Hunting the Dream
Randy Smith was looking to update his bow
for the upcoming season. He stopped into Pappas Trading Post and was so
impressed with the gear and facilities, he bought the whole place. Well,
it didn’t happen quite that fast.
Randy and his wife Tammy are lifelong
residents of the Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin area. They have two daughters,
Abby and Amber. Just on the other side of the Wisconsin River from the
Trading Post, the family lives on a wooded hillside where Randy can hunt,
trap, cut firewood, and explore right in the backyard.
Randy, like all of us, has always dreamed
of making a living at what he loves to do. What Randy loves is hunting and
fishing, but he hesitated at the prospect of such a dramatic career
change. Tammy didn’t; she knew he was a natural fit to run a business
dedicated to helping archers excel.
Growing up outdoors, Randy fished the
Wisconsin River and northern Wisconsin lakes with his dad. He’s been
hunting the wooded bluffs and marshes of the Wisconsin River Valley and
its tributaries since hunter safety. There were also annual mule deer
hunts in Wyoming for a stretch. He had fished the wilderness in the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota, hunted
pheasants in South Dakota, bear in northern Wisconsin, moose in Canada,
and so on. It’s what he lives to do.
An aspect he enjoys is sharing experiences
of the hunting and fishing community. There are numerous stories of both
successes and calamities, some true, some embellished. Ideas regarding
tactics, hot spots, game calls, and equipment are regularly exchanged.
Randy had always been generous helping others with less experience or
knowledge on a particular outing. Form giving advice on equipment,
critiquing a stance or release, to holding a spur-of-the-moment
demonstration for a struggling angler on how to fillet ‘Y bones’ out of a
northern, Randy gets fulfillment from helping others have a successful
hunting or fishing experience.
After a 25 year career of operating
precision machinery and training new and experienced operators on new
equipment, a fresh career outfitting archers with the latest gear form
Mathews and Mission was in fact an ideal fit. So stop by the Trading Post
in Arena, Wisconsin to meet Randy, Tammy, and the knowledgeable staff.
Talk turkey, deer, elk, and walleye, or sharpen your skills in the 40 yard
range to try out the best gear on the planet.
