June 6, 2017
by Ted Nugent
The two brothers lived to deerhunt. It was a major annual family ritual like no other. Like most of us deerhunters, they lived it year round, always scouting, planning, strategizing, exploring, looking for that perfect backwoods, outback, way-back swampland ambush stand location in our beloved great outdoors.
Their efforts not only paid dividends in the fun, sport, meat, trophy sacred backstrap department, but like pretty much all deerhunters, this aboriginal hands-on conservation lifestyle cleansed their souls and fortified their families’ overall quality of life.
Serious stuff this deerhunting life.
About 20 years ago they celebrated the dream deerhunt when both brothers killed two fine bucks on opening morning. They recall that as they gutted their kills, each deer had more ticks on them than they had seen previously, but they didn’t think much of it.
Turns out both brothers discovered embedded ticks on their bodies the next day, but merely removed them and never gave it a second thought.
Coincidentally, one of the brothers had a nagging flu-like condition at the time and was prescribed a pretty heavy dose of antibiotics, while his brother did not.
Within days, severe headaches and body aches and intense flu-like symptoms rattled the brother that was not prescribed antibiotics, but he just plowed through it not knowing anything about this “rare” and nearly universally misdiagnosed Lyme disease that was ravaging his body.
Horror of horrors, he became increasingly debilitated, weak and sickly until finally a doctor identified Lyme, but it was too late.
May 31, 2017
By: Ted Nugent
As we bide our precious time between hunting seasons with family, friends, work and the whirlwinds that are life, it is always good and wonderful to reminisce of hunting days of old.
So as we jettison into summertime 2017, I thought you would enjoy my exciting celebrations of magical time in the early days of bowhunting in America.
Lord knows I was there!
It’s like it was yesterday. On our annual trek north, my family pulled into a small gravel driveway on the outskirts of Grayling, Michigan in early October 1955 and parked our Ford station-wagon at the front door of what was basically a small yellow cinder block garage, the way I remember it.
Though I was only 6 years old, I was wild-eyed with nearly uncontrollable excitement as we headed to my beloved, mythical “Up North” for another fall weekend of bowhunting fun.
I had a little wooden longbow and a makeshift leather backquiver with a few feather-fletched arrows, and in my young mind there was no way you could convince me that I wasn’t officially and seriously bowhunting to kill a deer. Or at least a squirrel or raccoon, or a chipmunk or something!
Dad and I exited the car and opened the door with the Bear Archery sign hanging overhead and entered what unbeknownst to me at the time, could very well have been the bowhunting dream epicenter of planet earth.
May 25, 2017
By: Ted Nugent
Ah, summertime and the living is easy, so the song says. So what are you doing this summer to make the Great Outdoors great again?
I am here to tell you it’s so simple it’s stupid, and to not do so is really stupid!
With pleasant weather and the kids getting out of school, this is the time of year to invest in conservation’s future. And I am convinced the ultimate investment into a great conservation future will always be with our youth.
Us old timers remember all too well a time when every kid in North America had a Red Ryder Daisy BB gun, a Whammo slingshot, a trusty bow and arrow and a fishing pole.
I cannot imagine how I would have ever understood or achieved my outdoor dream without that hands-on pragmatic “aim small miss small” discipline of the shooting sports and excitement of my daily outdoor adventures.
Even though I was born and raised in Detroit proper, lucky, lucky me had a wildlife paradise right across Hazelton Street where the wilds of the mighty Rouge River meandered through a wildlife rich heaven.
May 16, 2017
by Ted Nugent
On the knotty pine wall of my Northern Michigan family hunting cabin is my favorite big game trophy of alltimes. It was my very first hard-earned Michigan big timber, public ground, National Forest, North-woods whitetail buck that I killed on a soul stirring, opening morning November 15, 1969.
Gather round the Uncle Ted hunting story campfire my Spirit BloodBrothers, for there are a gazillion thrilling stories in the Great Spirit of the Wild beyond, and this may very well be one of the best ever.
Warm and proud as a peacock in my old, traditional red and black plaid wool coat and pants, insulated Herman’s Survivor leather boots laced up tight and a Stormy Kromer cap, I could not imagine a more titillating heaven on earth than right then and there at that magic moment in time.
Pray for the poor souls that fail to understand or get all giddy and stimulated in anticipation of Opening Day of Deerseason in America. Pity them.
In the moonless pitch dark a good hour before daybreak, I hunkered down against a towering oak a mile or so due west of Shorty Jenson’s dairy farm, deep in the mythical Manistee National Forest wildgrounds and kicked the ground bare clear of leaves and forest debris for this magic day we live for.
