Club President   

By: Al Wiscovitch - Club President

Hello Oranco members,

I hope you are all well and enjoying our nice summer so far. It’s just starting to warm up and we are in to August, let’s hope it stays that way?

Ok, let’s get in to it. As some of you know I have been away helping to take care of my 41 year old son who came up with leukemia a few months ago. Not knowing anything about this awful form of cancer and how fast it can take you down is no joke. We have had a lot of ups and down the last few months with very scary moments I will spare you all the awful details and pray that none of you ever go through this with your love ones and friends. I would like to report that my son is moving in the right direction and with continued prayer he will someday come out of this and put it in to remission. Thank you to those of you that had him in prayer daily and call me often to follow up on his condition. It is nice to know how many friends you have when something as bad is this happen to you or your family.

I would also like to have you all pray for Mark Houston our very own board member (Range Secretary) who is not doing so well at the moment his health has been failing him. So please pray that they are able to find what is ailing his health and get him better.

Sorry, for so much bad news but this is life and we have learned to fight through these challenging times.

I’m would like to report that some of our members have done very well with their archery events I will let our other board members share their success stories, I will just say that our kids did well at New Mexico and our other members did at One Million BC and Big Bear Congratulations to all of you for representing our club and yourselves!

If you are wondering of our next Oranco event well if you said The Tomahawk you are right. October 19th 2025 hope to see our members there and doing this event.

I would also like to thank our board members for taking up the slack during my absence and making sure that our range was being cared for and maintained. I will be planning to get started very soon on some our projects that we been planning or have already started.

Last note: good luck to all of you that have tags and or planning to get out and hunt this season I have heard that a few of our members have already tagged a few nice animals. Remember we are always looking for a few nice hunting articles

As always thank you for taking a moment to read this newsletter

Al Wiscovitch

alwisco@msn.com

(909) 322-3869

Club Vice President

By: Pete Whitworth - Club Vice President

Nothing to report.

Pete Whitworth

ob.vicepres@outlook.com

(909) 223-5822

Range Captain

By: Jim Teel - Club Range Captain

State of the Range and Carp Conditions

This picture represents the entirety of last weekend’s work party crew. We had a sizable amount of chipping that needed to be done and I was hoping for at least 7 to 10 volunteers.

I got Danny, Nick and soon to be new-member, Jasmine to assist Bill and myself with the task. I was too hasty in reassessing my goal for the day because these three handled the job with a vengeance. All gas, no brake.

Thank you, Jasmine, Danny, Nick and Bill for your hard work and commitment to our club. Just a reminder that none of us are paid for the work that we do for our club. But keeping our five star range in five star shape requires work. That means getting your hands dirty from time to time. That means working in the heat instead of standing in the shade at the practice range - while others do the work.

Next time a work party notice goes out, I hope to see some new faces putting in the work while these three enjoy a shaded practice session.

The Carp Situation: This year’s carp season at Big Bear Lake continues to be less than ideal. After a few short spawning events earlier this summer, it appears that that’s about all we’re going to get. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any carp to shoot - it just means they’re a little harder to find and the shots are a bit tougher. More deep water shots than usual and they simply aren’t as present as they have been in the last five years. So every shot needs to count if you’re planning on making a dent in their overall numbers. I’ve heard from other bow fishermen in Ohio and Oklahoma, and it would appear that the same situation is happening all over the country. They just aren’t showing themselves like they usually do. I’ve heard similar tales of woe from bass fishermen and deer hunters in terms of their prey behaving differently than what’s considered normal. Hopefully the recent heat wave of consistent mid-80’s at Big Bear will continue to bring the carp out and August will end up being a good month for shooting invasive carp.

Protective lumber project is complete. Some of you may have noticed that all of the bales on the practice range now have protective lumber on the sides of the bales. This ought to preserve the integrity of the bales for a longer amount of time, saving the club money in the long run.

Tractor Crew needs YOU! One of our tractor crew members will be moving out of state soon, so we’ll need to fill his position as soon as possible. If you have experience with heavy equipment (or would like to learn) email me with your contact information and membership status for consideration.

