Quadriplegic hunter's stuff & things…: 2011 My First Rifle Deer Kill.

Deer rifle opener always reminds me of my first deer kill with a rifle. In fact, it was my first deer kill with a rifle either able bodied or not. I only had one rifle tag before my accident and I wasn't able to close the deal. I'm kind of glad it happened the way it did. Many years later, after many trials and tribulations and after thinking it would never happen after my accident.

This hunt was quite memorable for more than one reason. Some of those reasons I probably shouldn't say. But here's the gist of the story.

After quite a few years working on my rifle mount that attaches to my wheelchair we finally we had it figured out. At least that part of the problem. The trigger had always been the biggest problem when trying to get a rifle to work for me. But when the idea for the adaptive trigger came to fruition (story of trigger mechanism) everything started coming together.

I had had one rifle tag before. I believe that was in 2009, maybe. Over the summer before I decided to buy a semi auto deer rifle because I figured I would be sitting by myself and I knew I would not be able to jack in another bullet if I needed to fire another shot. So I bought myself a Remington model 7400 in the .243 caliber. I even had a chance of shooting a doozy that year but I blew it. He was less than 140 yards away and I can still see him when I close my eyes. His 4 x 4 ivory white antlers were chasing skinheads just north of our farmstead and when I pulled back on the trigger I heard a click. Geesh. The action was not shut all the way. After that miscue I used a bolt action but never had another opportunity to shoot a buck that year.

But 2011 was going to be different. The main reason for that was because of my friend Kirk (KDM). I had told him or he had read about my trials and tribulations of trying to get my first rifle kill and he offered his land which is in and adjacent to the Sheyenne River valley. It is prime land for wildlife and when he offered me this chance to hunt on it, I jumped at it. Well not really literally jumped but you can imagine. KDM told me this, "You are going to shoot a buck and it is going to be on my land!"

After talking quite a bit during the summer with KDM, we devised a plan to build a blind that I could easily use. He found an old sleeper box for a semi that was going to work sweet. He placed it on his land overlooking a valley that had been known to hold a lot of deer. The week before the season started we met up again and worked out the wrinkles in the blind. The day before the season opened I went over again to check it out and everything worked perfectly. But when Friday came around the wind picked up from the south and it was gusting hard. The south wind was not going to be good, everything that was going to come in front of me would come from the north and they would wind us a long ways away.

So on opening day while I was on my way over to KDM's, he came up with a new plan. We were not going to sit in the blind. We would hunt on some other land of his which was north about a mile and a half. We were going to sit in the CRP and wait for the deer to start moving. I believe I got there about 10 or 15 min. before the season opened, which always opens at noon. We were bouncing through the CRP when we found a good spot and I was opening the side door of the shaggin wagon with a couple minutes to spare. KDM got my rifle mount attached and my Remington 243 model 7400 rifle cocked locked and ready to rock right on time. I didn't think we were going to see a deer, especially that early in the afternoon. But I knew this was prime land. I knew there was a lot of deer in the area but I didn't think they would show with the shaggin wagon nearby.

I believe it was around one o'clock in the afternoon when two big does with two fawns came running right beside us. They had to actually run around the shaggin wagon to get to where they were going. After we saw them go by, we decided to move a little closer so we could see over the draw just in case something tried to sneak in. At 3 PM I noticed a deer sneaking out of the shelter belt in front of us. KDM exclaimed joyfully, "It's a buck!" As soon as he said that I noticed the antlers coming out of the trees. He was probably around 200 yards away, a good shot for me but he was actually coming closer.

The buckaroo stood by that corner post.

As we were watching the buck I will paint you the picture of what is happening in the shaggin wagon. KDM is sitting in the front passenger seat and I am in the back of the shaggin wagon with the side door open and the ramp down. My rifle is aimed out of the side and I am trying to get on this buck. It was kind of a cluster. I had to pivot and move my chair side to side to get him in the general area so I could see him in my scope. Once he was in my scope I had to adjust my chair up and down to get the crosshairs lined up on him. Then once the crosshairs were lined up on him I needed to put the center of the reticle right in the kill spot. This was all happening in the back of the shaggin wagon. Neat. Thankfully KDM had the shaggin wagon parked perfectly in the CRP.

As you could imagine, it took me a little while for me to get the crosshairs on him. Probably just over a minute. But it seemed like forever. It seemed like an eternity for KDM. Ha ha. I could not believe the buckaroo just stood there. Just when you could tell he was starting to get antsy, KDM yelled at him, "Hey!" He yelled to get him to stand there a little longer. It worked. He was now about at 170 yards, broadside. KDM looked back at me and said, "If you want him, shoot him. He isn't going to stand there all day." After I heard that, I pulled on the trigger and smacked him good, right in the pump station. He hunched over immediately, ran about 30 yards and piled up.

As KDM was looking through his binoculars he said, "He isn't going anywhere, you got him good!" Then we started celebrating. If you know KDM, you know he can get excited. It was awesome. The excitement he had for this moment was worth it. I just smiled and took it all in.

As we started to calm down, we got everything taken off my wheelchair and the rifle packed away. Then I got strapped back into the shaggin wagon with the ratchet straps and we started bouncing out of the CRP back to the approach. Once we got to the gravel road, he called his wife Sandy to have her bring the pickup. We couldn't go straight to the kill spot through the CRP because of a draw in between us and him. By the time we got around to the other side of the quarter, Sandy and their daughter were right behind us. We had to bounce down about a half-mile of CRP to get to where the buck was. Once we got to the buckaroo, the celebrating started again, it was neat. Then we took a bunch of pics.

Tagged and ready to go in the bag.

We got the buck in the back of the pickup and we took off to their place. This was only about a couple miles away. Once we got there I called my mom and told her the story. I believe she was in Valley City with one of their vehicles doing a little shopping. When she got back to their place we had to decide what to do. I wanted to bring it back to the locker in Enderlin, Maple Valley Meats. But I didn't really want to haul it in the shaggin wagon. Then they remembered they had a bunch of plastic from a new couch that they just bought. So we wrapped up my buckaroo in plastic, put it beside me in the back of the shaggin wagon and mom and I headed to E-town redneck style.

This is how you transport a "Buck in a Bag" redneck style in the shaggin wagon.

Once we got to the locker my nephew Kolby was there to witness this redneck event and my buddy Lucas was also there. Luke per usual handle the guts and did the cape. The buck is now a shoulder mount on my wall.