Has he completely disappeared from the hunting scene since the big controversy?
I don't believe I have seen him in any magazines or on TV since.

Missed it, what controversy?

Mike

He's still out there. I will have to look, but I know I have seen him in a recent magazine.

donsm70

AR15s... no one needs em, they only kill people or some such....

He ain't out there anymore far as I care, I wouldn't read or watch the SOB traitor on a bet.

Ah I missed that!

Mike

He still has a show on the Outdoor channel right?

I haven't seen it advertised in a long time. He lost a lot of support even though he supposedly "saw the light" thanks to a Ted Nugent intervention.

Don't believe so.

He snakes around shot show like some one should give a [bleep] about him I think he mostly just gets the stink eye. [bleep] him he's a trader.

Fine with me. I never thought much of the guy anyway. Always seemed like a bit of a blowhard.

Yes he is writes well but knows little and is a first class prick.

I never cared for his show, especially his "cooking".

He's entitled to his opinion, but should have thought it through before spouting off. When you're in the public eye and use the forum that provides your livelihood to go on a rant about something, there's a price to pay.

I've got to wonder if Nugent's intervention really changed his mind, or if it was just an attempt staged by the industry to keep the money flowing.

Please don't take this as me picking on you.

Traders are alright. They get together and swap stuff.

Traitors are sheetbirds and should be shunned.

Zumbo is a Traitor not a Trader.

Thanks for the correction yes he's a [bleep] for sure

Zumbo Is just a guy that hunts then writes about it. If you have an Issue with the guys past, It is your flaw in thinking. There are lots of different types of Slobs, Some of you are the worst type. Back Biters.

Thanks for the post modern slant on things. The guy is a traitor. I'm sure I'm like alot of guys when I say I certainly don't hate him, but he has no place in our lifestyle given his flaky views.

I have an issue with Jane Fonda's past too. If she should take up writing about the outdoors, am I supposed to forget how she betrayed American POWs?

He equaled the nations service rifle to the terrorist that we are at war with, he was a legend in his own mind before that little tidbit, and he just came out as the big giant douche that he always was. The AR-15 and its variants are very very useful to have around, they make good hunting rifles too.

A while back he wrote about an elk he shot that went down on its belly in very heavy brush. He said he spent 3 hours just getting turned over so he could gut it. 3 hours? I play them as they lie. I would have got out my saw and cleared some working room, then start boning on the top and work my way down. I would have all the meat off before he even started.

I didn't think he was that bad a guy. I gotta admit that at one time I didn't think I'd be using a black rifle for hunting.

For instance, I've never used my M1 for hunting, only targets / competition.

Today black rifles are very popular for hunting such things as wild hogs.

One family of my cousins all started off with semi-auto 22's. My siblings and I started out with single shots. When we hunted together they would shoot more than 10x more ammo than what we would shoot. But we'd end up with rabbits or squirrels and they didn't.

I could see the philosophy of being against semi-auto's for hunting just based on my started out.

Zumbo seemed to be primarily an elk hunter and used bolt action rifles. I suspect that a great majority of elk hunters use bolt guns.

An AR-15 was only available in 223 at the time and I thought he said that he could see no hunting purpose with black guns.

I didn't recall him saying that black guns were only good for killing people. If he did, shame on him.

Again, at the time I thought of black rifles as target and home defense. The AR-15's I had seen back then were not accurate enough for prairie dogs and not in my opinion powerful enough for deer with the bullets available then.

He should have thought a little before he dissed the black rifles though. Home defense is as valid or more so a reason for having a rifle as hunting, IMO.

One last thing. If you live in the rural west as many of us do, we really don't feel the need for slef protection from humans as much as people in more populated areas.

As far as Jane the bitch Fonda goes, I was in USMC 69-72. You can't imagine what I think of that whore. She should have gone to the electric chair or some other means of capital punishment, IMHO!

