Recently, sportswoman Eva Shockey posted a picture of a 500 lb. black bear she shot in North Carolina on social media. This bear was the biggest she had ever bagged and she was proud. But not everyone was a fan of her harvest. Eva has received thousands of death threats. And unfortunately, Eva is not the first sportswoman to come under fire for being a hunter.

Today we are taking a stand because we are tired of the negativity. More than 37.4 million hunters and anglers across the United States contribute billions of dollars to conservation each year. Arguably without hunters and anglers, wildlife and their habitat would be in jeopardy.

Please join us in thanking Eva for continuing to be a positive force in the hunting and angling community by signing our petition:

“On behalf of sportsmen ...

By Jenn Doherty

I found myself belly-crawling through prickly-pear cactus in hot pursuit of some antelope. I would quickly get in front of my husband, Mitch, before he would remind me that this was his hunt and I should get my own tag if I want to be the one with the gun. I thought about it for a while and decided he might just be right. After all, what was holding me back? I had gone through adult hunter’s safety and was comfortable carrying a gun in the field.

I didn’t grow up hunting. It was certainly all around me while growing up in a state Aldo Leopold called home for many years, but my family was not a hunting family. Instead I enjoyed hiking, backpacking, canoeing and other activities growing up, along with an instilled respect and appreciation for the outdoors...

By Tovar Cerulli

Originally published on TheAtlantic.com and reposted here with permission from the author.

Fourteen years ago, I stood in the snow, struggling to digest what I had heard. A group of us, gathered to learn about monitoring and protecting wildlife habitat, had just discovered that our instructor—Sue Morse, founder of Keeping Track—was a deer hunter. I found the news disturbing. How could she work to safeguard the homes of animals she described as “neighbors” and then turn around and shoot one of them? I found it inconceivable that someone could be both an environmentalist and a hunter, a caretaker and a killer.

Today, I, too, am both. I understand that caring for animals and their ecosystems is not incompatible with participating in those systems as a predator...

Created By: DICK’S Sporting Goods

By Lindsay Persico

It was spring when I met the man I am proud to call my husband. Our “first date” ( not sure we actually called it that ) was a trip out to feed and sit over a bear bait in Idaho. We spent the evening laughing and joking. He taught me about lighting a fire with my flint and steel and we just simply enjoyed the outdoors together. It is a favorite memory of mine.

Needless to say we hit it off. The year before we got married I was blessed with the opportunity to join him on his elk hunt in Montana. I drove over from Idaho and we headed up to his family cabin in the beautiful Montana mountains. I remember being so excited to get in on the experience and being nervous that I would slow him down in this steep country.

We set out our numerous layers of hunting clothes the nig...