When I checked my email this morning, I received this message from a friend and fellow Bone Collector:

“I hope all is going well. My daughter was in the British Virgin Islands recently and took this photo on the side of an ice maker in the harbor at Road Town, BVI! It looks like The Brotherhood IS everywhere!”

Darn it right it is, buddy!

The Brotherhood is more than just a group of hunters. Sure, the woods and our love for the sport is what brings us together initially, but it is takes more than a thirst for Freak Nasty bucks and Thunder Chickens to hold us together.

We are there for one another. We celebrate together in times of joyfulness. We fight together for our freedom and rights. We pray together in times of hardship. We mourn together in times of sorrow.

You are probably thinking, “Come on Michael…don’t get all sappy on me man!”

But, ask Blake Shelton what it meant to have your thoughts and prayers with him when his father passed away. Ask some of the young ‘uns who post there pictures of their first deer or turkey on the Facebook page what it means to have praise from your pals. Ask the guy who asks for your support to stand up with him against those trying to take his right to feed his family away. I bet they don’t think it is sappy. And if you do, allow us to show you the door because this is what we are about.

I wrote my friend back and told him the reasons above are why we see Bone Collector stickers around the world and in places not associated with hunting. They are the same reasons people get the BC logo tattooed on their bodies, or painted on their truck. It is a badge that represents we are hunters but we don’t just like killing things. We are kindhearted, strong-willed and feisty when we need to be.

So, no, I am not thrown for a loop when I get messages like this. Put a bunch of good folks together who are resolute in similar pursuits and of course this fire is going to spread like bed bugs in T-Bones sheets! Now I want to see all you Bone Collector addicts in Arkansas this weekend at the State Calling Contest and Expo at Mack’s Prairie Wings and the NWTF Hunting Heritage Banquet!