March 26, 2014
By G&A Staff
Sarah Palin lends her patriotic passion in hosting "Amazing America," a new show on the Sportsman Channel. The show targets anyone interested in hunting, shooting and fishing and focuses on unique personalities and their activities.
When the show was conceived, the concept was to illustrate colorful people and places previously unknown to many. The common thread linking each episode is in the show's title. The program celebrates and spotlights interesting Americans who, through their creativity or heroics, do incredible things.
Sarah was drawn to this opportunity because it was a show about America, and she's a huge advocate for hunters and defenders of freedom. Ahead of the April 3rd premiere, she shared some time with Guns & Ammo to answer a few questions.
Do you still get outdoors to hunt caribou or fish with the family?
Absolutely! The outdoors is where I thrive. Todd and I went fly-fishing in Montana last summer and caught some beautiful rainbow trout. We're commercial fishermen in Bristol Bay, so we don't normally play with our food. So, sport fishing on the Missouri was a blast. We also did mounted shooting while there, and Piper loved that. She was a regular Annie Oakley. And, of course, we did a lot of moose, caribou and bear hunting in Alaska this past fall to fill the freezer. My girls and I even spent a special snowy Mother's Day target practicing and looking for bear at our cabin near Mt. McKinley.
How do you keep your growing family involved?
![]( "How do you keep your growing family involved?")
When you've grown up in Alaska and raised your kids in the far North, that just comes with the territory. Dad had a bumper sticker: 'Take your kids hunting so you're not hunting for your kids. ' His profound bumper art included another favorite that reads 'Vegetarian is old Indian word for 'poor shot.' ' Mom and Dad moved our family to Alaska specifically to enjoy hunting and fishing and live a great outdoors lifestyle. It's what we like to do.
I'm really blessed that all my kids love a rugged outdoor lifestyle. Recently, Piper jumped off a waterfall, which was a reward for babysitting her brother Trig. We also had a blast going through two seasons of 'Dancing With the Stars ' with Bristol. It was such the opposite of anything we had done. Bristol wanted to wear a sequined camo gown, but that didn't fly with the producers. The kids have opportunities to live and work in metropolitan places like Los Angeles, but my daughter Willow's response to living elsewhere reflects all the kids' thinking at this point in their lives: 'Mom, I miss my truck! '
Do you have a favorite gun or caliber?
I love .22s, and I'm anxious to get to know a very nifty Colt .45 that I received for my recent birthday. It's a Single Action Army that replicates an 1873 original, but I probably sound like I know more about specific guns than I actually do. If you follow our new show, I'll be learning right along with the novice greenhorn. I'm not too proud to admit that.
Back in 2011, I got the opportunity to visit President Reagan's beautiful ranch in Santa Barbara and go horseback riding. While I was there, I got a look at President Reagan's gun collection. He apparently used to carry a pistol loaded with shot when he went out riding in order to clear away the rattlesnakes.
If you could change one federal firearm law, what would you change?
I'm interested in any measure that would allow more people to carry concealed because, as the NRA's Wayne LaPierre famously said, 'The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. ' Guns protect good people, and our laws need to acknowledge this fact.
The Sportsman Channel is attracting high-profile personalities such as 'Gunny ' R. Lee Ermey ('Saving Private K-9 ') and Gary Sinise ('High Flight ') to its network. How would you describe the connection between the hosts of the channel's service-related programming and its audience?
The hosts are great patriotic guys who love this country and have been given a platform to tell these stories. They've dedicated so many resources and their time
to support our troops and their families. As the proud mom of an Army combat vet, I'm thankful to get to
work with them.
Do you know a dog with a special skill?
My dad has a very cool lab that is a trained antler hunter. He scrounges the woods and tundra for sheds and retrieves them. I'd never seen anything like it until Dad
got that agile, intelligent dog. Bo amazes me.
Do you have unique methods of teaching your friends and family respect for and responsibility with firearms? Did your husband or father hand down any of those methods to you?
Oh, yes. Dad was a firearms safety instructor. He hammered it home every time we were around firearms. It was all about safety and hitting the target. He had a reloading bench in the hallway of our old house, and it seemed every time we walked by it, he'd remind us of some aspect of a safety lesson. Bristol was featured in a newspaper article at age 10 as she participated in a firearms safety class. I was the mayor of our city then, and I guess the reporter thought it intriguing or maybe politically incorrect that a politician allowed her young daughter to handle guns.
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