By Rich Miller
Last week I was in Indianapolis at the ATA Show, checking out all of the new products for the year. I was there all week and luckily I flew back on Saturday in time to beat the big blizzard we got here in the Southeast. If you were a bow-hunting junkie like myself, you would have been in hog heaven just like I was at the show. There was everything a bow hunter has ever dreamed of there – whether you have seen it or thought about it. It amazes me at how much money some of the companies spend to market some of the new products that were there. I guess that has to be done, but some of the productions were impressive!
While I was in the middle of the big city of Indy, I got a call from my buddy, Mick, in Kansas. He and another buddy got involved in a predator/deer hunt tournament to benefit hunters feeding the hungry. After getting the details, I had to brag about my fellow Knight and Hale guys. I am not sure of all of the rules they had, but I know they could kill two does, five coyotes, ten raccoons and three bobcats. They could also take waterfowl, but since the weather had pushed a lot of them out, they focused on the big game and predators. They started on Friday and checked everything they killed in on Sunday at noon. They got so many points for every animal that they checked in, with some being worth more points than others.
When they went to sign up there were some of the other Pro-staff guys there from Primos and Hunter’s Specialties and there was a little friendly trash-talking going on about who was going to win. After the hunt started, Mick called me every few hours to keep me posted on how they were doing. Friday and Saturday they had a lot of luck, but Mick was really upset because they had several coyotes that got away that they should have killed. By Saturday night they had two coyotes down, two bobcats and two does with a couple of hours to hunt on Sunday morning. On their first setup on Sunday morning, they called in a coyote but they missed him. On the second setup, they called in three coyotes and smoked all three. That gave them a full limit of everything except one bobcat and they had one close in several different times but just couldn’t capitalize on it.
When they showed up to the check-in, they were worried and thought they might be in trouble. After it was all tallied up and everyone was checked in, there wasn’t another team close. They had blown everyone else away – including the Primos and Hunter’s Specialties teams. It was all in good fun and friendly competition for a good cause, but I was really proud of my boys representing Knight and Hale and all of us well.