Here is what he said. He deserved ten times the beating he took for his idiotic, elitist statements. FUJZ


On February 16, 2007, Zumbo published an entry on his blog which read, in part:

I only recall him saying AR's were not hunting guns. I don't remember anything about how no one should own them or anything like that.

The part that bothers me more was how several writers for the "Big Magazine" came to his defense and were never called on it for saying they agreed with him.

Bill McRae is the first that comes to mind. I have never been impressed by him and have first hand experience. I despise JZ, and BM runs right tight behind him.

Thanks oulufinn for making it clear. Whenever a person says something like "the guns I own are the only guns people should own" they are cutting their own throat.

I don't own a drilling therefore no-one should own a drilling.

I don't own a fully automatic AK-47, therefore no-one should own one and so forth.

I was a member for a different forum where the head moderator made some stupid a$$ comment like that, I've never been back after I wiped out all my threads. Don't even have their WEB address anywhere.

"On February 16, 2007, Zumbo published an entry on his blog which read, in part:
Originally Posted By: Jim Zumbo
I must be living in a vacuum. The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR and AK rifles have a rapidly growing following among hunters, especially prairie dog hunters. I had no clue. Only once in my life have I ever seen anyone using one of these firearms.

I call them "assault" rifles, which may upset some people. Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I'll go so far as to call them "terrorist" rifles. They tell me that some companies are producing assault rifles that are "tackdrivers."

Sorry, folks, in my humble opinion, these things have no place in hunting. We don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them, which is an obvious concern. I've always been comfortable with the statement that hunters don't use assault rifles. We've always been proud of our "sporting firearms."

This really has me concerned. As hunters, we don't need the image of walking around the woods carrying one of these weapons. To most of the public, an assault rifle is a terrifying thing. Let's divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the praries [sic] and woods.[2]"


Zumbo made an ass of himself on a blog. This isn't a Capital crime. Just a good reason to not buy whatever he's promoting so he'll retire from writing and TV

Thanks for posting the quote to clear things up. I didn't recall the AK's being lumped in there. Or the reference to terrorists.

In all fairness to Jim, a couple of points to consider...

First, a lot of hunters of his age held similar views at the time, and many, I suspect, only changed their views after seeing the immense backlash against his ill-advised comments.

Secondly, as part of his "rehabilitation," he spent a lot of time doing good things for wounded veterans, and he should be commended for that. I think many people in his situation would have just thrown in the towel.

I'm certainly not an apologist for Jim, but I take issue with the knee-jerk "hang 'em from the highest tree" condemnations. Thankfully, we have the freedom in this country to admit our mistakes and reinvent ourselves, regardless of age.

That's something I'm sure many here have done for themselves at one point or another in their lives -- or some day may have to do -- and that's worth remembering.

I hated to see Jim Zumbo post that on his blog and then the "burning at the stake" that followed soon after. He made a big mistake and he soon apologized as best he could in the "poisoned well" atmosphere that was his readership.

I've met Jim several times at Sportsmans shows and a couple gun shows in the area and he was a really nice guy and easy to talk to. Never got the feeling he put himself above anyone, but that is just me.

It's been enough time, IMHO. Time to forgive and forget.

Bob

Up until then, my only experience with an AR type rifle was the M16 in basic training in 1970...and that experience wasn't good. The rifle never did fit me right and I couldn't shoot it well. I only qualified Marksman which wasn't too good for someone who'd been shooting for 10 years. We also had to qualify with the M14 and I got expert with my eyes closed. The rifle fit me much better and was more accurate.
When Zumbo talked about the AR not being a hunting rifle, from my experience I had to agree. I wouldn't hunt with a gun that I couldn't hit with.

Zumbo is a conservative Yankee, or as I like to call them, LIBERAL

That might have been the only good part of the show. He didn't get to be a fat pffhukk by eatin healthy.

My dad had pretty much said the same things.........I dint hate him for his "out dated" opinions, and neither do I hate Zumbo for his.

