SCI BADGERLAND CHAPTER PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

From the President’s Cluttered Desk:

August 2010 Prez Sez from Dave Ekkebus

Well. I’m on time, tardy as always with my SEZ message. I could pretend that I wanted to wait until Dining Around the World IX was over to get this out but the fact is I was busy…. hunting. That’s my excuse and I am sticking to it.

If you supported your SCI Chapter and attended the event on Saturday August 7 you are probably on a diet for at least the rest of the month like myself. Boy, that was “good grub”! Italian, German, American entrees all set out in themed buffet stations made it a grand time. Great guns and other goodies on the raffles, super live and silent auction items made it a good night for all.  I know there are many things to do on a summer night but you should never miss an SCI event. There are two trips still available until August 31st. Check them out!

Badgerland Chapter has over 70 new members this year and growing so don’t miss your chance to join SCI. Members sign up a friend, relative or hunting friends to help provide for conservation in Wisconsin and anywhere you hunt or dream of hunting. It’s all about YOU and your freedom to enjoy your passion for our American hunting heritage.

My recent hunting adventure was to get some experience with a new bow. I have not been serious about the “stick and sting” method for about 40 years and I just wanted to get back into the thrill of seeing deer and maybe shooting something while at the same time being able to feel my fingers and toes. Rifle and muzzle-loader hunting is great. But there are days when it’s more brutal frustration than pleasant and successful.

I did learn that the newest toys from Bow Tech are devastatingly deadly compared to my first generation compound of bygone years. I bet the other brands are as good or better too. I also learned that when it’s 90+ degrees on a sunny day in Texas it is possible to drink 27 gallons of water, one bottle at a time, and wring out your shirt. I discovered that Oklahoma has replaced Wisconsin for the most miles of one lane Interstate I have ever encountered in one day. My son-in-law enlightened me to the fact that the company that makes those orange barrels and cones has no real location and thus simply stores the things on roads all about the country regardless if there is actually any work being done or not. Warehouse space is provided out in the open by each state and usually on the side of the road I  am using. I suspect Mr. Murphy is using the other side where there are no barrels being warehoused.

I like hunting Texas (but then I like hunting anywhere). Mainly I like Texas because there is always some big game to hunt and I can always fit in a little jaunt to fit my schedule. I strongly suggest you try it sometime between January and September and fill that void if you can’t get to Africa, Argentina or “down under” when the home seasons are closed.  If you believe ranch hunting is too easy I suggest you try to kill one specific animal with a bow and arrow on 2000 acres of brush, trees, wide prairies, rocky ridges, cornflake old leaves and steep rock basins. Oh, and watch were you step, Texas has cactus, rattlesnakes and water moccasins just to make things a tad more interesting. I think you would probably like “interesting”. So get off that couch and get out hunting!

Your Badgerland Directors are now taking aim on the grand February Convention, Trophy Competition and Fundraising Auction. February 11 & 12, 2011. Mark that calendar! Decide what trophies you will enter!  Watch this website for all the auction hunts and other items!

BADGERLAND PREZ SEZ For JULY 2010

Whoa, diddly-dang, the first of the month zipped right by again and it’s the 3rd already. It’s July and I have only been hunting for THREE DAYS ALL YEAR.  I gotta get my priorities in order here.

THREE DATES TO REMEMBER

Big Day! September 15, Next regular monthly meeting at Prime Quarter Steakhouse.

BIGGER DAY! SATURDAY JULY 17 Sporting Clays “FUN SHOOT” and picnic at Waunakee Gun Club in Dane, Wisconsin. Be there! The only thing more fun with a shotgun is shooting doves in Argentina, trust me.

BIGGEST DAY AUGUST 7 DINING AROUND THE WORLD AT CHULA VISTA. Guns galore!  Fabulous food! Silent Auction! Great Raffles! Live Auction! More food! More Fun!  There is only ONE good reason to miss a SCI Banquet, and hunting season is not open on August 7th. See flyer on this site and call Dan Jackson NOW. Buy a table and invite your friends to join you for a great evening and a good cause.

