The Outdoor Scene

Something happened to Abby Sharpless when she was 7 years old that should never happen to any child. She was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Abby’s dad Robin, a fixture in the gun industry, and I have made it a point to catch up with each other on career and family news for years. When he told me about Abby’s diagnosis in 2002, I felt shocked and helpless.

Today, Abby is a busy 14-year-old. At 7 years out of surgery and 5 years out of treatment, under the protocol this young lady is considered a survivor. And by God this little bundle of determination is exactly that. The road to cancer recovery is an unthinkable test even for an adult. It’s hard to imagine how a child could handle such an ordeal.

Abby was one of a small group of kids who were trial patients for a new protocol of chemo drugs.  Prior to her group it was not considered a cancer that had a good outcome.   However, after two surgeries that removed her entire right frontal lobe and two years of intensive treatment, Abby is still happily with us. She will have some lifelong endocrine issues due to radiation treatment. But the teenager I talked to on the phone last weekend was full of vim and vigor and the joy in her father’s voice was unmistakable.

Medical issues aside, the psyche of a young cancer survivor also takes a beating. Fortunately, Robin heard about Camp Good Days and Special Times through the pediatric cancer center where Abby was treated. Camp Good Days has allowed Abby to experience some of the greatest weeks of her life; meeting kids just like her and helping her realize she is not so different. 

“I made a lot of new friends,” Abby reported. “And I stuck my neck out from my hole in the ground.”

Abby said she’s shared her camp experience with Nick, a friend she went through treatment with and enjoys performing skits with another friend, Rachel, at the Good Days Camp talent show. Abby clearly loves to play with the camp pets and enjoys the arts and crafts and wood working. Then, there were the big events she experienced such as riding in a race car at Watkins Glen at 130 miles per hour and taking her turn at flying an airplane with a group of other campers.  Abby’s big sister Bethany also attended the Camp’s special program for children who have a parent or sibling who has been diagnosed with cancer or sickle cell anemia.

“Bethany is a great kid but when one child has the disease the other’s life is changed dramatically and forever,” Robin said.  “Bethany credits her weeks at camp as giving her a great understanding and a pool of friends who she can relate to even now that she has grown.”

Camp Good Days and Special Times is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children, adults and families whose lives have been touched by cancer through summer camping experiences and year-round events and activities. The women’s oncology programs, for example, offer a variety of experiences for women who have dealt with cancer. Programs range from arts and crafts to adventure activities such as fishing, boating, swimming, rock climbing, ropes course and other outdoor experiences. See more about Camp Good Days at www.campgooddays.org

The best part of this camp, which is located on the shores of Keuka Lake in upstate New York, is all the activities and events are offered free of charge for participants. Thus volunteerism and fund raising are critical components for driving these programs.

Robin, who is now executive vice president for Redding Reloading, wanted to give something back to Camp Good Days. He’s taken the bull by the horns by designing and creating a pink baseball hat with 100 percent of the proceeds being donated to Camp Good Days and Special Times women’s oncology program. I asked Robin why would Redding Reloading, a company best known for manufacturing reloading equipment for metallic rifle and handgun cartridges, want to support women with cancer?

Bethany Sharpless models the Redding pink hat.

 
“It is simple, the family of people who make up our company have all been touched by this terrible disease,” Robin said.  “As such Redding Reloading Equipment designed our pink hat to help in a small way to ease the suffering and the lifelong difficulties associated with cancer. We teamed with Camp Good Days and Special Times because of their great work and outdoor activities focus.  100 percent of the profits from this special Redding Reloading hat will go to the women’s oncology programs at Camp Good Days. 

“I know of the Camp’s good works from a very personal experience. While Camp Good Days was created for children, over its 30 years camp leaders have seen needs and added programs for a variety of other cancer victims.  The women’s oncology program was chosen for our pink hat, and I hope we at Redding can develop other special hats to benefit the other programs the camp makes available.”

