Posts Tagged ‘Federal Premium Ammunition’
Pheasants in Advertising
Friday, June 8th, 2012
Everywhere I look, I see pheasants.
I was walking my 14-week old bird dog pup along a bike trail a quarter mile from Pheasants Forever’s National Office this afternoon during my lunch break when I encountered the North Dakota Tourism billboard pictured above.
Say what you will about advertising, this one worked on me. I’ve been daydreaming about fall hunting trips all afternoon and it’s got me thinking about the power of pheasants in advertising.
North Dakota and South Dakota’s Tourism Departments frequently use pheasants in their advertising campaigns. Our friends at Federal Premium Ammunition and Browning do as well. I also recall countless beer neon signs, mirrors and posters “welcoming” hunters to local taverns across the pheasant range.
I’d like to see how many images we can gather of pheasants being used to “pitch” products. From all the photos emailed, I’ll select the single most interesting pheasant-oriented submission to win the blaze orange Minnesota Wild hat featuring the Pheasants Forever logo along with the Sioux Falls Pheasants logo baseball pictured below.
Blaze orange Minnesota Wild hat featuring the Pheasants Forever logo along with the Sioux Falls Pheasants logo baseball
Send your photo submissions to press@pheasantsforever.org. Thanks!
The Pointer is written by Bob St.Pierre, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Marketing. Follow Bob on Twitter @BobStPierre.
Patterning Your Pheasant Hunting Shotgun
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012
Earlier this week, I received an email from a Pheasants Forever supporter who recently purchased his very first over/under shotgun. The gentleman asked a variety of very good questions. I couldn’t immediately answer all of those questions, so I reached out to Ryan Bronson at Federal Premium Ammunition for some help. Following are those questions with answers thanks to Bronson’s assistance.
What kind of shot pattern am I looking for out of my pheasant hunting shotgun?
(See photo to above) This image appears on the side of every box of Federal’s Prairie Storm pheasant load. According to Bronson, “This is an actual target that we shot with Prairie Storm. This pattern is actually off to the right a little bit (wind drift, shooter error, etc.). This was a 40-yard patterning target and we look for pellet counts in the 30 and 15 inch rings. Shotgunners should be looking for even distribution with few openings in the shot pattern that a bird could fit through. Even though this shot is 6 inches to the right, there are still plenty of pellets in the critical zones.”
What do people do for chokes in the upper and lower barrels of an over/under? Your best choke choice is determined after patterning your gun with your preferred shot brand and size. Personally, I like shooting open chokes. I start with a skeet choke on the top barrel to open up the pattern as much as possible for that first closest shot. I’ve found this to be an especially important factor in shooting Prairie Storm as the shot performs best with very open chokes. My second barrel has an improved cylinder choke in it to retain a more open pattern, but not quite as open as my first shot, considering the bird is now rapidly getting down range.
Is it the ammo or the choke that determines the best pattern? It’s the combination working in harmony with your shotgun. Finding the correct recipe through the three variables (gun, choke and ammo) will determine the best pattern for you. If you already know your gun, then the choke and ammo choices are determined in unison.
Bronson offered a few additional thoughts to keep in mind when patterning your pheasant shotgun:
I would emphasize understanding what your gun/ammo/choke is capable of at various distances. Sometimes you are better off letting a bird get out away from you a little before shooting it, especially if it is a tight pattern at 15 yards.
And if you shoot steel shot, then open the choke up too. Steel patterns tighter than lead. Plated lead shot, like the copper and nickel plated shot in Federal Premium will tend to pattern tighter than plain lead shot in value-priced loads because the un-plated shot will have more deformation. But these are all general rules. You only find specifics by shooting paper and testing.
The Pointer is written by Bob St.Pierre, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Marketing. Follow Bob on Twitter @BobStPierre.
New PF-Logoed Prairie Storm 100 Round Carry Pack
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
New for pheasant hunters this fall from Federal Premium Ammunition is a 100 round carry pack of the Prairie Storm pheasant load – perfect for any Rooster Road Trip.
