Ray Schoenke was known as fearless on the football field, a 6-3, 246-pound offensive tackle for the Washington Redskins who managed to hold his own for a dozen years against much larger defensive ends.

The Hawaii-born sportsman has now tackled America's most potent gun group.

The president of the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), Schoenke is an avid bird hunter, shooter and conservationist who owns a 300-acre hunting farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Schoenke and the AHSA have been roundly criticized by the National Rifle Association for, among other things, campaigning for Barack Obama and having friends and supporters who aren't fervent gun proponents.

"I've hunted all my life, and all over the world," said Schoenke, as we shared a Sandusky Bay waterfowl hunting blind on Wednesday. "The AHSA is pro-gun, and we're also for wildlife conservation. Conservation issues are extremely important to hunters, but have been totally ignored by the NRA.

"The NRA has 3 million members, while America has 80 million gun owners. We want to reach out to those people who are hunters and conservationists and even Democrats. I'm certainly not afraid to stand up to the NRA."

Schoenke bankrolled the ASHA after selling a multimillion-dollar insurance business he developed after retiring from football in 1975.

Schoenke admits that when he came to Cleveland to play against the Browns, he never thought about northern Ohio as a great location for hunters.

"This trip really changed my thinking," he said.

- D'Arcy Egan

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