NRA Outdoors is an online gateway to your bucket list of hunting adventures. Actually, it's more than that—on its Web pages you'll find some opportunities you weren't even aware of but you'll be glad they told you about them.
Big Game
How about hunting New Zealand's mountain peaks for chamois? Or cruising the rocky ridges of West Texas for wild aoudad sheep? Maybe it's a voyage to Africa, where you can hear lions roar and hunt Cape buffalo, eland, kudu and more, which has you thinking. Maybe you'd like to find something closer to home. Whatever your dream, whatever your destination, NRA Outdoors can put you with proven guides at quality, family-run outfits. Rest assured many of them are affordable, too.Of course, finding quality big-game hunts can be a hunt in itself. So to locate outfitters who have trophy-class game, good accommodations and experienced and dedicated guides, they've searched the outdoors across North America and the world. They've investigated their reputations and, in many cases, have visited their facilities. They've looked closely at their success rates, and the quality of their game and gear. Most importantly, they've developed relationships with the owners and guides on site at each destination to ensure they're dedicated to managing their resources properly and treating clients like friends.Check out this list. (But keep in mind you'll find even more at their website.)
• Africa's Big Five and Plains Game • Antelope • Bison • Black Bear • Brown/Grizzly Bear • Caribou • Dall Sheep • Elk• Moose • Mountain Goat • Mule Deer • Whitetail Deer • Wolf
Spotlight: Kansas Whitetail
This proven trophy whitetail area is known as the top producer of trophy whitetail. Kansas is seeing huge increases in the number of record book deer entries, placing it as one of the top states to take a trophy. This outfitter's private land offers you the opportunity to bag one of these elusive giants.
Upland
Bird populations rise and fall cyclically, so NRA Outdoors stays abreast of pheasant populations in South Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska and other places, and they follow the rise and fall of the numbers of ruffed grouse, quail and more so they can make sure you experience quality excursions every time you book with them.Some of their outfitters raise birds and manage habitat so effectively they beat the cycles. Others augment a wild-bird hunt with pen-raised birds. Whatever experience you're after, they can steer you to upland hunts behind quality dogs, with people you'll soon think of as friends.Accommodations vary. Some folks want to host a corporate group and combine a hunt with afternoon meetings, so they need a clubhouse with conference rooms and other business facilities. Others want multiple opportunities to hunt quail, doves and even in some cases to do a "cast-and-blast." The NRA Outdoors team will ask you the right questions so they can get you on the upland hunt your desire—in your back yard or at the destination you've always wanted to walk with shotgun in hand with friends by your side.
Spotlight: Yucatan Quail
This opportunity to hunt quail in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula will take you back to a time when wild quail populations were plentiful across the Southern United States."I traveled to the Yucatan to check out this outfitter," says NRA Outdoors president Greg Ray. "When we started walking our first field I felt as though I had stepped back in time."Quail populations thrive here thanks to plentiful habitat, minimal predation and a lack of any machinery or pesticides on the ranches hunted. The terrain is rocky but relatively flat, with knee-high grass. The pointers used are experienced dogs working in front of skilled trainers. Every season, wildlife biologists survey the ranches or farms being hunted. Afterward, the rancher and/or outfitter is issued licenses based on a 6 percent harvest of the total population for a particular property. As a result, hunters can expect to flush 20-30 coveys per day—coveys that hold anywhere from half a dozen birds to 20!
Waterfowl
Whether you're looking for a topnotch place to gun over Arkansas' duck-rich rice fields, a hunt for black brant and Canada geese from a lodge in Cold Bay, Alaska, an outfitter in the wingshooting paradise of Argentina or a chance to shoot a mixed bag of ducks and geese in Manitoba's prairie pothole region, NRA Outdoors knows where the birds are flying and can put you there. They offer lots of opportunities to hunt new places with fine folks. Don't discount adventures close to home, either. Besides these fabulous destinations, NRA Outdoors can often find you a nearby outfitter with affordable day rates who can put you on birds.
Spotlight: Snow Geese
Snow geese migrate in spring from Texas, flying north through Oklahoma and Kansas and into the Nebraska rainwater basin and then all the way to the Dakotas. Spring seasons have generous bag limits (and sometimes no limits), and you can even use electronic calls. NRA Outdoors has proven outfitters up and down the flyway.
Long Range Hunting/Shooting School
This annual event is staffed with NRA-certified instructors to help hunters become more proficient marksmen. The instruction helps when hunting for elk, mule deer, antelope and more in big country. The course curriculum covers ammo selection, ballistics, reading the wind, bullet placement on big game, field skills and more. An ethical hunter shoots only as far as his or her skills, the conditions and the equipments allows. Learn how to extend your ethical range so your trophy-of-a-lifetime doesn't escape.Book Now—Log on to nraoutdoors.com, or call 918-258-7817.
