2 Cool Fishing Forum banner

special hunt

2K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  yazoomike 
#1 ·
a friend of mine called me and told me about this hunt,and i just wanted to share it with you ,get some tissues, am sorry if this is to long,but here goes.

To all my friends and family:

This weekend we had the pleasure of being part of something that touched our lives forever. If you will please take the time to read this, I think it might touch yours as well.

For those of you that don't know, we run a small outfitting operation (Los Compadres Outfitters) at Cortney's family's ranch (La Lomita
Ranch) in George West, TX. We typically put together about six hunts a year at the ranch, where we sell deer hunts, in which all proceeds stay at the ranch towards improvements, etc. Jason Sugarek, a good friend of mine, approached us last year about doing a hunt one weekend for a disabled person through Buckmaster's. Buckmaster's put together a non-profit organization called Buckmaster's American Deer Foundation
(www.BADF.com) that provides the opportunity for handicapped/disabled persons to hunt. We were, of course, honored to provide a place for this to happen. Jerald Kopp is the man that puts the hunts together in South Texas and eventually contacted us with the information about the particular gentleman, and I mean gentleman, that he was trying to put together a hunt for. At the time, he didn't have a whole lot of details, but we knew we were interested in hosting the hunt. We set the date with Jerald, and now the rest is history.

Details on our hunter:

Jeffrey Watts is from a small town about an hour and a half outside of Lexington, Kentucky. He was in an accident 10 years ago in which he was electrocuted while hooking up electricity to a trailer. He fell 30 feet to the ground from a power pole causing him to be paralyzed from the chest down, not to mention internal burns and the aftermath.
Four years prior to the accident, Jeffrey had twin boys, whom are still the loves of his life. His wife passed away shortly after his accident, after they divorced, from a drug overdose. Six years later, Jeffery's dad passed. No need to state the obvious, this guy has lived one heck of a life. He is in a wheelchair, which is nothing fancy, but gets around pretty darn well! The guy could not be nicer, more humble, or any more appreciative for not only the things people do for him, but just his life in general. He does not want handouts, or for that matter, help doing anything he doesn't need help with.

The Greeting:

Jeffrey and his mother Odessa showed up to the ranch with Jerald Kopp, who by the way is a stand up guy himself, at 1pm on Friday afternoon.
Jason Sugarek was there to welcome them and I showed up shortly after, with Vic showing up shortly after me. Odessa was very reserved and quiet at first, while Jeffrey was as happy as could be. Neither he or his mother had ever been on an airplane before, so the experience was already a bit overwhelming to them. We sat and visited and learned a bit about each other before the afternoon hunt, while also getting everything prepared for Jeffrey.

The Hunt:

When it was time to get to the blind, you could see the excitement on Jeffrey's face. He is an avid hunter, but never has had the opportunity to shoot the kind of deer we have here in South Texas. We had been watching a particular buck for almost the entire season this year that we had picked out as our "Buckmasters Deer" for Jeffrey.
The deer disappeared about three weeks ago, as the deer started to rut, and our morale levels went way down. But, as luck would have it, the deer showed back in the same area we had been seeing him last Sunday morning. We were able to borrow a trailer mounted deer blind, built for wheelchair accessibility, from a man named Guy Garbe from Portland, TX. We got it set up earlier in the week in this particular area. We got Jeffrey to the blind along wit Jerald and Jason. They had a great hunt, seeing some good deer, but not seeing "the deer"
until right before dark when it was too late to shoot. That's why its called hunting!

Day 2:

We picked Jeffrey up about 6am and got him, along with Jerald and Jason, settled in the deer blind by 6:30am. I sat about ½ mile away from them at another stand so that I could be close by. At around 7:15, Jason sent a text saying that the deer we were looking for was out, but they could not get a shot at him. Either he would be standing facing away from them or another deer would walk in front of him at the wrong time. This went on for 30 minutes. Once again, that's hunting! The deer walked off into the brush and Jason text me again, and we thought it was all over with for the morning hunt. I guess the deer was hungry, because he came right back out to the feeder to eat some more corn. Jason messaged me again to let me know the deer was back out. Not more than a minute later, I heard the shot. After hearing the shot, I got sick to my stomach. It sounded like a clean miss. I told Jason to sit tight in the deer blind for a while and hopefully the deer would return for more vittles! He never did. Around 8:45, Vic and I went and picked the guys up from the blind and Jeffrey was shaken up badly! He couldn't believe that he had missed the deer. Well, he didn't! We went down to where he shot and found a small blood trail. The deer was dead 30 yards in the brush. He made a perfect shot at 160 yards. It sounded like a miss because the bullet went right through the deer without hitting any bone! Vic and Jason drug the deer out of the brush and the sight after that was unreal! When Jeffery saw his deer being brought out to the sendero, he started to tear up out of disbelief. Well, that started a chain reaction, and we all lowered our sunglasses to hide our emotions! None of us have ever seen a man so happy, so proud, or so appreciative to shoot a deer in our entire lives. We took a couple hundred pictures of the events and then went back to surprise Jeffrey's mother Odessa. When we got there and she received the news from Jeffrey, I am pretty certain that she was more ecstatic than Jeffrey. She instantly screamed and started crying happy tears. We, of course, took more pictures with Odessa and relished the moment with them.

The Rest of The Trip:

The following afternoon was mostly spent listening to Jeffrey and Odessa make phone calls back home to Kentucky telling his story to I think everyone in there home town! It was very exciting. We showed Jeffrey around the ranch later and then it was time to hunt again.
Odessa has never hunted a day in her life, and she decided that she wanted to go sit out with Jeffrey in his deer stand. So she did. I wish I could say that she also shot a buck, but she was just tickled with getting to look at all of the wildlife. Jeffrey also hunted Sunday morning, but with no luck on trying to shoot a pig. They never cooperate when you want them to!

