GAOS 2019

Barry Wensel

Brothers of the Bow


Barry Wensel was born in DuBois, Pennsylvania on opening day of the 1944 bow season. He was raised in the green mountains of Vermont. His dad began bowhunting in 1949, so Barry spent most of their childhood time in the outdoors. Bows and arrows have always been a part of his life. Very few people know he posed for ads in Life, Look and Saturday Evening Post magazines during his Cub Scout years. Barry eventually grew up to graduate from college in Indiana and soon headed west to practice for many years as chiropractors. With his family, he lived in Montana for almost 30 years, residing in the Flathead Valley. In 1999, the Wensels moved from the beautiful mountains of Montana to the flat cornfields of rural Iowa. The only reason? Bigger whitetails and no winter-kill. They admittedly miss their Montana roots, the mountains, bugling elk, bears, pronghorns and fly-fishing for trout. Barry has hunted with recurves and longbows for over 50 years, hunting deer with bows and arrows long before there were things like non-military camo, food plots or specialty seeds. There were no compound bows, cell phones, GPS units, video cameras, ATVs, high fences or weekly deer shows on television. Muzzleloaders used round balls, loose black powder and didn’t have scopes. If you wanted a four wheel drive vehicle, you bought a Jeep. People didn’t raise deer in pens. Barry has been affiliated with multiple national hunting organizations, including the NRA, PBS, QDMA, P&Y, B&C, etc. With his brother, Barry has written half a dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles, and been involved in many video, audio and television productions. They have done hundreds of speaking engagements and hunting seminars all over the world.

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