I get pretty tired of the ninja wanna-a-be dorks. Have a mortgage broker acquaintance back home that goes to TAC schools, three gun shoots and tries to pass himself off to everyone as a cop/.mil guy. He's completely full of [bleep].

Seems every prior service Army guy was a Ranger/SF, Marines were all Recon/Sniper, Air Force were PJs, Coast Guard was Rescue Diver and the Navy guy was always a SEAL. Bar talk gets old fast.

I grew up around all red neck hunters who were all prior mil. Logger, police officer, lumber mill worker types. A lot of them thought only criminals packed pistols and white supremacist types packed military weapons. Most "hunters" that packed semi autos were city dudes that couldn't shoot. These guys worked hard, and considered themselves "conservative" Republican/Libertarian/Constitutional Americans.

I'm very happy with the growth of the firearm industry, seems everyone has an AR and a couple pistols whether they hunt or not. The shear numbers alone have given the Second Amendment a big boost over the last decade.

Zumbo was an idiot for being a professional writer and not knowing his audience, not being up to date with his profession and not thinking about the consequences of his anti Second Amendment statement.

And his show sucked.

My Father in Law said the exact same things about AR's and AK's as Zumbo did. I never hated him for it either.

Conservative Yankees

i thought it was quite funny that right after zumbo got reamed out of his career, every gray haired old goat gun writer (like dick metcalf) was writing stories about how great the ar platform was for hunting. zumbo just put into print what a lot of older guys thought and got thrown to the wolves for it.

And as I pointed out earlier several older writers stuck their necks out to back JZ and were never taken to task for it... They are the true vermin in this case.

Aren't you glad that we live in a free country where any citizen, even Jim Zumbo, can speak his mind without fear of reprisal?

NOT!

I met Zumbo at a RMEF banquet in the spring of 1996. I had hunted and shot a mtn goat the previous fall and it was really good eating , the grind really made a great chili. Not many people ever get to try exotic fare like that so I ask the RMEF guys if I could bring some to the banquet and offer up samples of mtn goat chili to the members, they ok'ed that. The GFP said you can't sell it by the bowl but if people wanted to make a charitable contribution it would be ok. Jar for donations on the table, Zumbo the guest speaker walks by and stops, he asks me about the goat and I shared the details as well as a sample of goat chili which he really liked. We traded hunt details and what load I used then he moved on to mingle with the crowd. The caterer for the banquet didn't have enough servers and a lot of folks got their meal cool at best,mine was ok but some to quite a few weren't happy. I finished mine and moved back to my table with the chili on it. Yeah here comes Zumbo and he asked if I had any left, he had a hard time getting thru his cold meal. I pulled out a bigger bowl, filled it and handed it to him. He thanked me and put some more cash in the jar. The jar yielded #180+ for the Elk Fdn. I think they ordered pizza with it for their volunteers and commitee after the banquet, not exactly what I raised the money for. Zumbo made his career killing error in 07 and he has paid the price for it. I think most of us see that, he has been held far more accountable for his uninformed judgement of AR's than all the sh*t Obama, Reid, Pelosi and others ever have done to us tax paying bonafide American citizens. Time to leave off on guys like Zumbo and Metcalf they paid for their stupidity, it's time to hold sh*t brained politicians for theirs. Magnum Man

It wasn't just the condemnation of the AR that killed Zumbo's career! His ego got so much bigger than most folks would put up with. In the months leading up to the AR comments he also did articles stating that no one needs scopes with higher magnification than the 3 to 9 he was using and that manufacturers should quit producing them!

Zumbo reminds me of Osama Obama in a way! He elected himself God of all things gun and hunting related and that all should follow blindly his eidct's! He killed his own career and I don't feel sorry for him at all!

I do agree with Magnum Man! If we could kill the emperor's career as quickly and easily as we did Zumbo's I'd be a happy camper and the country could start it's healing process.

