Saying goodbye…

© By Othmar Vohringer

…Is never easy. This is no different with a company, especially if that company manufactured and sold a product that had a good purpose and made hunting from treestands with a rifle safer. It came a bit of a shock to me when I learned that Gun Safety Innovations had to close its doors as another victim of the current economic situation. There have been rumors for a while that the company is considering calling it a day but somehow I hoped they would pull through.

I first became aware of Gun Safety Innovations around the middle of June in 2006 when I was surfing the Internet, as I often do, looking for hunting news. I somehow ended up on the Gun Safety Innovation blog Hunt Smart, Think Safety written by Kristine Shreve, Marketing Director of the company. After reading about the product called “Gunslinger” and later renamed to the much catchier and descriptive name “GunTriever” I knew that this was a winner of a product. You can read all about the GunTriever in my product review that I wrote after I field-tested the product.

Shortly after my review Gun Safety Innovation became one of my sponsors and I became one of their pro-staff members. I like to work with companies that manufacture useful quality products because it is such products that I can fully endorse and promote with confidence and still be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It always has been my policy that I only promote products that I am convinced about. The GunTriever had been one of these products and I was sure that it would become a hot seller. But it seems with the economy faltering gun safety in a treestand seemed not to be first and foremost on the minds of rifle hunters.

Besides helping to promote the GunTriever I had the privilege to gain Kristine Shreve as a valued friend and supporter of my blogs and work. From a business point of view I learned a lot about promotion and marketing from Kristine. It was this friendship that ultimately led, together with a handful of other serious outdoor bloggers, to the founding of the Outdoor Blogger Summit (OBS). I think I speak for all founding members here if I say that it is in large part thanks to Kristine’s drive, determination and vision that the OBS today is the largest outdoor blogger organization.

I am sad to see Gun Safety Innovations closing but the friendships I made thanks to the company are continuing. Of course as the hopeless optimist that I am I have not given up hope that one day Gun Safety Innovations will be back again.

Thanks for everything! I wish all the employees and owners of Gun Safety Innovations nothing but the best of luck in the future.


Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit