Gamedinner and Backyard Bow Pro

We may be between seasons right now but team Backyard Bow Pro is still as busy as ever! We've been having live Webinar Presentations (www.anymeeting.com/backyardbowpro1) to try and fill everyone in and keep yall up to date.

Lots of things have changed and progressed since the last time I wrote and we now have teams in 11 different states!! With new sponsors such as ScentLok, Lumenok, MDP (Maximum Draw Products), justfordoes.com, and more I expect that we'll continue to grow at an exponential rate! Recently we've been aquiring land left and right. We actually are looking for more members and team leaders, and with the cost of membership CRAZY low at just under $150 (most of that going to the background check) I wouldn't think it would be hard for people to see the value.

One of my favorite things has been traveling around (and sometimes sticking as close as the backyard) with our HitcHiker. If someone would fling targets from it for me I would stand out there with a recurve and shoot ALL day long. We even started selling them and have yet to meet someone who didn't have a blast shootin' with them!

This past weekend I went with a few of the guys (Joe, Billy, and Adam) to Mississippi where Kenneth Lancaster and Van's Deer Processing and Sporting Goods hosted a fund-raiser bow shoot for Shane Smith, a good friend of mine and awesome sportsman. Shane had lost his home and almost everything he owned in a house fire recently. While I knew how many friends and fans he had I would've never dreamed the event would be as successful as it was. I learned that the special minority of us that consider ourselves hunters really is a brotherhood. People who had never even met him came together to raise money for a brother in need and I have never been more moved. All too often in this world do people get caught up in pleasing themselves and never stopping to help those who need it...but WE are different! We use what God gives us and likewise give to others.

Now let's not get confused here...this past weekend wasn't JUST an emotional experience. We found time to work, cut up, goof off, laugh, play, and more. We drove down from good ol' NC with HitcHiker in tow! Everyone down there LOVED it! Here's a picture of new friend and Hoyt Pro-Shooter Brett Morgan shootin' the HitcHiker with his BITE TAB! Over 70 lbs of drawback...talk about some serious shootin'!   And he smoked it!

After the shoot that was held for Shane there was an auction with TONS of stuff donated by people just trying to do their part for him. This auction raised close to $44,000 for Shane's new house!! After the auction some of us hung around and talked about how special the entire day was and how great every single person is that contributed. Here's a picture of us with, Antler Insanity, and Bone Collector who all showed up to support a sincerely great guy.  (L to R:  Billy Stewart - BYBP; Travis "T-Bone" Turner- Bone Collector;  Randy Buckner - Antler Insanity; Shane Smith and John Young - Antler Insanity; Me; Nick Mundt - Bone Collector; Kenneth Lancaster - Antler Insanity/Bone Collector)

I thank God every day that I was brought up in a place that has allowed me to grow to appreciate the the benefits as well as the thrill that comes from hunting, harvesting, and laying the smack down on just about anything I have an opportunity to. I am SO looking forward to the cool air of fall and the sight of a sunset coming over the mountains in my tree stand! GAH it's good to be in this minority, isn't it???  :)

Webster's definition of integrity....firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.

Being a BackYard Bow Pro means more to me every day.  When i was first asked what it meant I guess I gave a standard answer, we practice in the back yard to score more in the back woods.  But it means so much more.  Being a CRBYBP you are not only a person with integrity but also high character, honesty, crime free and a belief that your word means more than anything. 

I want to practice as much as I can so when the moment of truth comes I can be prepared to complete the task at hand.  What I want more than that, Is for every landowner, farmer, community that I am associated with to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am a man of integrity and honesty and that our TEAM BACKYARD BOW PRO is made up of women and men that will uphold a higher standard of ethics than anyone else in the woods. 

Team BackYard Bow Pro is here to change the way a large portion of the public views hunting and hunters.  Most of the time we are made out to be "BONE" crazy rednecks, that will cross any line to get what we want.  We want to change that perception to be, Team BYBP is a team that is professional and proficient and will do EXACTLY what they say they will do and accomplish the goal of helping landowners and communities take back their flower beds and their property and restore the woods to its proper balance.

With fewer and fewer places to hunt we as hunters need to understand that hunting is a great privilege and we must keep a high standard of ethics to be able to continue to hunt for years to come.  One of my favorite quotes about Integrity...."Integrity is who you are when no one is looking". 

Lets, as a hunting community, uphold that higher standard of ethics and protect and preserve our hunters heritage AND a place to hunt for our children and our children's children.

So, what it means to be a CRBYBP....be proficient! be professional! be men and women that uphold a higher standard of ethics, being women and men of INTEGRITY and consistently doing what we say we're gonna do!! If we do this we will be able to PROtect our hunting heritage, preserve our hunting heritage and PROvide for our family, friends and those less fortunate in our communities!!

If you are up for the challenge...........go to www.backyardbowpro.com......Join Team BYBP today...Become a Certified Registered BackYard Bow Pro, and lets get in the woods!!!

God Bless!!

