CLUB OFFICERS President: Ronnie Courvelle (850-4207) Vice President: Secretary: Mike Nickels (712 326-5779) Treasurer:Brent Simmerman(597-9497) Trustee:Ed Rebarich(345-7608)
Trustee: Dave Holthouse (291-0211) News Editor:Lee Pereksta(592-3856) 3D Coordinator: Mike Palm(590-3439) Indoor Range Coordinator Tom Bocman (344-8019) Indoor range phone (734-7272)
Key Dates to Remember
October 4 - Club Meeting, 7:00 Indoor Range
November 13 - Indoor 300 round turkey shoot
September Club Meeting The September meeting was held on Monday, September 13 with 12 members in attendance. We discussed the big buck contest, the potential for holding a 4-H event at Wahoo next year, our money due from the Reinhart 100 shoot, an upcoming workparty to rotate cardboard, and indoor leagues. We also voted in two new memberships.
New Members There were two new memberships voted in at the September Meeting. Our newest members are Sharon Buck, and Mark and Katja Smith. Welcome to the Ahamo Archery Club.
Reinhart 100:
We are still settling our payment for helping out with the Reinhart 100. Several of our members spent a lot of time in Lincoln setting up and running that shoot. Our payment from that is expected to be $298 from food sales and $600 from shooting fees. We will be passing on the shooting fees, and instead will receive that much on 3D targets from Reinhart at a reduced cost. This will help out for our Wahoo shoot and 3D’s next year.
Upcoming Work Party
Mike Nickels said he is planning a work party to rotate the cardboard and adjust the backing. Arrows are passing through and sometimes get stuck in the rubber backing behind the cardboard. He’s not sure yet when that will be scheduled.
If you have not yet met your work party commitment this year this will be another opportunity to catch up a little. As soon as this is scheduled I will send an email out asking for help at that work party. It will probably be during the week so that members can use their weekends for hunting.
Big Buck Contest for 2010:
As we have in the past, Ahamo will have a big buck contest in 2010. There will be some changes this year.
At our last meeting we discussed changing our scoring rules for 2010. We usually score all antlers as typical scores, and subtract the penalties, which includes abnormal points and differences in sizes between one antler and the other.
A group that Ronnie and Buck are members of, score their antlers for awards without subtracting any penalty points. This then doesn’t take anything away from the score and truly allows the buck with the most total points to win the competition. We unanimously agreed to score our antlers that way.
Anyone that wants their antlers scored this year should contact Lee Pereksta at hunterleep@cox.net, or at 592-3856. I will arrange to meet you at the range to score your antlers, or to do your scoring at a club meeting.
Note also, that Ahamo gives our members a very nice plaque when they harvest a deer, and each year after that plates for that plaque. It’s a nice item to hang on your wall, and is a place you can check to see how many deer you have harvested each year.
If you do harvest a deer, send an email or call Lee Pereksta to have your name added to the 2010 list of successful hunters. If you have pictures send them as well. Either a digital picture, or hard copy of your harvested game will work.
Our web site has a photo album section for pictures of harvested game we will add your photo’s too. Your pictures will also be in our next newsletter. Also, at the end of the year at our annual banquet, we show a video of club activities for that year, and also show pictures of all of our harvested game.
Below is a list of past Ahamo Big Buck winners kept from when I first started keeping track.
Past Big Buck Award Winners:
Here is a list of past Big Buck Award winners: 2009 Jesse Gonzalez 138 6/8 2002 Mark Seip 147 4/8 2008 Doug Schmidt 137 4/8 2001 Tom Riddle 128 3/8 2007 Gary Swigart 145 7/8 2000 Tom Riddle 138 4/8 2006 Dick Sousa 142 4/8 1999 Dick Sousa 144 2/8 2005 Steve Murphy 129 6/8 1998 Dick Sousa 146 5/8 2004 Steve Murphy 136 4/8 1997 Steve Murphy 133 0/8 2003 Dick Sousa 144 4/8 1996 Gary Brunberg 129 3/8
Hunting Articles:
Anyone that has a story they would like to share with club members, please send it to me to add to the newsletter. It can be something from this year, or past years. Otherwise I will end up sharing news of my hunting season with members each month during the hunting season.
Below is a short article on hunting safety to note:
Bowhunting Safety:
Safety Harnesses: The most dangerous part of hunting is getting into and out of your deer stand. That is where most accidents occur. Safety harnesses do work to protect you, but they must be worn properly and used appropriately.
Those of us that teach bowhunter education, always stress the importance of wearing a safety harness, and demonstrate how to use them in our classes. The most effective way to use your harness is to be attached to the tree all the way up to your stand and then all the way back down to the ground.
