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 LAS VEGAS, NV-The NRA plans to expanded its family of publications with a new magazine targeting a long-maligned subculture of gun-owning sportsmen.

A mock-up of American Road Hunter debuted this Saturday at the 2008 SHOT Show.  Despite the fact that road hunting-the practice of shooting game from a vehicle-is illegal in all 50 states, NRA advertising/sales representatives working the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center are telling potential advertisers that space is limited and that magazine is expected to hit newsstands this summer.  A letter from the NRA’s Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, Wayne LaPierre, is included in the media kit. 

“Road hunting is against the law now,” writes LaPierre.  “But the NRA expects legal challenges to that in coming years.  We will also proudly support such action as the long-standing persecution and bias aimed at road hunters is nothing but a thinly veiled assault on the God-given rights of gun owners.”

Road hunting gun owners need a voice, according to LaPierre, and the NRA is uniquely positioned to help represent their interests with “a quality publication celebrating this fine sporting tradition.”     

“I started hunting on the road,” says Wayne Ferguson, a SHOT-attendee and gun shop owner from Virginia, who says he’s impressed with the idea.  “I’ll definitely be subscribing along with, probably, most my friends.”

Ferguson is a small game hunter who has fond memories of potting roadside rabbits, pheasants, and grouse with his grandfather back in the early 1970s. 

“Those were some good times,” says Ferguson.  “The best.”       

Unlike other hunters for whom the word “tradition” conjures memories of “long cigar-sucking slogs following a fine bird dog through the autumn covers seeking game,” Ferguson says his best memories are of road hunting with his grandfather, who tragically lost his leg and both buttocks while fighting the German army at the close of World War II.

“Pap used to wedge a phone book up under where his ass used to be,” says Ferguson.  “He used one of his crutches to work the gas pedal, which meant I had to pull double-duty holding the rifle and watching the ditches for any rabbit or pheasant holding tight along the road.

“I can still smell the gun powder and hear the ringing in my ears,” says Ferguson, adding that the only bad thing about road hunting from his perspective is that a .22 going off in the close confines of an automobile sounds like an elephant rifle to a boy who forgets to stick his fingers in his ears.

The American Road Hunter promises to help with problems like that.

According to the editorial calendar provided in the magazine’s media kit, how-to articles appear to form a large portion of the content as well as product reviews.               

There are tips and techniques (for example, why power windows in a vehicle are better than manual ones for single-handed elevation adjustment when shooting long range) and a regular section called “The Roadie” made up of reader’s stories of road hunting blunders and sometimes hilarious run-in with conservation officers from across the United States.  “Road Tools” is the name of a column devoted to reviewing everything from sub-sonic rifle cartridges and night-vision scopes to the newest in trucks and ATV’s.          

At time when studies are showing a clear and steady drop in hunter participation and recruitment, hunting organizations who frown on road hunting now might soon change their tune.

Hunting is in trouble and the NRA says the sport needs all the support it can get.

“It’s a sad fact that most hunters have been hoodwinked into believing that road hunting is unethical-an affront to true sporting ideals-despite there being little concrete data to back up the charge,” writes LaPierre.

In the advertising information, the NRA also makes a compelling argument that Americans are lazy and overweight and, therefore, far more inclined to try hunting if they can do it from the warm and relative comfort of a vehicle.      

“In the minds of many sportsmen, a motorized vehicle is nothing more than a mobile hunting blind,” says LaPierre.  “The bottom line is: road hunters are gun owners.  Period.  United we stand, divided we fall.”