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Outdoors: Deer & Turkey Expo returns to Madison this weekend

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  4/02/2008 7:27 am

Deer and turkeys will be on the front burner this weekend as the 24th Annual Wisconsin Deer & Turkey Expo returns to Madison at the Alliant Energy Center.

This should help to get hunters in the mood to hoot and yelp for the coming spring turkey hunting season and put the past long winter to bed for good with thoughts to coming hunting seasons.

One of the seminars that should appeal to all deer hunters is "Venison Butchering and Wild Food Cooking" by Bill Hesselgrave and Jason Coleman.

Hesselgrave, a professional butcher and deer hunter, will show how to process a deer so that hunters get exactly the cuts of meat they want. He uses a video camera to show his work on a large screen so that the audience can easily see the detailed cuts and knife angles needed.

Coleman, a production chef in charge of catering at Fox Valley Technical College in Fond du Lac, will present wild food cooking demonstrations, specializing in creative but easy recipes that produce tasty results with the least amount of time spent in the kitchen.

Attendees may want to bring a notebook to record notes to use later in the field or in the kitchen.

Glenn Helgeland, Expo producer, said that the Expo emphasizes utilization, appreciation and enjoyment of wildlife, and attempts to involve the entire family, and involve new families in the outdoors.

This year's Expo will include presentations on:

• Turkeys and turkey hunting from A to Z
• Hunting turkeys with bow and arrow
• Time management (yours and theirs) for whitetails.
• The how and why of mini ponds -- deer magnets.
• Finding and hunting hidden deer movement funnels.
• Deer hunting public lands.

The show will also include: more than 375 big-antlered bucks on display; photo contests, including a new contest for trail camera photos; a special display of locked antlers; a live animal display; and hands-on opportunities to try bow and arrow and airgun shooting.

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  4/02/2008 7:27 am