Here’s to a Brighter 2021!
The beginning of a new year almost always feels like a new beginning, and I would venture to say that there’s rarely been a time when we need a major new beginning more than right now!
I’m an eternal optimist. At least, I’ve thought so for most of my life, but the prolonged craziness of this pandemic has challenged even my positivity. When I start to feel beaten down, though, I know that the best thing to do is stop, take stock of the world, and count my blessings.
I’m encouraged by some recent data on deer hunting. Texas continues to lead the nation in deer hunters (800,000) and hunting licenses sold (just over one million). Texas also gets a lion’s share of federal aid funds (Pitman-Robertson) that are funneled through Texas Parks and Wildlife for management and research of several game species, including deer. The annual table fare for hungry families is about 15 million pounds of “America’s Healthy Red Meat” from the harvest of 900,000 deer. As one would expect, deer hunting is BIG, like everything else in Texas!
Gauging from conversations with hunters across Texas and from photos I’ve seen on social media, it’s been an exceptional deer season so far. I especially love pictures of kids with their first deer – I’m always excited to see our hunting heritage passed on in Texas families.
The thing I’m most optimistic about, though, is that a vaccine (or multiple vaccines) are coming available soon to help beat this virus. Getting back to “normal” is key in order to have our annual Hunters Extravaganzas. I don’t know about you, but our whole team really missed being able to bring those shows to you in 2019. So, save these dates in August for our Hunters Extravaganzas in Houston (August 6-8, 2021), Fort Worth (August 13-15, 2021) and San Antonio (August 20-22, 2021). August feels like a long time away, but I am really looking forward to these gatherings of the Texas hunting community.
Finally, most of us have a few more days to get out and hunt before the season ends – so hunt on, Trophy Hunter Nation, and here’s to a brighter 2021!
