I’ll be honest about something: for most of my life, I stayed quiet.
I’ve hunted since I was a kid. I built a business around hunting. But for decades, while anti-hunting groups organized and got loud, I didn’t. I wasn’t out there fighting against the campaigns, wasn’t vocal about protecting hunting rights in Colorado or anywhere else. I just hunted, and figured hunting would always be there.
In the last five years, that changed. And I want to tell you why — because the reason isn’t what you’d think.
It Didn’t Come From a Selfish Place
When I finally got active in this fight, it wasn’t about protecting my way of life. I’m in my late 40s. If I’m being real, I’ll get my hunts in. Nobody’s taking my seasons away fast enough to stop me.
The realization came when I started thinking about my grandkids — and the generations after them, relatives of mine who aren’t even born yet. Will they get to have the hunting experiences I get to have? Will they get to stand over their first bull with their dad the way my daughter Bella stood over hers with me?
When I ran that question forward honestly, I didn’t like the answer. And I realized it’s my obligation and my duty to fight so they have the right to those experiences. That’s it. That’s the whole reason.
What I’ve Watched Change Since I Was a Kid
I grew up in Southeast Nebraska. Hunting there was about as simple as it gets: if you wanted to hunt, you knocked on a farmer’s door and asked permission. Ten out of ten times you got it — they were glad to have you thinning out the deer that were eating their corn.
Over the years, that access dwindled. Family members wanted the hunting on their own land — rightfully so. Farmers figured out that access was valuable and could be monetized to help offset land costs and taxes. I understand that, and I’m not bitter about it. That’s their land and their right.
But here’s the part that should worry every hunter: while access was slowly shrinking, the fight over the right itself exploded. The anti-hunting push of the last ten years is nothing like what I remember growing up. It’s organized, it’s funded, and it’s winning real fights — ballot campaigns, agency pressure, public land sell-off schemes. The opportunity to hunt like I did as a kid is already gone. If we’re not careful, the right to hunt goes next. And not just for future generations — sooner than we think.
Getting Loud
So I got louder. And then louder than that.
That’s a big part of why I’m all in on Amendment 83 — the measure Colorado hunters put on this November’s ballot to write the right to hunt and fish into the state constitution. I made my supporter graphic. I’m telling every hunter I know to register and vote yes. It’s the first time in my life the fight has handed us a chance to play offense instead of defense, and I’m not letting it pass quietly.
But getting loud is bigger than one ballot measure. I’m fighting the anti-hunting organizations. The bureaucrats. The government land sell-offs and the public land takeover schemes. And on the personal side, I’m fighting to gain access — securing ground and opportunities now so my future generations have places to hunt, not just the right to do it.
Honestly, it’s my entire why. Everything I’m building — Western Obsessions, the content, the podcast, the financial side, all of it — is for generations of my family that aren’t born yet. So they can experience what I get to experience.
Protecting the Right to Hunt FAQ
What is the biggest threat to hunting rights right now?
Organized anti-hunting ballot campaigns and political pressure on wildlife agencies — decisions made by emotion and campaign dollars instead of biologists. Colorado has seen wolf reintroduction passed at the ballot box and an attempted mountain lion hunting ban in just the last six years.
What can one hunter actually do to protect the right to hunt and fish?
Register to vote and show up for wildlife ballot measures, support groups doing the legal and political work, take a kid or a newcomer hunting, and speak up publicly as a hunter instead of staying quiet. Quiet is how we lose.
Why does hunting access keep shrinking?
Land changes hands, families keep hunting rights for themselves, and landowners have learned access has real value they can lease. That part is fair — it’s their land. The answer is building new access and defending public land, not resenting landowners.
Is the right to hunt actually at risk in Colorado?
Yes — that’s why Amendment 83 exists. It needs 55% of the vote this November to add the right to hunt and fish to the Colorado Constitution, so the future of hunting stops depending on winning every anti-hunting ballot fight forever.
Do Something With This
If you hunt, I’m asking you to do two things. First, get registered and vote yes on Amendment 83 in November — and get your crew to do the same. Second, take a kid hunting this season. That’s the fight and the future, handled in one fall.
And if you want that hunt to happen somewhere worth remembering — a Colorado elk camp, a Texas whitetail hunt that’s perfect for a first-timer — that’s what we do. Reach out anytime.
My grandkids aren’t here yet. But when they are, there’s going to be a place for them to hunt, and the right to do it. That’s my word.
— Kurt
