Greetings fellow archers. The 2001 NETAA Tournament Tour is in full swing as this column goes to press, and overall things are looking good for the best Championship ever this August. We are meeting new archers, qualifying more competitors, and signing up new members at each tournament in the tour. The prize fund is growing and looks to be the largest ever for this year’s Championship. The following are some highlights of recent happenings.
DOOR PRIZE PROGRAM- Recently introduced, this program is expanding rapidly. We are receiving additional product donations almost weekly, allowing us to increase the number of prizes we can hand out at every event. There will also be a good number of items left for the Championship, where the program will continue. This program was a new idea this season that was implemented well after the tour began. We will push/promote the program much earlier next season, which I believe will help us expand it tremendously. There are many fine manufacturers out there that are willing to donate merchandize to get the product exposure; it just takes many man-hours to make all the contacts.
NEW ENGLAND TRIPLE CROWN - The second leg went off without a hitch, and for the first time in a few years, it did not rain at Monadnock for our shoot! The club did their usual great job hosting us, and has committed to work with us again next season. There has been a lot of requests that we consider moving the third leg further North for next season to close the distance between the three legs, and cut down the travel distance for all our supporters from the northern states. We are talking to a club in Putnam Conn. and hope to have something positive to announce either in the next newsletter or at the Championship. We will keep the third leg in Connecticut, but moving it to the northern portion of the State is a reasonable request that we will make every effort to accommodate.
SOUTHERN TRIPLE CROWN- The second leg, held at Limerick Bowmen, was very well set up, and proved to be in a great location. We have agreed to return next season, and these fine folks have agreed to have us. The date will be announced soon, but will be one of the first two weekends in June. We met many fine archers from PA and have every reason to believe that the tour has the potential for a lot of expansion in this State now that we have moved the tour in that direction. We had a couple of other clubs approach us about hosting qualifiers for next season during the shoot, and will be continuing these discussions. We’ve also had a lot of requests to consider moving the first leg a bit further North for next season as there is a lot of mileage between the first and third legs. The archers from South Jersey seem unwilling to travel, so we are seriously considering a host site in southeastern PA for the first leg next season. That would give us two shoots in PA, close the distance between the three events, and hopefully expose us to more archers interested in traveling to major shoots. The proposed location would still be close for the South Jersey and Delaware archers to come and qualify. We are also looking for good clubs in Maryland and Central PA that would be willing to hold State level qualifiers for next season to open the area up to more serious archers that will want to qualify.
NEW YORK TRIPLE CROWN- We just finished the second leg at Gilbertsville. As expected, based on last year’s experience, the people at Gilbertsville did an outstanding job! The courses are the best we experience during the tour, and the food is worth the trip all on its own. Bruce Miller (Archery Connection, Middleburg) has indicated that he does not want to host either the Triple Crown or Outdoor World Championship next season. This leaves us looking for good host sites for these two events. With the increased participation and interest from potential exhibitors of late, we will be looking for sites that can accommodate more contestants as well as having room for an exhibitor area. We have asked the people at Gilbertsville to consider hosting the third leg and championship next season. We got a positive reaction during the shoot, but have to await the next board meeting for final confirmation. We will know for sure by the next newsletter and will fill you in on all the exciting plans for next year’s championship at that time.
INDOOR WINTER QUALIFIER- I know this tour season is not even over yet, but there are so many exciting things coming together for next year already I had to let you know about some of them. We are finalizing the arrangements for an Indoor 3D Winter Qualifier for this coming February. The plan is to have it two weeks before the Indoor 3D shoot at Springfield. This will give all our members (non members will also be welcome) a chance to compete at a known distance indoor 3D tournament just before Springfield. For an additional “edge” the host site will run a special indoor warm up 3D two weeks before our Winter Qualifier. This will provide a “jump start” to the 3D season for 2002!
HUNT REPORT- Last Fall two of our members hunted antelope in Montana at Fort Musselshell Outfitters as a result of being drawn for free hunts at the 1999 NETAA Outdoor World Championship. Bill Harris, of Fort Musselshell, donated the two antelope hunts to us. One was to be used as our annual membership-drawing prize, and the other was to be used as a raffle prize to raise money for the Aim For College Program. Matt Setzer won the AFCF raffle hunt and Jordan Valentine was chosen as the lucky member who won the membership drive raffle. Jordan was joined by his dad, and his grandfather (NETAA member Larry Remsen). While everyone saw trophy bucks from their blinds, only Larry and Matt brought come the “bacon”. Both members shot outstanding trophies, and all four bowhunters had a great hunt and give the operation high marks. They are all planning on a return trip!
Bill Harris also offers some of the best archery elk hunts in North America, and some outstanding deer hunts. I am checking the elk hunt out this September and will give you all a full report. In the meantime, Bill has agreed to set aside a week at the antelope camp for our bowhunters next season (2002). He is giving us a special rate and letting us have the first week of the season. The tags are not guaranteed, but the odds of drawing in this unit for archery tags are near 100%. For more information on these hunts, e-mail me at NRoyGoodwin@netscape.net.
CARIBOU HUNT UPDATE- After my very successful woodland caribou hunt last fall I mailed all our members a note telling them about the unusual opportunity afforded by this “bowhunting only” operation at a camp that had not been hunted for 8-10 years. I predicted that the camp would book full for the next three seasons by the end of January. I was wrong! There are still two openings for caribou this season (all moose hunts for the next two seasons were gone by mid January), and one for 2002. About half the tags are gone for 2003, but it is still possible to get either caribou or caribou/moose tags for those that are willing to plan ahead. Personally, I am surprised that more people have not placed a small deposit to hold one of these 2003 hunts at this year’s prices. These hunts will not last much longer, and the prices will certainly increase “substantially” after this season.
In any case, the reason these three caribou tags are still left is because I reserved them. I am going to be in camp during the time slots available both seasons. The important thing to consider is not if you want to share a campfire with me, but why am I going there at those times? The answer is simple, those are the best times to be there hunting caribou! It would be great if some of our NETAA members joined us on these hunts, because its always more fun to share a camp with people you know. It would also be a “rush” to be there when some of our members took there record book stags. There is no question in my mind but that each hunter in camp (max four per week!) will have stalks on record book stags every day of the hunt. There are a number of factors involved that lead me to believe that the new Pope & Young world record will come out of this camp in the next two seasons. Yes, the hunting here is that good! For more information on the hunts, e-mail me.
Good shooting,
Roy