LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Feb. 2, 2008 – The Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) honored veteran journalist Jim Carmichel during the State of the Industry Dinner and Gala at the Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show. Carmichel of Jonesborough, Tenn., was presented with the prestigious POMA/NSSF Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator Award.
In honor of legendary outdoor communicator Grits Gresham, POMA and the NSSF developed the award in 2005 to recognize communicators within the firearms/shooting sports/Second Amendment arena who grasp the ideals, foster the commitment, and display the talent Gresham has shown during his storied career. Tom Gresham presented the award, a bronze of one of Grits Gresham’s signature hats, to Carmichel.
“Whether he’s writing about shooting pigeons from the roof of a court house with a pellet gun in his humor series, describing his latest African safari, or detailing the esoteric fine points of precision rifle shooting, Jim Carmichel has delighted two generations of American shooters and hunters with solid information and entertainment about the shooting sports,” Gresham said when presenting the award. “It’s fitting that Jim receive this award, not only because he deserves it, but because he and Grits have been friends, as well as contemporaries, for many years.”
“To be honored by the Professional Outdoor Media Association as a recipient of the POMA/NSSF Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator Award is the greatest recognition any gun writer could ever hope to achieve,” Carmichel said. “Honestly, I am overwhelmed. Grits has been a treasured friend for many years, so receiving the Gresham Award has all the greater personal and sentimental meaning.
Carmichel’s good friend and the 2007 Grits Gresham Award recipient, J. Wayne Fears, expounded on Carmichel’s impact on current and future generations of communicators and sportsmen.
“He has been a great role model for shooting sports writers and his books and magazine articles have set the communications bar high for future journalists,” Fears explained. “Jim has done much to pass along the shooting heritage to a new generation.”
As shooting editor of Outdoor Life magazine for over a quarter century, Jim Carmichel’s life is utterly absorbed with-and dedicated to-the use, study and development of sporting firearms. From early childhood memories of crawling under a bed to stare-for hours-at the pistol hidden under the springs, to ownership of a comprehensive firearms test facility, Carmichel’s attentions seldom stray from the field of firearms.
“If I live for five-hundred years, there won’t be enough time for all the shooting and hunting I have planned,” Carmichel admits.
Nominations for the award are garnered from all corners of the shooting sports industry. Carmichel was unanimously selected as this year’s recipient by a panel representing NSSF, POMA and the Gresham family.
Nominees and recipients of the POMA/NSSF Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator Award are not required to be affiliated with any communicators or industry organization. All shooting sports industry professionals are encouraged to make nominations for the award.
About Jim Carmichel
Shooting Editor of OUTDOOR LIFE Magazine for over a quarter century, Jim Carmichel’s life is utterly absorbed with-and dedicated to-the use, study and development of sporting firearms. From early childhood memories of crawling under a bed to stare-for hours-at the pistol hidden under the springs, to ownership of a comprehensive firearms test facility, Carmichel’s attentions seldom stray from the field of firearms. “If I live for five-hundred years,” Carmichel admits, “there won’t be enough time for all the shooting and hunting I have planned.”
Even in his early teens, Carmichel learned to reload ammunition, was building his own guns and even designed a high performance-hunting cartridge. He paid his way through college making richly carved and inlaid reproductions of “Kentucky” style long rifles and earned four letters on the varsity rifle team, Captaining the team for two years.
During the 1960’s young Carmichel began writing about guns and shooting on a part-time basis but there was soon such a demand for his writings, especially on the technical and do-it-yourself aspects of firearms, that he became a full-time writer and was named Shooting Editor of OUTDOOR LIFE in 1971.
Now in its 110th year of publication, OUTDOOR LIFE is read by many thousands of outdoorsmen monthly, making Carmichel one of the most followed firearms spokesmen of all time. He has hunted on six continents in over twenty countries, including 29 African safaris. He also maintains an active competitive shooting schedule and has won awards in small-bore and big-bore rifle, silhouette, skeet and benchrest, most recently winning the Two Gun Championship at the 2007 National Benchrest Championships.
In 1998 Carmichel was the first recipient of The Jack Slack Award for journalistic excellence, a two-time winner of the Anschutz Gun Writers Award, and in 1980 named Winchester’s Outdoorsman of the Year.
In addition to his duties at OUTDOOR LIFE, Carmichel served twelve years as a member of the NRA Board of Directors, has authored five books: The Modern Rifle, The Compleat Just Jim, Do-It-Yourself Gunsmithing, The Woman’s Guide to Handguns and Jim Carmichel’s Book of the Rifle, and also co-authored other books. Carmichel’s successful cartridge designs include the .22, 6mm and 6.5 Cheetas, the 6mm CBR, .260 Bobcat, 6.5 Leopard, and 6.5 Panther, which was commercially adopted as the .260 Remington.
Jim Carmichel and his wife Linda, a university professor who is also a shooting champion, make their home in the scenic mountains of East Tennessee, only a short stroll from their shooting range.
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