Held lovingly across my lap was my dad’s beautiful and cherished iron sight .308 caliber pre-64 Model 70 Winchester boltgun loaded with 175grain Remington Cor-Lokt soft-points that I bought for about eight bucks for box of 20 rounds at Luke’s Corner General Store on Freesoil Road by Big Bass Lake just that week.
Twenty hunting seasons in and just one month short of my 21st birthday, I am quite sure I trembled with borderline uncontrollable excitement.
May 4, 2017
By: Ted Nugent
I’m sure it was as early as the summer of 1950 when I 1st experienced and discovered the life changing stimuli of outdoor family time. Mom always raved how I was not only walking on my own before my 2nd birthday but running helter-skelter nonstop every day. I remember hearing the word incorrigible often accompanied by the rolling of eyes and much sighing.
But how could I help it? Afterall, my dad, Warren Henry Nugent was already a serious follower of our Michigan legend Fred Bear, and I am certain I had a little bow and arrow in my hands within the 1st years of my life.
Not only was I blessed beyond measure to be born in America, but I was born in the wonderful city of Detroit when neighborliness, goodwill, decency and hardcore patriotism and the outdoor lifestyle were alive and well and flourishing. Add to that the wildlife paradise of the winding Rouge River jungles right across the street from our home, and I am here to tell you that the mighty Spirit of the Wild grabbed me by the soul and hooked me gungho!
Some of my fondest memories are those casual strolls through forest and field with my trusty longbow and a few Port Orford cedar arrows in my backquiver. Tipped with blunts and eventually the amazing Judo heads by Jack Zwickey, it was the ultimate hand-eye coordination lessons of random stump and clump shooting that created the best archers and bowhunters of yore.
Fred Bear believed in it and wrote extensively about it. So did Howard Hill, Ben Pearson, Gail Martin, Saxton Pope, Art Young, Roy Case, Doug Walker, Jim Doughtery and pretty much every archery and bowhunting writer of the era.
The creation of the National Field Archery Association came about due to the sheer enjoyment of this style of archery and its pragmatic application could not be beat for real world bowhunting training and practice.
April 26, 2017
by Ted Nugent
Millions and millions of American families are celebrating the amazing springtime spirit of renewal like they mean it! Fresh fish filets and wild turkey breasts are cooking all across the land, along with those incredibly scrumptious morel mushrooms, wild scallions, leeks, fiddle-head ferns and some early wild berries. Wild asparagus will sprout soon and dandelion salads are just around the corner.
With more bears in North America than ever in recorded history, (despite what the goofballs in Florida and Colorado and California won’t admit to) the always thrilling spring bear hunting seasons are kicking off already, and there are few experiences in the wild as exciting as hunting black bears, grizzly bears and polar bears. The perfect tooth, fang and claw RugSteak boogie throttles on and I’m all in!
Everybody I know is getting down and dirty with the effervescent nostril flaring aroma of freshly turned earth as millions of farmers, ranchers and sporting landowners are plowing, discing, planting and fertilizing our crops and foodplots here, there and everywhere.
Like the Nugent family has done every year since around 1969, more and more landowners are discovering the joys and benefits of planting various species of coniferous, deciduous and all sorts of fruit trees to benefit the environment and wildlife habitat that is so pivotal to our quality of life.
Planted properly, protected and cultivated effectively, many new hybrid fruit trees will produce delicious pears, apples, cherries and other fruits within a few short years.
All this extremely fun springtime activity can keep us rather busy, but there is one springtime ritual that is more important than all of these combined.
For 150 years, the most important and powerful American family grassroots organization of all has its annual members meeting at this time of year, and right now in Atlanta Georgia, tens of thousands of freedom loving we the people experimenters in self-government are celebrating the pivotal life and death quality of life right to keep and bear arms at the National Rifle Association event.
First off as a proud NRA Board of Director, I wish to thank all those wonderful families who vote for me all these 24 plus years. I know that I get record votes simply because I am a fulltime 2nd Amendment hell raiser in a world gone politically correct and you all know I have always been and will always be an absolutist.
April 12, 2017
By: Ted Nugent
I rant and rave all the time here there and everywhere about how critical it is in this crazed culture war that we do all we can every day to maximize the good while we hammer away at the bad and the ugly.
I author numerous pieces for various sporting publications around the country and conduct media interviews pretty much every day throughout the year.
I consider such action and participation in this sacred experiment in self-government to be my clear and present we the people responsibility.
