Marketing to the fairer sex

So, I’m starting to chill a bit, getting ready for the weekend and reading my RSS Feeds and so forth. Now, over on The Women’s Outdoor News website, we’ve been having a spirited comment conversation about using words like “babe” and “chick.” You can check it out here, in Paige Eissinger’s blog called “Flying the Coop,” but in the meantime, here’s an interesting blog about the difference between marketing to women and to men. Our brains work differently, writes blogger Jon McCulloch in Marketing Society, and that’s why a lot of traditional marketing trends aimed toward men just don’t work with women (and vice versa). Read the entire article at  http://tinyurl.com/MarketingToTheFairerSex.

Don’t forget to read the last three paragraphs.

Sole mates—match the soles to the terrain

The saying “where the rubber meets the road” refers to the crucial point where car tires hit the pavement. The phrase can also be applied to boot soles meeting the ground.

A boot offering the best waterproofing, durability and protection will be found wanting if you can’t stay upright on steep slopes or when trudging through slippery mud.  The sole’s job is to provide traction. Bill Johnson, former Vice-President of Product Development for Georgia Boot, discusses some advantages and disadvantages of lug patterns and soles.

The heavy Vibram lug sole was developed for rocky terrain and is a good all-purpose sole in that arena. It will pick up mud and gravel, however.  It does not self-clean well.  The lug pattern is designed for traction as the foot pushes off and stops during walking. There can be some lateral slippage when traversing a steep hill.

The bob sole has rounded, bulletlike protrusions.  It is popular in steep, rocky areas because of its omnidirectional traction capability.  You can plant your foot sideways or walk across wet rocks and still have a good grip.  The bobs should be attached to the sole surface in a rounded, not 90-degree, angle. This keeps the bobs flexing as you walk and prevents mud from clinging. Hunters should avoid any sole with lugs that are at 90-degree angles to the soles. The best mud boot will have an open pattern.

Upland bird hunters need a shallow lug sole for traction in dirt and mud, as long as they aren’t hunting hillsides.

Polyurethane soles are a great lightweight and resilient choice over rubber, as long as the terrain is dirt or gravel.  Sharp rocks will puncture the polyurethane and can damage the sole permanently. The springy polyurethane retains virtually all of its cushioning capability throughout the life of the boot.

Take the time to turn the boot upside down and study the sole before you open your wallet wide. All the high-tech innovations will be forgotten when you need waterproofing on your butt from falling down.

Kudos to American Hunter magazine for including ‘girls’ in the mix

Kudos to outdoor writer Patrick Durkin and to the editors at American Hunter magazine for including information about how we can bolster hunting numbers — tucked inside an article titled “The Deer Camp Time Forgot.” The header reads “Boys and Girls Needed.”

What a perfect way to include females in the mix without making a big deal about it. It’s just a fact. If we want to continue hunting, we’ll need to reach out to more females. The author notes the owner of the deer camp has noticed that the local newspapers include photos of women and girls with game — about a third of the entries.

This is the type of article that helps to explain why people hunt — and it’s not always for the meat.

Again, thanks, American Hunter.

~Barbara Baird

Melita Ellington – Member of The WOMA

Melita is a member of NRA, USPSA and Snellville  Sportsmen’s  Ministry. She is the founder of Magnolia Defense Enterprises LLC, specializing in training women in pistol skills and basic self-defense. Melita also works as a legal secretary at an Atlanta law firm. She and her husband Brian reside in Conyers, Georgia, with a cat named Ambush.

Our public lands—your responsibility

Outdoor sports, including hunting and fishing, demand a level of responsibility other sports enthusiasts need not be concerned about. If a bicyclist or baseball player uses a performance-enhancing drug, he or she may be financially penalized and lose fans, but that’s about the extent of the damage.

When outdoor enthusiasts engage in unethical behavior, an animal or fish may die or suffer needlessly or habitat may be destroyed, costing sportsmen and women valuable dollars for restoration. That’s why it’s important to shoot within your range, know how to release fish if you practice catch-and-release, stay within catch limits and recognize the long-term impact your presence has on the environment.

One controversial example is off-road vehicle (ORV) or ATV access. Many hunters as well as ATV riders access national forests and other public lands on ATVs. State licensing, training and age limits for riders vary, so ATV riders may not understand and abide by ethical standards, causing long-term effects on fisheries and wildlife habitat.

