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Barry Wensel Bootcamp

Just got back to Arizona from Barry,s bootcamp late last night.I had a great time,very informative,you are missing the boat if you don,t take advantage of this.

You have that 100% correct Cliff. The whole 11 hour drive home flew by because all I could think about is what I've been doing wrong over the years, and how to improve my setups.

It was a pleasure spending time in "Camp" with all you guys.

Here is a picture of the "Godfather" with just a small fraction of the beautiful Bucks he has taken.

Sorry, double post.

Mike,it was a pleasure meeting you also.We had a great group of guys there.Jim,and I are on a self imposed diet after eating all of Susan's great food.Ha Ha!!!!Also,keep Gene in your prayers, as today he has his triple bypass.Cliff

Did you do a lot of running at camp?

No Dan,just a lot of eating,walking,learning,and laughing.

Looks like you wore him out! He can barely keep his eyes open.

They DID wear me out. In fact, I was in the ER last Sunday with a bronchial problem. I had a severe cough all week and wasn't able to get enough air into my lungs. Meds got me thru the weekend but I ended up back in the clinic again this morning. They re-adjusted my prescriptions and I'm feeling somewhat better already. So hopefully no problems for later this week. Thank you again for all involved. It was an outstanding group of hardcore whitetail fanatics all wanting to share our opinions and love of whitetail hunting, techniques and knowledge. It was my pleasure. BW

I would LOVE to go on one of these bootcamps.

For us less informed what are you guys talking about?

Dakota,it's a 3 day,3 night seminar that Barry Wensel puts on teaching you everything he knows about hunting monster whitetail deer.I don't know if you are familiar with Barry,but he is 70 years old,has hunted whitetails all his life,and his brother Gene,and him has killed numerous Boone & Crockett deer.

Gotcha

Barry,

Sorry to hear about you unplanned visit to the local ER. Glad to know you're feeling better.

Hope there's many more years of good health.

Best wishes, Russell

You can find out more about G & B on the their website www.brothersofthebow.com. Including, free reading, tribute articles, and bios of the brothers. Mike

I also attended the boot camp and it was a weekend I will never forget. The food was great (thanks Susan!) and what a great group of guys that shared the same passion. Learned a lot from uncle Barry and opened my eyes up to some new tricks and how to see the big picture of the deer woods. Highly recommend it to anyone and also be ready to laugh a lot!!!

Unsure of the above medical emergency with Barry. Hope he is fine, but is the Boot Camp still on and is he still teaching it?

He is giving one this weekend and I beleive one more in April. Contact Barry to see if he has any opening. I beleive his medical condition has stabilized. I am not sure if this is his last season for doing this. But you may want to ask him directly. Mike

Sorry I just got to this. The last two bootcamp sessions I was dealing with a bronchial condition. It's not contagious but bothers me periodically. It's from some scar tissue I developed in 1966 from a head-on collision. I get a non-productive cough that makes the lumen of my bronchials close and I can't get enough air. This is three years in a row I've dealt with this and one of the reasons I'll likely discontinue the whitetail bootcamps. Doing these myself creates a real potential problem if I should have to cancel for health reasons. Having fifteen attendees per session who have bought airline tickets; driven cross country and/or scheduled valuable vacation times is a lot of responsibility on one guys shoulders. I was really blessed these last two weeks with perfect weather. No rain, mud, ice, snow, high winds, etc. 50 degree days and sunny. On top of that I thankfully had two groups of excellent whitetail fanatics with great attitudes and questions. It's a pleasure to offer suggestions and opinions to people who are willing to share woodsmanship skills for our future generations. I really do enjoy doing these "bootcamps". In fact, as far as I know I started the first "bootcamp". Now they have marriage bootcamps; bootcamps for fat guys and several others. I actually started the "whitetail bootcamps" eleven years ago and did up to six sessions per year. Looking back on that, I find it hard to believe now two weeks in a row runs me into the ground. At any rate, thank you to all who have been involved. I know some previous attendees have given me some credit for their successes. That may or may not be true, but the fact is if I made a suggestion on a hunting technique it was them who followed through and were able to hold it all together when the biggest buck of their life offered them that opportunity. I'm proud of you gays and gals. Oh, and one more thing, I do have one session left for April 9-10-11th but it's already sold out. My apologies. Thank you all. BW

How is Gene doing after his hospital visit ?

"I'm proud of you gays and gals."

Glad to see how one can become so open minded even at Barry's age.

Ha.. Sorry. "Guys and gals". Who put the "u" in guys?

Barry, hire a videographer to tape you April session. I know I'd buy the DVD and probably MANY others would, too. Just a suggestion...

I sure hope you feel better soon and please tell us how Gene is doing...

Hey David: Gene is getting stronger every day. He sent out a generic email today because on top of everything else his computer was down. His email is [email protected] if you want to contact him. I've thought long and hard about doing a DVD of a bootcamp. My only fear is folks wouldn't be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together without actually being there. Or at least it would be considerably harder. When present, an attendee can adjust his bearings and line everything up with findings presented five or ten minutes previous. The practical application of the set-up is what really jumps out. Like I said, it's hard to explain. It's like watching a hunting DVD versus actually going on a hunt. Or watching a war movie versus actually being there in a war. Or like trying to describe a vivid color to a person who was born blind. I think most attendees "get it", whereas some only watching a DVD might get it and some might not. Thanks. bw

Great stuff guys! I would love o attend one of these years!!!

Mark

In the past we have had Gene and Barry both at our West Virginia Bowhunters annual banquet. They and Roger Rotthar from Ohio were the pioneers for a lot of us. If I remember correctly they lived in Montana at the time, before moving to Iowa. They lit a flame and a passion in me for whitetail hunting. I thank them for that and wish the best of health to the both of them.

Hi Barry, Thx. will send Gene an email.

About the DVD, I accept your point. However, the question is can you convey enough information to make the DVD a good value. Probably most certainly keeping in mind the comparative price difference between a DVD and the seminar.

If you expect to end the seminars next year or even this year, it would be a shame not to have recorded what you can now.

Might not be a bad idea to even expand that concept into an overall instructional DVD series about many other elements of the whitetail hunt. It would be great if Gene could contribute later on as well.

Could be a nice source of income when it gets harder to do these and other seminars you and Gene do. I'm working on my own instructional shooting method series and I know there's more work to filming and getting a finished product than most think. You're lucky you have friends who can help a lot with editing and so forth.

All the best. D. Alford

Ditto to David A. above. I would sure buy one.

Me too. With you and Mitten's video production abilities and health issues being of future concerns...it might be a great way to get the information out. Best of health to you and your brother.

We have talked to Barry a few times about filming his BootCamp, but it boiled down to Barry being professional and not wanting the distraction of the filming, sound and lighting to interfere or take away anything from the attendees. We may still do this for Barry in the future, only with invitees. There would be much more planning and preparation to get it right. Weather, wind, time of year would also need to be considered for filming the experience. Thanks, Mike

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