MDF Podcast - Talking Mule Deer with Steve Belinda and Jodi Stemler
S2 E21 - Ryan Bronson and Jon Zinnel, Federal Premium Ammunition
On this episode of Talking Mule Deer, Steve and Jodi are talking with Federal Premium Ammunition’s Ryan Bronson and Jon Zinnel. Ryan has served for six years on the MDF Board of Directors and, prior to joining Federal, Jon was MDF’s director of youth programs and helped to launch our M.U.L.E.Y. program. Jon tells us about how Federal Premium is helping youth shooting sports programs across the nation and their efforts for the recruitment, retention and reactivation (R3) of hunters. Ryan also tells us about how Federal Premium has supported state wildlife conservation through the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Program (Pittman-Robertson) through the tens of millions of dollars in excise taxes they pay. We talk a bit about the critical importance of this user pay/public benefit program in the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. We also hear about efforts to allow states to increase use of these funds to develop bigger shooting ranges that will benefit youth groups and other hunters and shooters. Ryan tells us that Federal is bringing back the Barnes Triple Shock ammunition that is loved by many western big game hunters, as well as the expansion of the .224 Valkyrie ammunition and the package changes that hunters will be seeing on all Federal Premium ammunition this year. Finally, Jon talks about the coordinated R3 efforts across states and non-profit organizations and Ryan talks about what he sees as important federal policy issues that he will be dealing with in the coming year.