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Michigan 2026 Meet up.*** May 16th. ***

What day works Best?

  • Total voters
    8
MattMan81 said:
You are more than welcome to come. Everyone is welcome. Nothing like the Florida event. 10 guys +/-.
Click to expand...
I don’t know man, at this point (6 days into official launch) we only have about 10+- bookings so far. You guys might catch us

I am gonna try my best to get up there when you guys set a date. There are quite a few of you guys I’d love to meet in person
 
 
Fl Canopy Stalker said:
I don’t know man, at this point (6 days into official launch) we only have about 10+- bookings so far. You guys might catch us

I am gonna try my best to get up there when you guys set a date. There are quite a few of you guys I’d love to meet in person
Click to expand...
We need to get some of the Michigan guys down to Florida. I am sure they would like to unthaw a little.
If you guys are concerned about the local wild life, I will buy each of you a can of,
Screenshot_20230706_153554_DuckDuckGo.jpg
Who doesn't like a little gator wrestling.
Screenshot_20260111_175854_DuckDuckGo.jpg
 
GeoFish said:
We need to get some of the Michigan guys down to Florida. I am sure they would like to unthaw a little.
If you guys are concerned about the local wild life, I will buy each of you a can of,
View attachment 124802
Who doesn't like a little gator wrestling.
View attachment 124803
Click to expand...
Hunter is coming down from EWO. Two years ago we had another member join us but we messed up on the hog hunt and had him with Hunter and Scott L went with me. I think being stuck in the thick Florida woods after dark might have made him reconsider his choices
If memory serves me it was @TreeMunkie who also came all the way down from Michigan one year.
 
Fl Canopy Stalker said:
Hunter is coming down from EWO. Two years ago we had another member join us but we messed up on the hog hunt and had him with Hunter and Scott L went with me. I think being stuck in the thick Florida woods after dark might have made him reconsider his choices
If memory serves me it was @TreeMunkie who also came all the way down from Michigan one year.
Click to expand...
IF I had the Vacation days I would try to make it. Drop the wife and kids at her sister's house and head over. I hope to make it one of these years. Hope you can keep that thing going.
 
I just briefly did a search. The only state meet-ups with much activity are Michigan and Florida. From what I can tell from here, the Florida meet-up is by far the larger. I'm trying to get a handle on why this is so.

I'm going to concede right up front that the Florida guys have better tans and probably more of them are blonds. That doesn't seem to have a lot to do with hanging in a tree. And I'll admit I've yet to go to a Michigan meet-up where the weather was comfortably warm.

The reason is certainly not the states deer population. And it's definitely not the size of the deer we are hunting. Some of our spotted ones are bigger than some of their mature bucks! and I really don't think their fancy namepallooza has anything to do with it.

I'm convinced the reason is that the Florida meet-up has a bunch of scheduled sponsors each year. They also have prizes. And T-shirts.
We in Michigan don't have a bunch of sponsors, although we have had Dan from Eastern Woods Outdoors there ( thanks for the hat).
As far as T-shirts go, you can't see a T-shirt at our meet-ups anyway, it's always too cold.

I've decided I can do something about our lack of prizes. As a hobby, I build longbows. I brought one to a meet a couple of years ago. I've built enough that they are starting to look pretty decent as well as being good shooters.

This year only, I am donating a longbow. It is a mild R/D 66" nock to knock ( think stretched Northern Mist Baraga). I'll twist up a new D97 flemish string to go with. Bow is 41 lbs. at 28 inches, brown glass, riser is Bolivian Rosewood. We'll have a drawing at the meet-up.

Oh yeah, for the record, no one has ever acquired chiggers at any of the Michigan meet-ups. Can you guys in Florida say that?
`
 
Last edited:
movehuntir said:
I just briefly did a search. The only state meet-ups with much activity are Michigan and Florida. From what I can tell from here, the Florida meet-up is by far the larger. I'm trying to get a handle on why this is so.

I'm going to concede right up front that the Florida guys have better tans and probably more of them are blonds. That doesn't seem to have a lot to do with hanging in a tree. And I'll admit I've yet to go to a Michigan meet-up where the weather was comfortably warm.

The reason is certainly not the states deer population. And it's definitely not the size of the deer we are hunting. Some of our spotted ones are bigger than some of their mature bucks! and I really don't think their fancy namepallooza has anything to do with it.