It is simple. Robin and the others at Redding Reloading are good folks who care. Show you care, too. Call Redding Reloading to order your pink hat today at 607-753-3331. Hats cost $15 plus shipping but the chance to contribute to recovering cancer patients is priceless.

To the old hands at a shooting range who have only a dim recollection of the pain, it’s jokingly called a scope kiss. To those who can vividly remember having their gun scope clobber them in the forehead, it is most assuredly a scope bite.

Whatever you want to call it, pulling the trigger and having the rifle scope smack your brow line can be a real turnoff for new or experienced shooters. Most are so hopped up on adrenalin; though, they don’t even know there was a half moon howdy-do between their eyepiece and eyebrow until the blood trickles down their face.

There are three main reasons why shooters get scope bit, according to Vickie Gardner, Alpen Optics vice president of marketing and stuff.

“Number one, it happens when people get excited, and they’re not focusing on what they’re doing,” Vickie said. “Another reason is when people are shooting, they’re trying to see the full field of view through their scope. If they’re not seeing it, they tend to scooch their face up on the stock to get a better look. And the third reason is the scope isn’t mounted correctly for the shooter. It should be mounted so there is enough room between the ocular lens and your eyeball so you don’t have to struggle to get the full picture.”

There are steps you can take to make sure you don’t have a head on collision with your scope.

First, be an active part of the process of buying your scope and having it mounted so it’s right for you.

“When you buy a rifle scope, make sure it has soft rubber ocular covers in case you do get bumped,” Vickie advised. “Older scopes often have sharp edges. All Alpen scopes feature that more forgiving rubber ring.

“Also, if you’re shooting a bigger gun, a recoil pad will help you keep your distance from the scope.”

Lastly, Vickie recommends that you get comfortable with your gun.

“Know where to put your face on the stock and practice that way so your positioning becomes second nature. Although shooting is fun, try not to get too excited. Shoot with control. Breath in, then breath halfway out and squeeze the trigger. Don’t hold your breath.”

Bottom line, use your head for thinking, so it doesn’t end up as a battering ram.

If you’ve ever eyeballed a deer stand and wondered if it was safe or worried your scope might have been bumped last season, then you know those nagging doubts can suck the fun out of deer hunting. At best, your angst will prevent you from seeing any deer and if you do find one to shoot, you’ll probably flat out miss.  At worst, you could injure an animal or hurt yourself in a treestand incident. Fortunately, there are steps you can take for a successful, stress-free deer season.

While it’s okay to procrastinate when it comes to doing the laundry or to drag your heels getting ready for work in the morning, it’s not all right to blow off preparing for deer season. The whole purpose of spending time outdoors is to enjoy yourself, which you can’t do if you’re suffering from a full blown anxiety attack.

Now is the time to prepare for deer season and Vicki Mountz, who heads up the information and education group for the Ohio Division of Wildlife and has deer hunted for decades, suggests you start with gear maintenance.

“One of the things you want to do is take a hard look at your equipment,” Vicki said. “If you’re a bow hunter, do you need to wax your bow string or is it time to replace it? If you use a crossbow, check the screws and tighten them up if needed. Gun hunters, your scope could have been bumped over the period of a year, so you need to sight it in.”

For instructions on how to sight in your rifle, visit http://www.womensoutdoorwire.com/releases/203018

Vicki also suggests if you’ve had your eye on a new piece of equipment whether it’s a bow sight or a gun scope; get it now so you have time to practice with it. Even something as innocuous as new clothing should be factored in.

“If you’re a bow shooter, practice in your new clothes to ensure flaps or pockets aren’t a problem. This is especially important for late winter clothes that make it more awkward to move. A big jacket makes it harder to shoulder a gun and more likely the bowstring will hit your clothes.”

Even if you don’t plan to buy a thing this year, that’s no excuse to skip practice, especially if you hunt from a stand.

