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Minnesota Game Fair 2015: The many faces in the crowd

The annual outdoors gathering is a summer fixture, drawing thousands to Ramsey over two weekends in August. It's a celebration for fairgoers of all things outdoors. Here are some of their stories.

By Bob Timmons

August 14, 2015 at 3:43AM

Mitch and Samantha Hackenmueller of Zimmerman with pudelpointer Kane (TOM WALLACE/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Photos by Tom Wallace • tom.wallace@startribune.com

Game Fair, a paean to Minnesota outdoors, hits at a sweet spot of summer's turn to August and proudly proclaims that it has for the last 34 years. Look deeper and you'll see it's a happening that also hits another sweet spot: The hearts of fairgoers who enter an event that reflects back on them a wide culture and an energy that for some defines what it means to be Minnesotan or Midwesterner.

Among the crowd is the flooring company owner from Zimmerman, Minn., only too happy to talk about his young, whip-smart pudelpointer; the youth counselor from Onamia who devotes any and all free time to producing beautiful birch game calls; the Eau Claire family with the young son who now runs a family German shorthaired pointer to championship-caliber leaps; and a master's student taking a day to give her young Labrador what it most desires — water games.

Collected Sunday, here are stories and photographs from an afternoon in the life of Game Fair.

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

James Schaetzel and daughter Ashley, White Bear Lake

James Schaetzel was at Game Fair on Sunday to shoot some sporting clays with the Browning XS Feather shotgun he'd won at an event at Wild Wings hunting club in Hugo, but clearly family tradition was part of the day. It was daughter Ashley's first trip to the fair, but she is used to hunting-related trips with her father. "Just walking and watching Dad since I was little,"said Ashley, 22, whose two older sisters and brother also like to hunt. Ashley said she was 13 when success hit: two grouse — with one shot. James Schaetzel's hunting story has a similar trajectory. He recounted growing up in St. Paul and boyhood trips with his father that included duck hunting on the Minnesota River or jumping pheasants in southern Minnesota. Today, the family has an annual "cast and blast" weekend near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, said Schaetzel, 49. "I am really happy that my girls all like it, too."

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Mike Lawrence, Mitchell, S.D.

Mike Lawrence had his small arsenal from pistols to rifles that gleamed from his booth and commanded attention. They all bore silencers, also known as suppressors. Representing Dakota Silencer of Sioux Falls, S.D., Lawrence said he'd spent a lot of time updating fairgoers on Minnesota law: Silencers were legalized July 1 under a Senate public safety bill signed into law in May by Gov. Mark Dayton. Minnesota is the 40th state to allow their use. At the Game Fair table, it was "just as much education as it is sales," said Lawrence, 52, who said he first used silencers a few years ago on his pistols. Now, he puts one on his deer rifle. "Not because I need to be quiet for deer hunting. Strictly because it's easier on my ears."

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Mitch and Samantha Hackenmueller, Zimmerman (with Kane)

Mitch Hackenmueller has had different dogs in his hunting timeline. He did patient research before settling on his current companion, Kane, a 1½-year-old pudelpointer from Rock Creek Kennels in Rush City. Kane is a cross between a German hunting poodle and an English pointer. "We had to wait about two years to get him, but it was well worth the wait," he said. Hackenmueller said going to the pointer from "the flushers" has been a dramatic change. Pudelpointers are quick learners and adaptable to terrain, game and setting. Kane's first season was last year. "Unbelievable hunting dog … with all my hunting and training it was one time for everything for the most part," he said. "They have the stamina that the pointers do and upland bird dogs do, but yet they're built for water and hardy enough to hunt late into the seasons in Minnesota."

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Matt, Amanda and Caden Steffen, Eau Claire, Wis. (with Rigid and Ava, right)

Everyone is in on the act in the Steffen family, straight down to hunter-in-training Rigid, a 4-month-old German shorthaired pointer and son to Ava. Both were in tow Sunday. Matt Steffen said he and his wife, Amanda, like waterfowl and pheasant hunting. And their son, Caden, 9, is preparing for his first youth mentor hunt in North Dakota. Meanwhile, Caden has run Ava at the fair's long jump event the last two years, and the dog won $50 in the Splash for Cash last year. (Ava leapt 24 feet this year — out of the money in the Splash — but placed second in a long jump event with 24 1/2 feet.)

