Week of November 24, 2008

Feature USA Discount



Perfect for the holidays - JEPA Technologies, a full-service custom engraving company, offers a wide array of one-of-a-kind engraving solutions for your personal and business needs. JEPA Technologies is proud to offer all USA members a 15% discount for all online purchases.

Click here to take advantage of this special offer.

Gun-A-Month Oct. Winner

James Coker
Member of IAMAW Local 1
Stockbridge, GA

All USA Members are included in the USA Gun-A-Month drawing.

Member Gear Review 

If you are looking for warm hunting clothing that also keeps you dry, try Cabela’s Dry Plus line of clothing. They are made of machine washable wool and poly fabrics. I have the wool pants, and they are great. I have never worn anything that keeps your butt dry while sitting in a wet snowy saddle.

Shared by Egbert VonSeggern, Retired IAFF member in Casper, Wyoming. 

Click here to view or post gear reviews on the USA forums.

Give 25 - Get 365



In honor of T.R.'s 150th birthday, the TRCP's 2009 calendar titled "Teddy's Vision, Our Mission" features stunning nature photography and historical quotes and images of Theodore Roosevelt.  Donate $25 or more to support the TRCP’s efforts to guarantee you a place to hunt and fish and get a little something back along the way. Click here.

Get Connected

Share your hunting, fishing or outdoor experiences with your fellow USA members by sending us your:

* Favorite hunting/fishing story
* Best outdoor photos
* Tips or techniques
* Fish or game recipe
* Hunting/fishing jokes

Send to USAmembers@trcp.org  for possible inclusion in USA newsletter or website.

Join the USA ProStaff

Earn great prizes such as outdoor gear or a new Beretta shotgun as you help build the USA!

The USA is a program of the

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), a coalition of America's leading conservation

groups, trade unions and individuals working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing. 

Learn more about the sportsmen's issues the TRCP is working on at www.TRCP.org.

 

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More Member Photos

 

 

Keith Kirchner, Retired USW member

in Nashville, TN.

 

John DeJulio, President of IAFF

Local 2542 in Olathe, KS.

 

 

 

Josh Ringgold, USA member in LaPlata, MD and son of UA Local 602 member Wess Ringgold.

 

 

Bayley Cashion, son of IAM Local

1725 member William Cashion in Davidson, NC.

 

 

Dale Hill, member of SMWIA and Secretary-Treasurer of the Wyoming AFL-CIO in Casper, WY.

 

 

 

Lee Legler, member of IAFF Local

3234 in Yorkville, IL.

 

 

 

Randy Scott, member of UA Local

32 in Seattle, WA .

 

 

 

Bill Fuller, member of Ironworkers

Local 21 in Omaha, NE.

 

 

 

 

Gary Vieser, member of IBEW

Local 2038 in MooseJaw, Saskatchewan, CAN 

In This Issue:

Best Shot Photo Contest
Exceptional Holiday Deals Exclusively for USA Members
USA Members Race into November at Texas Motor SpeedwayThick Cover Bucks
Gray Squirrel - A Darn Fine Game Animal
What Would Teddy Do?
Salmon Dip Recipe

Best Shot Photo Contest | October Winner



Contest winner Nicole Zeiser, daughter of IBEW 1547 member Dennis Zeiser, harvested this Roosevelt elk in Afognak Island, Alaska on opening day, September 25, 2008. 

Send us your best hunting, fishing or outdoor photos for your chance to win a #110 Buck knife engraved with the USA logo ($70 value) in our USA Best Shot monthly photo contest.  Send photos with your name, phone and address by email to USAmembers@trcp.org or by mail to USA-Best Shot Photo Contest, 3340 Perimeter Hill Dr., Nashville, TN  37211. 

Photos will not be returned.  By submitting a photo, you acknowledge that you have read and agreed to the Contest Rules.

SCROLL DOWN to see more member photos in the left column.

Special Offer | Exceptional Holiday Deals Exclusively for USA Members

Whether you’re ready or not, it comes every year toward the end of big game season—the holidays!  And if you’re like many sportsmen, you would rather sit in the woods until your fingers and face go numb than set foot in a shopping mall near Christmas.  Thankfully, the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance is here to help with phenomenal discounts on gift items and outdoor gear, exclusively for USA members. 

