By Michael Pendley According to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hunting license sales in the United States peaked in 1982, with around 17 million hunters purchasing a little over 28 million hunting licenses. Data from 2016, the most recent available, shows that number closer to 11 million. Since most state DNR and game and fish departments depend on hunting license sales for their day-to-day operating budget, that downward trend has their attention. Not only do these agencies need the income from license sales, but the amount of money they receive in federal grants through the Pittman-Robertson Act is based directly on the amount of taxes taken in on firearms, ammunition and hunting equipment sold to American consumers. The more hunters out there buying gear, the more money available from the fund. The answer, obviously, is to get more folks afield. But how? For many departments, that answer lies in a game animal that doesn’t get a lot of publicity.

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Little Bird, Big Results

Mentored dove hunts are springing up around the country as a way to introduce new people to the sport, and state agencies are going out of their way to make them possible. Why dove hunting? For starters, unlike turkey and big-game hunting, doves don’t require a lot of specialized gear. Just about any shotgun style, a few inexpensive boxes of shells, a jug of cold water to drink and something to sit on is about all it takes for a successful day in the dove field. Too, for most states, dove hunting takes place in late summer or early fall, making the weather inviting for someone not used to spending hours in the cold. The fact that dove hunting is more of a social event than the solitary waiting for other game animals helps as well. Then there’s the shooting itself. The fast-paced action and frequent shot opportunities of a good dove field keep newcomers interested and tuned in to the hunt. A miss is quickly forgotten as the next bird flies by in range. Doves also make great table fare, appealing to those new hunters who have taken up the sport in search of clean, organic meat for the family table. To make the hunts attractive to new hunters and mentors alike, state agencies are doing things like planting fields of sunflower, millet or other grain on public lands to attract doves. Often, these fields are limited to mentor hunts for the first several days of the season. That’s important because knowing they are afield with other new hunters helps ease the worry of newcomers to the sport who might otherwise feel intimidated in a field full of seasoned veterans.

Adjusting to a Changing Hunter

One agency that has embraced the mentored dove hunt idea is the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Its program offers special hunting areas to mentor/mentee pairs. The mentor must be at least 21 years old and hold a valid Ohio hunting license. The new hunters can be any age, as long as they have either never possessed an Ohio hunting license or had previously held an Ohio hunting license or apprentice hunting license but not completed Harvest Information Program (HIP) certification — something necessary for hunting — in the last five years. Eric Postell, program manager over outdoor education for the ODNR, says the way the department is going about hunter recruitment has changed over the years. “We aren’t doing the approach to getting as many people as possible together for a large event that used to be so common. Instead, we have implemented the R3 — recruit, retain and reactivate — approach, focusing on more detailed events for smaller groups, say 20 to 30 new hunters. Our hunt clinics now are a complete training course. The participants might spend a day learning about the type of game they are hunting and how to hunt it, get paired with a mentor, then go straight to the field to hunt. After, we help them process their game and show them how to prepare it for a meal,” says Postell. Postell reports that newcomers to the sport aren’t interested in the same aspects that traditionally attracted new hunters. “Today, with new hunters, it’s all about being a part of the natural cycle, about acquiring food for the table. “We know Millennials are interested in our programs,” he added. “Our events fill up as soon as we post an opening. What we don’t know is if the new hunters from the clinics are remaining active in the sport.” To that end, the ODNR has recently hired a customer engagement coordinator whose job will be to mine data from the Ohio hunter recruitment programs to see if participants purchase Ohio hunting licenses down the road. “We hope the information gained from this position will help us tailor our recruitment initiatives to fit the most successful examples from our clinics,” says Postell. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) takes a similar approach. It’s teamed up with the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), Quail Forever (QF), the Missouri Prairie Foundation (MPF), the Conservation Federation of Missouri (CFM) and private landowners to provide mentored dove hunts for first-time hunters on fields across the state. New Missouri hunters can apply for the hunt individually and be paired with a mentor at the field. Each field is limited to two first-time hunters and their mentors per acre to maximize safety and provide a quality experience. Like the ODNR, the MDC has shifted from concentrating on recruiting youth hunters to providing opportunities that appeal to those of all ages. Justin McGuire, Hunter Education Coordinator for the MDC, says,” We have adjusted existing programs and created new programs to include adult first-time hunters. The Department has worked hard to find a balance between youth- and adult-centered programs, and we’ve put a lot of effort into engaging partner organizations. We hold hunts in conjunction with NGOs and other government agencies such as the Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife. This allows all involved entities to share in the cost, labor and positive exposure. Everyone in the industry has a vested interest in recruiting, retaining, and reactivating hunters and shooters, and partnerships allow everyone to provide more efficient, effective programs for participants without unnecessarily duplicating efforts. “Many of our programs, dove hunts included, focus on recruiting first-time hunters,” McGuire continued. “For those programs, we focus our marketing and restrict our registrations to participants who have never hunted or, at a minimum, have never hunted that particular species. In that way, we’ve been very successful in using our programs to introduce new hunters.” The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife (KDFWR) is another state agency using mentored dove hunts to attract new hunters. For several years now, the KDFWR has offered these hunts to youths under 16. Adult mentors can take up to two youth hunters afield at a time. Wes Little, a migratory game bird biologist with the agency, says, “We’ve been partnering with private landowners for years now to plant and maintain dove fields for use by Kentucky’s hunters. We have traditionally reserved several of these fields for mentored youth hunts on the opening weekend of the season. “The department feels these mentored hunts offer young hunters a safe and low-pressure hunt they wouldn’t get in an open public field. We run the hunts from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. to avoid the hottest part of the day and place the hunters in the field when the doves are most active. After the hunt, many of the landowners offer a picnic for the participants to make it an all-around fun-filled day afield.” While these youth hunts will continue, Little went on to add that the KDFWR was moving toward attracting young adults to the sport with a new program of mentored hunts. “New data is pointing to young adult non-hunters as a demographic that responds well to new hunter programs, and so we have started working with our R3 coordinator to offer more mentored hunts for young adults,” he said. “Like the youth hunters, we pair the participants with mentors who can help them with the entire process, from gear selection and the hunt itself to cleaning and preparing their game afterward.”