As we prepare for our 27th annual Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids charity events in Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado and South Dakota this summer, there is nothing in this world more exciting than watching young kids across America take their first shot with a rifle, fling their first arrow and learn the real world nature lessons of tooth, fang and claw, sustain yield, habitat carrying capacity, honest to God conservation.
In my never ending crusade to bring this conservation reality to the youth of America, I have always reached out to youth with a full on unapologetic, dare I say, Gonzo Rock-N-Roll energy and believability that resonates with them.
March 29, 2017
By: Ted Nugent
Well Happy Happy Springtime across America and beyond to all my deeranddeerhunting.com backstrap BloodBrothers! I know it is not quite that November opening day hair-raising thriller, but you must admit that thisfirst season of the year is pretty doggone special unto itself.
As powerful as the fall/winter season of harvest is to all of us, this natural, nature as healer kickoff to another very much appreciated new yearof renewal is even more important. For as we begin again our annual season of renewal, the entire rest of the year will be determined by what we do now.
I also know that I am not alone as I perform the universal springtime celebration rituals of shed hunting, morel mushroom hunts, the gathering of leeks, wild scallions and wild asparagus, chowing down on those luscious bluegill filets, the constant and always challenging pursuit of elusive wild hogs and varmints and chasing those exciting spring longbeards.
Of course there's also the early spring foodplot preparations and plantings, 3D shoots here and there and the constant review of our hunt gear as we peek ahead through our calendars to our beloved September, October, November and December insanity.
March 22, 2017
By: Ted Nugent
Six year old Makon Lynn struggled to walk to the archery range. After a year of chemo therapy and tortuous radiation to treat his agonizing cancer, the courageous little guy had to give all his fragile body could give just to get around.
But the closer to the range he got, his energy and bounce picked up to where once he faced the 3D targets and gripped his Genesis bow, a light came on in his eyes and he actually smiled.
We shot lots of arrows and .22 rounds that day. Makon’s mom and dad said it was the first time he laughed out loud in ages when he snuggled and bounced around in the backseat of our Polaris with the dogs.
We spent the entire day in the great outdoors. We skipped stones across the river and ponds, found some shed antlers and a few bones and small critter skulls in the woods and searched for Indian artifacts as we strolled along the banks of the North Bosque River on our sacred SpiritWild Ranch homegrounds.
If you looked closely, you could actually see Makon’s pain and suffering lift and float away into the heavens.
We wrapped up a very special day with backstraps over a special fire and I played an inspired and soulful version of my magical Fred Bear song as if touched by the hands of God.
March 16, 2017
By: Ted Nugent
FINALLY! After all that practice and dedication, 100s tortuous pre-dawn arousals and late nights getting home, after all those nerve wracking, patience testing hours, days and weeks in the treestand, FINALLY, a shooter deer is in range, broadside and looking the other way!
Nerve endings a-twitter, neck-hairs quivering at attention, muscles tense and pulsating, breath gasping in spurts, eyes watering, all of a sudden we kick into reasoning predator muscle/spirit memory overdrive, settle down, breathe smooth, relax, aim small miss small, draw like a bowhunting ballerina and let ‘er rip!
Dear God in Heaven above, our mystical flight of the arrow is indeed the path of our soul and the beast takes it in the pumpstation and scrambles off helter-skelter in a surefire deathrun.
We slump back against the tree, air whooshes from our overtaxed lungs, eyes roll back into our skulls and a super bad nationwide grin stretches across our face with a fistpumping hallelujah like no other fistpumping HALLELUJAH ever to be had!
It feels so wonderful that sometimes we are at a loss as to just what to do or say.
Even after 1000s and 1000s of arrows and 1000s and 1000s of hunts and 1000s and 1000s of kills, all the above takes place each and every time for me.
With all the hunting TV shows out there these days we all get to witness an unending variety of reactions and emotions from an unlimited assortment of diverse and individual hunters as they live out the hunt for all the world to see.
May 18, 2016
By: Ted Nugent
NO VACANCY! No room at the inn! FullUp! I’m sorry, we are plum overloaded here, you will have to find somewhere else to live.
With more deer, cougar, bear, wild turkey, geese and other game in North America than ever in recorded history, the expansive wildlife habitat across the land is filled to the max with every critter it can possibly support.
There simply is No Vacancy!
Even elk, bison and in some regions, moose, wild sheep and pronghorn are currently in numbers better than in more than 100 years. I am convinced that these are indeed the good old days of hunting in America.
There is, in reality, no place in North America that can handle any more deer, elk, bison, cougar or most game critters. The habitat is literally full-up.