The large packs are available at Cabela’s, and only in lead shot (the hunters on Pheasants Forever’s Rooster Road Trip will be shooting only the new Prairie Storm steel, as to avoid regulatory confusion when hunting five states in five days, including an assortment of public areas). But if your own Rooster Road Trip includes many hunters or many days, or both, the carry pack could be just the ticket.
In line with all of Federal Premium’s Prairie Storm products, this bulk pack is emblazoned with a Pheasants Forever logo, meaning with each box sold, a donation will be made to Pheasants Forever in support of the organization’s wildlife habitat conservation efforts.
Follow Pheasants Forever’s Rooster Road Trip 2011 at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org, on Facebook , YouTube, and Twitter (#rrt11).
The Prairie Storm 100 round carry pack.
Anthony’s Antics Afield is written by Anthony Hauck, Pheasants Forever’s Online Editor. Email Anthony at AHauck@pheasantsforever.org and follow him on Twitter @AnthonyHauck.
Prairie Storm Steel Travels at 1600 Feet per Second
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Federal Ammo makes a donation to Pheasants Forever's habitat efforts every time a box of Prairie Storm is sold.
When you miss a pheasant, is it because you shot behind the bird?
It’s been my experience most of my missed shots (and the misses of others I’m hunting with) are the result of shooting behind fast-moving roosters. Enter Federal Ammo’s new Prairie Storm Steel which travels at a whopping 1600 feet per second (fps). Wowzers, that’s fast! And blistering compared to the many other upland loads on the market which offer just 1200 to 1300 fps.
North Dakota has an earlier pheasant opener than most states, and Jesse Beckers, Pheasants Forever’s Regional Wildlife Biologist there, has been upland hunting and using Prairie Storm Steel for three weeks. “That stuff rocks. I’ve never had steel shot perform so well. I’ve got buddies starting to buy it and thought people would like to know that it’s performing awesome in North Dakota.”
Next time you’re in the ammo aisle of your favorite sporting goods store, check out the stats on the boxes of bird shot. No other load comes close to the 12 gauge Prairie Storm Steel’s 1600 feet per second.
On top of that fast fact, Federal makes a donation to Pheasants Forever’s wildlife habitat conservation efforts for each and every box of Federal shells sold featuring the PF logo, including Prairie Storm and Prairie Storm Steel.
The Pointer is written by Bob St.Pierre, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Marketing. Follow Bob on Twitter @BobStPierre.
What Makes Prairie Storm Steel Different From Black Cloud?
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
New for 2011, Prairie Storm® FS Steel®. Look for the PF logo, as each box sold supports Pheasants Forever.
Federal Premium has unveiled its new upland load for 2011, Prairie Storm® FS Steel®. Federal’s Black Cloud waterfowl loads, which employ similar technology, have been on the market for a few years, and I know many uplanders who, especially on combo hunts, have used Black Cloud loads for pheasants. So how do they differ?
First, let’s look at the similarities. Both Black Cloud and Prairie Strom Steel have Premium Steel round pellets and FLITESTOPPER pellets. The FLITESTOPPER pellets have sharp, Saturn-like rings around them that really wreak some havoc and create a killing wound channel. Both also contain the FLITECONTROL wad, which is designed to hold the shot and release it at various determined distances to produce a more consistent pattern.
Now, the differences. First is the ratio of Premium Steel vs. FLITESTOPPER pellets. Black Cloud has a 60/40 mix, with 40 percent being FLITESTOPPER pellets. The FLITESTOPPER pellets actually fly different than your standard round pellets to give duck hunters greater killing power at longer ranges. The Prairie Storm Steel loads have a 50/50 mix of the two pellet types. This is due to the fact that shots at a flushing rooster are typically closer, giving you a denser pattern at rooster range!