One Step for New Hunters, One Step for +ONE

For many agencies, these mentored hunts are proving to be a useful tool in the fight to stabilize hunter numbers, and this model is being implemented by these agencies and others to cover additional game species. Best of all these efforts support, both directly and indirectly, the +ONE^SM Movement. This nationwide NSSF initiative works to encourage experienced target shooters and hunters to take someone new to the range or field and introduce them to the sports they are passionate about, just as someone once introduced them. For more information about the +ONE Movement and to take the +ONE Pledge, visit LetsGoShooting.org and LetsGoHunting.org. You may also be interested in: https://www.letsgohunting.org/articles/grilled-dove-poppers/ https://www.letsgohunting.org/articles/doves-the-perfect-youth-hunt/

An article written by Steve Sorensen published in September 2018 on DeerandDeerHunting.com

A Model for Mentoring New Deer Hunters

Some passionate deer hunters are so commit­ted that they can't see it. but hunting is losing steam. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that from 2011 to 2016 we lost 2 million participants, declining to 11.5 million nationwide. This means we have fewer people competing during deer season, but it also means fewer dollars are being spent to sustain hunting. In the same period, total hunting expenditures declined 29 percent, from $36.3 billion to $25.6 billion. White-tailed deer are the keystone of North America's hunting heritage. If we're going to talk about preserving hunting, we must talk about whitetails, and we need to make a more deliberate effort than ever to get kids hunting them. The future of hunting is at stake. Deer hunting will not survive the way it did 20, 30 or 40 years ago. Hunting was widely accepted with little controversy. We had more kids, who had fewer competing interests, and a hunting family naturally transmitted traditional hunting values to sons and daughters. Fathers, grandfathers and uncles all led the way. A few days before the season opened, we'd go to an uncle's or grandfather's house to sight-in our rifles. Any casual observer might think sighting-in was the main preparation for the big day. Even though we took it seriously, that wasn't our main preparation - not even close. We were preparing when we talked about what boots were suited for hunting, the finer points of traction, warmth and support. We talked about clothing, how to make our gear last and debated preferences for rifle calibers. Hunting stories permeated our conversations, which ranged from what we ate while in the woods, to how the big bucks knew what was going on when the shooting started. A single trip to the deer woods was never enough to transmit hunting heritage, but everyday life held countless mentoring opportunities. Even small game hunting, the appetizer for deer season, wasn't our main preparation. It helped get our eyes, ears and legs in hunting shape, but throughout the year, nearly every day, we learned hunting lessons by example and by osmosis because we lived with hunters. Hunting was for the generations, and it would continue for as long as dads in deer country had children. In many ways, those days are gone.

