An Outdoorsman’s Journal

By: Mark Walters

KAMO’s “Joe Hunt” as good as it Gets!

Hello friends, Back in December of 2006 I wrote in this very same column about my thought thats here in Wisconsin, we should have a multichapter organization that helps to get kids into the outdoors. Sixty days later the process began to create what would be called KAMO “Kids And Mentors Outdoors” www.kamokids.org. We have 6 chapters in Wisconsin and in a year’s time a lot of memories are created in many forms of outdoor activities.

Joe Stecker Kochanski was one of our earlier mentors and was a good and brilliant man. Joe managed Buckhorn and Roche a Cri state parks and was my sanity when things would get over my head for this undertaking.

Joe was also one of the early birds on starting what we call “The Joe” which is a Learn to Hunt for whitetail deer. We stay at the Mackenzie Environmental Education Center in Poynette (my hometown) and out of the 19 young hunters a half dozen hunt the property and the rest on private land. When Joe passed away it was an enormous loss for everyone that knew him.

Saturday, December 17 High 40, low 31

This year I am going to write about several of our helpers as well as some of the kid’s stories. This project starts in September with Learn to Hunt paperwork for kids and mentors as well as land acquisition for the hunt. It is a bigger job than you may think. Kevin Seymour who was a year younger than me at PHS is our Huntmaster and Kevin is basically flawless, and I am sure, very happy when The Joe is over. In short, he does lots of paperwork. As of dark today we had 10 deer on the pole and a heck of a bunch of stories. Bennett Reifsnider who is from our Dodge County Chapter of KAMO had a forkhorn smelling the ladder on his stand, but his father Chad made sure Bennett was well aware that this buck would live another day as no bucks were allowed to be taken on the property they were hunting. Bob Brodeur was also a year younger than me and a very good friend. Bob and his wife Linda, who was in the same class as me, with the help of his son Josh and grandson Jameson are our land acquisition and bull work people. Bob is also the president of the Lake Wisconsin Chapter of KAMO. Without Bob, The Joe would be in big trouble.

Another young hunter, 10-year-old Wyatt Jensen was hunting with his father Noah this afternoon. Tese 2 are part of The Lake Wisconsin Chapter of KAMO. Wyatt made an excellent shot on a mature 8-pointer and after some hard tracking, the father son team had Wyatt’s buck.

Patti and Jeff Rouse, Rick Miotke, Mike Curtis and Marie Curtis, these good people are all part of my youth in some way and they order and cook the food for this 3 day, 60 person event.

A full breakfast is served at 5:00 a.m. and their operation is flawless. Greg Wagner is the president of The Baraboo River Chapter of KAMO and runs our bingo games on Saturday night. Greg could run a casino as far as I am concerned, and the evening is topped by a young hunter winning a Remington 243 with a scope. The funds for the rifle come from the Frontier Bar and the Poynette American Legion. Young Bennett Reifsnider who passed the buck, won the rifle. The family’s luck continues as last year his sister Kenzie won the rifle that she used this year.

The following day we put four more deer on the pole. Mike Bassette is from the Dodge County Chapter which is very strong and our newest, at about 4 years old. Mike was mentoring 13-year-old Ryan Fischbach and on Sunday morning, Mike videoed Ryan harvesting his first buck and that concluded another great Joe hunt.

In closing I want to add that the Lake Wisconsin Chapter is creating some strong energy and on January 9th at 6:00 p.m., at The American Legion Hall in Poynette, they will be holding a meeting with some solid ideas and young minds as well as Bob’s. I will be there, and the plan is to make this chapter stronger with a few more events and one on ones.

Hope to see you on the 9th Sunset

Wyatt Jensen who was on KAMO’s “Joe Hunt” and hunting with his father Noah Jensen made an excellent shot on this beautiful buck.

While hunting with his father Chad Reifsnider during “The Joe,” 10-year-old Bennett had to pass this buck up that was smelling his stand because he was on a property where only a doe could be harvested.

The KAMO gang that helped, mentored and hunted for this year’s “Joe Hunt”.