“Don’t do all of your bow shooting practice on the ground. Practice from a treestand to know how you’re shooting. Arrow trajectory differs when you’re shooting from an elevated position versus a flat one.”

Before you crawl up to your treestand, though, make sure it’s in tip top shape. And don’t even think about getting into your stand without a full body harness. According to a press release from the National Bowhunter Education Foundation, treestands are a major source of hunting related injuries and deaths, outnumbering firearm related hunter fatalities.

“You’d never get me in a stand without a full body harness,” Vicki said. “I know I won’t focus on hunting until I have my harness on.”

Vicki does recommend practicing putting your harness on before your hunt and shooting with your harness on as well. Don’t wait until the moment of truth to discover it constricts your movement.

Experts also will tell you don’t use a homemade stand. Instead, opt for a sturdy, well-manufactured stand that is backed by a warranty and your eagle eye inspection.

“Really check out your stands,” Vicki advised. “Do treestand maintenance every year.”

In addition to inspecting, and if need be, repairing or replacing treestand cables, straps, chains and ratchets, make sure you conduct a test climb as well. Practice getting in and out of your stand in your camo clothes and with your gear. Have a system for hoisting your gun or bow into your stand with a haul line. Make sure your clothes don’t interfere with your climb.

Another pre-season decision you’ll need to make is stand placement.

“I use ladder stands. Once I put them up, I leave them up because they’re not easily portable,” Vicki said. “I put them in a variety of places, keeping an area surrounded so I can move from stand to stand depending on wind direction.”

Next, inspect your clothes and make sure you have the right patterns for the terrain you’ll be in and you have clothes that can take you from the warmth of early bow season to the chilliness of a late winter gun hunt. Inspect your clothes for wear and tear. And if you gained 10 pounds since last season, it may be time to go shopping.

Lastly, get your license in advance and if you’re a new hunter, take your hunter safety course as soon as possible. There’s nothing more miserable than rushing around the night before the season opener, praying you can pull all the loose ends together by 4 a.m.

In the last several months, I’ve talked to several women about the proliferation of pink outdoor gear being offered as a way to woo the female market. I’ve seen pink air rifles, hand guns, coolers, hats, shooting vests and gun cases. Chris Woodward, editor of Sport Fishing magazine, assures me it’s no different on the fishing side with pink rods, reels, tackle bags and more.

There’s a diversity of opinion on the subject. A friend of mine in the shooting industry says bring it on. She loves her pink and wears it loud and proud. She said in her experience, it’s the dominant color to reassure women on the gun range. On the opposite end of the spectrum is a woman who eschews the pastel hue saying, “I don’t want to be a female hunter, I just want to be a HUNTER. Bringing gender into it usually just comes off as pandering.”

While some women I talked to scoffed at the industry’s “pink it and shrink it” marketing mentality, most fell somewhere in the middle saying while pink isn’t for them, if it helps introduce women to the outdoors, that’s great.

One point women seem to agree on is their support for pink gear that raises funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  A product that immediately comes to mind is Alpen’s pink binocular.

“Pink is the color most associated with breast-cancer research,” says Vickie Gardner, vice president of Alpen Optics. “Our new line of Alpen Pink is more than just a pink binocular. With more than 40,000 Americans dying each year of breast cancer (400,000 worldwide), Alpen Optics has created its Pink binoculars to help focus on a cure, while delivering the best binocular for the best price in the marketplace.”

A portion of the profit for each binocular sold goes to the NBCF. However, just because a company’s product is pink does not mean it’s teaming with NBCF to find a cure. Vickie assures me the process for becoming an official NBCF partner takes a whole lot more than making and marketing a pink product.

I’m not the only person wondering if marketing strategies for women need to go beyond “think pink.” Interestingly enough, there’s a mainstream book called “Don’t Think Pink” by Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned. This book chides manufacturers for only scratching the surface of understanding women and instead falling back on old stereotypes and hoping pink will work some marketing magic. The book, published in 2004, looks to offer terrific advice for understanding and marketing to women.