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Changing Family Dynamics

Although most people in the world of deer hunting care deeply about our heritage, we aren't seeing hunting taught the way it once was. A whole range of things are happening in our society that prevent it. Without getting into moralizing over children born to single mothers, dads who don't stick around long enough to raise their families, or political opposition to guns, it's clear these and other social issues have had a negative effect on transmitting hunting values. More and more, increasing urbanization plays a role. Cultural media is produced in urban areas. Political money goes where people are, and that money draws more people to the urban centers. Cities are where the jobs are, but the hunting opportunities are scarce. Where traditional families once had four, five or even six kids, most are now having one or two. Competing interests are giving those one or two kids many choices, and hunting is often excluded from their array of activities. Messages about hunting and guns are almost certain to be negative. Today, a decades-old photograph of a 12-year-old girl with a gun and a deer can antagonize someone who, astonishingly, believes hunters are responsible for school shootings.

What Can Be Done?

So how do we get kids involved in hunting? We're in a desperate situation for two reasons: First, hunting is conservation, and if hunting ends, we have no model for wildlife conservation that can replace it. Second, it will take a concerted, heroic effort from all of us to preserve hunting by bringing more people into the ranks. For all hunting has done to enrich your life, join the +ONE^SM movement and invite someone hunting. John Annoni is on the front line of what actually can be done, and he knows transmitting our heritage will never again be done the way it was a generation ago. He is bringing the values of hunting into the public schools of Allentown, Pennsylvania, through a program that he founded 20 years ago called Camp Compass Academy. Camp Compass introduces kids from the inner city to hunting. With good grades, good behavior and open minds, kids in Annoni's program, who would never have another chance to learn about hunting, get to see the positive benefits it offers. "Kids have to earn the privilege to participate in our program, but it's not just for honor students, or the 20 percent who can find a way to get it done on their own," he said. "We want to reach the 80 percent." It's easy to see why some of his ideas challenge the conventional wisdom in public schools, but he also offers some challenges to the hunting community. We talk a lot about "mentoring," but what is mentoring? Annoni recognizes a clear difference between mentoring and parenting. Parenting introduces our own small families to hunting, but that's not enough. Mentoring those outside of the family must take center stage for hunting to survive. [caption id="attachment_2369" align="aligncenter" width="650"] This is the direction hunting needs to go to survive - experienced hunters mentoring those new to the sport.[/caption]

Mentoring is Time Consuming

Mentoring takes time, and we need to stop looking at that as a negative. Annoni says, "Any time you can consume a child's idle time with something proactive, you're winning." He reminds us that we're not just building hunters, we're building people. “We shouldn't think we're using a kid's time to hunting's advantage," he said. "We should be using it to their advantage. That means, in some mentoring time, we won't be talking about hunting." Our deer hunting heritage takes mentoring for granted because a traditional hunter saw dad, grandpa and uncles get dressed, choose a gun, sight-in, scout - it all came naturally. But if hunting is going to last, we must recruit more and more nontraditional hunters who will never come into hunting that way. Annoni also believes that we need to redefine excellence away from the size of the bucks we're after and toward the experience itself. [caption id="attachment_2371" align="aligncenter" width="650"] If Camp Compass Academy were to be reproduced across the coun­try, it would go a long way toward helping hunting survive well into the future.[/caption] "Instead of a 140-class deer, I'd rather have 140 words come out of someone's mouth that honors our craft. Some outdoor TV needs a wake­up call," he said. "The reality is that when we talk about that buck we've been scouting, hunting, watching, our bubble of selfishness gets so large that there's no room for giving. So, nothing would give me more satisfaction than watching a whole season of deer hunting TV where the stars are not doing the killing, but ordinary people are." If we're going to save hunting, we have to save deer hunting. And if we're going to save deer hunting we have to do at least three things, and probably more.