So whether you’re looking for the perfect gift for the outdoorsman or outdoorswoman in your life or need to let someone know what you’d like to see under the tree this year, check out all the exclusive holiday gift offers from USA partners at www.UnionSportsmen.org/Deals.

On top of great savings, enjoy FREE shipping and handling on all standard deliveries.  Offers and merchandise are only available for a limited time, so forget crowded stores and visit www.UnionSportsmen.org/Deals today.

If you still can’t find the right gift for the hard-to-shop-for hunter or angler, give the gift that keeps on giving through every fish and game season - a USA membership.  With a one-year magazine subscription, a Free Buck knife, a chance to win a gun every month, a Beretta gift certificate and a whole lot more, your giving a gift worth more than $115 for a price of just $25!

Featured Winners | USA Members Race into November at Texas Motor Speedway
by Kate Cywinski

November began at breakneck speed for union members Bob Wewers and Nick Kashi as they experienced their first-ever NASCAR race at the Texas Motor Speedway.

The trip was part of a Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) fall giveaway, sponsored by Beretta, which awarded two USA members each with a fully-loaded NASCAR weekend package and an American Citizen Beretta shotgun, for a total value of $6,000. 

Wewers, a member of Sheet Metal Workers International Association Local 10 in Roseville, Minn., joined the USA because he is “a big hunter and an even bigger union guy.  Anything to do with unions and hunting is a definite win-win.”  Wewers didn’t know the USA was giving away the trip until his wife told him to get off the phone with the dentist office and take a call from the USA. “Me and my wife were both in shock—it was just unbelievable,” Wewers said.

Kashi, a member of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 639 in Parma, Ohio, also learned that he won the trip through his wife, who was a bit more skeptical.  “She was about to hang up.  She thought it was a telemarketing kind of thing,” Kashi said.  It was pretty exciting being randomly drawn from all those members.”

Wewers, Kashi and their wives began their fast-action weekend in Dallas on Friday night at the Chevy Silverado 350 from their vantage point in the Beretta private suite.  On Saturday, they headed down to the pits to be right in the middle of the action prior to the Nationwide Series: O’Reilly Challenge.

“I got headphones and got to listen to the crew chiefs talking to the drivers.  Just seeing them on the track was overwhelming,” Kashi said.  “It’s a whole different experience than watching it on TV.”

“I couldn’t believe how friendly all the drivers and pit crews were,” Wewers said.  “They really geared themselves to the fans.  We got pictures with all the guys—they just went above and beyond.”

On the final day of their Texas Motor Speedway weekend, the couples returned to the track for the Dickies 500.  “It was unbelieveable—200,000 people packed in for this race,” said Wewers, who watched the race in the stands with his wife to get “the real experience.” 


“Carl Edwards won. They didn’t think he was going to make it,” Kashi said in reference to Edwards’ risky attempt to squeeze 69 laps out of his final tank of fuel. “So it was pretty exciting to be in the mix of it all and see how it ended up.”

As avid deer hunters, both Kashi and Wewers were just as pumped about winning an American-made Beretta shotgun as part of their prize package.

“I’m a big hunter.  I couldn’t believe I won a trip and a gun.  Thanks Beretta and USA,” said Wewers who enjoys being part of the USA because it “pulls together union men and women with hunting and fishing interests” as well as “offers great perks.”

Sharing that sentiment, Kashi likes the way the USA keeps members in the loop through the website and offers special promotions.  “I guess I’m still pretty speechless about the whole thing,” he said.  “I just want to thank the USA and Beretta.”

Kashi and Wewers are among the three USA members to win a VIP trip to the Texas Motor Speedway since 2007, thanks to the USA’s partnership with Beretta.

“We at Beretta recognize the value of the USA as it brings together union sportsmen who share a passion for the outdoors and a desire to preserve it for future generations” said Christopher Merritt, General Manager of Beretta USA.  “The Texas Motor Speedway promotion was a tremendous success in 2007, so we were thrilled to expand the promotion to award two USA members with an incredible racing experience and an American-made 3901 this year.”

Hunting Technique | Thick Cover Bucks
by David Hart

An interesting thing takes place in the days following the deer season opener. Bucks that casually pranced through fields and strolled through open woods during daylight hours have vanished. Some are already converted to steaks, roasts and burger, but plenty are still out there, just not where you happen to be looking.

