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Jim Willems President of Pope and Young Club

Jim Willems President of Pope and Young … “We want to encourage the original spirit of bowhunting, that by limiting yourself to a bow and arrow you have to get close to the animal, make better, more effective shots, and grow as a hunter,” Jim concluded.

I’ve been bowhunting since age 17 and have taken at least one big game animal every years for 36 years. I never buy meat, with the exception of bacon now and then. My family only cooks what I can kill or catch. I’m proud to serve as the President of the Pope and Young Club but even more proud to serve the hunting community in a way that might improve the future of all hunting and bowhunting in particular.

even more proud to serve the hunting community in a way that might improve the future of all hunting and bowhunting in particular.

I spend a lot of time on habitat improvement and encouraging all Bowhunters to get involved in some positive way that will ensure our future. My biggest goal aside from my next hunt is to get as many Bowhunters as I can to get off their duff’s and do something, no matter how small to ensure our future.

I’m going to talk more about just the average hunter.

: Yeah. I’m going to talk more about just the average hunter. Because a good percentage of the serious Pope and Young Club members, they belong because they want to help the sport. And they’re already active in their state organizations, and they do a lot of work service-wise.

But what we really need to get across to people, bow hunters especially because we’re such a solitary sort; if we don’t get off of our butts and get active, and do something to help the sport, to help the wildlife, to help habitat. To help the impression that other people see, eventually, we’re going to be outnumbered and we’re going to lose what we’ve worked so hard to get.

And it doesn’t take a lot of work. It could be just as small as writing a letter to your congressman. That has to be bare minimum that people are willing to do. So beyond that, there are so many things you can do to ensure the future of your sport. Whether it’s going to game department meetings and speaking out for or against things, going to legislature speaking out for and against things. And I understand not everybody’s cut out for that.

And I think we all owe it to our sport, for the future of our sport, to get up and do something

But if you were to get more active in, say, the state organizations and help out on some of the smaller ways, that frees up time for some of the hardcore workers to go do some of the harder things.

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