Bring Diverse Families Together

The world of hunting is a surprisingly diverse family, and we hunters need to think about our family dynamics. As much as families tend to bicker with each other, when their backs are to the wall they support each other with all their might. Demographics and a negative social attitude toward guns and hunting tell us our backs are to the wall now, but we haven't yet unified. We can look at social media to witness how divided we are. Sites such as Facebook can be used for good, but they can also hurt people we don't intend to hurt. When one of us criticizes another hunter's choice in taking a legal deer, or we unnecessarily accuse someone of being unethical because we disapprove of the equipment they use, many young people subject to peer pressure will see these arguments and will fear similar criticism. Annoni reminds us, “We must realize that new hunters [who are] one step into hunting are also one step from quitting hunting." Will we look past our petty family squabbles? Or will we continue doing the dirty work of our enemies for them? We need to choose.

Understanding What Mentoring Is

When we mentor a kid in hunting, we're not just creating a hunter - we're building character and positive values into the child. "Success should not be measured by whether we tie a tag onto a deer's ear," Annoni warns, "because if we focus too much on the tag, we focus too little on the time. The tag will be gone. The memories and lessons will last forever. Make mentoring about time, and we will change hearts. We will build people." We also need to look at mentoring as a year-round process, not just an October lead-up to deer season. Hunting season comes and goes, but mentoring season is 365 days a year. It includes passing along a good magazine article, preparing and eating venison, talking about meaningful memories, showing old and new photos all year long, and much more. Mentoring is a relationship with no substitute. The fact that kids today have few deep adult relationships means that if we create one, we can use that relationship to build up a kid through hunting. Many people don't get the difference between parenting and mentoring. Parenting has mentoring built in. Mentoring without being a parent is a big, voluntary, valuable commitment.

A New Hunter is the Goal

Annoni also said, "Whoever you mentor does not need to know that you're the best hunter on the planet. They need to know you care about them." We set antler standards, but we must also set standards about keeping commitments, punctuality, ethics and all of the other everyday values that we hold as right and good. Deer hunting should be a way to teach normal, natural values. The deer is not the trophy. A newcomer transformed into a responsible hunter is the trophy of a lifetime. We need to care by getting as excited about any deer that a kid kills, as he gets about any deer that we kill ourselves because the newcomer is more important than any deer. If we want to give our deer hunting heritage a future - this is how. Join the +ONE Movement and invite a friend on your next hunt. Special thanks to DeerandDeerHunting.com for providing this insightful content.  About the Author Steve Sorensen, known as The Everyday Hunter, is an avid deer hunter from Pennsylvania.

 

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https://www.letsgohunting.org/articles/the-art-of-the-ask/

