Saturday, February 4, 2012 Banquet

The annual Arrows & Antlers banquet was another great success.  The banquet was once again held on the Saturday of super bowl weekend.  All of the members and guests that were present enjoyed the hunting stories and hanging out with fellow hunters.

As usual, the food was fantastic, thanks to Gary Merkes and chef Steve Johnson. This year’s menu featured a variety of venison, elk, moose, bear, wild boar, turkey, pheasant, antelope, alligator, shrimp, and walleye.  And we washed it all down with 4 – ½ barrels of beer.

Despite the economy, we had another great year of generous sponsor donations and door prizes.  The Mathews Drenalin bow was won by Chase Peterson, and the beer/booze/cooler raffle was won by Jeff Mueller.  Rob Hill of Nature’s Image Taxidermy donated another free head mount this year, and Todd Brumm was the lucky winner of that raffle for a second consecutive year!

We also raffled off $3,000 in cash prizes – with 6 winners each winning $500.  Those winners were: Jeff Hemp, Ron Jacobson (guest), Scott Bailey, Ron Schimmel, Clif Otis, and Derek Schulz (guest).

The winning buck entries were: 1^st place – Shane Marquardt (144 3/8), 2^nd place – Gary Merkes (142 2/8), 3^rd place – Jeff Mueller (140), 4th place – Mike Wolfgram (135 7/8), 5th place – Gib Fagen (131), 6th place – Aaron Gross (129 6/8), and 7th place – Leonard Hein (123 1/8).  Bucks were also entered by: Chase Peterson (119 6/8), Todd Matson (113 1/8), and Kevin Reis (105 6/8).

The majority of our members paid their dues for the 2012 season – for those who didn’t, your $30 is due by August 1^st, 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.  Thank you to all of those members that paid for next year at the banquet.  Also remember that guest spots for the 2012 banquet are reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis, for $25 each, paid at the door.  If you are interested in reserving a guest spot, please contact Gary Merkes at (608) 837-7813 or gary@arrowsandantlers.com, or contact Tommy Kempfer at (920) 723-2140 or tom@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!

The 2011 Season Buck Entries

Front row fom left to right: Jeff Mueller (3rd), Shane Marquardt (1st), Gary Merkes (2nd).  Back Row from left to right: Mike Wolfgram (4th), Gib Fagen (5th), Aaron Gross (6th), Leonard Hein (7th), Chase Peterson (8th), Todd Matson (9th).  Not pictured above: Kevin Reis (10th).