A report published in 2007 by the Izaak Walton League of America, or Ikes, found:

• 83% of wildlife managers say that they have seen “resource damage to wildlife habitat” caused by ORVs, following closely behind by 72% who cited “disruption of hunters during hunting season” as another impact from ORVs.

• 57.2% of state fisheries managers surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that “ORVs negatively impact fishing and fishing habitat in my state.” Only 7.1% of survey respondents disagreed with that statement.

• 53.3% of fisheries managers surveyed believe that existing standards do not adequately protect fishing from ORV impacts.

An excerpt from the Izaak Walton League report describes some of the damage that roads and off-road vehicles can wreak on habitat.

Fishing

Our research has shown that ORVs and roads can have the following general impacts on fishing.

Sediment Runoff in Streams and Rivers

Sediment runoff from ORV trails or from off-trail erosion usually ends up in nearby streams and rivers. Sediment can cover fish eggs, inhibit nest building and alter the natural flow of water that oxygenates spawning nests and rinses away wastes.

Damage to Streambanks and Streambeds

Unfortunately, some ORV drivers run their machines along streambanks or even in streambeds. This can cause a variety of negative impacts, including damage to vegetation, erosion or loss of trees and shrubs that provide shade for streams and help to regulate water temperatures.

Restricting or Preventing Access to Spawning Beds

ORV driving in streams and rivers, or sometimes the construction of trail culverts or other stream crossings, can restrict or prevent fish from reaching their spawning grounds.

Recently, another study found improvements to fish habitat following road removal in the Flathead National Forest in northwestern Montana as well. Streams in watersheds that had extensive road removal had significantly less fine sediment than streams in roaded watersheds.

In a review of several scientific studies, the U.S. Forest Service found suppressed fish populations due primarily to roads. For example, an “. . . analysis of fish distribution and status data for seven fish species in the Columbia basin showed that the frequency of strong populations generally declined with increasing road densities.” The agency further found that “. . . additional evidence suggested that the lowest mean road-density values (number of roads per unit area) are always associated with strong population status.”

If you want to learn more about ethical use of wildlife habitat and our public lands, Tread Lightly!, Inc.  is a great resource. Based in Ogden, Utah, Tread Lightly! is a national nonprofit organization with a proactive mission to protect recreation access and opportunities in the outdoors through education and stewardship initiatives.

More and more people are recreating outdoors and sharing the environment with wildlife. Sheer numbers can cause environmental damage, even with the most responsible use. If we are to keep public lands open to recreation, we must shoulder the responsibility to respect the environment.

How to choose a sleeping bag that will keep you warm

It’s almost impossible to sleep when you’re cold. So, how do you stay warm outdoors when the weather is not delightful?

First, get yourself a good sleeping bag. You’ll probably spend almost one-third of your time on camping trips in your sleeping bag.

Before you slide that credit card through the reader, know the bag. Some bags outperform others. Consider the R-factor, just like in home insulation, because the R-factor is resistance to heat flow through a material. The higher the R-factor, the better the insulation.

Down bags are generally 30 percent lighter than synthetics, more compressible, more breathable, last five times longer and are non-petroleum based. The only advantage to using a synthetic bag is that it will dry faster.

A sleeping bag’s rating, though, is not enough to keep you warm. Combine a good bag with a good pad – one with self-inflating closed cell foam. This keeps the air from moving around under you and cooling you off at night. A pad prevents conductive heat loss from your body to the ground.

Don’t forget to wear a skullcap on your head, since most of your body’s heat exits from your scalp. Also, don’t forget to keep your core warm, since 70 percent of your body’s blood is in the core. Keep it warm and your vascular system will deliver heat to your digits.

Cool ways to stay warm in your bag

• It’s OK to eat butter. Use your metabolism, eat a tablespoon of butter. Melt it in your hot chocolate, or add to your food before you go to sleep. Your body will burn the fats and generate more warmth.

• Take something warm to bed with you. Boil water, pour it in a Nalgene water bottle and wrap it up. Place between your legs inside your sleeping bag.

• Don’t roll over, roll inside. When you roll over, you squeeze the lofted heat out of your bag and expose the compressed insulation. Instead, hold your bad down with your hands and roll over inside your bag, keeping the lofted heat on top of you

• Stuff your sleeping bag with batteries, tomorrow’s clothes, water, etc. These items take up the vacant air in your bag and keep you and your stuff from freezing.

• Don’t unroll your sleeping bag or pad until you’re ready for bed. Fill it up with your warm air instead of letting it fill itself with cold air.