I'm convinced the reason is that the Florida meet-up has a bunch of scheduled sponsors each year. They also have prizes. And T-shirts.
We in Michigan don't have a bunch of sponsors, although we have had Dan from Eastern Woods Outdoors there ( thanks for the hat).
As far as T-shirts go, you can't see a T-shirt at our meet-ups anyway, it's always too cold.

I've decided I can do something about our lack of prizes. As a hobby, I build longbows. I brought one to a meet a couple of years ago. I've built enough that they are starting to look pretty decent as well as being good shooters.

This year only, I am donating a longbow. It is a mild R/D 66" nock to knock ( think stretched Northern Mist Baraga). I'll twist up a new D97 flemish string to go with. Bow is 41 lbs. at 28 inches, brown glass, riser is Bolivian Rosewood. We'll have a drawing at the meet-up.

Oh yeah, for the record, no one has ever acquired chiggers at any of the Michigan meet-ups. Can you guys in Florida say that?
`
Click to expand...

That's awesome of you!!

I Known @Horn has briefly mentioned trying to make this thing a little bigger and I have tried in the past to ask some other manufacturers to come or donate something with no response. If we can sweeten the deal and move it a little later have some warmer weather would that get more people excited? Or would the threat of Mosquitoes turn guys off?
Would being able to shoot your bow in a competition get anyone there?

Being able to camp for the weekend?
Kids activities?
More give aways?
 
movehuntir said:
I just briefly did a search. The only state meet-ups with much activity are Michigan and Florida. From what I can tell from here, the Florida meet-up is by far the larger. I'm trying to get a handle on why this is so.

I'm going to concede right up front that the Florida guys have better tans and probably more of them are blonds. That doesn't seem to have a lot to do with hanging in a tree. And I'll admit I've yet to go to a Michigan meet-up where the weather was comfortably warm.

The reason is certainly not the states deer population. And it's definitely not the size of the deer we are hunting. Some of our spotted ones are bigger than some of their mature bucks! and I really don't think their fancy namepallooza has anything to do with it.

I'm convinced the reason is that the Florida meet-up has a bunch of scheduled sponsors each year. They also have prizes. And T-shirts.
We in Michigan don't have a bunch of sponsors, although we have had Dan from Eastern Woods Outdoors there ( thanks for the hat).
As far as T-shirts go, you can't see a T-shirt at our meet-ups anyway, it's always too cold.

I've decided I can do something about our lack of prizes. As a hobby, I build longbows. I brought one to a meet a couple of years ago. I've built enough that they are starting to look pretty decent as well as being good shooters.

This year only, I am donating a longbow. It is a mild R/D 66" nock to knock ( think stretched Northern Mist Baraga). I'll twist up a new D97 flemish string to go with. Bow is 41 lbs. at 28 inches, brown glass, riser is Bolivian Rosewood. We'll have a drawing at the meet-up.

Oh yeah, for the record, no one has ever acquired chiggers at any of the Michigan meet-ups. Can you guys in Florida say that?
`
Click to expand...
Hey man I love my Michigan guys but I feel a little attacked here because I am from Florida and I am not blonde…. :tearsofjoy:


On a more serious note, we have a couple (sometimes more) of the Michigan guys come down to Florida. If you have ever seen the weather down here in late February compared to basically any other state where hunting is popular, you would probably love our chigger free WMA’s…. We do not deer hunt during the meet up because season is closed, but we definitely have hog hunts and our hog population is the second largest in the country.

As @MattMan81 mentioned, it is not an easy task to cry plea and beg for companies to “sponsor” events such as meet ups and it also comes at great cost to the organizer as well because there are additional expenses and promotion that goes into it. Fortunately some of the best dudes in the whole industry are saddle manufacturers and many of them got their start on this very forum.
You donating something as cool as a custom built bow is a great way to garner additional attention.

Our “fancy” name was picked to pay homage to the original Saddle Hunter meet up in Ft Stewart Ga called Saddle Palooza. When it fizzled and died out, some of us wanted to keep the magic alive so we spawned a similar event and then added a touch of Florida Man flare :tearsofjoy:

I am trying really hard to make it up to Michigan to hang with some of you guys because of the love, support, and wonderful advice this forum and members have given me. And no matter how big or small the meet ups are, any of you Michigan guys are welcome to come down and join us and I hope the same offers are always extended to us from y’all…

Signed your local Non Blonde Floridian
 
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