Instead, they have got nocturnal, diving head-first into places few hunters dare go and venturing out to feed only under the veil of darkness. Numerous studies have shown exactly that.  In fact, in several instances, hunters walked within yards of bucks bedded down in super-thick cover.

Whether you hunt Southern pine plantations, Heartland farm country, Western river bottoms or the big woods of the North, pressured bucks have one thing in common: They know where to hide to avoid hunters. Surprisingly, however, many hunters continue to hunt open country with the expectation that if they sit long enough, a buck just might come walking by. Odds are they won’t, at least not a mature buck with a few seasons under his belt. 

So how do you get to them? First, you have to identify those places that qualify as escape cover. In a nutshell, if it looks too thick for a rabbit to squeeze through, it’s probably exactly the type of cover that whitetails favor. Even a buck with a gnarly crown on his head can slip through dense briers, thick young trees and willow thickets. You’d be surprised.

Wise hunters plan well ahead of the season and do plenty of scouting in advance of opening day. That way, they know exactly where to go once the deer figure out the game. Whether you scout early or start looking after opening day, the only way to find a good spot is to pull on some brush pants, a pair of leather gloves and a canvas jacket and plow head-first into the cover. Surprisingly, dense cover is often super-thick only on the outside edges where sunlight touches the plants. Inside that edge, however, the cover often opens up, revealing a dark, damp world that few hunters ever see. It’s hardly similar to the wide-open woods you are used to hunting—a long shot might be 20 yards. Still, it can be open enough to stand up and walk, but not always.

Once you get into a thicket, you have to find obvious travel routes and not-so-obvious trails. When you do find good sign, look for a place to sit. A tree stand is out of the question, so plan on sitting on the ground 20 or 30 yards away from the trail. The farther away from travel corridors the better, but don’t hesitate to get within 10 yards, even less, if you don’t have a choice. A good way to create some additional distance is to hack out some shooting lanes with a brush axe or even a chain saw. Don’t get too crazy—deer like that cover because it’s thick. 

So what do you shoot? A shotgun loaded with buckshot is hard to beat, but buckshot does have its drawbacks. Its effective range is limited to about 40 yards and the pellets can lose a fair amount of energy if they have to bust through vines and tree branches. A better choice might be a scoped shotgun loaded with slugs. A properly matched gun and load will give you more range than you’ll need, and a slug has enough punch to knock down any deer at close range. Even a scoped rifle will work, but make certain your scope is screwed down to the lowest magnification possible. It’s tough to find the vitals on a deer at 30 yards with a 9-power scope.

Any time you hunt thick cover, it’s wise to wear lots of blaze orange, even if your game laws don’t require it. (Many states don’t during special muzzleloader seasons.) As long as you sit still and stay quiet, you’ll be invisible to any deer that passes within range. And even if a buck does see you, it will be too late because thick cover is the last place any deer expects to see a hunter.

Gray Squirrel - A Darn Fine Game Animal
by Ken Barrett

My first game animal was a fat gray squirrel that I knocked out of a tall, red oak with a 20-gauge shotgun when I was eleven. I kept his tail for years as a reminder of my first trophy, and I was as proud of that squirrel as any deer or elk I ever shot. For me and millions of kids, cutting our hunting teeth on rabbits, squirrels and other small game was a rite of passage; deer and other big game came later.

Sadly, the woodlots and fields that so many of us took for granted has given way to subdivisions, shopping malls and No Hunting signs. Sadder still, many of us have outgrown rabbits and squirrels in our quest for big game and trophy book scores. And while I never completely gave up on squirrels, the only species available in Montana are pine nut eating red squirrels not known for their fine tasting meat!

So when I got an invitation to go on an old time South Georgia squirrel hunt last December with Glenn Dowling, Georgia Wildlife Biologist Reggie Thackston and squirrel fanatics Nick Nichols and Frank Boyd, I jumped. Nick and Frank own Feist dogs, a breed raised and trained to hunt squirrels for hundreds of years. I was truly excited about this hunt; but I didn’t know what a treat I was in for.

