There have been plenty of times when I’ve looked at people and wondered, “What in the world are they thinking?” But have you ever stared back at your own face in the mirror and wondered that about yourself?

You might say I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection over the past five or six months. For those who read this column regularly, you’ll remember that my wife and I sent our youngest son off to college last fall. That made us empty nesters for the first time in over 25 years.

But apparently, we don’t do well with “empty” in our house. I guess we decided with the loss of our Brittany Spaniel last year, it was time to fill the house back up. So, like any good dog lovers, we didn’t just add one new puppy, we got two. First, we got a Braque d'Auvergne, which is just a fancy way of saying French pointer. But you can’t go hunting for pheasants if you don’t have a good retriever, right? So we added a Golden Retriever to the mix a couple months later.

So of course, it’s double of everything right now… double the food, double the bowls, double the toys, double the leashes, and of course, double the crazy. But like with anything, you tend to get out what you put in. The dogs have been to puppy school and we take them on walks every day to make sure they get some exercise and a change of scenery. With a back yard full of birds, we’ve had plenty of pointing going on. And with some fetching toys, a lot of retrieving. I’m optimistic this fall we’ll be able to put those new skills to use in the pheasant fields.

In the midst of it all, miraculously, I’ve been seeing some minor gains in my health too. No, I’m not losing a ton of weight or anything, but the scale doesn’t hate me quite as much as it used to. And so, despite the ridiculous amount of extra work it takes to care for these animals, I’m seeing positive results in both the dogs, and me. The outcomes, based on solid and informed inputs, are coming out great.

Maybe in your part of the country you have a different saying, but where I’m from, we’d say “The proof is in the pudding.” In other words, something might look good from the outside, but you’ve got to taste it, experience it, participate in it, to get the full benefit. The outcome (the taste) is the validation for all the effort.

Such is the case with the NASGW SCOPE™ suite of products we’ve been telling you about for the past few years. I can’t tell you how excited I am about what 2022 is going to bring to this initiative. The information, business intelligence and tools for making better decisions that will come from this program in 2022 are going to blow some minds.

In just the past month, we’ve put in motion some amazing changes and started down the track of making the data we’re collecting available and affordable to every single one of our members. The possibilities for you as businesses in the shooting sports industry are truly unmatched.

Never has anyone in this industry amassed the volume and value of information that this association has been working on. I’m probably going to sound like a broken record to you because I’ll be talking a lot about SCOPE™ DLX/CLX/PLX a lot in the coming weeks and months. I promise you; we’ve put a lot of hard work into making this program something a benefit for everyone in the industry and you’re going to be seeing us do more and more.

We just released our first-ever annual report looking at all the data we’ve been gathering in a comprehensive manner. The interest has been astronomical. We offered the data for free this time because we wanted everyone out there to see that the “proof is in the pudding” so to speak. If you haven’t had a chance to see the report, be sure to see the link later in this newsletter so you can download the information for yourself.

It's only going to get better. We’ll be adding hundreds of new retail stores to our CLX data collection tool in the coming weeks, and I’m excited about what that means for the information we’ll be able to include in our next annual report. It’s going to be incredible.

In the meantime, please keep an eye on the InSight newsletter and your e-mail inbox as we continue to share developments and milestones on this ever-growing and ever-changing project. If you’d like to learn more about SCOPE™, or you’re interested in finding out how you can put the SCOPE™ data to work for your business, check out our website at www.nasgwscope.org.

Shooting Sports Showcase – March 14-15

Before I go, I want to also encourage you to consider joining us for the 2^nd Annual Shooting Sports Showcase at the CMP Talladega Marksmanship Park in Talladega, Alabama on March 14-15.

NASGW has once again joined forces with the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) and the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association (SEOPA) to put on a safe, outside, industry media event.

With the continued impacts of Covid-19 on all our lives, it’s a great chance to visit with manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and industry media. You can get all the details at www.shootingsportsshowcase.com.

I hope you’ll consider joining us in Alabama for a relaxed and fun event.