Billy Stewart

Team Leader/Field Producer for Team BackYard Bow PRO

Questions......email me at   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

As a non-hunter living and working around avid hunters I often find myself feeling compelled to explain myself. It’s as though a non-hunter ought to feel uncomfortable around people who love the sport, and that the fine people who I count as friends who love to hunt ought to mistrust me for some reason.

Let me say that, having been raised in a family of Quakers, firearms have never been a part of my experience. I have never shot a gun. I have never shot a bow. To the best of my knowledge, the only animals that I’ve killed have been fish, softshell crabs and lobsters.

This is not to say that I in any way judge those who do… in fact… if I have learned anything by my association with hunters is that they often represent the best of what I admire in others. Joe Lasher is a good example. An honest and caring guy.. a good family man.. Someone who thinks hard about his place in the world and who tries to make a positive impact on the lives of those around him. I consider myself lucky to know him and call him a friend.

I might also say that I am not blind to the excesses that hunting sometimes leads to. As a boy in Missouri, I remember how every year at the end of deer season the local paper would publish a photo of a vast pile of dear carcasses that had been collected by rangers that hunters had shot, and lost, in the woods. The pile was bigger than a house, and seemed to me to be a huge pile of pain and useless slaughter.

Perhaps that image is one reason that I feel that my involvement in Gamedinner.com is so important. While I am appalled by such wanton waist, I don’t believe that it is representative of the people like Joe that I have come to know. I truly believe that, when practiced with intention.. when caring and respect lead the sport, hunting can be a valuable and important part of our culture. As a chef I value the food, of course, but as someone who considers our environment to be the greatest gift and responsibility we as humans have, I find a common cause with outdoorsman.

And so, to Joe, and Billy, and Mark, and all of the other fine people that I have been privileged to meet, hats off! Let’s work together to show the world that hunters and non-hunters alike have a responsibility to preserve and maintain the world around us, and that cooperatively, we can and must find a way to work together.

And while you are at it, there is always room in my freezer for some more game meat!

Hey everyone. I just wanted to check in and wish everyone a happy New Year.  Its hard to believe that we've already made it through a whole decade in the 21st century.  It seems like only yesterday everyone was scurrying around trying to fill their shelters with canned goods and flashlights, panicked over the whole Y2K. So, here we are, the beginning of a brand new year.  I'm not one that typically make tons of new year resolutions, but I wanted to set a couple of goals for this year.  First and foremost, I'm gonna try and get closer in my walk with God.  Second, I will have to say, be the best husband I can be.  If I can take care of these, everything else will fall right into place.  As for my hunting goals, I definitely aim to take a trophy class buck.   That sorta goes without saying, right?  So here are mine, would you like to share some of your goals or resolutions you've made for the new year? 

If you want to find out more about being a backyard bow pro, or have specific questions you would like to ask the pro staff, please feel free to email me  at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Man, I had a great time with my Dad this past week.  It was the last week of the Central NC Deer Season.  Although I was tagged out in Western NC, I did have one more doe tag for Central NC.   I got a new Mathews Drennalin for Christmas, all tricked out with red dampeners and more and was dieing to try it out.  Thanks to Backyard Billy, we were able to go down to one of our Backyard Bow Pro Communities to try to take out a "broke leg" doe that the property owners and neighbors had been seeing.  She was pitiful....and nobody likes seeing that.

We got to the property around 2:30, spoke to the home owners, then got in the tree.  By 3:30, we'd already seen a nice  buck and a few does.  Then,  we saw the one we were after.  She was with three other deer.  They made their way below us about 100 yards and out into a field and began feeding.   It wasn't long after that and there were at least 10 deer feeding close to us at one of our feeders.   In NC, it's legal to use, and hunt over, corn feeders.  We use them quite a bit in our Backyard Communities.  These folks have enlisted us to do a job, which is to take out as many does as we can quickly and efficiently.  Feeders make that job just a bit easier.

All the deer milling around the corn feeder must have attracted the broken leg doe and her friends because they came right in on a string.  I was able to make a great shot on her.  When the G5 broadhead hit, it sounded like a whip cracking.  In fact, it was so loud, my Dad (who was filming) thought that I might have missed and hit a rock or a tree.   The doe didn't go 60 yards and piled up!

Needless to say, my Mathews did the trick!   Dad and I were both pretty fired up.  We had time to switch and I took the camera.  Nothing came in the rest of the evening....I think it had a lot to do with the lady walking her dog through the woods about 75 yards from us! 

Taking out this broken legged doe was a big win for everyone involved.  Of course, she's much better off....turns out, it was probably a car collision that injured her.  Our property owners and their neighbors don't have to watch her struggle everyday just to survive, so that makes them happy.  I got to score with my new bow!   And, this makes 27 does we took out of that community, which equates to about 5,400 meals of lean, healthy, hunter harvested venison donated through our chapter of Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry!  WIN - WIN - WIN - WIN!

If you'd like to find out more about our Team Backyard Bow Pro and how you can get involved, just fill out the contact form on the Certified Backyard Bow Pro Page of this website.  One of our Team Members will contact you ASAP. 

Here's a short video clip of the hunt!  Hope you enjoy.....Rock On!

- Joe