Projects and Issues
Rifle In Hand: How Wild America Was Saved
MWF offers, Rifle in Hand through a special arrangement with Riverbend Publishing. To receive your copy, simply return the form below, with your payment.
In his newest book, Rifle in Hand, Montana author Jim Posewitz explores the real stories of how legendary hunters have saved wildlife and wild lands in North America, and he challenges today's hunters to follow their example. These are significant stories, stories that all of us who hunt and care about wildlife should read and learn and pass on to others. In Jim's words, "Stories that helped me understand the value of hunting in America." Through his stories, Jim takes us along on a notable journey of recurrent, important connections to George Perkins Marsh, Theodore Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold, Jay "Ding" Darling and many others. More importantly, he shows us that we all have such connections, we all have similar stories-we're all part of this remarkable legacy.
Posewitz says public hunting faces serious threats not from animal-rights groups but from trends within the hunting community. He cites the privatization and commercialization of wildlife, and the loss of wild habitats, as the greatest dangers. He writes about how when hunters seek easier ways, focusing only on results and skipping the process (or, as Roosevelt put it, those who are "content to buy what they have not the skill to get by their own exertions"), they fail to gain the intimacy, knowledge, appreciation, and respect for the prey, for the habitat, and for other wildlife that is gained through arduous pursuit. Is this why some hunters are either apathetic or outright opposed to policies that protect and enhance wildlife and wild places; they either ignore, or never really came to understand, our hunting and wildlife heritage?
If there are to be hunters and wild places to hunt in the future, we must understand and cultivate our heritage. What we understand, we can honor and sustain. Every hunter should read this book, and pass it on. Jim wrote in Inherit the Hunt, "This legacy did not come to our generation to die. To keep it alive, we must learn the stories, we must appreciate their significance, and we must teach each successive generation how this heritage was delivered into our custody." Posewitz is the author of two other books on hunting, Beyond Fair Chase: The Ethic and Tradition of Hunting and Inherit the Hunt: A Journey Into the Heart of Hunting.
Beyond Fair Chase is used in hunter education programs throughout North America and has sold more than 400,000 copies. Order your copy now; 50 percent of proceeds will be used by MWF to conserve wildlife and preserve the hunt. Order here by credit card, or send $9.98 plus $4.00 shipping and handling to MWF, PO Box 1175, Helena, MT 59624-1175.
