Jamesh76 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 01, 2019 5:29 pm
Darren tell me more about your club. Location, shoots, charity benefit shoots etc.
James, the United Bowhunters of Missouri is a statewide organization founded in 1987. While we are not a "traditional only" organization, I would say 95% of us shoot traditional bows exclusively. Our primary mission is to promote archery and bowhunting through family participation and to focus hunting on the skills of the hunter rather than the technology he uses. To that end we are adamantly against the inclusion of crossbows into any archery season unless you are handicapped.
We have two main events each year; the Rendezvous in late June and the Festival in early February. The Rendezvous is basically a weekend of visiting, shooting bows until your fingers hurt, and trying to eat yourself into a coma. It is held at the Panther Creek Traditional Bow Range near Fordland, MO. The Festival is a more structured affair very similar to a PBS Gathering. We have vendors, speakers, auctions, and a big banquet. The 2020 Festival will be at the Oasis Hotel in Springfield, MO and our keynote speaker at the banquet is Clay Newcomb, owner of "Bear Hunter" magazine.
Besides working at Deaf Camp, we also volunteer at the Shriner's Hand Camp in Potosi, MO. That is truly a humbling experience when you see these folks shoot bows using a mouth tab to draw the string. We will also set up a booth at just about any fair or gathering that someone wants us to come to just to get the word out to folks that people do still successfully hunt animals with just a stick and a string.
We have some club hunts too but those are usually impromptu affairs. Ten of us went to Ontario a few years ago to bear hunt (9 came home with bears). There are several folks that get together annually to hunt javelinas as well.
If you want to read more about the club and/or join up, please go to
http://unitedbowhunters.com/
Darren