We gathered at Georgia’s Chickasawhatchee Wildlife Management Area, a half-hour drive from Dawson, Georgia. Chickasawhatchee WMA has more than 20,000 acres open to public hunting and fishing, including prime squirrel habitat. We drove a short way and turned loose three Fiest dogs, as we took to the woods. One man acted as spotter, three carried the requisite .22’s, and I carried a shotgun to shoot runners coursing through the treetops to gain cover.

The Fiest dogs, miniature hound/terrier crosses of arguable ancestry, were intense and intelligent hunters. They worked the woods like bird dogs combing a field, stopping to check every tree trunk for scent.  It wasn’t long before one dog opened up with a yip, yap, yip, followed by the others, and we soon came upon one dog trying to climb a tree, while the other two barked up a storm. All five men encircled the tree and began to look for the squirrel, while Frank did a systematic search with his binoculars. 

After a few minutes, he saw the squirrel flattened against a limb, like a tiny gray rug, some 70 feet up. Glenn took a shot with his .22, and the squirrel was off running through the treetops with three barking dogs and five grown men in pursuit. “He’s goin’ to wood,” yelled Frank, meaning he was headed for a hole and safety. 

I threw the 28 gauge O/U to my shoulder, found the squirrel’s erratic and speedy path, pushed the barrels out in front, snicked off the safety and pulled the trigger. Leaves fell, but the squirrel kept going. I regained my lead and fired again, and the artful dodger tumbled downward to the leaves below. The dogs were on it, covering it up as though it were a miniature mountain lion, growling and nipping at it. Frank reached in and grabbed the beginnings of a fried squirrel dinner.  While we stood admiring the treetop acrobat, Glenn looked around and said, “Wasn’t that fun.  It took three crazed dogs and a thousand pounds of men running through a South Georgia Swamp to get a 12 ounce squirrel!” 

We broke up laughing. And though it may have sounded like the laughter of grown men, it was really the unabashed laughter of boys immersed in the utter joy and exhalation of this thing we call hunting. We were caught up in the moment and instantly recognized the gray squirrel for what he is - a darn fine and worthy game animal.

The scene was repeated a number of times that day. When it came to an end, Frank turned to me and said, “There’s no better animal to start a kid on; all it takes is a squirrel woods and a single shot .22.”

“Amen to that,” I said.  “I think it’s time I trade one of my big game rifles for a good squirrel gun.” 

The great American novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote, “You can’t go home again.” To that, all I can say is he must not have been a squirrel hunter because that day in the squirrel woods took me back, nearly fifty years, to the place and time where I began hunting. 

Join Ken Barrett for this fast-action Georgia Squirrel Hunt on TRCP’s Life in the Open – Airs December 6th at 12PM Eastern and December 7th at 1PM Eastern on VERSUS Country . 

Conservation | What Would Teddy Do?

If Theodore Roosevelt were alive today, what would he do in the face of our most challenging conservation issues affecting our opportunities to hunt, fish and enjoy the outdoors?

In honor of the 150th birthday of our most bully president, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership attempted to answer that question by creating a unique pocket guide to conservation policy.

Teddy’s Pocket Guide approaches seven conservation policy issues, from wetlands protection to energy development, through Theodore Roosevelt’s spectacles.

“This guide is the product of putting on T.R.’s signature glasses and examining today’s conservation challenges,” said TRCP President and CEO George Cooper. “We did so in celebration of Roosevelt’s 150th birthday and the lasting conservation legacy he gave us.”

The issues included in Teddy’s Pocket Guide will serve as the subjects to be covered in the 150-Day Conservation Report Card to be released by the TRCP later this year. The report card will honor T.R’s spirit by grading the incoming Congress and presidential administration on how well they adhere to the highest standards of stewardship of our shared fish and wildlife resources.

“Be they Democrat or Republican, history should fondly remember the leaders who strive to conserve,” said TRCP Chairman James D. Range. “Whatever their party affiliation, we hope our new leaders will want to be remembered in the same way that Teddy is remembered. And we hope this guide will help show them the way.”

Join the TRCP and USA in raising a glass to the 26th president and the man who helped preserve the hunting and fishing heritage we enjoy today.  To request a copy of Teddy’s Pocket Guide, please email USAmembers@trcp.org or call 615-831-6751.