Brent Frazee of The Mercury News reports that the first thing you have to know about Ted Nugent is that he isn't going to apologize to anyone for hunting.

"I've got a message for all those people who think hunting is so terrible," he says. "They can kiss my (behind).

"People will say to me, 'All you want to do is kill things.' But if that was true, I'd be out there with a grenade launcher.

"People who don't hunt don't realize how spiritual it is to hunt with a bow. They don't realize how close that animal has to be before you can get off a shot.

"It's not just the killing. But I'm not going to apologize for that part. That's part of hunting."

Of course, some more conservative hunters grimace when Nugent shows a kill in detail on his television show or when he launches into a rant about the thrill of the kill.

"He's a loose cannon, covering the trails with washtubs of blood," Glenn St. Charles, founder of the national Pope & Young Bow hunting club, told Outside magazine.

David Petersen, editor of the book "A Hunter's Heart", was even more pointed.

"He's obnoxious, brash and a bully," Peterson told the magazine. "He embodies and magnifies aspects of hunting that the general public detests."

But there's little question that Nugent has a loyal following, too.

"Ted has his facts down," said Dick Mauch, director of the Archery Manufacturers Organization. "He is very articulate and is also bold, honest, not shy or afraid to meet any challenge."

But it's the support that comes from unlikely sources that Nugent takes the most pride in.

"At every one of my programs, I'll have people come up to me and say, 'You know, I was an anti-hunter before I came in here, but you've changed my mind,' " Nugent says. "I'm (57) years old, but the young people still connect with me.

"When they see me on TV celebrating the killing of a deer, they notice. A lot of these kids hated hunting until they starting listening to me and started learning what it's all about."

Read more at www.mercurynews.com.