~Barbara Baird, aka “The Gear Gal”

Shooting tips from California BOW: ‘A Band-Aid is Your Bra Strap’s Best Friend and Other Shooting Tips’

At our recent Southern California Day at the Range workshop at Raahuage’s in Corona, I picked up some shooting tips from our instructor, Cherel Hansen-McCracken. Since BOW is hosting another Day at the Range for Northern California on July 18th at the Clear Creek Sportsman’s Club in Corning, it seemed only appropriate to pass on some shooting tips. In addition to the basic shooting safety rules, I learned the following:

Avoid dangling earrings and pull back long hair. Since a good fit between your cheek and the stock of the shotgun is so important, the more you can do to reduce any interference with that “fit” the better.

The most important thing about ear protection is – USE IT!

Safety glasses are not just to protect you from the shotgun you’re shooting, but from everything going on around you too. Cherel tells a story about shooting right next to a friend whose shotgun barrel was actually disintegrating with each shot. She kept feeling a little something hitting her and upon further inspection, it turned out to be tiny flecks of metal from the outside of the barrel of the gun being fired next to her.

Never carry multiple gauges of shells in your pouch or pocket at the same time. Accidentally dropping a 20 gauge shell down the barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun is the first step in building a bomb. And it’s a good idea to have a wooden dowel or similar to remove the smaller shell because it will not fall or shake out of the barrel on its own.

It’s a fact of life, shotguns kick; but they don’t’ have to hurt. A bra strap with a metal buckle (or even a plastic one) can make shooting very uncomfortable. The best choice would be to wear a bra with smooth straps like on a sports bra or one with buckles in the back. Since a quick costume change isn’t always possible, one solution is to wrap the buckle in a band-aid, essentially placing padding between your body and where the butt of the stock meets your bra strap buckle. (Bet you won’t learn that in a class taught by men!)

And most important tips of all are to be safe and have fun!

~Tina Stoner

To receive the excellent newsletter from California B.O.W., go to http://www.bowca.org/ and subscribe.

Creating energy for yourself and others

I’ve decided to change up the way I gather my energy. Yes, I love my Wii Fit, and it gives me my morning kickoff of vigor. But in the last few weeks, I’ve decided to put a little spice into my morning routine, and I now am running/walking more than 3 miles in the morning. (Check out the sunrise picture and the self-portrait.) Then I do my Wii Fit for about 15 minutes. Breaking up your routine pumps up your oomph!

I believe this is where you snap your decision-making skill into action. I understand that my platform as a professional speaker and writer is helping people take personal responsibility for their outcomes. So in order for me to be credible, I must do it for myself first.

Not only do I feel better, but this change has also made me more productive, cleared my mind for new opportunities and increased my energy. I am noticing that this is rubbing off on others, too. We are experiencing increased productivity, and that helps everyone feel more accomplished.

So whether you are working with toxic people, want to increase employee productivity or are looking for some leadership skill development, ask yourself these questions and answer them: How do you create energy?  Does it overflow to others?  What part of your routine will you change?

Email me for the Ten Commandments of Cooperation for a little KITA!

Is your car’s a/c giving you problems? Fix it yourself!

During the recent warm weather the air conditioning in my car just wasn’t working right.  Took it to the mechanic and he wanted an outrageous amount to fix it.  Well, I didn’t want to have to dip into my hunting money, so I just fixed it myself.!

A little redneck ingenuity and it’s almost cool enough to hang a deer or turkey in there!  If anyone else out there is having problems with their a/c, just give me a holler and I’ll do what I can to help you out.

~Marti Davis

P.S.  Is it almost hunting season yet?

Pocernich and son compete in Battle of the Bow on Wisconsin Outdoors Network

For those of you who haven’t heard, my son, Kale, and I are competing on the Wisconsin Outdoors Network’s Battle of the B.O.W as Team HuntingLife.com/CampWildGirls. The first part of the competition is getting people to the site to join you as friends and stay listed as the first team. The second part of the competition will consist of us filming our hunting this fall. We’re pretty sure it is going to be picked up as a reality TV show. (We are filming the pilot episode in July.) After every episode, people will be asked to vote on the site for their favorite team.

So, what we are asking people to do is set up their accounts on www.wisconsinoutdoorsnetwork.org (It’s kinda like MySpace or Facebook for outdoorspeople) and add Team HuntingLife.com as a friend. Thanks for everyone’s support!

 

 

 

 

 

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