The 8^th Annual Kansas Governor’s Ringneck Classic is in the books. This was the first time I had personally attended the event. I had heard what a great time this outing was, and the reports were absolutely correct. The town of Colby, Kansas, was incredibly welcoming to all the hunters who had gathered. The farmers who offered up their private lands for us to hunt explained that no one else had hunted on them the first two weeks of the season, as they wanted to ensure there’d be plenty of wild birds. The local Ford dealership hosted an opening reception for us to meet, greet and enjoy the mutal fellowship as we got to know the other hunters, guides and the local citizens who helped with the event. Friday we enjoyed some of the sights of Colby, including the largest barn in Kansas, before we spent the afternoon participating in the Governor’s Sporting Clays Tournament. We laughed often as the wind would carry clay pigeons in what we considered to be the wrong direction, but also because we were enjoying the company and sharing our passion for the shooting sports and the outdoors. We met our guide after shooting clays and made a plan for the following morning. During dinner we had a chance to meet other hunters and check out silent and live auction items, whose proceeds would go to benefit the future of bird hunting in Kansas. Saturday morning’s hunt would prove a bit challenging. The temperature was just below freezing, but with a biting wind moving at 18 miles per hour, it was downright cold. However, as we walked, the dogs romped and the birds were harvested, the enjoyment of the day was felt by all in our group. The six hunters in our group took 17 birds before the day was done, and we enjoyed every minute of it. As I mentioned, this was the 8th Annual Kansas Governor’s Ringneck Classic. This event was a little different than the previous seven in that of the 70 hunters this year, 11 were female. Why is this a big deal? It shouldn’tt be, but it is. The National Shooting Sports Foundation recruited an all-female team for the event. The team consisted of ladies from different backgrounds, and varied aspects of the shooting industry: Dianna Muller, 3-Gun competitor and Founder of the DC Project; Sharon Cundiff, of Range Allies, a guide and rifle instructor; Yim Szeto, Marketing Coordinator of Blaser USA; and myself, the Regional Member Services Manager for NSSF. Along the way, we also collected Julie McQueen, Content Director at CarbonTV, and Cheyenne Dalton, an up and coming teenage 3-Gun shooter. Aside from that little bit of background of information, our hunt was no different than the hunt of the 59 male hunters who also participated. We carried our own guns and ammunition, we walked the fields, we cut-up with our guides and we harvested birds as all hunters do. Historically, when it is time to go hunting, men would gather up along with the male children and off to the field they’d go, leaving the women and girls home. Those days are gone — but not far gone. I engaged in conversations with several people on the hunt, and they asked why there weren’t more women or people of color hunting and attending the event. My question to them: “Did you invite any women or people of color to the event?” That is what we as sport shooters and hunters need to do — invite people to go out with us, invite them to the range, invite them to shooting events. If we extend invitations to new shooters, new hunters and those who do not look like us, we will grow the number of participants and increase the number of dollars spent on excise taxes for conservation. That will be a big win for all concerned. So, do you want to go hunting or to the range with me? It really is that simple. About the Author Tisma Juett is an NSSF Regional Member Services Manager for the Northeast region of the U.S. Juett’s enthusiastic passion and desire to grow the shooting sports is her driving force behind getting others involved and serving NSSF Member businesses at the highest level. Tisma is an NRA-certified pistol instructor who enjoys sporting clays, bass fishing, motorcycles and baseball.

Inviting someone to go hunting for the first time requires a bit of nuance. Here are a few pointers.

It’s easy to ask a hunting buddy to go hunting. “Hey, man. Teal opens Saturday. You in?” “You know it!” he replies, as if you’ve questioned his manhood. Inviting a newcomer to go hunting isn’t so cut-and-dry. Depending on the person—especially someone who didn’t grow up around hunting—the prospect of actually going out for the first time can be intimidating. That’s because going hunting is not like going to a ball game or playing a round of golf. After all, a hunt might start in the dark and culminate at a strange place in the woods. If everything goes well, there will be gunfire and at least one bird or animal will die. The new hunter needs specialized gear, and he or she probably doesn’t have a clue what to pack or how to dress. They don’t know if “going hunting” means going out for an hour or for the weekend. They really have no idea how it’ll all go down. And once you’ve gotten a friend interested in hunting, a hunter education course is a prerequisite.  This used to be a significant time commitment but technology has made the process much easier and hunter-ed.com offers state-specific hunter education resources. Therefore, your invitation to a new hunter should address some of these issues to make him or her feel at ease. It should also convey enthusiasm, and tell them a little bit about what to expect. Maybe something like… “Say, I’m going duck hunting for a few hours Saturday morning. The weather is supposed to be great—chilly, but not frigid—and I’ve got a great place to go with lots of birds. We’ll have a blast! I’ll even pick you up. What do you say?” Typically, the invitee will be curious and want to ask more questions, but he won’t want to come across as totally ignorant, so he might respond with something non-committal like… “Sounds fun, and I appreciate the invite, but I’ll have to see what I’ve got going on Saturday.” From here, you might have to coax them a bit more. “Fair enough, but just so you know: I’ve got all the gear you’ll need. I’ll even take you to get your license, or we can get it online. Then, on Saturday, I’ll pick you up about an hour before sunrise. We’ll head to my spot, toss out some decoys, build a blind, drink some coffee, and hopefully bag a few ducks…if we can hit ‘em. I’ll have you back before 11. You’re gonna love it!” Who could refuse an offer like that?   About the Author: A native Oklahoman, Jeff Johnston is an NRA-certified shotgun, rifle, and handgun instructor, as well as an NRA Distinguished Expert shooter. A lifelong hunter, he’s taken many different species of game, including a few giant whitetails and one rare masked fox squirrel from Georgia of which he’s particularly proud.