Zumbo's comment seemed to hit the internet on a Friday night (if I remember correctly). That AR15.com (Not a member, just stooped by to see what it was about) got wind of it and called for a "Fire Mission"! Almost instantly thousands of AR owners flooded Zumbo's sponsors with hate mail and promises to never use their products again! By Monday morning, Mr Zumbo's career was over! WHY THE HELL CAN"T WE DO THE SAME TO OSAMA OBAMA!

^Good post.

Not sure I understand where you are trying to go... It is obvious anyone can say almost anything they want and Zumbo did... What is equally obvious is there are consequences to any act and there should be.

"Zumbo was an idiot for being a professional writer and not knowing his audience, not being up to date with his profession and not thinking about the consequences of his anti Second Amendment statement."

thats a fair statement of fact

Just back from killing deer with a black gun. A guy that respects the second amendment doesn't just hunt and write about it I was not talking about hunting I was speaking of the right to bear arms that has nothing to do with hunting. If you think different I am sad for you.

Many years ago, Zumbo gave me a Jim Zumbo game call. That season I called in a 6 point Bull with it. However, it was Deer (not Elk) season. Based on that experience, I think Zumbo was a very confused person.

I don't think there is anything even remotely approaching a moral equivalence between Zumbo's unpopular gunny remarks and Jane Fonda's consorting with an enemy we were at war with. Now we are talking "traitor" in the true sense of the word. Yet, if she'd be remorseful and apologize, I could forgive her.

Zumbo? Who here has not made some poor judgement in the past and later recognized and accounted for it?; and changed their mind and opinion? He is not a traitor; he was unlucky enough to voice a very unpopular opinion (and a wrong one I might add) from his soap box, paid for it, and changed his mind.

No need to "eat our own."

First let me say that I agree completely that Hanoi Jane is on the far end of the spectrum as far as the seriousness of the betrayal.

Like others have already said, it is good that we live in a country where a man can say whatever may be on him mind. That man just has to realize that there may be repercussions for those words. Words being like bullets, we can't bring them back.

I also agree that there is no need to "eat our own". That statement should go both ways, however. If he hadn't turned against those who see a need for an AR, he wouldn't have found himself simmering in the cook pot.

Finally, it is important to remember the lessons about the difference between forgiving and forgetting. I can forgive Zumbo, though there is really no need, I don't hold that kind of animosity toward the man. I just can't forget that he voiced an opinion that I feel runs afoul of my 2nd amendment rights.

Not even CLOSE to the same thing. I didn't mind Zumbo's writing. I don't think I ever saw his show. I don't really even care that he doesn't like AR's, but he chose the wrong way to express it considering what he does/did for a living. I don't know him personally, but he's probably not a bad guy.

I met him once. He didnt seem arrogant at all. We shared a few hours conversation during a layover in Minneapolis. This was pre foot in mouth comment. He seemed like a reg guy. I mean hes no Milek or Wooters.

Did the same thing with Boddington too one time. Friendly guy.

RMEF has exhumed Zumbo recently and been printing some of his articles in Bugle.
Not sure why.
Bugle has many other far more talented writers that would be a better use of their pages.

A mistake is putting on 2 different colored socks, Zumbo stabbed gun owners in the back. I could forgive him for the socks, but the gun statement hurt the whole hunting/outdoor industry.

Zumbo can cook all he wants and sell cookbooks and aprons, but he should never make another dime off the outdoor industry...

Anybody that thinks semi-automatic weapons should be banned from the field for sporting purposes is an absolute fugging moron.



Travis

I see you're from Oregon...



Travis

WTF is up with people from Oregon?

They must program them or something...

i bought his book on cooking venison years ago. fwiw, i could come up with better recipes and a better book and i am border line retartid.

Zumbo shows were not exciting though he spent a few years hosting hunts with wounded vets and displayed a come to Jesus attitude towards black guns after 'the incident'. I don't know if the problem was his gun error or plodding, witless shows. His presentation would not elicit interest in an apple pie.

OTOH, had he incorporated Col Travis into the mix the show would probably be flying high.