Winchester Ammunition & White Flyer At The 125th Grand American & Other Outdoor News

Winchester Ammo Takes Center Stage, Detroit Tigers Want You Outdoors & Pennsylvania Hunters Have A Great Deer Season Ahead

The 2024 Grand American hit a milestone as it celebrated the 125th anniversary of one of the world’s most renowned shooting sports tournaments, hosted by the Amateur Trap Association (ATA). Winchester Ammunition and White Flyer, continuing their long-standing partnership as the ATA’s official ammunition and target providers, were front and center throughout the event, commemorating this special anniversary.

“The Grand American is the true test for the world’s best trap shooters, and we congratulate all competitors for once again showcasing the excitement of the shooting sports,” said Jason Gilbertson, Director of Marketing for Winchester Ammunition. “Winchester Ammunition and White Flyer remain as two legendary brands that have supported the ATA for over 100 years. This was a truly special anniversary for the Grand American.”

Over 3,000 competitors traveled to the World Shooting Complex in Sparta, Illinois, to participate in the Grand American, where Winchester AA target loads and White Flyer targets dominated the 1,600-acre facility.

Team Winchester’s Dagen Voigtman once again delivered a stellar performance, adding to his already impressive shooting sports resume. Dagen made his mark at the Grand American in 2020 by becoming the first to shoot a perfect 400/400 in the history of the three championship events. This year, he continued to lead the team with several event victories and placements, and successfully defended his 2600 ATA High Overall (HOA) title from 2023, hitting more White Flyer AA orange dome clay targets than any other competitor. His final score: 2562/2600.

The Bartholow Brothers, also long-standing members of Team Winchester, further solidified their legendary status at the Grand American. Matt Bartholow entered the competition aiming for his fourth consecutive World Doubles title. Despite missing a target for the first time in four years, he still managed an impressive score of 99/100, winning a shoot-off after ten boxes of AA target shotshells to secure a spot in the top 10. Fellow Team Winchester member Keith Ditto also showed consistent performance, emerging as the champion of the preliminary week.

Team Winchester Results:

Dagen Voigtman

• Champion – Events 1, 3, 23
• Runner-Up – Events 2, 6
• Third Place – Events 4, 7, 8, 22
• ATA 2600 HOA Championship presented by White Flyer Champion
• ATA 1000 target HOA (Grand Week) Runner-Up
• ATA World HAA (Singles, Doubles, Handicap) Runner-Up
• HAA Prelim Week – Champion
• Super 500 Handicap Runner-Up
• Preliminary Week HOA – 3rd Place
• White Flyer HOA 1500 Targets – Event Champion
• Winchester Super 500 Singles Event Champion – Perfect Score 500/500

Foster Bartholow

• Champion – Event 17
• Third Place – Event 9

Keith Ditto

• ATA 2600 HOA Championship presented by White Flyer – 4th Place
• Prelim Week HOA – Champion

To learn more about Winchester, visit Winchester.com or connect with us on Facebook at Facebook.com/WinchesterOfficial.

Any Detroit Tigers Fans In The House?

Detroit Tigers Fans, check this out!

On Tuesday, September 10, at 6:40 p.m., join the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for Hunting and Fishing Night at Comerica Park and watch the Detroit Tigers take on the Colorado Rockies! Join in helping support hunting and fishing groups that connect Michiganders to the outdoors. Michigan’s hunters, anglers, and other outdoor lovers are encouraged to purchase a special discounted ticket to the game, which includes a collectible Detroit Tigers tackle box. A portion of every ticket sold through this link will be donated to the National Wildlife Turkey Federation. We hope you join us to watch the Tigers track down and reel in a win!

DMAP Permits Available On 41 State Game Lands

Hunters in Pennsylvania, rejoice! You get more land to hunt on this year thanks to additional state game lands enrolled in the Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP).

DMAP works like this: hunters can get permits to harvest antlerless deer – one per tag – on the specific property or area for which it was issued.

The program has been around for years and has proven popular with both hunters and landowners (public and private) looking to achieve specific property and wildlife management goals. Last year was the first instance where DMAP was offered on state game lands. There were 22 enrolled.

This year, DMAP is in place on 41 game lands across the Northwest, Northcentral, Northeast and Southeast regions. Combined, there are 7,000 tags available across 360,014 acres.

DMAP permits for state game lands and other public and private properties enrolled in the program go on sale Monday, Aug. 12 at 8 a.m. DMAP permits are available in addition to the antlerless deer licenses issued on a Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) basis.

Pennsylvania is broken up into 22 WMUs. Antlerless licenses went on sale in three of them – 1B, 2G, and 3A – at 8 a.m. on June 24, 2024. WMU 2G sold out by 5:48 a.m. the next day. WMUs 1B and 3A were next to sell out, just about 10 days after licenses went on sale in the remaining 19 WMUs.

DMAP offers hunters who didn’t get an antlerless tag in one of those three WMUs the chance to still hunt there.