All range assignments are currently filled, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be one available in the future. If you would like to have one of those range assignments, email me to be put on the waiting list.

Until next time, see you on the range. Jim Teel / Range Captain

Jim Teel

ob.rangecaptain@outlook.com

(818) 317-9110

Range Secretary

By: Mark Houston - Club Range Secretary

Nothing to report.

Mark Houston

houstoncru@aol.com

(760) 605-1155

Tournament Chairman

By: David Bacon. - Tournament Chairman

What a year for our Oranco Bowmen JOAD Team!

It was a non-stop tournament upon tournaments the moment 2025 started. We went in hot with a fine group of junior and senior Oranco members getting their tastes of indoor and outdoor tournaments. From the cold and crowded indoor tournaments in Tulare and Chula Vista, to interesting new venue for Vegas shoot, a winery/vineyard field for CA state outdoor, windy and dusty Phoenix, AZ, stormy Albuquerque, New Mexico and incredible mountain hikes up north for the 1 Million BC. Our archers took on the challenges and put their best arrows forward. Some archers were returning more experienced but for most, it’s a first time experience.

There were a lot of personal bests - Mykel reaching the coveted score he needed as he and Logan venture for the first year in Senior Division, shoulder to shoulder with the USA Olympic men.

Chantelle's whopping performance at SoCal, Sarah and Ella’s extra ordinary attitude as well as Ava’s wonderful entrance to JOAD nationals to name a few. We have now 2 triple crown awards in JOADs Nationals, 3 Regional Elite archers, additional state’s new record holders, and a few dinosaur hunters in our midst. I guarantee we will not stop there!

Now this would not have been possible without our fellow Oranco members' support and I want to take this opportunity to say thank you and please keep it up. To keep our program going and to help our competitive archers have the confidence and strength to go to competitions, we need your positive encouragement. I wish I could tell you all the stories of each and every one of them, or share to you the pride I feel when they are out there at a competition. One, it’s not my story to tell, two - you have to be there to see them in action. You have to be there to witness how great our archers have shown character, professionalism and grit as representatives of Oranco Bowmen Archers Club. I know it’s hard for me not to be biased or brag about their performances and winning attitude after all I am lucky enough to work with them. I also know that the first question I usually get is “did you win?”. Now, It’s not my place to answer that, I didn’t draw the bow 144 plus times, walked the open field for 4 hours a day, being constantly reminded how it’s supposed to be done, practiced and trained several days a week, even when it gets dark. If it’s about medals, then we don’t understand winners. So if I have to answer that question, I will tell you “yes we did.”

After the State Target Championship and Tomahawk 3-D - We are getting ready for next year!



Vernie Urbano

Oranco JOAD Coordinator

David Bacon

ob.tournament@outlook.com

(909) 217-4441

Membership Chairmen 

By: Steven Baker - Club Membership

Membership,

If you haven’t received your membership invoice as of this month, please let me know. I’ll be updating our membership records and want to ensure everything is accurate and up to date.

Thank you for your attention!

Steven Baker

ob.membership@outlook.com

(951) 285-1550

League Chairman

By: Brad Belvedere - League Chairman

Happy Hunting Oranco Members. As the season progresses for this year's hunting season. I want to wish everyone who has a tag good luck. 

I also want to say thanks to each and everyone who helped set up and take down the summer league and who shot the Summer League. We had some good turn outs. 

Also want to thank Terry Adams for the cool trophies. You know what I mean if you were one of the lucking one who received one. 

As a lot of you know I had rotator cups surgery. I was hoping to put on a night shoot. I will have to look at putting this on later in the year.

Brad Belvedere

ob.leagues@outlook.com

(951) 545-9462

If you are looking for photos of previous shoots, check out Tony Nguyen's fantastic photography in the link below! He has an amazing gallery organized by shoots and dates he's participated in:

tcnguyen-Oranco

Summer Deer Alert: Is EHD Threatening Your Herd? Discover How to Fight Back!

As summer sets in, a devastating threat can emerge for deer herds. It’s called, Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD), and if you’ve ever dealt with its impact, you know it can be absolutely devastating to your local deer herd. 

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