What do you want to see from SHOT Show 2012? 

Well, my feet are screaming, I'm slightly chafed and it's not at all my style to be offering so many courtesy smiles while some clueless fool holds up isle traffic so he can snap a cell photo to send home to Mama. But day No. 2 of the ATA show is officially rocking.

I had a front-row seat (literally, inches) at the Archery Trade Association (ATA) Show this morning when BowTech unveiled their 2012 king, the Insanity CPX.

Word has been out for almost a week now that the gray wolf in the Western Great Lakes region has been removed from the Endangered Species List, thusly turning their management over to state jurisdiction. This is great news—most importantly for the status of the wolf population, but equally for those, like me, who want an opportunity to hunt them.

For some logic-defying reason, I though it was a divine idea to get a Labrador puppy a month before my first kid was born. Maybe I was so petrified by the thought of fatherhood that my cognition deteriorated. Maybe I was deathly afraid of being in the gender minority at my house. Maybe both—I don’t really know.

I swore up and down that I’d never do it. But then I did it. During a recent trip to Oklahoma where I was pursuing whitetails with a muzzleloader, I whipped out my smartphone and answered a text.

As I see it, one of the most important things that makes hunting so unique from other sports is that each man—and woman, of course—is allowed to define their version of what constitutes a “success” and what constitutes a “trophy.”

Black bears have quickly become my favorite game species to pursue—yes, even more favorable than hunting whitetails—and after spending a week in Strong, Maine, with Scott York of Spruce Mountain Guide Service, hunting black bears with hounds has become a favorite way to pursue my favorite game.

I'm writing from Strong, Maine. I've got Terry Boeder with me—one of the producers from "North American Hunter-TV."

I don’t want you to think any less of our “North American Hunter-TV” team, but they’ve been involving me quite heavily these days with everything from filming hunts to filming archery tips.