Tunica, Mississippi - You can't get a group of Outdoor Media professionals together without talking gear. That's why POMA officials always make sure to bring out the best gear on the market for their Product Showcase.

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Tunica, Mississippi - The 2012 Professional Outdoor Media Association conference opened last night at the Tunica River Park & Museum. Resting right there on the banks of the Mississippi River, the River Park takes you through the history of the river with a walk through their two story museum. There's also a present day provided by floating down stream upon the Tunica Queen.

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Odgen, Utah - Wear glasses? Take pictures? Shoot video? Have a flat screen or a iPhone? Use a scope on that rifle? Then you better have a Spudz.

Spudz are those microfiber cloths wrapped inside a neoprene pouch. The cloth will clean your glasses, wipe your camera lense or erase all those finger prints that are piling up on your iPad. As one who uses a camera and an iPhone quite a bit at work, I'll tell you that I never leave home without it (apologies American Express).

As luck would have it, I ran into David Poppleton from Alpine Innovations at the 2011 Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) Conference in Utah. Alpine is the maker of Spudz along with a comprehensive line of ancillary accessories. Let's just say that I spent a good deal of time thumbing through his collection of cloths.

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Ogden, Utah - When it comes the life of a reporter, it's difficult to come up with a better day than Media Day. That's when you're allowed to test out some of the top manufacturer's firearms, bows and ammunition. And the Media Day for the Professional Outdoor Media Association's business conference in Ogden, Utah was no different.

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Ogden, Utah - This weekend at the 2011 Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) Business Conference in Odgen, Utah, POMA teamed up with Mossy Oak to name this year's winners of the Pinnacle Awards. Founded in 2006, the Pinnacle Awards recognize exceptional achievement in traditional outdoor sports-focused communications, including writing, photography/illustration/art, broadcasting focused on wildlife conservation.

Pictured above are a collection of this year's winners including Tom Gresham, Andrew Chamberlain, Kevin Reese, Brandon Butler and more.

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Ogden, Utah - One of the highlights for the Professional Outdoor Media Conference each year is the Product Showcase. That's where vendors and manufacturers bring out their latest goods and wares for those of us in the Outdoor Media to see. One of the first items to catch my eye was the Crosman's Benjamin® Rogue™ .357 Big Bore ePCP™ Air Rifle. This bolt-action beauty is computer controlled so that each shot receives the same amount of pressure (800 fps) no matter how much air is left in the tank. Whether or not you use the auto-indexing clip, shooters can fire as much as 20 small grain shots and 4 large grain shots before refilling the tank

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On the final day of SHOT Show 2011, a surplus of firearms enthusiasts jostled through the Sand Expo Center to gather and gaze at what remained of the unclaimed bounty. Four days being barely enough time to properly peruse the miles of exhibits, first-timers often took the dubious route of bypassing anything lacking a trigger. Unfortunately for those who take the road less traveled, they missed out on hunting accessory favorites that can found at places like Otis, Yamaha, or Buck Knives booth.

Buck's relationship with the NRA extends beyond that of the general. In fact, Buck is exclusively providing their Model 113 Ranger Skinner knife as part of the 2011 NRA membership package. The Skinner features a 3 1/8” drop point blade, a Charcoal Dymondwood handle and a brass bolster engraved with an NRA logo.

“Working with the NRA has proven a great partnership," said CEO C.J. Buck. "We at Buck Knives are excited about offering this knife to the NRA members who are able to make the commitment and help solidify what the NRA is working to accomplish.”

I first met C.J. at the 2009 Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) in St. Louis and shared the story of my first knife. It was a Folding Hunter which my father gave me upon earning the rank of Second Class Scout. After asking him if there was a knife I should be looking at to replace the Hunter, he smiled, stepped away, and reappeared with The Hoodlum.

"This one is special," said Buck. "There's a great guy named Ron Hood. Ron has more than 40 years worth of survival experience in the military, collegiate and outdoor arena. He used those years of training and the time he spent living with a variety of indigenous people to design a knife we call The Hoodlum. Everything from the weight, feel, balance, angles, material ... everything is designed for the purpose of survival."

He went on to explain how the knife could be used for scoring, chopping, whittling, hammering, and more. The more explained the more people gathered to catch a glimpse of the demonstration. In time I wrapped it up by snapping a few pictures, shaking his hand, and leaving C.J. to the newly formed crowd.

If you'd like to check out the Hoodlum, you can ask at your local hunting/outdoor supplier, visit their website or stop by their booth (#2015) at the NRA's 140th Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Earlier this year at the 5th Annual Professional Outdoor Media Association's (POMA) Conference, NRAblog sat down with the winner of POMA's 2010 Mossy Oak Pinnacle Award for exceptional achievement in traditional outdoor sports-focused writing – Pope & Young Club member Dennis Dunn. Dunn's latest book, BAREBOW, covers the adventures, and misadventures, surrounding his 40-year quest to complete the North American Super Slam with an arrow and bow.

But rather than have it described by a novice, read what Special Projects Editor Wayne van Zwoll of Petersen's Hunting magazine had to say:

"I hardly had time to get an arrow nocked and drawn…. Having to think on your knees in front of a charging grizzly has a way of speeding up your thought processes…. Either he would not see the obstacle in his path and would run right over the top of me, or else…."

Archer Dennis Dunn didn't kill that bear. In fact, he traveled North seven times before he made an 8-yard lung shot that anchored the biggest grizzly ever taken by an archer of record. That's a hunt worth the telling; but it's just one of 29 North American big game animals. Dunn wanted to take them all "barebow." Using stick bows and compound bows without sights, he completed that quest in September, 2004. But his accomplishment consumes only a few paragraphs in this new, gigantic and lavishly illustrated book. The best part of hunting is in the process, not the product. Dunn takes us not only on trips that brought him luck, but on those that left him empty-handed. He tells about missing a pronghorn at 11 yards, of losing a desert ram to a thief, of hard trails and disappointments every hunter has known. He writes forthrightly, but with the intensity of one with memories still vivid.

In addition to the more than 100 stories covering his crusade, the book is also filled with illustrations painted exclusively for Dunn by renowned wildlife artist Hayden Lambson as well as black-and-white drawings from his son Dallen. Whether you head into the field with a rifle, shotgun, or bow, BAREBOW! is sure to remind any sportsman of their most treasured time on the hunt. What better gift could there be?

Check out BAREBOW! and see if it's the right gift for your favorite hunter.

Guy Vandyke is the VP of Sales & Marketing for HuntNFishregs.com. NRAblog met Vandyke at the meeting of Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) members in LaPorte, Indiana, in July 2010.

What does HuntNFishregs.com do? It helps you get outdoors in any state. 

"HuntNFishRegs.com is a fully developed website that provides a state-of-the-art, easy to navigate online source to all 50 states' Hunting and Fishing regulation guides," Vandyke told NRAblog.

What inspired Vanyke and his partner Jeff Hunt to form the site?  "One of the big problems was that as people wanted to get information from other states (to hunt and fish in)," he said, "and you either had to wait for that state to send you a regulation book or try and navigate the state web site." It was an inconvenience that was costing men and women the opportunity to hunt or fish, the pair decided.  More