About Gene Winter
Gene was born on a northeast Iowa farm. On the farm, he would work, hunt, and fish. Playing with sticks and strings just came naturally to him in the country environment.
Gene joined the Navy early in '56, then shortly thereafter
he picked up a bow at Virgil Berg's Archery Lanes and started shooting
National Field Archery (recurve and instinctive). At this particular
time, Iowa legislators were being pressured to remove the bow as
a hunting weapon in the state of Iowa. Gene and several friends
started brainstorming the situation from the Waterloo Bowhunters
stance and decided to form a state-wide organization to systematize
those bowhunters in the state. It became apparent that their efforts
were rewarded at the statehouse and so a new chapter, THE
IOWA BOWHUNTERS ASSOCIATION,
took roots.
Ten or so years ago after taking a quick look around at some of the shoots, it was observed that our traditional shooters were disappearing from the competition shoots. Needing to know more about what was going on, Gene & Kiko Tovar sat on a stump talking the situation over. It was agreed to form one of those traditional organizations that was blanketing the nation. Wondering where to start, Kiko piped up and said "Gene, you were instrumental during the formation of the IBA, I don't know why you couldn't put this one together also." Gene made every shoot that he could possibly think of, and while there, made sure that everyone knew why he was there, and what he had planned to do about it. Gene also put together a coalition of a close-knit group of bowhunters to meet every Sunday evening at his home. They didn't know what was going to be brought up, but whatever it was would be pondered and not laughed about. It worked great and the State of Iowa has another group that is heard from on issues pertaining to the bowhunting of this state.
The IOWA TRADITIONAL BOWHUNTERS SOCIETY has their rendezvous on Memorial Day weekend in Ames Iowa, and it is quite a gathering!!
Gene:
What am I doing to keep myself occupied since my retirement in Dec.
2001?? The answer is simple…attending (with my friends), the
Missouri selfbow jamboree, attending one of the largest traditional
gatherings (Denton Hill, Pa), traveling to the Upper Pennisula of
Michigan to teach another to build a bow, bow classes (how to build
the self bow) at one of the local colleges, knapping arrowheads, and
I have a small drop-shipping business, Winter Bow Shoppe LLC.
I love to show others how the sport of bowhunting can be made more challenging by taking it back to it’s more basic form…TRADITIONAL bow hunting. And--------of course there are a few of us that take it all the way to PRIMITIVE.-------------Away we go again----------STICKS AND STRINGS!!!!!!!!!