This past season I had the best dove hunting, squirrel hunting, waterfowl hunting, deerhunting and bear hunting I have had in more than 60 years of chasing critters. I had so much fun I could hardly stand myself!
As I gear up for my Sonic Baptizm tour across America all summer long preparing to perform my 6,574th concert, I have to come to grips with the fact that I won’t be able to hunt with my beloved dogs every day for a while. I won’t be able to check my trapline every morning, hunt hogs, exotics and varmints, or take my daily walks in my sacred swamps and woodlands or commune with the precious wildlife that gives me so much life.
May 4, 2016
By: Ted Nugent
The great Dirty Harry once eloquently and profoundly stated; “A good man has to know his limitations.” A voice from the other side also happened to state a valuable life truism when Al Capone railed; “Enthusiasms! A man has got to have enthusiasms.”
Well, that there pretty much covers the gamut of important guiding lessons in life, does it not?
With nearly 68 incredible years of sharing very special campfires with great families across this country, it really doesn’t take much deep thinking to grasp the self-evident truth of logic and commonsense all around us, but when a segment of society goes off the deep end of insanity and dares to claim that the animals that feed and clothe mankind somehow possess the same rights as people, you know we are in trouble as a species.
It is bad enough that such crazy dishonesty exists anywhere, but when this lunacy that equates cartoon characters to wildlife actually affects policy and laws regulating living, breathing, flesh and blood creatures on our farms, ranches and in the wild, and the sustenance for human existence overall, then a serious paradigm shift must take place at the hands of educated, honest caring people everywhere.
So ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you the presidential election 2016 in the United States of America. For those of us paying attention and actually performing our critical we the people responsibilities, the life and death importance of November 2016 transcends our love for the rut and pretty much everything else worthwhile.
April 26, 2016
By: Ted Nugent
As great, generous, caring, giving, loving, volunteering Americans prepare for our 26th annual summer celebration of the mighty Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids charity events across the hinterland, I stand in awe at the level of incredible hard work, dedication and sacrifice so many people endeavor for the benefit of America’s future generation of conservationists and sporters.
Sure, the organization has my greasy, loud and proud rock-n-roll name attached to it, but be it known by all good people everywhere that the real success and powerful positive impact our Kamp has had on so many children all these years is a direct result of the army of very special people who bust their humps to make it happen every year. As always, when great things happen, there is an army of all- American, gungho, we the people volunteers that know no limits to the Herculean efforts necessary to put incredibly difficult logistics together in order to benefit others.
That, my friends, defines The American Way that we all know and love. God bless America!
There are many amazing charities across America where great families guide and mentor children in the ways of the wild, and to all of them, a huge SALUTE on behalf of all good and smart people who understand the critical importance of hands-on outdoor lifestyle education in this strange and bizarre world of political correctness against all the good stuff.
April 20, 2016
By: Ted Nugent
I ain’t got time for make believing. My time is short but I’m here to stay. No politics will cure the grieving. I’ll choose my life and I’ll choose it my way.
Just like the wolf I’m getting hungry. The law of the land it is my will. I ain’t got time for staying angry, but I’ve got the time to make a kill.
And I live my life tooth, fang and claw. I live my life and I live it my way.
Watch me live tooth, fang and claw, and watch me live an extra day.
The red man walked his sacred hillside. The black man run through his Africa. My daddy stalked the amber prairies and we all got to live by nature’s law.
I live my life tooth, fang and claw. I live my life and I live it my way.
Watch me live tooth, fang and claw, and watch me live an extra day.
Don’t you worry about me, I can and I will survive.
Running with the pack, like the lone wolf I am alive.
And like my forefathers before me I can use my own two hands.
You better believe me I can live off the land.
April 14, 2016
By: Ted Nugent
ASK UNCLE TED
Rule #1-Respect your elders. At my age (67.4 hyper years) this can definitely come in rather handy since the largest percentage of my fellow man is noticeably younger than old, feeble, yet eternally dangerous me.
Based on the many millions of wonderful folk around the world I get to communicate with every day on my electronic facebook campfire, I sincerely thank all of you for the gushing respect we share on so many issues on this modern social media communication network phenomenon.
Afterall, communication is everything as far as I’m concerned, particularly in this dastardly culture war brought on by so many years of failed communication by so many we the people Americans.
Everyone paying attention knows all too well that the tip of the culture war spear is hunting rights and gun rights and I’ve been dead-center in the middle of this embarrassing fray since the 1960s.
But a brief visit to my facebook will shine a powerful light on the widespread celebration of self-evident truth, logic, commonsense and The American Way lifestyle, regardless of whether one hunts or owns guns themselves.
