shawnv
5 year old buck +
Heads up in case anyone wants make the drive, Steve is slated to be a speaker at this event in Jan.
http://www.ammosportsexpo.com
http://www.ammosportsexpo.com
I'm sure it will be a real local crowd so area specific topics are a great idea. Good point, deer are deer but there are area differences. The deer of Dunn, Chippewa and Eau Claire County in my experience are some of the most weary deer you'll find because it's full of small wood lots and small farms (outside of the county forest), a higher population base and the hunter density is about as high as it gets. If I'm free and not working a table I'll have to attend.
If the weather is good I’d attend. I spent about 10 years over by Eau Claire deer hunting and have found memories of those times. I also went to school with buddy from Menomonie and have spilt a few beers over that way.
I always enjoy the different vendors and like seeing what guys are making. There will probably be some good enclosed blind manufactures which I am interested in seeing.
Yes, I'll speak a couple times on Sat, none on Friday. I really don't know anything about the show, except that it's been going on for at least 5-6 yrs now (they tried to get me a couple times before, but I had conflicts. IIRC, 5-6 yrs ago was the first time). I'll also be speaking at Madison. The Madison one is unofficially my swan song. I may or may not take any more speaking gigs in future years (the promoter kicked around the idea of me continuing to do Madison every other year or so), but I'm not doing any outside of a few hrs from my house anymore. I really enjoy doing seminars/talking to hunters, but hated the 5-16 hr, one way drives and those shows eating 5 days (2 travel and 3 at the show).
The AMMO show seminar topic is still open to whatever I want to do it on. For the Madison show, they're giving me an extra 20 mins (70 mins) to tackle a pretty aggressive combo tactic. The first half will be on creating a plan of attack for hunting any property (even if it's public grounds). The second half will be on how to lay out a property for improvements. It should go in reverse order, but the thought is that this way those that don't own their own ground can leave after the first half and not have to sit through a bunch of stuff they can't do anyway.
For the AMMO show, I'm trying to think up something really cool for them. They are paying me what has to be a huge chunk of their gate. So, I want to make it so those that go walk away wanting to come back to the show in future years. I'm learning towards something catered specifically to how I hunt that area of the state, both private and public grounds. What I've found works best, what doesn't, specific to that region. I grew up about 1 hr north of there, went to college about 1 hr east and then worked and hunted around the Eau Claire area for about 10 yrs. I'm guessing they aren't going to get people from IL & MN to that show. So, I think I can get super area specific. Deer may be deer everywhere, but there are most definitely regional differences in what works best and how they react.
I was planning on going but I'm working AGAIN this weekend. This will be 19 days straight, out look is till the middle of Feb. non stop. At least the OT will get me some attachments for the tractor.