Jim Scoutten says his work, hosting and producing American Shooter, was Special Interest Broadcast Journalism,  reporting on America’s Sports Shooting Scene, gun history, and events, using the same journalistic techniques he developed in 15 years in Television News. 

Scoutten honed his reporting skills in broadcast news, starting in  All News Radio while still in broadcasting school; then switching to TV News.  He’s been a reporter, Anchor, Producer and News Director, while working for stations in Minneapolis, Honolulu, Phoenix, Seattle, Greater Houston, and Savannah, GA.  

All of that before switching to Special Interest Reporting, first in automotive shows; then in 1993 adding the duties of producer and host of American Shooter. Scoutten says the change was just like a print reporter switching from a newspaper to a magazine.  “I got to report on what interests me, instead of covering the City Council.”

 In the ten years Scoutten has reported on the shooting sports, American Shooter became the nation’s highest rated outdoor category show, gathering an audience of more than a million fans each weekend.

Although American Shooter reruns continue to appear on OLN, Scoutten resigned as producer and host in 2002 to form his own production company. His new gun show, Shooting USA, will air this year.

In those few weekends a year, when he’s not flying to report on a shooting event, Jim enjoys hunting and target shooting with his two sons and step son.  He’s married and lives on 5 acres of woods in Franklin, Tennessee, where the neighbors are used to hearing gunfire, usually just after the UPS man brings the newest batch of test guns.