bond continues to develop the design into a new and modernized version called the Rowdy XL. New for 2023, the Rowdy XL features a bigger size, a more user-friendly design, and all the power one could ask for in a double-barrel handgun.

The Rowdy XL is a straightforward design full of features and potential uses. Made from sturdy construction and given an uplift, the Rowdy XL is sure to perform and deliver in both high-stress environments and on the range. Coming in 410/45 Colt, it’s a perfect companion pistol or stand-alone defense tool.

The 3.5 in. barrel has been beefed up compared to the original Rowdy, although the larger design won’t sacrifice exceptional accuracy. The overall finish is muted slightly and does not have a hand-polished finish. Not only does this reduce glare, it also saves on production costs. These savings are therefore trickled down to the consumer! Read more

Firearms
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