Friday, August 27, 2004

Shoot a world-record buck this weekend That's what I'm gonna do. How do I know? I'll be shooting in the Rinehart 100 3-D tournament at Holmen near La Crosse on Sunday. A two-day event, this is the last in the R-100 series of shoots held all across the country this summer. John Rinehart, the genius behind the Rinehart 100 tournament series, has put together 100 unique 3-D targets, including hand-carved replicas of the Jordan, Breen, Johnson, Austin and Hole-in-the Horn bucks. Feel what it's like to shoot (or maybe miss!) a world record! The shoot also features full-size, furred polar and grizzly bears and a 13-foot space alien. I don't know where John got the model for the space alien, but I also don't know who will argue that it is not an accurate portrayal. Anyway, drive on over to Holmen this Saturday or Sunday, bring your bow and a few field points and have at 'em. Some guys shoot 50 targets one day, 50 the next. Since I have only one day, I'll probably go as far as I can before my arms give out. I'll also be writing a story on the tournament series for the Rinehart website, so stay tuned for that. BTW, this is a non-competetive, just-for-fun shoot. There will be plenty of door prizes, however, so you might take home something nice, like maybe a Mathews bow. (Mathews is sponsoring this event.) Hope the guys at Mathews don't mind I'll be shooting my Forge Prairie Fire! Saturday, I'll be at the grand opening of the new Gander Mountain store in Kenosha. Stop by between 1 and 4 p.m. and we'll swap a few stories. I couldn't make it to the ribbon-cutting this morning because I had a date with a muskie. I spent a couple hours on a local lake and raised one good fish, a 40+ incher that made one pass at my Mepps Musky Marabou at boatside and disappeared. I don't think she wanted to eat because a fish that big is all over a bucktail when it's hungry. Sure woke me up, tho! That fish was a good warm-up for my Monday date with Lee Kernen on Lake Wingra. We'll fish muskies for a segment for Outdoor Wisconsin. Lee is the retired DNR fisheries chief. He spends most of his time fishing now, which shouldn't surpise anyone. I've been looking forward to this outing for some time. The rest of the week will be just as busy: Tuesday, TV again. A charter trip with Jack's Charter Service out of Milwaukee. Wednesday, TV again. Opening-day dove hunt with Charlie and Gail Thon and Debby Wolniak. Deb's first dove hunt, so it should be fun. Friday, TV again. Early-season goose hunt with Jerry Solsrud, founder of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association and Debby again, her first goose hunt. Gonna be a busy few days, as you can see. If you call or e-mail and I don't get back to you right away, now you know why. We've got a lot of segments to tape for the upcoming season, our 21st on the air. Later... 5:29:08 PM    comment []