Saturday, February 10, 2024
The annual Arrows & Antlers banquet was another great success. Once again, the spread of wild game was absolutely incredible! This year’s menu featured a variety of venison, elk, bear, javelina, wild turkey, pheasant, and assorted fish! A special “Thank You” is in order for Gary Merkes, Steve Johnson, Dennis McDonald, Neil Merkes, Randy Rice, and Travis Johnson for all of their assistance in the kitchen to make sure we all enjoyed the meal!
We had another great year of generous sponsor donations and door prizes, along with our specialty raffles. The Mathews V3 31 bow was won by Mark Wolfgram, the Mission Crossbow set was won by Brian Safford, and our annual beer/booze/cooler raffle was won by Ron Jacobson Sr.
We also raffled off $7,500 in cash prizes, given away as 15-$500 prizes – those winners were: Codey Patterson, Joe Steinhofer (2), John Gross (2), Andrew Clark, Gary Merkes, Chris Schoenberger, Skyler Steiner, David Liebenthal, Adam Stark, Orion Barbic, David Finco, Zach Hampton, and Kevin Moreland!
We had a great year of buck entries, with 16 officially entered into the contest. The results were: 1st place – Aaron Gross (155 1/8), 2nd place – David Benrud (153 2/8), 3rd place – Mark Wolfgram (146 6/8), 4th place – Travis Johnson (146 1/8), 5th place – Adam Gross (142 7/8), 6th place – Joe Steinhofer (139 5/8), 7th place – Mike Stader (136 7/8), 8th place – Dan Hellenbrand (134 1/8), 9th place – Randy Messer (128 3/8), 10th place – Clif Otis (127 7/8), 11th place – Ron Jacobson Jr (116 3/8), 12th place – Justin Harbort (114 3/8), 13th place – Raul Gomez (113 6/8), 14th place – Matt Fink (113 3/8), 15th place – Gary Merkes (108 2/8), and 16th place – Jim Schoenberger (71 5/8)
*A special “Thank You” is in order to Kevin Moreland and Nick Schroedl for scoring each buck entry every year!
Pictured above (from left to right) are the buck entries from the 2022 season. Front row: Mike Stader (7th), Clif Otis (10th), Mark Wolfgram (3rd). Second row: David Benrud (2nd), Adam Gross (5th), Joe Steinhofer (6th), Jim Schoenberger (16th). Back row: Aaron Gross (1st), Randy Messer (9th), Justin Harbort (12th), Ron Jacobson Jr (11th), Raul Gomez (13th), Dan Hellenbrand (8th), Matt Fink (14th). Not pictured: Travis Johnson (4th), Gary Merkes (15th).
The membership fee for the upcoming season is $40, and the majority of our members paid their dues for the 2024 season – for those who didn’t, your $40 is due by August 1st, otherwise, your membership is forfeited to a new member. The waiting list is ever-growing, so please get your dues paid as soon as possible. Remember that guest spots for the 2025 banquet are reserved on a first-come, first-served basis, for $40 each, paid at the door. If you are interested in reserving a guest spot, please send an email to tommy@arrowsandantlers.com.
Thank you very much to all the members and sponsors who help make our annual banquet as anticipated and exciting as it is each year. We look forward to another great year of hunting and fellowship!
Click HERE for Past Banquets