Just as importantly, there and everywhere it’s in place, DMAP on state game lands will help the Game Commission manage habitat for all sorts of wildlife in the face of overbrowsing by deer.

Game Commission Forestry Division Chief Paul Weiss said most forest management conducted on state game lands is intended to create a desirable distribution of tree age classes, including early successional forest. But deer are limiting the success of those efforts.

This year foresters are building deer-proof fencing on state game lands in every region of the state around new timber cuts, Weiss said. If they don’t, overabundant deer browse off any young seedlings that come back so quickly and so heavily that new forests can’t regenerate themselves.

“DMAP is important to helping us with that because it targets hunting pressure in areas where it’s needed,” Weiss said. “It takes the people who do want to hunt and do want to harvest deer and focuses them in on areas that are actively being managed, but where that management isn’t being successful because of deer pressure.”

Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), which manages state parks and forests, and Allegheny National Forest both use DMAP. They are two of the state’s three largest public landowners, with the Game Commission being the other. The state’s two largest private landowners, Collins Pine, and Lyme Timber Co., use DMAP as well.

All have participated in DMAP for years, often on lands adjacent to state game lands. Enrolling those game lands in DMAP allows hunters to better manage the properties that their license dollars helped pay for.

The state game lands enrolled in DMAP this year were, as last, chosen after a thorough review. They are places where every other option to promote successful forest regeneration was first exhausted.

DMAP tags for a particular game lands can be used anywhere on that property. But Weiss said hunters can up their odds of encountering deer by focusing on those places where timber cuts have been conducted in recent years. Those cuts offer deer food in the form of woody browse and new growth, as well as escape cover. Cuts conducted in the last five to 20 years are especially prime.

“If you find cut areas on a DMAP property, you should have a good chance of success,” Weiss said.

An interactive, mobile-accessible map outlining the location of game lands DMAP unit is available through www.pgc.pa.gov. Clicking on a DMAP unit on the map shows how many tags remain available. When a unit sells out, it will show up as red rather than blue.

Game lands offering DMAP this season, their corresponding four-digit DMAP unit number, and the counties in which they’re found, are:

Northwest Region

SGL 24 (DMAP 5838) – Forest/Clarion

SGL 29 (DMAP 5839) – Warren

SGL 31 (DMAP 6714) – Jefferson County

SGL 54 (DMAP 5840) – Jefferson

SGL 74 (DMAP 5841) – Clarion/Jefferson

SGL 86 (DMAP 5842) – Warren

SGL 96 (DMAP 6718) – Venango County

SGL 122 (DMAP 6719) – Crawford County

SGL 143 (DMAP 5843) – Warren

SGL 195 (DMAP 6720) – Jefferson County

SGL 244 (DMAP 6721) – Jefferson County

SGL 283 (DMAP 5844) – Clarion/Jefferson

Northcentral Region

SGL 30 (DMAP 5824) – McKean

SGL 34 (DMAP 5825) – Clearfield/Elk

SGL 37 (DMAP 5826) – Tioga

SGL 62 (DMAP 6753) – McKean County

SGL 75 (DMAP 5827) – Lycoming

SGL 78 (DMAP 5828) – Clearfield

SGL 90 (DMAP 5829) – Clearfield

SGL 94 (DMAP 5830) – Clearfield

SGL 100 (DMAP 5831) – Centre/Clearfield

SGL 134 (DMAP 6773) – Lycoming/Sullivan

SGL 331 (DMAP 6756) – Clearfield County

Northeast Region

SGL 12 (DMAP 5890) – Bradford

SGL 13 (DMAP 6210) – Sullivan/Columbia

SGL 35 (DMAP 6833) – Susquehanna

SGL 36 (DMAP 5891) – Bradford

SGL 57 (DMAP 6209) – Wyoming/Luzerne

SGL 66 (DMAP 5892) – Sullivan/Wyoming

SGL 70 (DMAP 6834) – Wayne/Susquehanna

SGL 123 (DMAP 5893) – Bradford

SGL 142 (DMAP 6829) – Bradford

SGL 159 (DMAP 6835) – Wayne

SGL 172 (DMAP 6830) – Bradford

SGL 206 (DMAP 5894) – Luzerne

SGL 219 (DMAP 5895) – Bradford

SGL 239 (DMAP 6831) – Bradford

SGL 250 (DMAP 6832) – Bradford

SGL 289 (DMAP 5896) – Bradford

Southeast Region

SGL 168 (DMAP 7108) – Northampton/Carbon/Monroe

SGL 217 (DMAP 7109) – Lehigh/Carbon/Schuylkill

Details on those properties, such as the total number of DMAP permits available and the number remaining for sale, are available at pgcapps.pa.gov/Harvest/DMAP. You can find state game lands by region, county or WMU.

All hunters who get a DMAP tag must report whether they harvested a deer or not at huntfish.pa.gov or by sending in a postage-paid report card available in the Hunting & Trapping Digest.