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On March 18, 2005, everything changed. A sudden disc hemorrhage and impending back surgery left me without the use of my legs, and stranded in a wheelchair. In the months spent in the hospital, one takes a severe inventory of what life will be like, what has been lost, what will never be the same. Among the casualties on this devastating list was hunting. I had dream of shooting a trophy buck since I was very young, and this was one dream that seemed to have vanished.
After two years of trying to hunt out of a wheelchair, I had had little luck, just a few does had been seen and I scared them away with the creaking of my stupid chair. The odds seemed very stacked for a normal deer hunter, throw being handicapped into the mix, and it was all I could do to return to the woods this year.
Luckily for me, I have an amazing cousin named Rick and thankfully, he has much more faith in hunting than I do most times, and this year he said he had talked to a good buddy of his
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(Billy Clancy), and Billy was going to let us use his "Golf Cart on Steroid" to get out in the woods. I thought this sounded fun and was willing to try anything at this point.
So, let's zip ahead to the first night of the special Michigan "Disabled" hunt. The day preceding the night hunt was a disaster. One of those, if it can go wrong, then it will. Again, I had almost talked myself and Rick from hunting that night, but thanks to Ricks determination, we headed out to the woods an hour and a half late and not even knowing where we were going to sit (park). After sitting for a while Rick leaned over and said we had about an half hour of light left, so I felt my chances slipping with every passing second, and hoping just to see a few does would have made me happy.
Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, I was engulfed in the moment I had dreamed of all my life. Rick elbowed me in the side and said, "There is big one over there……shoot it, shoot it!" At first I could not see it in the weeds when suddenly my eyes beheld the biggest deer I had ever seen in the woods. I kept telling myself, "don't count the horns, and don't count the horns!" As I drew my gun to shoot, suddenly he stopped and looked right at me. I had to freeze in mid draw and engaged in what seem like an hour long "stare-down" with the buck……would he turn and run,…..had I just wasted my one big chance,………would he sent us…..finally, he dropped his head again. This was it. As I found his front shoulder in my scope, I had not realized that the buck had again raised his head and staring at me…I had one split second……..and I shot! He jumped straight up in the air, the jogged off into the woods. I could not breath, I was so excited. After it turned dark, we heard something rustling in the woods, so we thought we would let him die and go and get some help to track him.
After calling Ricks sister Shelly and her boy-friend Bob(who were on their way to a romantic dinner, and hit a deer with his BRAND NEW TRUCK…….ya, I still feel bad about that one), we also enlisted the help of Patrick(Ricks son). After about a half hour they found good blood.
I could see the lights getting dimmer in the woods, and voices were becoming fainter and fainter. As I sit in the truck all by myself…..unable to join in the tracking, every emotion seemed to run through my mind, when suddenly I saw the lights coming back to me and as they broke into the open of the field, I could see Rick and Bob dragging my deer ...there he was, my big 8 point, wow!
One last thing to add to this story is that head mount in the picture was done by Wildlife Galleries in Blanchard MI…..they are the greatest. Please go on line and check out all of the services they offer nation-wide!!!!!!!! Thank you again to Rick, Bob, Shelly, Patrick, Billy and the crew at Wildlife Galleries for all of the help to make my dream come true!!!!!!!!
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