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Class of 2010
Bowhunter
G.
Fred Asbell
began shooting a bow in 1961 following military service. Two
years later he was elected President of the Deer Creek Archers
in Cloverdale, Indiana,
and in 1965 was appointed Bowhunting Director of the
3,000-member Indiana Field Archery Association. As his interest
in bowhunting steadily grew,
Fred became the founding President of the Indiana
Bowhunters Association in 1966, a position he held until 1970
when a job transfer took him to
Colorado. There he soon became a
director of the newly formed Colorado Bowhunters Association.
 It
was in the Centennial State during the 1970s and 1980s that
Fred’s passion for bowhunting took root even as his
organizational and leadership skills blossomed. Over those
decades he enjoyed a variety of accomplishments that directly
impacted the archery and bowhunting communities. These included:
*Wing Archery Advisory Representative * Director, Pope & Young
Club * Hunting Editor,
Bowhunter Magazine * Contributor,
Professional Bowhunters
Society Magazine * Founder/President Bighorn Bowhunting Co.,
Makers of Custom Bows * President, Pope & Young Club * Author of
the Book, Instinctive
Shooting, 75,000 Copies, reprinted 6 times and published in
3 foreign languages, plus English.
While President of the Pope and
Young Club, Fred led the reorganization effort that resulted in
the establishment of a permanent home in
Chatfield,
Minnesota. He oversaw the
purchase of the Club’s current headquarters and museum facility,
as well as the purchase and eventual relocation of the
Seattle-based Glenn St. Charles
Museum to Minnesota. Under Fred’s direction, the Pope
and Young Club became financially stable, advancing from a
hunting club operating in the red to a club with more than $1
million in banked assets. Today Pope & Young is widely recognized as one
of the nation’s most prestigious pro-hunting and
pro-conservation organizations.
An
excellent writer, Fred has published more than 500 articles for
a variety of state and national publications during the past 35
years. These include Bowhunter, Traditional Bowhunting Magazine, Field & Stream, Sports
Afield, Petersen’s Hunting, and
Petersen’s Bowhunting, plus others. Fred followed the
success of his best-selling
Instinctive Shooting
(1986) with two other widely acclaimed books:
Instinctive Shooting II
(1991) and Stalking and
Still-Hunting (1998). The former book sold 35,000 copies and
was reprinted 4 times, while the latter sold 25,000 copies. Fred
also produced a complementary video,
Instinctive Shooting
(1991), with some 15,000 copies in circulation. He currently
serves as Shooting Editor of
Traditional Bowhunter
Magazine.
In 1999, Fred was a founding
director of Compton Traditional Bowhunters and two years later
was elected President of the traditional organization which
currently has 1,200 members across North
America. He also organized the Compton Traditional
Rendezvous, which has become one of the world’s largest archery
events. The annual Michigan-based gathering recently attracted
more than
 7,000 interested and enthusiastic individuals.
During the past half century,
Fred bowhunted in 32 states and 9 Canadian provinces, as well as
2 African countries, harvesting 19 separate species of big game.
Traveling widely, Fred has routinely presented shooting and bowhunting seminars for decades; he also has been a regular
guest speaker at state and local bowhunting banquets throughout
North America. Since 2000, he has presented annual
Shooting/Tuning Schools at Black Widow Bow Co. in
Nixa, Missouri.
A visionary archer, bowhunter,
and leader who possesses an obvious sense of history and a deep
appreciation for the pioneers of our sport, Fred himself has
long served as an articulate and tireless ambassador, earning
his rightful place beside the men and women previously
recognized for their own service and contributions.
Notes of Interest:
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Visionary Leader and Legendary Bowhunter
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Took Up Archery in 1961; Founding President of Indiana
Bowhunters Association (1966)
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Founder/President Bighorn Bow Company, Makers of
Custom Recurves and Longbows
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Author of Best-Selling Instinctive Shooting
(1988) and Other Books; Magazine Columnist and Contributor
with Hundreds of Published Articles
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Pope and Young Club President (1984 to 2002); Founding
Director and Past President of Compton Traditional
Bowhunters
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Bowhunted 32 states, 9 Canadian Provinces, and Africa;
Tagged Numerous Record Book Animals and 19 Different Big
Game Species
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