Ok, we’re all pumped up about the coming hunting seasons but now would be a good time to get into the woods and check on your tree stands and elevated blinds. Why wait until the day before or the day you have a catastrophic accident?  Your safety harness won’t help you if you don’t wear it ALL the time. Hunt smart, hunt safe.

PLEASE SEND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO  <alanheth@yahoo.com>. Alan will be getting you timely updates on all the chapter events throughout the year. Postage, paper, printing and time keeps climbing in cost all the time and email is a really inexpensive way to keep everyone updated and save the club all that expense. I don’t think it will be long before mail goes completely out of style for meetings and fundraisers. Also, if you have a group of hunters, family, friends or business clientele with a lot of hunters talk to Alan and he’ll get you a Jpg. or Pdf.  file to forward to your email list too. HELP US- HELP SCI -HELP OUR FUNDING PROJECTS! Someone once told me “it’s not what you know but who you know” and I think he was right! Let’s get the words out NOW.

All you lucky folks who have been travelling the world this summer get those trophy photos up on the website. Write your article for HUNTERS. File a Hunt Report for the website too!

Summer is a great time to squeeze in a great little exotic hunt, axis in Texas, boars in Michigan, rams all over the country. Get out there. Don’t just sit there and wait for the calendar to make it hunting season in Wisconsin. There is hunting available year around and you won’t even need a passport or more than a couple tanks of gas. Tell me all about it at Dining Around the World on August 7th. See you all there. Have a great summer.

June 2010

PREZ SAYS

Hey everybody we have  a great summer planned for our SCI friends. We have the June meeting at Imperial Gardens out in Middleton on Wednesday the 16th. We will have some great food. Damon has picked out a great gun raffle. It’s a camo turkey special. Just what you need for those extra tight gobbler killing patterns. Missed again this year? Be there and win it.

In July, on Saturday the 17th is the Chapter Sporting Clays “FUN SHOOT” and family picnic at Waunakee Gun Club over in Dane, Wisconsin. Shooting starts at 10 and one round ( 50 birds) is just $30. Two rounds, for those who are either really into it or who need some practice cost just $50 and that includes lunch and all. Bring the family, hunting buddies, shooting fanatics and introduce then to your SCI friends. Food is free so it’s a good deal for all. Plenty of soda, beer when you finishing shooting. Dan Jackson and Paul Baker are taking over the grill from yours truly so quality will no doubt spike this year. Damon Mills is going to find a nice over and under shotgun to raffle so bring a few extra bucks and maybe you can take it home.

PLEASE SEND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO  <alanheth@yahoo.com>. Alan will be getting you timely updates on all the chapter events throughout the year. Postage, paper, printing and time keeps climbing in cost all the time and email is a really inexpensive way to keep everyone updated and save the club all that expense. I don’t think it will be long before mail goes completely out of style for meetings and fundraisers. Also, if you have a group of hunters, family, friends or business clientele with a lot of hunters talk to Alan and he’ll get you a Jpg. or Pdf.  file to forward to your list too. HELP US- HELP SCI -HELP OUR FUNDING PROJECTS! Someone once told me “it’s not what you know but who you know” and I think he was right!

I think most of you already heard that SCI Badgerland Chapter won one of the 10 $5000 Major Youth Project grants.  We are helping Remington, IHEA, the DNR, Sportsmen’s Channel and others raise awareness about hunting for the 8-16 demographic through Public Service Announcements ( PSAs) that will reach 2 million or more young people in the next three years on outdoor hunting, fishing, and camping TV, by internet web pages, papers  and local TV programming.  Many folks helped us with this grant and we are very thankful as we can do so much more and without using any of our hard earned local dollars too. Thanks SCI Foundation!

