09/05/2026
How about a history lesson on the early days of Hawkeye's annual Traditional Shoot?
Hawkeye's president back then was Dick Glenna and our vice president was Richard (Dick) Zawacki. Those guys along with a small group of other members started what has now grown into what our traditional shoot is today.
Dick Zawacki would take completely used up worn out 3D targets left from our open shoots, repair the shot out areas with spray foam, enclose with plastic wrap to make it denser and then repaint the target. Dick kept color match codes from the local paint shop that exactly matched the original foam for most of the McKenzie targets. The photo of the white deer is an example of just one of the many repaired 3D targets that were used back then. Dick was also known to carve 3D targets.
You can see that the traditional shoot was run on a shoestring budget!
Dick''s creativity provided us with a unique small game course at the early Traditional Shoots. He would paste paper targets onto high-density scrap foam garbage picked from a local Depew company.
We'd be remiss if we didn't mention John Wiehe and Mark Thill's broadhead course and Reggie Marcotte's flashlight racoon course. If anyone has info or photos on those courses, chime in in the comments!
Back then, we couldn't rely on social media to advertise. Everything was old-school flyers posted at other clubs, archery shops and shoots and good old fashioned grass roots word of mouth. Our 1999 traditional shoot flyer is an example of that. Nothing AI-generated on that one!
Much appreciation to Hawkeye member Brian Schlifke for this walk down memory lane!
