Veteran-Owned Riton Optics Announces First Selections to National Pro Staff Team.

June 25, 2018
Tucson, Arizona
Veteran – Owned Riton Optics announces Ruby Korenoski has been selected as a member of the first official Pro Staff Team for the 2018-2019 sales year. 

Relatively unknown outside of her home region, this young firebrand has already made a name for herself with her own website and youtube page. She is headquartered in the beautiful Laurel Mountains near Johnstown, Pennsylvania in a rural area. 
Ruby has been going hunting, fishing, camping and doing all sorts of outdoor sports since she was in First Grade and has already been recognized for her video skills and on camera presence.

Yes, Ruby landed a Pro Staff Position during the first round of a nationwide talent search. How did a 13 year old from Conemaugh Township, PA pull this off? See her First ever, “Ruby’s Riton Reviews” and her “Job Application Demo”, click the video link above.

My friends, Hannah, Tori and I have worked on several video projects for the Technology Student Association (TSA) at Conemaugh Township Middle School. TSA is a nation wide organization with 230,000 students and about 2,000 teachers participating. The photo below is after a Spring Gobbler hunt.

At the Regional Level, we won a First Place for the Digital Video Challenge. Then we moved on to the State Level competition. The event was held at Seven Springs Ski Resort and it was the 40^th anniversary for the organization. Hannah, Tori and I had a great time during the 4 day competition.

We were in working clothes most of the time but, me, Hanna and Tori did get to “Dress-Up”, too.  We won a Third place at Seven Springs for a 4-minute Community Service video. We had to write a script, plan out all our scenes, get the actors, shoot it all and edit it by a deadline. We had a lot of fun and it was good to win any award with this high-level of competition.

Our Teacher, Mr. Plummer, helped us to develop a good work ethic, made us accept responsibility and helped us establish goals and develop critical thinking skills. All these events will help me do a better job for my ROR Hunting and Fishing video segments.

My Dad’s friend, Bryan Bazak, is a great musician and a fine piano player. He’s also a really good archery shot and experienced Bowhunter. We call him “Baze”. He hunts deer in Pennsylvania and in Ohio. He shot this nice 8-point Buck with his bow in Eastern Ohio 2 years ago. Baze hunts on leased property. The buck scored about 140 with an 18-inch spread.

Baze also hunts with his friend, Rob Nagy, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Nagy is an avid Bowhunter and keeps a close watch on his local deer population. Baze hunted with Rob during the early bow season without success. He returned after the New Year to hunt the Philly Burbs again. On January 5 the weather was bitter cold. Baze was in his blind all day and saw no deer.

After lunch Rob called him to say he spotted a big buck at their other blind location. Rob said, “Get over here now”. So, Baze quickly packed up his archery gear and drove to the new spot. It was late afternoon when he got in the blind with three hours left to hunt. The sun was going down, the temperature was near zero and time was running out. Finally the Buck, the one Rob spotted earlier, came out of the timber. Baze made a solid hit at 15 yards with his Hoyt Maxxis compound. He used a Gold Tip arrow with a Spitfire 100 grain broadhead. The heavy buck had 8 points and scored approximately 128 and had an 18-inch spread. Below is a photo of Rob’s 2017 Buck.

Rob Nagy lives and hunts in Montgomery County and this past fall he shot this monster 10 point. The high-wide buck scored 147 inches with a inside spread of 21.5 inches. Rob was hunting from a tree stand and shot the Trophy at 8 yards with a Hoyt Vectrix bow.

Rob used a Gold Tip arrow with a Spitfire 100 grain broadhead. Rob also was able to capture the shot sequence on video, all by himself. That’s’ really hard to do, to shoot video of your buck, while shooting your Buck with your bow. Great Hunt Rob! I hope I can do that next year, if I’m lucky. I’ll add Rob’s video into my next Video Deer Hunting report.

My cousin Danny loves to go hunting and fishing with his Dad, Mike Fesko. Over the past few years Danny has shot several bucks and does with his crossbow. But, this year he helped his Dad get this nice 10-point buck out of the woods. Mike was hunting from a tree-stand and shot the buck with Danny’s crossbow in October during the PA archery season.

Now that Deer Season is over, Danny and his Dad are spending some time ice fishing for bass, panfish and pike. Because we had a week of zero temperatures recently, some local lakes had ice thick enough to be safe for fishing. Danny had a good day when he caught 2 nice Northern Pike. With the wind chill the temps were 20 below zero!

This sharp tooth Pike was the biggest of the trip. Danny got the 26-inch Northern by using a large shiner minnow for bait. They often fish here, on the lake at Yellow Creek State Park. This fish really has some nice color and markings on it. The Pike below was a bit smaller.

