Posted on 10/02/2006 10:06:59 AM PDT by SLB
DOUGLAS n- It had been a good morning in the field for Arkansas sportsman Roy McKim.
He'd shot a wild turkey on his first try and was enjoying a day off from work as a dispatcher for the Arkansas Forestry Department.
Then a friend from work called, excited.
"He said, 'Roy, you know that hunt in Wyoming you’ve been trying to get in? They called,'" McKim recounted. He thought surely the call was a prank n- he’d been putting his Helluva Hunt application in the mail faithfully for six long years.
But sure enough, this was his lucky day, and six months later McKim and his father, Royce McKim, were on a plane headed for the Cowboy State and Sunday's 22nd annual Helluva Hunt in Douglas.
Volunteer guides who are well-versed in Converse County's topography and critters forfeit their own opening days of hunting season in order to assist disabled hunters. Thanks to special permits issued by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, sportsmen can fire from vehicles if needed. Private landowners offer up 60,000 acres of prime ground at no charge, often stalling off paying sportsmen until the Helluva Hunt crews have their tags filled.
Ask the veteran guides about Helluva Hunt, and they'll praise its wonders. They clam right up, though, when asked about their involvement, saying it's not about them -- rather it's all about the hunters. The guides are ingenious in the tools and techniques they develop to make shooting antelope possible for the disabled sportsmen.
Marcus O'Bryan came from Bristol, Fla., to bag a prize antelope. His vision is nearly nonexistent. He leans to within inches of the paper to sign a hunting tag. O'Bryan bagged a big one using a special scope mounted above his rifle on an X-shaped bracket, offering a view for a guide leaning in over the hunter. Softly-spoken commands -n up, down, to the left, distance n- are uttered by the guide, as the hunter responds and takes his shot.
McKim didn't need special apparatus, just the expertise of his guides, confidence and encouragement from his dad and the chance to fire from the truck for support. He was born with spina bifida, which typically prevents people from ever walking. He was a "miracle case," doctors told him, one of perhaps one in 10,000 with the condition who ever walks. From his earliest days his father was his protector, but also his champion.
"I was lucky," McKim said. "My daddy didn't say 'don't try to play baseball, don't try to hunt.'" Instead he encouraged McKim do both those activities and others, inspiring an attitude that disability is what you make of it.
"You can overcome anything, if you want to put the work into it," McKim said, wrapping his fingers around his antelope's 14.5-inch horns.
McKim is an active member of the Arkansas Disabled Sportsmen’s Association, where he often volunteers to help out other hunters far more disabled than he. Those guys n- the ones in wheelchairs, the quadriplegics -n they inspire him, McKim said.
If he isn’t at work, he’s off hunting the Arkansas woods and meadows, shooting turkeys and whitetail deer. This year’s antelope was a first for the 37-year-old.
Setting off in a flatbed with guides Jeff Taylor of Wagonhound Ranch and Andy Gallina of Chicago, McKim was a bundle of anticipation. Along with the guides he scoped out several small bucks, forgoing an easy shot in hopes of a keeper.
He found it, watching over does in a coarse sagebrush field.
"I was really rattled," McKim said with a grin. "My heart was pumping. I thought I missed the first shot."
His aim was a little high on the first shot but the second bullet flew true, downing the pronghorn where he stood.
"I got real excited," McKim said in an on-camera field interview with Keith Warren of Keith Warren’s Outdoor Adventures, in Douglas to collect TV footage of the hunt. "I haven’t got that excited in a long time."
The Wyoming hunt was a dream come true for McKim, as it is for all the sportsmen, many of whom have never been "out West" before. Their ability levels span an entire range -n many hunted large game before accidents left them disabled. Others are on-target with a shotgun when firing at game birds, but have never ventured out for antelope.
R.D. Elder of Blue Mound, Ill., was left a paraplegic after a truck rolled over on him in 1983. Talented with a shotgun, he’s bagged his share of birds, but never -n until Sunday -- large game. With his guide Bill Sinnard, Elder found a real trophy, along with an experience that went beyond his expectations.
The camaraderie, the activities and the people were phenomenal, he said, and, he pointed out, "The worst day hunting is better than the best day doing anything else."
I had a great time camping and hunting antelope in Douglas WY. I would love to go again and probably will. Cold as heck starts early up there.
I was born and raised in Wheatland. Best antelope hunting in the world near there. Used to get a nice buck evey year followed by a Mule Deer.
You aren't far enough north in Wyoming for "Cold as heck" to start early. Come on up to North Dakota.
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