The reports continue to come across the wire about August, 2010 hunt by Eric and Donald Trump, Jr.  This story by GILLIAN GOTORA Associated Press Reporter that ran on The Huffington Post is just one example of the kind of poor journalism that exists in todays society and should be a wake up call to the hunting community that we must stand up and speak out.

The article appears on The Huffington Post:

Trump's Sons Hunting Trip Probed By Zimbabwe Officials

I could not help myself and had to respond to the article that has so many holes in this story...Here is my response:

It is shocking to me the comments on this story and frustrating all at the same time.  It shocks me that the AP wire runs stories like this without seriously looking at the sources for the information.

Legal hunting took a publicity hit this week in the form of the biggest PR disaster for Donald Trump.  Private Leaked Photos from Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump sons of famous real estate tycoon Donald Trump.  The situation started with TMZ taking leaked photos and publishing them online.  Both TMZ and The Huffington Post jumped on the bandwagon and threw around words like endangered species and the PR engines began to churn as suppossedly professional jounalists began to search out quotes from just about everyone.  Every news organization in the country jumped on the bandwagon continuing to spread the story far and wide.

Marcus Lemonis, chairman and CEO of outdoor industry giant Good Sam Entertainment (Camping World and Good Sam Club) got tied up in this in a knee jerk reaction to the controversy this week as well with a comment that he would never give another nickel of advertising to Celebrity Apprentice caused an instant stir from both sides of the fence.  Anti-Hunters praised him and outdoorsmen and hunters from all over the world moved to boycott the 75 locations of camping world.

A hunter's vision is his or her biggest asset in being able to spot game so taking care of your eyes and getting proper care and the right glasses as you get older will help you to become a better hunter.

Throughout my entire life I have heard the phrase, "Good Eyes, Kevin!" as I spotted game from various vantage points. I began to hear these kinds of things from the age of 5 when I would go out with my dad and I began to treat it like a game whenever we were out, I wanted to spot more game and be the first to see deer. I would sit with binoculars for hours at a time glued to my face looking for deer. I carried this trait through into my life and it has helped me to become a better hunter, especially out in the West where the open country allows you to be able to spot game up to a mile away and then pull up the binoculars to see if those animals are worth pursuing. Great eye site is a tremendous advantage.

It's hard to call a season where I put 4 deer's worth of venison in my freezer a failure, but somehow, looking back over this past fall, I don't really feel successful. Let me start at the beginning and recap my 2011 deer season here in New York. Several factors contributed to the overall lack of success on large deer experienced across my small group of hunting partners. This is a group of about 10 that regularly put several deer over 170" gross on the ground each and every year. None of us came close this year. The first factor was a total lack of mast crop this year. Not a single acorn fell in our county this year. The second was an outbreak of "blue Tongue" disease which wiped out a significant number of deer in May thru August. The third I will get to soon.

As the October 15 opener approached, no one really had an eye on a big deer. I had one 8 point buck in the 140 class in an industrial park I have sole access to and another 140 class 8 in spot that several of us hunt. We decided to cluster 3 of us on two side of a steep rock cliff that the later buck was crossing each day. As luck would have it, Dave put him down with a great shot that opening afternoon. Little did we know, he would wind up as our largest buck of the entire season, scoring a respectable 144, yet nowhere near the potential of our area.

We really enjoyed the opportuntiy to be interviewd by the team at NRA Life of Duty about the work we have been doing to promote thier great message. 

You can see the interview here at:  NRA LIFE OF DUTY

We appreciate everything that the NRA is doing to highlight our great men and women working in the Line of Duty and we feel honored to be working beside them to help spread this message.

Alaska is home to some of the best salmon fishing in the world. Its most popular spots are along the Kenai Peninsula in southern Alaska. Some popular fishing spots in the Kenai area are the Cook Inlet, Kenai River, Kasilof River, Russian River, Ninilchik River, the town of Homer and Soldotna. Most of these names have a Russian background, as Russia owned Alaska before the US purchased it for 7.2 million dollars in 1868. Going to Alaska on a wildlife adventure is a once in a lifetime experience. My father left six hours after his wedding to catch a plane with his brothers, to experience Alaska’s wonders. It is not a family tradition or anything of that sort, but I also happened to leave early to go to Alaska for the first time.

The year is 2005; I am 10 years old, old enough to go. Since the salmon start to run, (come into the peninsula to spawn), in late May, I had not finished up 5^th grade yet. I happened to leave 2 days before graduation of elementary school, which caused me to miss the ceremonies. No big deal, I had been longing to go to Alaska since I had seen my father’s pictures of his previous trips, listening to his adventurous stories, and tasting some of the delicious unlimited halibut and salmon we had after his trips. Now my opportunity was here, I was ecstatic.

Download the lastest copy of the Kid's Gone Hunting March Newsletter

 Kids Gone Hunting Newsletter

Kids Gone Hunting Foundation
www.kidsgonehunting.com

If your property only includes mature woods and food plots, it's time to get nasty. Nasty thick cover, that is.

As forest stands mature, shade from large trees chokes out shrubs and other plants that offer secure habitat for nesting wild turkey hens, deer and other wildlife. Tree canopies can be like an umbrella preventing sunlight from reaching the forest floor during the growing season. This shading typically causes the ground cover to be reduced or eliminated through the natural process called forest succession.

Secure cover is just as important to wildlife as food. Humans don't enjoy walking through it, but nasty thick cover is guaranteed to make the wildlife on your property feel right at home.

A trio of mallards swooped down the wooded embankment in front of blind, swung out to the right and circled low over our decoys directly in front of blind, “Picture Perfect “. Six shots later, 2 ducks lay on the water and the 3rd was coming back for another look at all those ducks sitting on the pond and quacking enticingly at him. My partner and I frantically stuffed more shells into our empty guns just in time to open fire once again and produce a third duck for Tom’s Labrador to fetch back to our blind. As we added these latest ducks to our growing pile, we just couldn’t stop laughing. That morning, 4 of us would go on to shoot 38 mallards, going through almost 200 shells in the process, and having more fun than should be legal. Before you do the math and call the authorities, you must realize we were at a wonderful shooting preserve only 2 hours drive from New York City.

I had always been against canned duck hunts, having grown up adjacent to a marsh that I duck hunted in virtually every day of the season from the time I was 12 until I moved away for college 6 years later, and we had long seasons back then. I would get up, walk out the door, shoot the dawn flight, go to school, come home and shoot the sunset flight. Since I also ran a trap line at the same time, this was a daily occurrence. That kind of access to quality duck hunting is not available to the average person in the East anymore. A few years ago, we decided to try a hunt with Tom Mackin at TMT preserve in the beautiful Hudson River Valley north of New York City. To say I have a new appreciation for a quality preserve duck hunt is an understatement. We now have every Election Day booked for the foreseeable future. Friends beg to come along, but the original 4 almost never say NO!

BISMARCK, N.D.—Snow-sodden fields.  Ankle-deep mud. Biting winds, driving rains and cold-to-the-bone temperatures.

Spring snow goose hunters happily endure Mother Nature’s unpredictable mood swings to chase geese that hold advanced degrees in survival. Snow geese can be older than you, and have witnessed, from their lofty, discriminating vantage point, untold decoy spreads during their travels across the continent. They’re savvy, cunning and difficult to hunt—even exasperating—but far from impossible.

If you’re looking for a prescription for successfully hunting spring snows, Delta Waterfowl has a small coterie of snow goose aficionados who are qualified to help. After years of hunting these wily birds, they’ve learned some fool-proof (or nearly so) secrets to help fill your freezer with some tasty wild protein. Enjoy the spring season.