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Ben and Sady Elsen, Corcoran, Minn. (with Jones)

Ben Elsen appears well-suited for wherever his bowhunting passions lead him. Broad-shouldered and lugging a Mathews Z7 compound bow, Elsen said he started using a bow about 10 years ago on a family farm in Loretta, Minn., and received his first bow from his father-in-law. His interest in bowhunting and the outdoors served him well when a family member inherited 310 acres of property northwest of Detroit Lakes. His aunt put him in charge of the land, and his hunting took off. "I really got into it. I enjoyed doing the food plots. I really enjoyed doing all the work, as far as prepping the property for good hunting and putting up the tree stands and cutting trails," he said. He bowfishes all summer, too, but has bigger game on his mind: He and a work colleague will leave in a few weeks for Montana to hunt mule deer for the first time. "Any reason I have to shoot my bow, that's something I like to do."

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Missy DeLorenzo, Buffalo, Minn. (with Skylar)

Skylar the Labrador retriever was coiled energy incarnate at the Swim to Win event. Her owner, Missy DeLorenzo of Buffalo, Minn., was launch commander, keeping Skylar poised before her furious burst downhill toward water and duck dummy. "This is the highlight of her day. She goes crazy for it," said DeLorenzo, who is finishing a master's degree in psychology at St. Mary's University. The 2-year-old Lab was to get 19 more runs at the fastest swim time, but that wasn't the point. This was Skylar's day to let loose. "I don't care whatever happens," DeLorenzo said. "It's just for fun."

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Terry Lydell, Andover

Ruffed grouse hold a special, lifetime allure for Terry Lydell. He currently is president of the Twin Cities chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society. Growing up in St. Paul, Lydell said grouse was the first bird he learned on, owing to his father. "He gave me a slingshot and said go in the woods," Lydell, 70, recalled with a laugh. The tools have improved. Sunday at Game Fair, Lydell sported 20-gauge Franchi Instinct SL. "Extremely light," he called the gun, which was part of a chapter raffle. "For us it's a grouse gun, a woodcock gun … You have to remember, you carry a gun more than you shoot it, so the light weight is good."

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Ron Brown, Fernwood, Idaho

Antler-handled flint fire starters are the biggest seller at the Montana Antler Craft booth, and proprietor Ron Brown, 76, was only too happy to demonstrate the devices. Sizes varied, as did the prices, and they had a variety of handles from wild shed: white-tail, mule deer, moose. Bolo ties, candle holders and even cribbage boards had their place. Joined at the booth by his wife, Wilma, Brown was blunt about the craft: "We collected sheds, and we just started making things out of them."

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Wayne Benson, Onamia, Minn.

There has been a progression to Wayne Benson's woodwork: ink pens, wine stoppers … game calls? Game calls get all of his attention several years after someone inquired about him making one for ducks. "It just increased since then," said Benson, 64. His booth was filled with the colorful carvings, which run the gamut from duck to elk to squirrel. He buys the inserts from Echo Calls, a reed maker in Arkansas, and he and his lathe do the rest. He uses blocks of birch, dyed and laminated together. "No two are the same," said Benson, a counselor at Mille Lacs Academy, a juvenile treatment facility in Onamia.

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Ron Schara, Ramsey

Just after announcing a trick-shooting competition, outdoors icon Ron Schara appeared on a footpath. Tanned, trim and wearing a light hunting vest, Schara clearly enjoyed spending the weekend in his city. Schara has attended every Game Fair ("34 out of 34"). "What's special about Game Fair is that most people who come here have the same passion as you do for fishing or hunting or bird-watching or dogs," he said. "So, we have a commonality here." He also acknowledged the fairgoers are audience for the likes of "Minnesota Bound," his long-running outdoors television show on Ch. 11. Then, Schara was on the move, but not before a few teenagers slowed him down for a hello and a handshake.

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Chad Salonek and Anna Erdmann, New London, Minn. (with Doc and Rogue)

Regulars each year at Game Fair, Salonek and Erdmann brought two along from their brood of four dogs. English setters named Doc and Rogue exuded happy-dog friendliness. But make no mistake. "Doc and Rogue are big grouse and woodcock hunters," Salonek said, "and they also hunt pheasants around home." A third English setter, Rogue's brother Mickey, and a golden retriever named Dez round out the family. Salonek said he has always had goldens and started training setters 10 to 15 years ago. He and Erdmann enthusiastically embrace the hunting seasons — "the whole thing" — in their home region, points west and near International Falls.

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Ralph and Julie Doubek, Richmond, Minn. (with Charlie)

Gold Meadows owner Ralph Doubek began his pheasant hunting preserve in 1968. Now it spans 800 acres over seven areas. He also put up one of the original tents at Game Fair. Daughter Julie recalled tagging along as a young girl when the fair began in 1982. Today, she runs Gold Meadows' dog-training services, and when she is at Game Fair she is no bystander. She leads seminars and does training sessions. Breed is irrelevant. "I have had a lot of good dogs in my life," Julie Doubek said. "I want to help people do it right." She posed for a photo with her father, holding her dachshund, Charlie.