PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

PRESIDENT - KEN SCHULTZ 1ST VICE PRESIDENT - BRIAN KOELZER 2ND VICE PRESIDENT - STEPHEN LEPAGE SECRETARY - JERRY DAVIS TREASURER - MANDY GARNESS

Ken Schultz

Greetings All,

Early tag drawings came out today for the 2022 season. I hope everyone received the tags that they were shooting for! This is always an interesting and nervous time of year waiting to see where you’ll be hiking with your trusty bow in hand. I know everyone is a little concerned about how things are going to go with all the new regulations. I do know that bow hunters are warriors and have always adjusted and made the best of what we have. As leadership, we will always be out there fighting for the Montana Bowhunters. I hope everything works out so you can still have a fun and fulfilling hunt in 2022.

We attended the 2022 MBA Convention in Fairmont Hot Springs. What a great time!! Brian Koelzer, Liberty Brown and their Team did an amazing job leading the way. We had a sold-out arena and dinner with amazing prizes and auction items. Fairmont is a tremendous host and I want to personally thank everyone for doing such an Awesome job! “Great Food, Great Times, Great Friends, Great Memories”!! It’s what we live for in Montana.

As we roll into spring, the Monster is already beginning to raise its head. We received word that the “Crossbow Bill” is being discussed again! As you all know, we battled with the powers to be to keep this change out of archery season. Crossbows can be used during rifle season and do not need to be in early archery season. We will be attending the April 19th commission meeting to see their approach and begin to prepare for another WAR. Please do your part and contact your Regional Commissioners and let them know your concerns. There was a member alert sent out on April 13th with a list of names from each region and their contact information. Let’s keep fighting to keep our archery season safe. “United We Stand”!

Be extremely careful this spring as Turkey and Bear season rolls. We are blessed to have the opportunity to hunt in Montana, so enjoy every moment of that with Family and Friends. I’ll leave you with that and remember “Shoot Straight and Always be a Straight Shooter”!

Ken Schultz

First Vice President’sReport

Hey everyone, I can’t tell you in words how good it was to have our 44th Annual Convention and be able to see everybody in person after a two-year hiatus!! For all of you that missed it, dang you missed a good one, and for all of you that attended thank you and I hope you had a great time! Thank you, Mike and Susan Barrett, Art Hayes, Kevin Robinson, and Jay Kolbe for the fantastic seminars. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback for each of your talks. Thank you to the vendors and donors that gave generously to our group and helped keep this ship sailing with flags flying high. Thank you Jason Matzinger for presenting your film “Project Land Locked” during supper and giving us all something to think about each time we all set foot on public land. Thank you to everyone who showed up Thursday night or early Friday morning and gave freely of their time to help set up. Putting a convention on is a lot of work and stress but every year it amazes me how it comes together so well in the end. Special thanks to Claudia Davis and Liberty Brown for all your hard work organizing, promoting, and keeping things in line months in advance and through the days after.

The MBA is not a large organization compared to other outdoor sporting groups out there but I can’t find a better example of the cream rising to the top. Our membership is the epitome of the ethics and standards that have given Montana some of the finest, if not the finest, bowhunting opportunities in North America. Every bowhunting opportunity that we have in this state is because of the MBA, period.

I recently attended the Professional Bowhunters Society biannual gathering in Reno and had a great time catching up with old friends from all around the country as well as meeting many new and interesting people. Three days went by in the blink of an eye, but I was amazed at the number of people i talked to who knew about the MBA for a multitude of reasons. Our unwavering fight to keep crossbows out of archery season, the ever-evolving elk hunting regulations, and liberal season/species opportunity were some of the things discussed. The MBA got a lot of “atta boys” from around the country and I also heard plenty of lamenting that others wished they had a state organization like ours!

We didn›t get what we have now without a hell of a fight from the guys who started this back in the day. It’s great to see that fire still burning in the ladies and gentlemen at the helm now. Their passion for bowhunting, respect and regard for wildlife, and desire to “promote and preserve” opportunity has never been stronger. I want to congratulate Ken Schultz on his recent election to President and also thank Steve Lepage for his excellent job as our leader for the last two years. I’m looking forward to working with you both in the future.

With the greening of the grass and budding of the trees my thoughts are starting to wander to bruins and some warm evenings peeking through a spotting scope. My three-year-old son, Bo, told me he wants to go bear hunting with me but big bears are “scawry” and he only wants to find a “wittle one”....I hope you all have a great spring and I look forward to seeing many of you at the Carp Safari!

Keep em sharp and pick a spot, Brian >>>-------------> Brian Koelzer