Marc Drewek, a weekly outdoors radio show host for more than a dozen years, has an enviable number of big bucks under his belt and still enjoys chasing them with bow, muzzleloader and rifle.
Today, he’d rather teach newcomers about hunting through the state’s Learn to Hunt program or on his own.
“I was deer hunting when stands were little wooden planks in the trees,” said Drewek, 63, as he spoke to members of the Clintonville Bow Hunters Club on Feb. 25 at Northwinds Banquet Hall in Marion during its annual banquet. “I love to go out and hunt, but it’s time now to give more than I take. That’s what’s going to continue and maintain stewardship of the outdoors.”
Since 2010, the Neenah resident had hosted “Living the Outdoors” on The Score, 95.3 FM, at 5 p.m. Wednesdays. The show’s recorded podcasts are available on demand at www.TheScorewi.com.
If you live in the Fox Valley and enjoy hunting and archery, you’ve probably crossed paths with him either at the former Gander Mountain store in Grand Chute (where he worked as guns and archery manager for 10 years) or The Real Shot in Appleton, where he was store manager for 12 years. Drewek has set up and tuned hundreds of compound bows in his career.
Drewek’s love for hunting started with grouse hunts with his dad, and duck hunts with high school pals around Glendale, where he grew up and graduated high school in 1978. He did lots of grouse and woodcock hunting in Langlade County and near Spread Eagle in Florence County.
He’s since pursued deer and waterfowl in at least a dozen states, with frequent trips to Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado. He owned and hunted on property in Iola for 17 years. He’s run out of room for big racks on his walls, with some in storage. He estimates he’s tagged 15 ranging from 125 to 180 points (if scored by Pope and Young or Boone and Crockett record book scorers), including 10 with the bow and others with muzzleloader, shotgun and rifle. Ironically, he’s never had one officially scored for the books — he’s just not interested.
“It’s not that I needed to kill more deer,” he said. He’s switched over to focusing on waterfowl in recent years.
His real passion today and for the past 20 years or so is introducing others to outdoors adventures.
He does it both on his own — he recently introduced his taxidermist to grouse hunting, helping him bag his first bird — and through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Learn to Hunt program, focusing on turkey hunting.
DNR wardens on his radio show’s “Ask the Game Warden” monthly segment asked him if he wanted to help with the Learn to Hunt program, and he began helping at the Outagamie Conservation Club in Hortonville.
Learn to Hunt uses four hours of classroom and field instruction before the newcomer hunts with a qualified mentor, according to the DNR website. The program is open to most ages and in some cases, license requirements are waived. You can learn more or sign up at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/Education/OutdoorSkills/lth.
The DNR also offers webinars for more information. All hunters must first obtain a DNR customer ID number online (this number is linked to your licenses and permits as long as you hunt and fish in Wisconsin).
Drewek also introduced about 75 women to archery during a women’s archery event at The Real Shot. He’s watched the progress of some of them as they became avid bowhunters or target archers.
He called his recent work on the Learn to Hunt program “life-changing.”
“We all started at the bottom somewhere along the line,” he said, explaining that he tells rookies everything not to do. “The outdoor life is a pretty special thing. It’s my happy place. It will put you in a better place. If you have the opportunity to impact another person’s life in the outdoors, take advantage of it.”
He compared hunting and other outdoor pursuits (he also enjoys fly fishing for trout and tying his own flies) as therapy, a welcome respite to life’s everyday duties.
The reward comes when those novice hunters approach him later and say, “Now I understand why you turkey hunt.”
Those of us who have hunted and otherwise enjoyed the beauty and soul-cleansing powers of the outdoors (in archery legend Fred Bear’s words) may underestimate these effects on newbies, Drewek said.
“The impact on their lives — it’s stronger than we think it is.”
Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com.
Radio personality prefers teaching over trophies