Laying a foundation for a lifetime of safe hunting

So, you’ve asked a friend to go hunting with you, and you’ve even set the date. Now all you have to do is get your buddy geared up and wait for the big day, right? Wrong. Your hunt will never leave the truck if the new hunter doesn’t have his or her hunter’s safety certification. That’s because most states won’t issue a hunting license unless a hunter can prove he or she has the proper credentials. So, once you’ve gotten a friend interested in hunting, the next step is have him or her enroll in a hunter education course. A hunter ed course used to be a significant time commitment, involving a couple days or nights of in-person instruction. However, technology has made the process much easier. There are a number of excellent online hunter education resources available, including Hunter-Ed.com and the International Hunter’s Education Association. The best part is that many states also offer online courses, so your plus-one won’t even have to burn a weekend in a classroom, instead being able to complete the coursework in his or her free time on a computer or smartphone. Be sure to inform your buddy that that the class isn’t designed to be tough. It’s meant to teach beginners the basics of gun safety and safe practices afield, not to trick them into failing. Prospective hunters need no prior knowledge of firearms, game animals, or hunting to take and pass the course. For most kids, it’s actually fun. Hunter’s safety education is mandatory, and can sometimes be an obstacle in getting a new hunter afield. Fortunately, it’s now relatively easy to accomplish. Make sure it gets done.   About the Author: A native Oklahoman, Jeff Johnston is an NRA-certified shotgun, rifle, and handgun instructor, as well as an NRA Distinguished Expert shooter. A lifelong hunter, he’s taken many different species of game, including a few giant whitetails and one rare masked fox squirrel from Georgia of which he’s particularly proud.

How to talk like a hunter

Hunters, just like any other hobbyists, have their own lingo to communicate quickly and effectively. (It’s also pretty darn fun once it becomes fluent!) New hunters should learn some of it so they can also communicate in the same language. A few examples follow. Upwind: Refers to the direction the wind is blowing in relation to an object, person, or animal. Because most animals have keen noses, it’s almost always best to stay “upwind” of them so your scent doesn’t blow directly toward them. Downwind: Opposite of upwind. Example: “The deer was downwind of Mike, so it busted him and ran off.” 150-inch Buck: When serious deer hunters talk about bucks, they often refer to them in measured inches of antler as a means of efficient and universal communication. A 100-inch buck is small in most places; a 120-inch buck is average; a 150-inch buck is very impressive; and a 200-inch buck is a once-in-a lifetime type of animal. New hunters shouldn’t get wrapped up in measurements—after all the meat is the real trophy—but they should know of what their fellow hunters speak. Legal Shooting Hours: While state and local laws can vary, hunters generally are allowed to hunt 30 minutes prior to the day’s official sunrise until the day’s official sunset or, in some states, 30 minutes past it. It’s your duty to know your hunting area’s legal shooting hours. Dekes: Short for decoys. Many game animals—including big game like deer and elk, but especially migratory birds—can be effectively hunted with the use of dekes. Stand: Any place from which a hunter actually hunts. It could mean a treestand, an elevated box blind, a ground blind, or just a great spot on a ridgetop. Glass: As a noun, glass refers to a binocular. As a verb, it’s the act of using a binocular or spotting scope to scan an expanse in hopes of finding an animal to pursue. Bag Limit: Refers to the maximum number of game animals a hunter can legally kill, or put in his or her “game bag” to take home. Again, it’s up to every hunter to know the bag limits for the bird/animal and area where he or she is hunting Monster, Pig, Toad, Brute, Booner, etc.: Slang terms for describing huge game animals. Example: “That buck was a toad!” Still Hunting: A style of hunting in which the hunter does not stay stationary all the time, but remains still for a few minutes, then slips to a different position to observe again. It’s the opposite of “stand hunting.”   About the Author: A native Oklahoman, Jeff Johnston is an NRA-certified shotgun, rifle, and handgun instructor, as well as an NRA Distinguished Expert shooter. A lifelong hunter, he’s taken many different species of game, including a few giant whitetails and one rare masked fox squirrel from Georgia of which he’s particularly proud.