MBA 2010 Convention

Speakers

Keith Beam was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois in 1965. In 1986, after graduating and playing baseball in college, Keith was drafted to the Cincinnati Reds, where he signed and played in the minors for one year. He then went to work for Grainger and ended up business partners with Brooks Johnson, starting Double Bull Archery in 1995. Keith has bowhunted non-stop since 1995 and was the first person to “Headshot” the grand slam of turkeys in one year with a bow, Osceola, Eastern, Rio and Merriams. This season found Keith with his 1st ever deer taken from a tree stand, all the others off the ground.

Keith will be telling us the Double Bull story, as well as putting on a couple seminars about ground hunting.

Mike Barrett (as described by Jeff Koelzer!) Mike lives in Dayton, Wyoming at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains. He is kind of crippled up and is fairly old but is not quite done yet. Mike is the finest spot and stalk bow hunter I know of out there. He does not call elk, he stalks them. When he is 30 yards away he closes the gap to 20 yards and then completes the job. While stalking a mulie several years ago a hawk landed on his head! Did I mention he is old and doesn’t move too fast?

Last season Mike harvested a 13” antelope buck, 155” mulie and a 340” bull in Montana as well as a 270” bull and a 150” mulie in Wyoming. Mike has the finest archery mule deer collection I know of. He has harvested over 25 pope and young deer that score as high as 221. He has also taken as many 300-360 bull elk and 70”+ antelope.

Mike has also taken two mountain lions with his bow without dogs. He has walked them down, stalked in and got them. Mike is a man that is truly “one with nature” and is the best at spot and stalk.

Joey Nelson started hunting 12 years ago with her husband Jesse. Her fondness of biking, hiking, camping, fishing, backpacking, and hunting allow her to appreciate all the aspects that Montana has to offer. Joey is the most passionate about archery hunting and looks forward to each hunting season. Once the game is collected Joey enjoys finding new and exciting ways to prepare the game and to learning the secrets of other peoples great recipes.

Marci Yamasaki is a bowhunter and has been a member of the MBA for four years. She grew up enjoying the outdoors in Utah and became a bow hunter when she met her husband Nathan Peckinpaugh 10 years ago. She harvested her first archery animal this year and is excited for the next opportunity. Marci is always looking for new and different ways to cook the game that they harvest. She is looking forward to the opportunity to get to know some other women in the MBA and sharing our wild game cooking strategies.

Josh Schaff grew up in Montana and has been hunting and shooting target archery since the age of 12. He is a two-time National champion, NFAA Mustang Shoot off Winner, and holds 2 national archery records. He is also a successful bowhunter with three P&Y elk to his credit.

Josh worked at the local archery shop for the past 7 years and is on the Pro Staff of several companies including Hoyt, Easton, Trophy Taker, and others. Josh will be giving a seminar on tuning compound bows for hunting and target archery.

Kendall Van Dyke is an MBA member, and also a member of the Montana House of Representatives and the chairman of the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee. He is the author of the most recent update to the Montana Stream Access Law, an Act of the 2009 session giving the public the right to access Montana rivers and streams from public bridges. Kendall would like to speak to the members a bit about his perspective of what threats and opportunities there are on the legislative end, as he deals with all of them as chairman of the committee. Most importantly – access.

Don Keever owns and operates Anglers and Antlers Taxidermy in Billings. Don is an award-winning taxidermist and gets plenty of practice on trophy-class big game animals as well as trophy fish.