Next, the FLITECONTROL wad. This really is the magic of the Black Cloud and Prairie Storm loads. There is a crazy rear braking effect which holds the pellets for a controlled release, giving you a specific pattern for the birds you are after. Federal Premium engineered the cuts in the wad to adjust the distance at which the cup will release the pellet load. With the Black Cloud loads the wad will hold the load out to around 15 feet before falling off, giving you a denser pattern at the longer ranges. With the Prairie Storm Steel loads the FLITECONTROL wad will drop off between 7 and 10 feet allowing the pattern to open up more at closer rooster ranges. Pretty cool stuff.
Now if you’re also a duck hunter, like me (and 40 percent of Pheasants Forever members), your mind starts to wander to decoying mallards or a hunt in green timber where your shots become closer – you may want to try the Prairie Storm Steel for those tight ducks! Wow, I may have given the folks at Federal a million dollar idea…and remember, a portion of the proceeds from each box of Prairie Storm Steel sold go directly to Pheasants Forever’s conservation efforts. Again, pretty cool stuff.
The Pheasant Fest blog is written by Brad Heidel, Pheasants Forever’s Director of Corporate and Special Event Sales. Look for Brad’s column, “The Gun Shop,” in the Pheasants Forever Journal.
Cyber Conservation
Wednesday, December 29th, 2010
Pheasants Forever dove into "Cyber Conservation" during 2010 utilizing new media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
“That’s Facebookable.”
Not a day went by without some variation of that quote being uttered in the cubicled walls of Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever’s national offices during 2010.
In this age of declining hunter numbers and the continued detachment of our society from the outdoors, we’ve added a habitat battlefield in cyberspace by launching aggressive campaigns to reach new audiences in 2010. I call this new theatre of battle “Cyber Conservation.”
On the surface, it’s easy to point a finger at the incongruent nature of marketing to folks gripping keyboards and joysticks with a message asking them to drop those devices and get outdoors. But in reality, taking our conservation message to their screens is pure Darwin adaptation to survive in today’s battle for attention, members, and habitat acres.
Not only do today’s new media tools allow us to “talk” about conservation to audiences that have raised their hand with interest in what we have to say, we can also add personality and immediacy to our messages far easier than in any of the more traditional mediums.
And in no uncertain terms, one of our goals is to make conservation “cool.” Why is “coolness” important to a conservation organization? When you look across the landscape of this country and see our habitat losses, the massive decline in quail numbers across the southeast, Iowa’s pheasant collapse, and the frighteningly low number of young bird hunters; it’s easy to see we need to inspire the masses to pick up the cause of conservation.
Will cyber conservation make it cool to be a member of Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever?
Will Facebook move the masses and motivate a new generation of conservation volunteers?
Time will tell, but we’re certain to fail if we don’t try. And when the cause is conservation, failing isn’t an option.
High Points in Cyber Conservation during 2010
- · Pheasants Forever’s Facebook Page is closing in on 25,000 fans; boasting the largest online community focused on pheasants, pheasant hunting and habitat conservation.
- · Likewise Quail Forever’s Facebook Page counts over 2,000 friends and also has the largest online quail community.
- · Our eNewsletter, On The Wing, is the granddaddy of this group. This monthly email publication started in 2007 and recently won First Place as the best email newsletter created in the state of Minnesota during 2010.
- · At Pheasant Fest in Des Moines last February, we turned a $200 camera and Federal Premium Ammunition’s support into our first foray into YouTube with our video “Storm Reports.” Since then, we’ve continued to offer video vignettes as topics seemed appropriate. Look for more regular video posts in the coming year.
- · We dipped our toes into blogging with the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Club Outdoors in the fall of 2009 and parlayed that success into our own Pheasant Blog site in early 2010 and Quail Blog site more recently. Today, our blogs account for almost a third of our entire web traffic and Pheasant Blog was also awarded First Place for the best blog site originating in the state of Minnesota.
- · And if social networking didn’t push the conservation envelope far enough, we entered the evil world of video games with Pheasants Forever’s Wingshooter for Wii. I think Andrew said it best; “if we aren’t in front of kids where they are at, how are we ever to expect them to know Pheasants Forever in the first place?” With Wingshooter, we hope to introduce Pheasants Forever, the fun of bird hunting and our conservation message through the instant gratification of video gaming.