Harnesses are getting better and better each year, and do have allowances to keep you attached. The better harnesses have both a line-men’s belt attachment and a tree attachment to allow you to always remain attached. Be sure to practice putting your safety harness on and use it properly.
A new tool that is now included with safety harnesses is a suspension relief strap. This is an endless loop, or a strap with a loop on each end. The purpose is to give you something to use if you fall from your stand and become caught in the air with all of your weight on the leg straps of your safety harness. Unless you get back in your stand quickly or get down quickly, the weight on your leg straps could cause the blood to stop flowing through your legs and could end up causing you to lose consciousness.
The suspension relief strap allows you to wrap the strap around the tree and through the loop, and then give you something to stand on to give your legs some relief. I have never used one of these, and hope I never have to, but I will be carrying one of these straps in my pocket this year just in case I need it.
Another tool that is available, is a relief strap that you can wear on your safety harness. It has a release that lets you use it to lower yourself slowly to the ground if you fall and are hanging from the tree. This is a pretty costly device, but if you fall and need to use it, you will be glad you bought it.
Those of us that have hunted for several years and have had close calls from time to time, or have heard of hunters that have fallen and become injured, paralyzed, or have even died, are using safety devices more and more as we hunt. We are also becoming older, and know that falls are more severe for us older folks.
Basic Hunting Safety:
Here’s a list of things to think about as you hunt: 1. Be sure of your target and don’t just shoot at shapes. Dark shapes coming out of the woods can ‘trick’ your mind into thinking they are something they are not. Just ask the person that accidently shot another hunter coming out of the woods at Giffords several years back. He took a 40 yard shoot at a dark shape and was shocked to find he had shot another hunter in the hip.
2. Carry a flashlight (or two, or three) with you, and use it to make yourself visible when walking into our out of the woods at dusk or dawn. Just ask the hunter that was shot when walking out of the woods without using his flashlight.
3. Be sure someone knows where you are hunting and when you expect to be home. If you have an accident, you want someone to know where you are so you can be found if you become incapacitated. I always let my wife know where I am hunting, and the name of someone she can call with instructions on where I am hunting that can find me if I don’t return by a certain time.
4. Carry a cell phone with you when you hunt so you can contact someone in an emergency if needed.
5. Don’t overstress yourself when hunting. Don’t be afraid to slow down and rest when needed. I overdid on a hot day several years ago and rested almost too late. When I sat down to rest, I was so overheated that I was extremely dizzy and it took about 2 hours before I could get myself up. Back then, I still had my cell phone, but found that I had let my minutes run out and couldn’t even call for help.
6. Carry some basic first aid materials with you when you hunt. My kit isn’t large. It just consists of some bandages, some first aid cream, some gauze, and a small roll of flexible tape. Before I started carrying that with me, I once cut my finger when field dressing a deer and ended up making a quick bandage with part of a paper towel and some masking tape I had in my pack. Depending on where you hunt, a compass is also an important thing to have, and sometimes a GPS is even better. Getting lost in the woods is not fun. You often end up walking a long time until you stumble onto something familiar. If you fall or get hurt while stumbling around, it will be more difficult for someone to find you.
7. Don’t walk around with a knocked arrow. Some people do that as they walk into the woods, and don’t know how dangerous that can be. Not only to themselves if they fall, but to others they are with if they happen to stumble into them. A broadhead is, and should be, as sharp as a razor. Cutting yourself or someone else with a broadhead is not a good thing to do. If stalking, hold off on knocking an arrow until you are nearly ready to shoot. If hunting from a stand, don’t knock your arrow until you are settled into your stand and are ready to hunt .
Work Party Commitment:
We had a rather lengthy discussion about work party commitments at the September club meeting. I’m sure there will be more discussion at future club meetings, but the general consensus was that unless we have made special allowances, members that have joined as working members and don’t meet their commitment should be assessed the non-working dues before joining again.
Annual Banquet:
It may seem a little early, but here’s a note about our annual banquet. We will again be at the Upstream Brewery for our annual banquet. It will be on Saturday, January 8 this year.
For our new members, this is an event where members and their spouses attend to meet other members, enjoy an excellent buffet dinner and drinks, and receive awards and door prizes. We have a short business meeting, and also have a video running of pictures taken at club events throughout the year, and of game harvested by members.
Indoor Leagues:
We discussed indoor leagues at the September meeting. As in the past, leagues will start some time in October. We’ll set an official start date at the October meeting.
Newsletter Items
If you have a hunting picture or story, please send it to me, I’d like to put it in the newsletter. If you have an item for sale, send me the information to put in the newsletter as well.
Please email me anything you would like to add to the newsletter, or contact me for my mailing address. You can even give me your article at a club meeting.
