Veterans punching some tags

willy

5 year old buck +
Here are the vets who rifle hunted my farm and my folk's farm this year. They had a great hunt with lots of deer seen and choices to make. The second pic is of our neighbor's pup who took a liking to the two vets and spent a morning helping look for deer. They said Sophie didn't impact the hunt negatively at all. The third pic is of our vet who had never hunted deer prior to last Saturday.
PA Vets Travis and Dennis.jpg
sophie.jpg
Nell's buck.jpg




We've been having vets with disabilities come hunting for the past 8 years for deer. A couple during muzzleloader and the rest during our firearms season. Only one has not got an animal and that is because he didn't let the bolt close by itself on a BAR .243. It went click on that buck. That deer survived the season and his name is Click this year. He is the buck I am after this year. That vet is coming back next year:)

The organization that helps me find vets for these hunts is Freedom Hunters. They sponsor these hunters. We are not outfitters just families that want to give back to our vets. Freedom Hunters covers the hunters expenses and sends me names and hunting interests of people they feel would be a good fit for what we can offer. I then contact them and ask the vets if they'd be interested in coming for a hunt. Almost all have said yes, the nos have been rainchecks for another time if still interested.

It has been a tough year for all because of covid but especially for non profits that need fundraising events to keep going. Freedom hunters is no different. I encourage all of you if you can, to go to freedomhunters.org and donate what you can or get involved in some other way if your not already involved in a way to give back to our veterans.

Thanks for reading. Good luck to all of you on your next hunting adventure.

Willy
ps I did try to make all the pics the same size but I was not able to do so. It has nothing to do with subject material. I think it had to do with what phone they came off of.
 
Congrats to the vets for their bucks and thanks for their service and Thank you Willy for doing this for them!
 
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This is awesome!
 
Congrats to everyone involved!
 
That’s great. We’ll donate!
 
Willy, first off MANY thanks for so generously helping the vets!

One question for you as relates to those who've been impacted mobility wise. Have they hunted from ground blinds and / or gotten help into elevated blinds? As much detail as you can share as relates how you've made it possible for them to gain access to stands and have success will be appreciated!

I only have ladder stands at my place now, but have debated putting in some box blinds and your answers might impact what I choose to do! :emoji_thumbsup:
 
Thanks for the questions bigbendmarine.

My dad and I have built two enclosed blinds specifically for wheelchair bound vets. They are off the ground 6.5' with long ramps built up to entry doors. I used repurposed materials for almost everything. I have a construction contractor neighbor and got a bunch of used deck material and posts from him for the ramps, used an aluminum dock for a portion as well, an old stainless steel machine shop table is built in as a mid point landing to go up the next level on ramp.

We also built several elevated enclosed blinds for the more mobile vets to use. On their farm there are really minimal trees for tree stands of any sort so the elevated blinds are best suited for there. On my place I have other enclosed blinds and tree stands for vets to use.

The mobile vets have used tree stands but most have sat in the enclosed blinds and love that. There are two money stands on my farm. One is the wheelchair blind and the other is the one the vet shot the big 5x5 out of this year. The wheelchair blind has been in place for 5 years and I put it where a blind would be a great place but it would stick out like a sore thumb. I planted forage sorghum to screen the first year and then I planted hybrid willows and cedars around it and miscanthus gigantus around it the next spring. It never was a high deer traffic area during daylight but with those planting the deer are out in the plot it overlooks at anytime of the day. The plantings make the blind disappear and wall of the area from being seen from the outside. 'The bling overlooks a 1.5 acre annual soybean plot , two 12 tree apple/ pear orchards, and 1 acre of clover. Surrounding all that is nwsg plots and then cedar, oak, and other trees timber. The deer are very comfortable there. It's 200 yards from the house and easy to get vets in and out. I've snuck the vets in there prior to legal and there are still deer in the plots when we look out.

The vets can shoot any deer that makes them happy and I guarantee we are as happy as they are if not more when they get one.

Here are pics from Tyler's hunt '17. The blind is in the background. He got this nice 5x5 buck on the 6th day of the season. It lasts 9. He missed an opportunity at a much larger buck on opening morning. he was only able to hunt the morning of opening day and then came back the following thursday for the afternoon.

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Here is the blind that Dad and I built at their farm. That is him standing in front of the door way.

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The ramp is 39" wide and 42" at the turn opening. The windows are sliders and there is an awning above each window to cut down on sun glare into the blind.

The blinds have a shooting rest them.


If anyone has anymore questions please ask.
 
Thanks for the questions bigbendmarine.

My dad and I have built two enclosed blinds specifically for wheelchair bound vets. They are off the ground 6.5' with long ramps built up to entry doors. I used repurposed materials for almost everything. I have a construction contractor neighbor and got a bunch of used deck material and posts from him for the ramps, used an aluminum dock for a portion as well, an old stainless steel machine shop table is built in as a mid point landing to go up the next level on ramp.
The "like" button won't do justice for the admiration I have for the work you've put into putting together the blinds. Honestly words can't either, but sure feel DEEP thanks for what you've done for these fellow vets.
 
Thank you for the kind words bigbendmarine. Much appreciated.
 
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