Much of the Northeast USA recently suffered from smoke drifting south from massive forest fires in Canada. This underscores the importance of helping to prevent wildfires. There were 68,988 wildfires in 2022 that burned more than 7.5 million acres of land throughout the country, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. These conflagrations — an increase from 2021 of over 10,000 more wildfires — caused billions of dollars in damage plus hardship for both people and wildlife.

NSSF reminds target shooters and hunters to take precautions so they don’t accidently ignite a wildfire. Some 90 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by human actions.

KEY PRECAUTIONS:
1. Be aware of any/all restrictions on shooting and other activities in fire-prone areas.
2. Do NOT use tracer rounds, exploding targets or ammunition that is steel-jacketed or contains steel-core components.
3. Be aware that a car, truck, or ATV’s hot exhaust system can ignite dry vegetation — so stay on roads whenever possible. Park only in designated areas and don’t leave the motor running in wilderness areas.
4. Make sure all campfires and smoking materials are properly extinguished.

NSSF’s Help Prevent Wildfires public service campaign helps remind recreational shooters and outdoor enthusiasts to be mindful of their surroundings and to follow the key precautions outlined above. Wildfires are tragic in many ways. Remember that most wildfires can be prevented if people pay attention to their surroundings and follow safe practices.

Here are some great rifle-centric outdoor photos courtesy of Nightforce Optics. Perhaps these “gunscapes” will encourage you to grab your rifle and head out into the wilderness this weekend. These images are part of an ongoing series of rifle photos posted on the Nightforce Facebook page. Can you identify the optics, and any of the locations?

These notable images remind us of the lure of the great outdoors for a rifleman. Going for a range session or taking your rifle on a game hunt gives you a chance to experience the grandeur of America’s mountains and wild backcountry.

Recommended Books about Hunting
There’s no shortage of good hunting-related reading material. Here are some of the best books written about hunting. You can find all these titles on Amazon.com. Many are offered in eBook format as well as printed versions. Click on the link(s) below to preview a sample from each book.

Hemingway on Hunting by Ernest Hemingway.

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold.

Beyond Fair Chase: The Ethic and Tradition of Hunting by Jim Posewitz.

Meditations on Hunting by Jose Ortega y Gasset.

Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail by Theodore Roosevelt (illustrations by Frederic Remington).

Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told by Lamar Underwood (Editor).

It’s Only Slow Food Until You Try to Eat It by Bill Heavey.

The Beginner’s Guide to Hunting Deer for Food by Jackson Landers.

American Hunter: How Legendary Hunters Shaped America by Willie Robertson and William Doyle.

Whitetail Nation: My Season in Pursuit of the Monster Buck by Peter Bodo.

The best thing that can be done for the future of sport shooting in America is to recruit more female and junior participants. Young people are the future of the sport. Involving women in shooting can help reverse a “gender gap” in voting patterns that has favored anti-gun politicians. The more we can get women to enjoy shooting and adopt a positive attitude towards firearms, the harder it will be for anti-gun forces to marshal support for restrictive new laws.

The above video features NRA programs for women of all ages and experience levels. Such programs include Women On Target® (WOT) Instructional Shooting Clinics, hunts for women, and the popular Women’s Wilderness Escapes. There are even ladies-only WOT Postal Matches. Ladies can also take part in all the NRA competitive shooting disciplines: handgun, trap/skeet, air rifle, smallbore, silhouette, high power, F-Class, and even the new NRA-sanctioned multi-gun matches.

Junior Womens’ Programs
Young women have the chance to participate in many specialized shooting programs for juniors, including the Youth Hunter Education Challenge, NRA Day events, CMP Junior leagues, and the Winchester/NRA Marksmanship Qualification Program. The NRA Foundatrion also offers a Women’s Wildlife Management/Conservation Scholarships. This women’s scholarship, from the Women of the NRA, is a renewable, one-year, $1,000 scholarship available to full-time college juniors or seniors with a minimum grade point average of 3.0, majoring in wildlife management/conservation.