- · We also took Pheasants Forever on the cyber trail in 2010 with the Rooster Road Trip. Not only were we successful in illustrating the value of public lands to bird hunters, we tripled a normal week’s new members signed up through our website.
- · Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever Twitter pages and have earned new media contacts and corporate partners with our daily tweets.
- · LinkedIn has also opened our pheasant and quail conservation messages to an elite group of business and government professionals.
- · In early December, a philanthropic member approached us with a $25,000 matching donation and a trio of passions: his yellow Lab, the value of CRP as habitat and an embrace of our new online efforts to recruit members. The result of that generous gift and those ideals; the Bird Dogs for Habitat Campaign in which each dollar donated is a vote for your favorite breed of bird dog. Today, we sit $6,500 shy of reaching our goal with a little more than two days remaining. My money is backing the German shorthaired pointer. Have you made your year-end tax deductible donation yet?
What’s next? Texting – it’s coming next month. Mobile apps – possibly.
Do you have an idea for the next frontier of Cyber Conservation?
The Pointer is written by Bob St.Pierre, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Marketing.
Storm Report – Inside the New Prairie Storm
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Free Tees, Dr. Death and Other Pheasant Fest Happenings
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Pheasants Forever’s Bob St.Pierre has a hard to top must-see list for this weekend’s National Pheasant Fest. So do I. While I likely won’t get to do them all (I am working, ya know), here’s what I’m hoping to accomplish at the show.
"Storm Reports" - videos from Pheasant Fest - coming to the Pheasant Blog this weekend.
- Storm Reports – We’ll be posting video “Storm Reports” all weekend long from National Pheasant Fest, brought to you by Federal Premium Ammunition, the Official Ammunition of Pheasants Forever and makers of the all-new Prairie Storm pheasant loads (available summer 2010). “Storm Reports” will be posted here at the Pheasant Blog and also at Pheasants Forever’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pheasantsforever).
- Predators Rx – Don’t bring your pet coyote in for a checkup. The Coyote Doctors (think Kevorkian, not House) will be giving presentations on calling these wily predators. A pastime I’m just getting into; and I need a professional diagnosis.
- Classic Guns Rock – Parker Gun Collectors Association, at booth #642 and also a pair of seminar presentations, will be profiling classic American double guns. And I like looking at guns.
- Remington, Benelli, Beretta, Browning/Winchester, DPMS, booths etc. – Did I mention I like looking at guns?
- Free T-Shirt – Word on the street is that you can check out the new Prairie Storm pheasant load at Federal Premium booth #625 and pick up a free t-shirt to boot (limit of 1,000). But you didn’t hear that from me…
- Makin’ Acres – Since my parents will be taking in the event this year, I’d like to go through the Landowner Habitat Help Room with my dad and see where we could add a few acres of habitat on the family farm.
- Snows & Toms – If you’re like me and the spring snow geese & tom turkey dates are coming up fast on the calendar, snooping around for some deals on the show floor might not be a bad idea. Maybe back to the Federal Premium booth for a look at the Black Could Snow Goose load. And maybe a visit with an outfitter or two.
- National Pheasant Fest 2010 Banquet – At Pheasants Forever’s 25th Anniversary in Saint Paul, I took in the evening banquet with my parents and Pheasants Forever colleagues Bob St.Pierre and Mike Traxinger. Now a law student at Drake, “Trax” will be back volunteering for “The Habitat Organization” this weekend. Could be déjà vu all over again. I wonder if Yogi will be in attendance????
Ever Used .000000000000001 Shot?
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
No, that is not a "Micro Machine" in front of a standard-issue shotshell.
Or would it be BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB? This gigantic shotshell homage to Federal Premium Ammunition can be found at Long Lake Lodge in Brandon, Minnesota, where I had the enjoyable experience of hunting and snowshoeing this past weekend. I couldn’t zoom out far enough to picture the Godzilla-sized shotgun.
Know of any other such tributes? Post ‘em below.
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PF Press Releases- QF Press Releases
