HUNTING -- Jim Zumbo, former hunting writer for Outdoor Life magazine, will visit Lewiston Saturday, June 13, to attend Jack O’Connor Day -- a celebration in honor of another famous Outdoor Life hunting scribe.

The event starts at 10 a.m. and lasts until 3 p.m. at the Jack O’Connor Hunter Heritage and Education Center in Lewiston. It will be followed by a dinner at Clarkston’s Quality Inn, where Zumbo will speak.

Here's the story about Zumbo, his connection to O'Connor and some of Zumbo's views on the trends in hunting by Eric Barker of the Lewiston Tribune:

Brothers in arms

Though they never met, writers Jim Zumbo and Jack O’Connor have much in common

By ERIC BARKER of the Tribune

Jim Zumbo and Jack O’Connor never met face to face, even though both enjoyed long careers writing about big game hunting for Outdoor Life magazine.

Zumbo, of Cody, Wyo., started working full time for the magazine the same year O’Connor died. But he previously had freelance articles printed in Outdoor Life and was excited when he talked to O’Connor on the phone and the former Lewiston resident and famous outdoor writer recognized his name.

In the mid-1970s, Zumbo drew a desert bighorn sheep tag and telephoned O’Connor, his idol, to tap him for information.

“We talked for probably an hour on my desert sheep hunt,” he said. “I was thrilled because he recognized my name because I had a byline in Outdoor Life.”

“He was my hero forever,” he said. “I read everything he wrote. I read with envy about his trips to Africa and all over the world but never got to meet the gentleman. Somehow, our trails never crossed.”

The author of 23 titles, mostly on big game hunting, will sign books and participate in a round table panel discussion during the day’s events, which also include a gun show and a raffle for a custom rifle.

Zumbo was with Outdoor Life for 30 years, mostly writing about big game and hunting in the Western United States. He hit a rough patch in 2007 with a blog posting that took a negative view of the growing use of modern assault rifles in hunting. The post was criticized by many gun owners and Zumbo was fired from the magazine and his hunting show.

He said the controversy is largely a thing of the past. He still has a relationship with the magazine’s editor and was given the Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator Award last year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Professional Outdoor Media Association.

“It was for me kind of an acceptance by the industry,” he said. “That made me feel a whole lot better.”

Zumbo, now semi-retired, continues to write. He frequently updates his blog at www.jimzumbo.com/, pens magazine articles and is working on books, one of which will feature his favorite stories published in Outdoor Life.

He hunts more than ever but not always for himself. For years he has been involved in taking Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans on hunting trips.

“Probably 80 percent of them are with Wounded Warriors,” he said.

He annually leads veterans, many of them disabled, on a spring bear hunt in Alaska, an antelope hunt in Wyoming and a moose hunt in Maine.

“Our mission is to help these folks make the transition back into society,” he said. “When they come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, every one of them has some PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). We feel like introducing them to hunting and fishing is a good way (to do it), it’s very therapeutic.”

Zumbo also hunts big game on his own in Wyoming and said he feels good about the state of hunting today and the way new people are being attracted to it.

In particular, he said the interest people have in eating organic and locally sourced food is attracting new hunters.

“What is more organic than a deer or elk that lives in the wild?” he asked. “I think we are seeing some new positive attitudes toward hunting. Certainly the same old problems exist. There are people out there who want to ban all forms of hunting through the ballot box or the judicial system. But I personally think things are looking better than they were 10 to 15 years ago.”