Author: Clede Spooner

My Daughter’s First Hunt, My Great Friends and My Old Kentucky Home It was April 30, 1997, and the night before turkey season opened in New York. I was 12 years old. I had just arrived at my grandparents’ house. As I walked into the living room, I noticed a box on the piano bench. I immediately knew what it held: My first shotgun. Papa had purchased me a 20-gauge pump shotgun to start turkey hunting the next morning. At this point in time, things like TSS didn’t exist for the turkey hunter. Decoys were made of foam, and they…

Otis Technologies came into being in 1985 when 16-year-old Doreen Garrett was hunting with her grandfather’s Winchester Model 94 and she fell, resulting in a gun barrel full with mud. Her day was over. As she walked back to camp, a new product innovation was created with the solution to her muddy gun barrel. She built the first practical breech to muzzle cleaning system and carried it into the field with her while she was hunting. She called it “the Whole Kit and Caboodle”, and a company was born. Doreen named the company after her father’s middle name, involved her…

Despite the National Wild Turkey Federation’s 50 years of unparalleled conservation delivery and the realization of what is regarded as the most acclaimed conservation story in America, many factors today are resulting in the loss of healthy habitats and a decrease in wild turkey populations. The health of the North American wild turkey population has diminished since 2004, with surveys showing a decline of 10-15% over the past 15 years. Also alarming, the number of turkey hunters have declined over the same period. Insufficient habitat management, the fragmentation and development of previously untouched lands, decreased public support of hunting, reduced…