AUGUST 7th IS DINING AROUND THE WORLD again in the Dells. Don’t miss this one. Great International foods in our Around the World theme. Lots of gun raffles, ladies jewelry, sporting good and a super fun auction with some hunts and lots more. Any donations? Contact Paul Baker at 608-837-3942 so he can coordinate your items. We take Cash, it’s just like Money! And we will send you a tax deductible donation slip just for asking for one with your donation. Watch this website for more and more details. SEND ALAN YOUR EMAIL Address!

May 2010

DNR SPRING HEARINGS David J. Ekkebus

I know the media makes a living off bad news. Kids dealing drugs is more perversely exciting than a kid taking a Blue Ribbon hog at the State Fair. I also know that 1000′s of hunters are unhappy about the number of deer they are killing even if it is 5 times as many as 40 years ago and 3 times as many as 30 years ago too. Younger hunters don’t know what it’s like to go 5, 6, 10 years without punching a tag or wearing an arm band and needing 3 other guys to toss in 5 bucks each in hopes of tagging a doe to share four ways. Archery hunters are killing 1/3 of the bucks not the handful of the past.  I’m as guilty as the next guy. We don’t talk about IF we got a deer but how big and how many we killed. Many of us are just spoiled. I am.

Well, we read the herd is down but still too big. We read that hunters hate the DNR and will not go hunting because there are no deer. We hear of private land being closed to those who ask permission and hunters losing land they have hunted for years because the farms were sold and the new owners are being selfish. Duh?  We read of politicians considering laws to require you to open your private land to public hunting. We read of “back door” attempts by the DNR to “outlaw” food plots on privately owned land. We read the DNR wants to “waste” money on deer research. Most of us don’t know what is real and what is not. Who do we believe? Who is right, the professional managers or the guy in the tavern? Does he really hunt or just stay in the tavern? What habitat changes have altered the deer behavior or what hunting changes have altered your own behavior? Where there used to be woodlots now there are rural homes. Where there was corn is now pine trees or a golf course. So?

Each year, the DNR holds hearings to elect the Conservation Congress and to present proposed rules and rule changes to the sportsmen and sportswomen of the state. The status of hunting can pretty well be assessed by the attendance at these meetings and the furor they do or do not create. 2010, in spite of the rhetoric and the hoopla, was a pretty quiet year as it turned out.

If you research the 640,000 gun deer hunters, 1.4 million adult fishing licenses sold,  subtract 380,000 non-resident fishing permits and factor in the duplication of archery, gun, small game, Patron, Sportsman’s and assorted youth and mentoring programs one might think using a casual 1 million resident sportsmen and women would be a low to modest estimation. Slightly less than 5000 of said residents showed up for the 2010 meetings. Thus, I would come to the conclusion that any advice/hatred directed to the Department of Natural Resources was given by the 1/2 of 1%  or less of the statewide sporting public. I might, or might not, agree these are the truly dedicated individuals, or, if you prefer, “hardcore fanatics”. Hardly a throng of disgruntled DNR haters.

This year there were 97 questions presented to those who bothered to show-up. Out of those 97 questions the DNR got a YES or agreement with all but 7, a very respectable passing grade of 93%. (That’s an A- if you are scoring along with me.)

Where was the animosity? Where was the DNR hatred? Where was the “backlash from hunters”? The only close questions were on raising the age for youth tags on turkey and deer. Turkey hunting  for 16 & 17 passed, barely, and for deer failed by an even closer margin. Most of the NO votes were on bear hunting advisory questions, 4 of the 7.  Antler restrictions, popular in some places, hated in others, went down soundly. On the other hand crossbow deer hunting for 55 and older, pistols in shotgun counties as well as rifle use for deer in Waupaca county passed handily.

Maybe the Wisconsin sportsman has a lot more common sense than some are willing to admit?  Maybe the DNR does too? Maybe not. However, for now, all is quiet on the front.

SORRY I’M LATE April 2010

Well it’s been a hectic few weeks around here and I’m just now racing to catch up. Our chapter web honcho has also been swamped so I’ve managed to escape his wrath, well at least until now.