Well, the time has come to quit speculating on whether or not the industry should go beyond pink in its offerings to women. Chris Woodward and I decided last week we were going to take this discussion to the next level. We enlisted Southwick Associates to help us understand, in quantifiable terms, the effect pink has on women’s purchasing decisions. Southwick agreed to include a list of optional questions in their September surveys. After Sept. 1, please visit http://www.anglersurvey.com/ and http://www.huntersurvey.com/ to make your opinions known. If you need additional motivation, each month you complete the survey, you will be entered in the monthly drawing for one of five $100 gift certificates to the sporting goods retailer of your choice.

You can also read Chris Woodward’s thoughts about this topic at www.sportfishingmag.com.

On a different note, I want to present a resource that I think you’ll be ga ga over, a comprehensive review of women’s hunting clothes and boots. You can find this article, written by Managing Editor Hilary (Mizelle) Dyer of the Grand View Media Group, at:
http://www.whitetailjournal.com/ArticleContent/8/2009/1769/Camo-For-Women:-Your-Options-For-Serious-Hunting

Let’s talk about this subject some more. You can find me at facebook.com/tammy.sapp2 and Twitter @TammyDianeSapp.

A few months ago, I bought a GPS unit for my truck and lo, what a boost of self confidence that gave me. I can now drive through Atlanta during rush hour with aplomb and find places I’ve never seen before with such ease it makes me giddy.

Granted, I’m what marketers call a late adopter because it took me so long to succumb to the technology. However, a few annoying road trips pushed me to learn enough to make an informed decision and commit to spending some coin.

Rarely is something as bad as you think it’s going to be. Turns out, I didn’t need a degree in “GPSology” and I scored a model for less than $300.

If you’re ready to throw away your road maps or quit relying on computer generated directions, here are a few things to consider:

All GPS devices show your location on an electronic map, and then show you how to get where you’re going. What separates good from great are features such as:

• Bigger screen
• Voice prompts that include street names
• Ability to determine the best route from several options
• Real time traffic reports
• A listing of points of interest, gas stations, restaurants and more
• Bluetooth capability

After that heady rush of success using a GPS unit in my truck, I began thinking how neat it would be to have a device to use in the field. The handheld units on the market today meet a variety of needs and come equipped with zillions of features. You can measure a food plot so you know how much lime and fertilizer to buy, mark a fishing hot spot and download topo and aerial maps. However, if you’re like me and the other 90 percent of those shopping for a GPS receiver, you want one that gets you from point A to point B without having to marshal every brain cell to use it.

While at the Professional Outdoor Media Association conference last week, I saw exactly what I wanted. The Bushnell BackTrack has two buttons, an easy-to-read screen and the ability to save three locations. Once you record locations, all you have to do is push the button and the arrows point the way. Not only is it simple to use, it’s compact and uses AAA batteries, which you can buy anywhere.

While it’s perfect for finding your way when fishing, hunting and hiking, I can think of other nifty applications. I think $69 is a fair price to pay to never wander around a mall parking lot in search of my vehicle. It would also allow me to bail out of a hotel and explore the city without sprinkling a trail of bread crumbs to find my way back. Plus, if I’m trying to get some exercise, I can tell how many miles I’ve walked.

The BackTrack, which comes in orange/gray, green, pink, tech gray and camouflage, is generating some buzz right now. It was recently selected as the hunting product of the year at the Shooting Industry Academy of Excellence Awards and has been featured on the Today Show, USA Today and even The View. Makes me wonder what the women of The View might use a BackTrack for, though certainly not to locate controversy!

So, if you want to find yourself no matter where you are, check the BackTrack out at this link: http://www.bushnell.com/general/ 

Catch up with me on Facebook at facebook.com/tammy.sapp2 and Twitter @TammyDianeSapp.