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Hunting Life Magazine January

Hunting Life Magazine

Notes from the Publisher

By Kevin C. Paulson

This is our third issue, and we have a quick announcement: we have hired a professional editor for the magazine. I will remain on as the publisher but editing is not a skill I have readily available. This change will allow me to focus the lion’s share of my time on our monthly notes, an article for every issue and running our business, HuntingLife.com. I am excited about our new editor, and we will make formal introductions in our next issue.

January is show month to all of us in the hunting industry. In most cases, but not all, we wrap up our hunting for the year on the first couple of days in January. Then it is off to the races for the rest of the month with shows across the country. We rounded out our hunting season on December 31st with a young doe (black powder) bringing a last bit of luck and some meat into our freezer for the season. We had the good fortune of taking six hunters out in 2021, a combination of old and new friends, and we put them through the paces on public land. We saw a few dream bucks that gave us serious hope for the 2022 season, and then called it a season.

This year’s line-up for January included Dallas Safari Club, Archery Trade Association (ATA) Show, Wild Sheep Show, Grand Slam Ovis, SCI and the big daddy of them all – the NSSF SHOT Show. We focused on two shows this year, choosing to concentrate our efforts on one big trip where we knew it would bring the most bang for our efforts. They did come through for us. 

First up was the NSSF SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Our travelling partner this year was Brady Kirkpatrick from GunMade.com. After catching up with friends, we hit the ground running on Sunday and got an intimate tour of the John Bartolo Studio. If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to tune in to John Bartolo, jump on to YouTube and watch a few of his shows. His guests are exceptional and the conversations are filled with insights into the shooting and hunting industry. Bartolo will break out stars and serious fans of the second amendment. We were fans before we stepped foot inside the studio and it made it all the more real getting to see the studio live.

Our Monday, we kicked off with a full day at Range Day. Here we got to see, touch, and shoot everything from the new Browning Maxus II Wicked Wing to the 6.8 Western we had been waiting to get our hands on. We shot a slew of new pistols, AR-15s and a we tested out the new Huskemaw scope shooting out to 906 yards. We also got to see what was coming from everyone from Aimpoint to Umarex and even Zippo and the new knives from Case. Monday night had us at the best outdoor party at SHOT hitting gold balls at Top Golf and getting to see the newest silencers from NOSLER while enjoying drinks with great friends. 

The rest of the week was busy interacting with of the greatest brands in the outdoors. Five of these products rose to the top in our travels around SHOT show as the week progressed:  Primos has created the new Primos Carbon fiber Apex tripod; Bushnell created a new Rangefinder that is super accurate; Spypoint’s Flex Camera brought the best features of any trail camera into a single best camera at a price point that has us excited; the new Browning X-Bolt Speed Long Range OVIX impressed us with a full line up and all of the features we want in a single bolt action rifle; and the best product we saw at SHOT was Federal stepping up to the plate and creating the new Federal Top Gun Shotgun Load with paper wads perfect for folks working to hard to be plastic free and toxic free. These shells are going to be incredibly popular and will motivate other manufacturers to step up to the plate. I love that Federal is making this step.

Our last stop in Las Vegas was at the Safari Club International Hunting Show. We talked with some great outfitters, artists, and friends. We enjoyed dinner with Craig and Donna Boddington and our good friend Conrad Evarts with Craig Boddington Endorsed Outfitter Program. All in all, one amazing trip. I hope you enjoy this issue. As always, we are excited to bring you the best of the Hunting Life

Kevin Paulson

Kevin Paulson is the Founder and CEO of HuntingLife.com. His passion for Hunting began at the age of 5 hunting alongside of his father. Kevin has followed his dreams through outfitting, conservation work, videography and hunting trips around the world.

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