Most of the political discussion at the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs' fall conference last weekend in Oil City was pro-President Bush and Second Amendment gun rights.

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But unlike previous gatherings, one member did stand up to point out shortcomings of the Bush administration's environmental policies and their detrimental effects on fishing and hunting habitat, said Melody Zullinger, executive director of the 74,000-member sportsmen's group, the state's largest.

"I still see the vast majority of sportsmen, the true 'hook and bullet' types, as conservative and think they will vote Republican," said Zullinger, a Republican herself. "But we're also getting more members in the middle who realize that if we don't have a clean environment we won't have the places where we can pursue our sports."

The "hook and bullet" vote has been as closely tied to the Republicans for the past 30 years as the African-American vote has been to Democrats. Bush handily won the outdoor sportsmen's demographic in 2000.

Critics say that voting block has been eroded over the last four years by Bush administration environmental policies that have allowed timbering to muddy pristine trout streams, pushed oil and gas drilling on public lands and removed Clean Water Act protections from waterfowl supporting wetlands.

But Kerry appears to have made few inroads in the bedrock conservative sportsmen's groups of the Keystone State. That's because the locked and loaded issue for many sportsmen when they enter the voting booth remains gun ownership.

"My gut tells me that most serious sportsmen are going to hold their noses and vote for Bush because the gun issue overrides everything," said Jeff Mulhollem, president of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and a Bush voter in the last presidential election.

"This election is the toughest choice in a long time. Most sportsmen are conservationists so they have a dilemma. Bush's environmental record is widely seen as dismal and Kerry is seen as anti-gun rights."

That anti-gun perception persists despite Kerry campaign efforts to cast the four-term senator from Boston as a hunter and fisherman during several of his post-Democratic convention trips to election swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia where there are almost as many people with rifles and rods as there are deer, bear, grouse, trout and bass.

Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat who did well with outdoor sportsmen in 2002 despite not being a fisherman or hunter himself, accompanied Kerry at several campaign stops and said the gun vote could make a difference in the state.

In August, the Kerry campaign announced the formation of the "Sportsmen for Kerry-Edwards" organization. And a photograph on top of the campaign's sportsmen's web page (www.johnkerry.com/communities/sportsmen) shows Kerry firing a shotgun. The campaign has also issued a six-point "Sportsmen Bill of Rights" that puts the "right to own firearms" atop a list of rights that include access to hunting and fishing areas, protection of wildlife from irresponsible oil and gas drilling, wise management of national forests and federal funding for fish and wildlife programs.

Mark Nevins, the Kerry campaign's spokesman in Pennsylvania, said it is capitalizing on the "guns and greens phenomenon" and will "win enough votes to mute the Bush advantage."

"These are people who wear camouflage and drive pickups," Nevins said, "but they hunt and fish in places that have been hurt by Bush administration policies."

But that green-tinged appeal to outdoor sportsmen and women hasn't hit the mark with the vast majority of the state's sportsmen. Instead, many have adopted the position of the National Rifle Association, which has told its 4 million members -- a quarter of them in the swing states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Michigan and Missouri -- that it doesn't matter that Kerry hunts and fishes.

The NRA opposes Kerry based on his support for the recently lapsed assault-type weapons ban and background checks for those purchasing weapons at gun shows, and his opposition to legislation that would grant gun makers immunity from civil lawsuits filed by crime victims.

"In 2000 Gore stayed out of the gun control issue and Rendell was very proactive in support of sportsmen when he ran. But Kerry is making an issue out of gun control and I think that's foolish," said Mike Slavonic, a member of the Carrick Sportsmen's Club and the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League board of directors.

The organization doesn't endorse candidates because of its tax status, but its web site (www.acslpa.org) features an article by NRA Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre under a headline "Hidden Agenda, The truth behind John Kerry's record on your firearm rights," and another that says "Teresa Heinz Kerry also has a history in support of gun control."

"Kerry has not been as pro-active as Rendell was," said Slavonic, who will support Bush in November. "I think the sportsmen can throw the election one way or another."

Carl Mowry, president of the 23,000-member Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, was even more partisan, saying that for his membership and the federation's national membership of 525,000 there is only one candidate for president.

"We're for Bush because he's the only one for sportsmen. We're behind him 100 percent,'' said Mowry. "We think everything he has proposed is good and don't think his environmental policies will hurt hunters."

Ben Moyer, a former president of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and a hunter who was named Conservation Communicator of the year in 2001 by the Pennsylvania Audubon Society, said Bush's support is bolstered by the NRA's role in framing the debate about the presidential candidates.

"The NRA has been successful in telling sportsmen that the only overriding issue is guns," said Moyer, who also writes a freelance outdoors column for the Post-Gazette. "But people who hunt or fish need to look at the bigger political picture that includes the Bush environmental record. Our fish and wildlife depend on a sustainable environment and we haven't been getting policies that support that from this president."

But even outdoor groups where gun ownership is not a central theme are supportive of the president.

Mike Foust, president of the 5,000-member United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania, said his members are "strong Second Amendment supporters" who don't think the Democratic party represents them very well.

And Ken Undercoffer, past president and current secretary of Pennsylvania Trout, the state affiliate of Trout Unlimited, said the group's leadership is more supportive of Kerry than its members.

"The rank and file are much more inclined to go along with the typical hook and bullet voting block because many of our members also hunt and have the perception that the Democrats favor gun registration," said Undercoffer, who is a Democrat and will vote for Kerry.

Undercoffer said Bush is supported by many of his organization's members even though many are also upset with the administration for reclassifying hatchery-raised salmon as wild salmon, allowing logging in pristine watersheds and adopting weak mercury regulations that will further contaminate the state's trout fishery.

"The Democrats can't break through the perceptions that we're all northeast liberals who want to lock up their guns," Undercoffer said. "I consider myself a Democrat and I don't want to take anyone's gun.

"The problem is I haven't seen any effective efforts to address this issue from the Kerry campaign. It's something he ought to do. He's got to start fighting back."