Look closely at the photo above, and you’ll see a white bandage on Danny’s finger. The Pike really wasn’t happy about being caught, so it bit Danny’s finger. Then things got a little bloody. Good thing Danny’s Mom and Dad are both highly skilled in their medical fields.

Last weekend the Largemouth Bass were biting and Danny and his Dad caught a few really nice ones. These two were both about 17 inches long and they caught 8 total and even missed a few strikes. So, on this cold winter day, the “Big One” didn’t get away. Danny is a 5^th Grade student at Ferndale Area Elementary School.

On Christmas morning Santa brought me a Digital Nikon-3400 with an 18-to-55 lens. Thanks Mom and Dad! I’ve always wanted my own camera, even though I’ve been using my grand dad’s heavy cameras for years. Mine is really lightweight and it even shoots HD video.

Pups doesn’t like other people using his cameras, so I always get a lecture when using his gear. I’ve shot color film in his old Nikon F-4 manual film camera. It was made in 1988 and he still uses it sometimes, cause he is old school. When I use the F-4, he makes me think about shutter speeds, f-stops, ASA, depth of field, mirror up, all kinds of film types and other boring things. It weighs a ton.

Then he says, “You only have 7 frames left on this roll, be selective, don’t waste film, cause it costs too much”. Then we have to send film away to process, and then pay for all the developing and color prints. That seems crazy. With a digital camera, you can get 1,000’s of shots and not run out of film. Now, I can shoot all the different things I want and not worry about paying money just to see them. This is going to be fun. I’ve shot mostly with his Digital D-200, below.

His D-200 Nikon only has a ISO-ASA rating of 1600. My smaller, lighter, way less expensive camera has a ISO speed of 25,000. Way better than his. That means I can shoot photos in low light, like just at dusk, when the deer are coming out. My camera is even better yet, because I can shoot and instantly link and send photos to my computer and my cell phone.

Christmas Day was fun because I was shooting lots of pic’s of my family and all my relatives and my “Great Grammy” with Vayda. Then I looked out the window and saw this small buck in the yard.

So, I got my first wildlife photos without even going outside. Too bad I only had the 55mm normal lens, I needed to zoom in closer.  Well, now I need to save some money for an 80-to-300mm telephoto zoom lens.

A few weeks ago my Pups took this shot of me in the woods holding my 10×40 binoculars. I needed this photo to use on my new business card. I like the way my orange vest and hat match up with the Beech Tree leaves. The round patch on my vest is the one I got for passing my PA Hunter Ed course two years ago.

I’ve wanted to update my Business cards for a while, but keep the same layout for the card. We also changed the header on my website by adding this shot, plus a recent shot of me using my Grandfather’s Nikon camera and telephoto lens. See my ROR Website Header photos above.

The first Business card I ever made (see above) was a picture of me with my binoculars. We took the photo when my Grandparents and I were scouting for Elk to photograph in Benezette, PA. I was just 10 years old then. Now, it’s time for a new photo. My business cards are a great way for me to introduce myself to new friends, hunting and fishing guides, magazine editors and sports show promoters and vendors.

Matt Lamp trailed my Buck into the swampy woods. My Ohio Hunt with “Full Bore Outfitters” was a soggy success! I was so worried that I missed this buck. Then I was worried all the rain would wash away any blood trail on the ground. Matt and Phil kept on the trail and I was thrilled to finally find my Buck in the marsh. See the photo below of the food plot where I shot my Buck the day before. The field was completely under water from all the rain and the rising river nearby. Click on my Video Link for all the details.

I’ve been deer hunting the past few weeks with my crossbow. We rotate our hunts between my two ladder-type tree-stands. This season I wanted to have another two-man tree-stand for my Grandpa and I to hunt from, so I did a hunt for the best one. After looking at a bunch of brands on-line, I picked the one called “Big Bubba”. Take a look at my video for more information and some neat features of my new stand. I hope it brings me good luck and a big Buck, too. Click on my video link below:

I’ve always wanted to sing the National Anthem at a football game, hockey game or other event, but never had the chance. However, when my Dad’s friend, Mike Kuharcik,  asked me to sing at his Elk’s  Club Flag Presentation and Classic Car Show, I had to say yes.

Click on the Photo Below for a slide show of all the cool cars there.

I’ve been shooting my Savage Lady Hunter for the past year and this spring I really started practicing at longer ranges. My Savage rifle fits me great and I’ve been able to shoot one inch groups at 200 yards.

Take a look at my video and watch me fire off a few rounds of 243.