Years ago, when I was around 6, my grandfather took me to Family Day at Buckhead hunting club in Colleton County. That was, as best as I can remember, the first time I went hunting with a group of people. I am sure he probably took me hunting before that, but that’s the first hunting memory I have. In the 40-plus years since then, I have been on hundreds of hunts with clubs and informal groups of hunters.

I have been fortunate to hunt with some of the finest people anyone would care to spend time with. I’ve been to clubs where everyone met at the crossroads at 6 a.m. and planned the day’s hunt on the back of someone’s tailgate. Later that day, a fine lunch of saltine crackers and potted meat was served on that same tailgate.

I’ve been to a club where leather recliners and stuffed African game heads filled the main room of the clubhouse. Lunch was served on fine-bone china and more forks and spoons came in the cloth napkins than this redneck from Orangeburg had a clue what to do with. The main dishes were pronounced in French, as was the wine that accompanied them.

Most of the groups I have hunted with have been somewhere in between those two extremes. No matter how you look at it, I have hunted with a bunch of people over the last 40 years. I have thoroughly enjoyed most of those times and hope to get to hunt with many of those same folks again in the future. That being said, I had the honor of hunting with the most inspiring group of hunters I have ever had the privilege of being around the last week of October.

At first glance, they looked like any typical group of deer hunters gathered together on a fall afternoon to chase whitetails. There were grizzled old, gray-haired veterans with more deer to their credit than they could count. There were youngsters so excited about the possibility of shooting their first deer that they couldn’t stand still. There were boys, girls, men and women of all ages and races. The same scene that takes place all across South Carolina on any given afternoon, with one difference.

A closer look revealed a wheelchair here, a set of crutches there. Look even closer and a limp showed itself or a hand that didn’t work quite right. Turn around and there is another wheelchair. A stroll through the parking lot turns up as many vans with ramps on them as it does four-wheel drive pickup trucks. Handicap license plates outnumber NRA and DNR stickers and the hum of electric wheelchairs replaces the sound of four-wheelers growling across the clubhouse yard.

The third annual Safari Club Low Country Chapter’s wheelchair hunt was about to begin. Started in 2005, with 13 hunters on six plantations, the hunt has grown to 23 hunters on 15 plantations in just three short years. In the past, the hunt was restricted to people permanently confined to wheelchairs. This year the requirements were loosened a little to allow some of our more recently wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan that aren’t in wheelchairs to participate as well as Vietnam and Grenada veterans. The group was rounded out with several younger hunters from The Outdoor Dream Foundation as well.

Mark Peterson from Safari Club, Lynwood Kearse and Williams Matthews from the Department of Natural Resources, Ernie Wiggers, the director of The Nemours Foundation, and a host of volunteers too numerous to name here, did a wonderful job of setting up two days of hunting, entertainment and fellowship for the group. Sponsors, such as Thermocell, Black Death deer scent, Bernelli USA and others made sure the hunters were well fed, comfortable, entertained and given every opportunity to shoot a deer as humanly possible.

The day started with a meet and greet for all the volunteers, sponsors and hunters to get a chance to get to know one another. The barbeque lunch that followed allowed even more time for socializing as plans for who was going to shoot what flew through the air. Then it was time for the shooting demonstration by Tim Bradley of Bennelli USA. If you have ever watched Bennelli USA on Saturday morning TV, you have seen Tim in action. The shots he makes on TV are even more impressive in person. The next time you have the chance, throw three clay pigeons in the air, by hand, and break all three before they hit the ground. Now, if you can do that, throw five, then seven, then nine in the air and break all of them. Tim wowed everyone there by doing just that and then it was time to hunt.

If you have ever been on a Lowcountry dog drive, you know the confusion that can result when trying to move a large group of hunters to their stands. Throw in a steady rain, muddy, slick roads, vans with two-wheel drive and 5,000-pound ramps on their sides, and wheelchairs that aren’t made for mud rallies and you can imagine the resulting mess. The hosting plantations and volunteers, however, had done a great job getting prepared and everyone made it safely to their blinds.

The first afternoon’s hunt ended successfully for several hunters. Chad Sloan shot a beautiful seven-point and several other hunters shot does. Many of the hunters who didn’t shoot saw deer that were too far or too small to shoot. Everyone I talked to afterwards had a great time whether they shot or saw deer or not. Mike Stewart marveled about how when it got close to dark, everything looked like a deer and how he kept thinking he was going to get a shot any minute now.

Many of these guys don’t get a chance to spend a great deal of time in the woods and for some of them, it was the first trip outside of the hospital, so they were pretty worn out by the time they got back to the meeting house. After a quick meal of leftover barbecue and soup and sandwiches, everyone left for the motels for the night.

At 5:30 a.m. the next morning everyone met back at Nemours Plantation for the last morning’s hunt. Mike and I were supposed to hunt together, but the two days of rain made it impossible to get his wheelchair-accessible van down anything other than the main road leading to the house. We talked about it for a while and decided that it would be smart to wait this one out. Truth be told, I didn’t mind the idea of sitting in the nice warm, dry house with a pot full of hot coffee instead of a cold, wet deer stand anyway. Mike didn’t have to try very hard to talk me out of going out that morning, I can promise you. So we wished the other hunters good luck and settled in for the morning.

Once everyone left, Mike, several of the other volunteers, and I talked about hunting and what a great time we were all having. One of the things Mike talked about several times was how great it was to be able to get out in the outdoors with like-minded people. Mike’s been in a wheelchair since the early ‘80s and I know from our conversations that one of the things he liked the most was being able to show some of the guys that are just starting out in a chair that there is life after being paralyzed. Once the other hunters got back, I noticed that he, as well as several of the other older guys, made sure to find the newer members of their fraternity and talk to them about all the things they had going on in their lives.

Soon enough the hunters started straggling back in and the real fun began. Chad Sloan managed to top his seven-point from the night before with an eight-point this time. He said that over the course of the morning he and his guide saw 17 deer. There were several does he could have shot, but they could see the big one off in the distance and kept waiting, hoping it would give him a shot. Sometimes patience does pay off, and after watching all those deer for hours, the big one finally wandered close enough to shoot.

Over the course of the two hunts, 23 hunters shot eight deer and saw plenty more. Not everyone shot deer or even saw deer, but from the looks on the faces of the participants, nobody left disappointed. Over and over I heard hunters and volunteers alike telling each other how much they had enjoyed themselves and how much they appreciated what the others were doing. It truly was a great event for all involved and I believe that everyone of us was blessed to be there. I know I am looking forward to going back next year.

 

-- T&D Correspondent Wes Murphy is a native of Orangeburg who now resides in Sumter. He can be reached by e-mail at wesnyou@hotmail.com.