We wrapped up the banquet, dove into the 2010 Membership Drive, got the new 2010 flyer printed, jumped through all the hoops of my wife’s back surgery, snuck off for 3 days of slogging through cedar swamps with 4 other SCI guys on a hunt that was a blast. I also popped in on the guys working the Sensory Safari Trailer at the Deer and Turkey Expo this past weekend in Madison. In late March Alan Heth, Paul Baker, Leon Procknow also worked the membership booth and the SST at the Big Buck Classic in the Dells that took place while yours truly was getting down and muddy chasing back straps and bacon.

Collectively the efforts of our volunteer teams have booked over 30 new members for our Chapter! WAY TO GO GUYS!  That means we already have two convention registration packages for auction at Dining Around The World in August. And we’re well on the way to securing a SCI Life Membership for one of the auctions too. That’s over $2000 in auction item value from SCI  just for signing up new members to SCI.

See the 2010 – 2011 Membership Drive and see how you can win guns or a great hunt in Buffalo County with Butch Fox.

Our April membership meeting is at Fitzgerald’s in Middleton on April 21st. This meeting is our Chapter Director Elections and  Annual Membership meeting and report on the over-view of our chapter. Don’t miss it. If there is any time available we might also get a short hunting program in as well.

Anyone with a little time to devote to SCI should call me (608-296-3051) or Alan Heth (262-903-9897) or Dan Jackson (608-225-8567) and let us know you might consider helping to steer the chapter into the future.

One of our senior members, Leon Procknow, just returned from a hunt in Mexico where he completed the fourth leg of his Grand Slam of North American Sheep. What a great hunting accomplishment! Congratulations to Leon for completing his quest!

REMEMBER SATURDAY JULY 17TH IS THE SPORTING CLAYS SHOOT AND PICNIC

AT WAUNAKEE GUN CLUB IN DANE, WISCONSIN

AND SATURDAY AUGUST 7TH IS DINING AROUND THE WORLD IX

AT CHULA VISTA RESORT IN WISCONSIN DELLS, WISCONSIN

MARCH 2010 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE from David Ekkebus, Pres.

SCI Badgerland Chapter just concluded our 22nd annual fundraising weekend at Chula Vista in mid-February.  Despite still shaky financial times and some uncertainty in the US and world economies we had a great weekend, exceeding the 2009 net income! There are still a few items on the Auction page here on the website. If you are seeking a great “buy” you might want to check out the items right now. The auction will conclude after the Mach monthly meeting which is at Herremann’s Restaurant in Sun Prairie on St Patrick’s Day, March 17th!

I hope you will all come to the Deer and Turkey Expo at the Alliant Center the weekend of April 9, 10 & 11 to see your spectacular Sensory Safari Trailer. The “SST” will be featured at many events this spring and summer. If you know of a good venue for SCI please contact Dan Jackson  608-225-8567 and let him know too. Watch for the SST at many youth and hunter oriented events to promote SCI and our conservation and education efforts.

TEACHERS and friends of teachers should be aware that SCI sponsors teacher candidates to The American Wilderness Leadership School ( AWLS). AWLS takes place at  Safari Club’s Granite Ranch near Jackson Wyoming every summer. Educators can broaden their knowledge of wildlife ecology, wildlife conservation and enhancement of wildlife and wildlife habitat through the efforts of hunters and the benefits of hunting as the American Conservation Model for the World. Hunters manage and promote wildlife management not only in word but deeds and financial support. Get an AWLS application at any meeting, from any Director or call 608-296-3051 and have one sent to you or a teacher who might be qualified.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TOO! Now is the time to speak up and toss your hat in the ring if you would like to be considered to be nominated to the Chapter Board of Directors. Let me, Alan Heth or Dan Jackson know of your interest and qualifications.  Of course, we also need volunteers to help with the SST, our Sporting Clays Shoot and Picnic as well as semi-annual Dining Around the World on August 7th.

YES! THE SPORTING CLAYS SHOOT IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR JULY 17. WAUNAKEE GUN CLUB

SHOOTING FROM 10 AM.