For the most part, truth is truth, logic is logic and commonsense is common and sensible, thank God.
April 7, 2016
By: Ted Nugent
I’ve never watched goofy soap operas or so called “reality” TV shows. What could possibly be interesting or entertaining about some made-up silliness that has no basis in the real world? At least Dirty Harry made sense.
I’ve actually got a rather amazing real life that keeps me busy, inspired, motivated and engaged. Afterall, I dare to believe that this sacred experiment in self-government includes guitar players from Detroit who run hunting operations in Texas, so my plate has been full and overflowing for more than 60 years.
God bless America!
And who needs crazy television shows when none of them could possibly compete in the theater of the absurd with the daily insanity running amok before our very eyes in America today?
Rod Serling wouldn’t have come up with anything more outrageous for a mind bending episode of The Twilight Zone than what transpires each and every hour across the globe these days.
April 6, 2016
By: Ted Nugent I’ve never watched goofy soap operas or so-called “reality” TV shows. What could possibly be interesting or entertaining about some made-up silliness that has no basis in the real world? At least “Dirty Harry” made sense. I’ve...
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March 30, 2016
By: Ted Nugent Open, honest communication, sharing historical evidence, logic, self-evident truth, common sense and how they relate to current events is the only remedy for ignorance, confusion and denial. That being said, I have found over 67.4 years that...
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March 23, 2016
By: Ted Nugent Only cowards, idiots, left-wing dopes, psychotic excuse-makers, spineless hand-wringers and appeasing, stinky hippie Bernie sheep intentionally drown themselves in buckets of politically correct spit. They have been doing their best to drag the USA down to their...
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March 16, 2016
By: Ted Nugent
Division: You know, the proper and intelligent separation of differing ideas, choices, right and wrong, good and evil, law and order versus crime, cats and dogs, lions and lambs, my greasy BBQ and some vegan’s seaweed, common-sense stuff like that. In most cases, division is not only a good thing, but essentially desirable in order to achieve meaningful quality of life for individual and diverse choices in life.
For example, in my exciting, industrious life as a musician, I have always intentionally divided myself from stoned, irresponsible, slobbering, suicidal, inept, stinky hippies and low-man-on-the-totem pole, half-baked musicians that just don’t cut the mustard.
Why on earth would anyone want to “unite” with such counterproductive humanity?
In spite of the late not-so-great Rodney King’s goofy, fantasyland mantra, intentional, smart-choice division is why we have jails and prisons. It is always a good idea to divide the good from the bad and the ugly.
March 9, 2016
Here, let the guitar player help. You know I’m here to help, right? Tell me you have faith in the old MotorCity Madman when I tell you that I sincerely want to resuscitate the fumbling, bumbling, stumbling, staggering, stammering, gagging, ailing, deaf, dumb and blind GOP and help lead them back on track to self-evident truth, logic, common sense, accountability and that good old long ago GOP American Way.
March 2, 2016
For the life of me, I have never been more confused in my 67 years of clean and sober logic-driven American Dream. I mention 67 years clean and sober to emphasize why I don’t need to nor cannot use the mind-rotting substance abuse excuse that obviously plagues so many of my fellow Americans as they fumble about like gaffed tuna on a sunlit beach.
February 24, 2016
The enemies of America are masters at lying and deception. If you are going to study and believe in Saul Alinsky as they do (you know, the author whose book was dedicated to Satan, a book that’s the bible to Clinton, Obama et al.), you can’t do any better than the leftist scamgang over at the freaky Huffington Post and the smoke-and-mirrors freedom haters at moveon.org, Media Matters, Salon or the always putrid Southern Poverty Law Center. (Funny how they aren’t southern, engineer poverty, and defy law. In fact, there is nothing center about them as they wallow in the bizzarro world of crazed hate, dishonesty and abject leftism.)
February 17, 2016
A word to the embarrassing, clueless young people who believe Sen. Sanders is their ticket to prosperity: There is no free lunch.
Old Bernie is scamming young people with his “democratic socialism” and politically correct, fantasy-driven, feel-good “fairness” tripe. Regretfully, too few of our young people have the worldly know-how or basic economic smarts to see that his dusty ideas are historically proven to be dangerous, beyond dumb and potentially even deadly.
February 10, 2016
As a large, in charge, Motown black man my bad-self, who honed my Sonic Baptizm, soul-cleansing soulmusic on the greasy rhythm and blues of the musical funk and roll gods James Brown and Chuck Berry et al., and who learned and then perfected the fine art of American defiance from my hero Rosa Parks, I continue to celebrate nonstop all things good and black.
