I am forever indebted to everyone who was involved. There is no way to express how thankful I am to everyone. It’ s not about the kill, it’ s about memories made. And I sure made a lot of memories during this adventure. •
hundred yards, then bedded back down.
I was ready to give up but they said he isn’ t going anywhere. I got back in the pickup for a half hour to warm up, then got back out and we reattached the gun mount and Brady’ s rifle. We then made a second sneak.
We got to the hillside where he was bedded 130 yards away. It worked perfectly. It was just as windy, but for some reason it wasn ' t affecting me as much. I moved my wheelchair to get in line, adjusted my elevation by tilting a little, looked in the scope and he was there. The crosshairs were right on him! Sam grabbed one side of my chair, Brady the other. I said,“ I ' m on him.” Sam dialed the scope in a little and I said,“ That’ s good, I ' m taking the shot.” I pulled the trigger and didn’ t even feel the recoil. It felt good. The next thing I knew Sam, Brady and my brother-in-law Brad were screaming like school girls.“ He got him! He got him!” I got a little choked up. It was quite the moment. We congratulated each other and I thanked them all.
We loaded equipment back into the pickup, then Brady and Sam reached the buck and tagged it. They told me to head back to the abandoned farmstead where Brady’ s brother Cole was with their cousin Shay. I later learned that these two videoed the whole thing a thousand yards away from the farmstead. I love watching that video.
Cole and Shay drove up to help load the buck. It’ s a good thing they did because Brady’ s fuel pump went out on his pickup. What are the odds? They lifted the buck into the back of Cole’ s pickup and made their way to the farmstead. We all went over the events that just took place. It was a great time. It was now time for pictures. We found a good spot next to an old building and took turns capturing the moment.
Once we got into the garage back at the grandpa’ s farm, the boys hooked up a propane turkey fryer right next to me so I could warm up. In no time the buck was quartered and in game bags. We found the bullet and discovered that the top half of the heart was completely gone. Lucky shot.
After we got the buck in the cooler the boys got the garage cleaned up and I thanked grandpa, Cole and Shay for helping. I also thanked Cole and Shay, smiling the whole time. Grandpa told us about shortcut back to Medora so Brad, Shelie and I headed back to town to the Little Mo.
The next morning there was snow on the ground. In fact, it snowed all the way to Jamestown. At one point we were going only 5 mph on the Interstate crossing the Missouri River. It took awhile to get back to Enderlin.
I still can’ t believe how everything came together. It was perfect. There isn’ t anything I would change. Everyone I met was so awesome. I’ m thankful they urged me to try one more time. They didn’ t even know me and they were willing to help in any way.
I am forever indebted to everyone who was involved. There is no way to express how thankful I am to everyone. It’ s not about the kill, it’ s about memories made. And I sure made a lot of memories during this adventure. •
Page 68, Dakota Country, September 2025 www. dakotacountrymagazine. com