Friday, September 3, 2004

Kenosha Gander Mountain Grand Opening When I stopped at the Germantown Gander Mountain store today to thank manager Steve Welch for his help on our goose hunt today (read more about that on my Home Page), I mentioned that there were 3,000 people at the Kenosha store grand opening last Saturday. "I know," he said. "I was in the gun department. I saw you walk by, but there was too big a crowd to get your attention." That store, located just north of Highway 50 and I-94 on the east frontage road, covers 86,000 square feet, and Ron Petty, who was running the grand opening promotion, was a happy camper. I spent the afternoon there, autographing hats and quizzing kids about the goose mounts hanging over the shoe and boot department. Those who could ID a snow, blue or white-fronted goose got a hat. (Those who couldn't got one anyway, but it was fun to mmake them work for it.) I spent the afternoon there talking to customers, then chatted with Kevin Wegner and his brother, Mark, of Madison about fishing and other good stuff. Kevin reps for Eagle Claw and a number of other companies. He was giving out those gold-plated hat hooks to go with the Gander Mountain hats I was signing. I also saw Big Al Foltman, of Big Al's Pheasant Pot Pies, who filled me in on his "Pie-oneering for habitat" program. A percentage of all his sales goes to buy or maintain upland wildlife habitat. The money is managed by Pheasants Forever. I'm going to try to do a TV segment with him to let viewers know about the program. He now has some wild berry pies to go along with his pheasant and bison pies, and they will all be sold at Gander Mountain stores. I spent the afternoon at the Gander Mountain store, then high-tailed it for La Crosse and my next assignment. More on that, later... Later... 10:13:37 PM    comment [] I shot a world-record buck Well, I did it. Sorry it took most of the week to get back to the blog and report, but it's been a busy one. Sunday, I shot the Jordan buck. And the Breen buck, the Del Austin buck, the Hole-in-the-Horn buck, a grizzly and a polar bear. I passed on the moose. That was just on the "front nine," which I shot in the afternoon. I kicked off the morning on the "back nine" with an aardvark, several African antelope, a pair of Stone (or maybe Dall?) rams, assorted skunks, turkeys, flamingos, a couple cobras, a pink panther and a pair of velociraptors. Oh, did I mention the 13-foot space alien? I rescued John Rinehart from the alien and from Jaws. Of course, I was shooting John Rinehart's novel Rinehart 100 3-D archery course, set up at Decorah Scout Camp between Holmen and Galesville. The Boy Scout camp was a perfect, woodsy setting for this 100-target 3-D course that featured some of John Rinehart's zaniest targets, as well as all of his production targets. I arrived around 9:00 a.m. Since John was not there, I joined forces with Dale and David Mueller, who, it turns out, are practically my neighbors back home in Ozaukee County. They had driven across the state just to shoot the course. (I also met a man who had come from South Dakota.) These guys, who shoot in a 3-D league, were both shooting Mathews bows. Dave had just bought his the night before, yet he was right on the money with most of his shots. John Rinehart himself joined us about halfway through the traditional course and told us how he developed the targets and the Rinehart 100 concept. I don't recall having as much fun with a bow in my hand since I was a kid, shooting at targets my brothers and I made and set out in the back yard. "That's the whole idea," John told us. "I want to recreate the family-fun side of archery." Judging from the moms and kids who shot the course, I'd say he's succeeding. I overheard one young archer proudly tell his dad as they were packing up their gear, "I put a hole in the Hole-in-the-Horn." Dale, Dave and I had a blast shooting the exotic targets and ended our round with three perfect 12s on the dollar-sized center ring on a full-sized zebra at 40 yards, Target #100. Would I go back and shoot it again? You bet. Most of the kids I talked to said they liked the alien best. Several asked if the course would be back next year. John hopes that will be the case. This week, he is shipping his targets to Europe for 3-D shoots in Austria and Germany. Check his website for the clubs that hosted shoots this year. John plans to add a couple new ones, but most if not all of this year's shoots will be back next season. Coming up, the rest of a busy week. Later... 9:30:17 PM    comment []

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