Conservation organization gets a huge infusion of funds to support its work on wildlife habitat and hunting heritage.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has announced that is the recipient of one of the largest endowments ever gifted to a hunter-based, wildlife conservation organization. The $30 million Torstenson Family Endowment will allow RMEF to vastly accelerate the rate at which its carries out its mission to ensure the future of elk, other wildlife, their habitat and our hunting heritage.

“This is a monumental game-changer for RMEF,” said David Allen, RMEF president and CEO. “Thanks to the generosity of the Torstenson family, this endowment allows RMEF to expand Bob Torstenson’s passion and vision for wildlife and conservation in ways we could have never imagined.”

The Torstenson Family Endowment (TFE) comes as a result of the sale of the Torstenson Wildlife Center, formerly known as the Double H Ranch, a sprawling 93,403-acre ranch in west-central New Mexico that was gifted to RMEF by Bob Torstenson in 2002.

An excerpt from the new book Ask the Namibian Guides.

In the new book Ask the Namibian Guides, author Diana Rupp interviews thirteen highly regarded professional hunters from all over Namibia in an effort to bring the most up-to-date information to the aspiring safari hunter. The professionals answer questions about why this country is such a popular safari destination, what hunters can expect when they go there, what to bring, how to prepare, what game to pursue, and what a typical Namibia hunt is like. In this excerpt, the PHs share their insights on how to practice and prepare for a successful safari.

How do you recommend hunters prepare for a safari? Any tips for shooting practice, etc.?

Good news! Hunter numbers are up.

The news about the future of hunting isn't as bleak as it may have appeared a few years ago. A new government report shows that hunter numbers have jumped 9 percent in the past five years.

The just-released 2011 National Survey of Hunting, Fishing, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation shows 13.7 million people, or 6 percent of the US population age 16 and older, went hunting last year. That marks a 9 percent increase over 2006, reversing a previous downward trend. Conservation groups are noting that these numbers are important not just for hunters themselves, but for wildlife and for the future of conservation.

A new rifle engineered for the serious female hunter.

by Diana Rupp

With the introduction of the new Model 11/111 Lady Hunter, Savage Arms is one of the first rifle manufacturers to design a rifle specifically for women. Most gunmakers seem to think a “lady’s” rifle is just a standard rifle with the stock cut down and maybe some pink highlights, but the engineers at Savage consulted with serious women hunters (yours truly included) and discovered that there is a lot more to it than that.

A Vegetarian's Hunt for Sustenance

by Tovar Cerulli

Tovar Cerulli seems an unlikely hunter. Although he spent his childhood summers in New England fishing for trout and hunting for bullfrogs, he left such pursuits behind in his teens and, in an attempt to avoid killing and harming animals, became a vegan by the age of twenty. Some ten years later, in the face of declining health and increasing doubts about his meatless lifestyle, Cerulli came to the conclusion that a far more honest way to confront the truth about his impact on the natural world was to face it directly and take personal responsibility for the animals he realized he was killing anyway. He became a hunter.