Before leaving Sunday at noon, there were many touching moments, especially a very touching prayer in which we all held hands and joined in as Jeffrey prayed. It was special. There were many tearful goodbyes, hugs and handshakes.

Sunday Night:

Jeffrey and his mother get back to Kentucky at about 11pm on Sunday night. There has been freezing rain there for two days, and snow there Sunday morning. They live atop a fairly steep hill and do not have a four wheel drive truck to get them home. So, when they get to the bottom of the hill, they will stop, Odessa will get Jeffrey out of the car, and push him and his wheelchair to the top of the hill to their home. From what I understand, it is not the typical distance that you or I would walk on a daily basis. Picture that for a moment.

Same, but different note:

I am not telling this story because I think we deserve a pat on the back for helping provide this opportunity for Jeffrey. I am telling this story because we are not, or don't want to be, done giving to Jeffrey and his family. There are many obstacles of Jeffrey's family's lives that I have left out because you don't have time to read about all of them. What I will say is, they are among the less fortunate people of the world. Odessa does not work because she has to take care of Jeffrey. They live off of a small amount of Social Security and rely on Medicare and Medicaid for all medical bills.
Often, they have to go to friends, family and neighbors to borrow money to pay for bills. I have never been one to ask my friends and family of much, but I do have something to ask of you now. I am going to take donations for Jeffrey and his family to use for medical bills, lights, groceries, clothes, or maybe just a day of fun before a life ends, as Jeffrey's health is not all that great. As soon as I have a pledge for an amount of money, I am then going to send a check to Jeffery and his family. Not to be pushy, but I would like to get it done sooner than later. If you could, PLEASE pledge something.
Anything will help. You can either make a check out to me, and I will include it in the final check I write to the family, or you may make a check out directly to Jeffrey Watts and I will send it along with mine. I sincerely appreciate the help, and I know they will too.

I know you might not be as touched by this story as we are, because you weren't there. Believe me, if you could have been there, you would be just as deeply touched as we are. We take so many things for granted and think we have so much to complain about. We have nothing whatsoever. This weekend made me realize that my life, and most of yours too, is better than I could've ever dreamed about.

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this. And, once again, if you have the means, donating a little bit of money to this family would mean the world to myself and especially to them. Also, please feel free to forward this email to anyone whom I have forgotten and might have the heart to give!

Here are some pictures as well and more to come.

Sincerely,

Blaine Weaver
PO Box 235
Chapman Ranch, TX 78347
361-739-1955

blaineweaver@gmail.com
 
See less See more
#3 · (Edited)
a friend of mine called me and told me about this hunt,and i just wanted to share it with you ,get some tissues, am sorry if this is to long,but here goes.

To all my friends and family:

This weekend we had the pleasure of being part of something that touched our lives forever. If you will please take the time to read this, I think it might touch yours as well.

For those of you that don't know, we run a small outfitting operation (Los Compadres Outfitters) at Cortney's family's ranch (La Lomita
Ranch) in George West, TX. We typically put together about six hunts a year at the ranch, where we sell deer hunts, in which all proceeds stay at the ranch towards improvements, etc. Jason Sugarek, a good friend of mine, approached us last year about doing a hunt one weekend for a disabled person through Buckmaster's. Buckmaster's put together a non-profit organization called Buckmaster's American Deer Foundation
(www.BADF.com) that provides the opportunity for handicapped/disabled persons to hunt. We were, of course, honored to provide a place for this to happen. Jerald Kopp is the man that puts the hunts together in South Texas and eventually contacted us with the information about the particular gentleman, and I mean gentleman, that he was trying to put together a hunt for. At the time, he didn't have a whole lot of details, but we knew we were interested in hosting the hunt. We set the date with Jerald, and now the rest is history.

Details on our hunter:

Jeffrey Watts is from a small town about an hour and a half outside of Lexington, Kentucky. He was in an accident 10 years ago in which he was electrocuted while hooking up electricity to a trailer. He fell 30 feet to the ground from a power pole causing him to be paralyzed from the chest down, not to mention internal burns and the aftermath.
Four years prior to the accident, Jeffrey had twin boys, whom are still the loves of his life. His wife passed away shortly after his accident, after they divorced, from a drug overdose. Six years later, Jeffery's dad passed. No need to state the obvious, this guy has lived one heck of a life. He is in a wheelchair, which is nothing fancy, but gets around pretty darn well! The guy could not be nicer, more humble, or any more appreciative for not only the things people do for him, but just his life in general. He does not want handouts, or for that matter, help doing anything he doesn't need help with.

The Greeting:

Jeffrey and his mother Odessa showed up to the ranch with Jerald Kopp, who by the way is a stand up guy himself, at 1pm on Friday afternoon.
Jason Sugarek was there to welcome them and I showed up shortly after, with Vic showing up shortly after me. Odessa was very reserved and quiet at first, while Jeffrey was as happy as could be. Neither he or his mother had ever been on an airplane before, so the experience was already a bit overwhelming to them. We sat and visited and learned a bit about each other before the afternoon hunt, while also getting everything prepared for Jeffrey.

The Hunt:

When it was time to get to the blind, you could see the excitement on Jeffrey's face. He is an avid hunter, but never has had the opportunity to shoot the kind of deer we have here in South Texas. We had been watching a particular buck for almost the entire season this year that we had picked out as our "Buckmasters Deer" for Jeffrey.
The deer disappeared about three weeks ago, as the deer started to rut, and our morale levels went way down. But, as luck would have it, the deer showed back in the same area we had been seeing him last Sunday morning. We were able to borrow a trailer mounted deer blind, built for wheelchair accessibility, from a man named Guy Garbe from Portland, TX. We got it set up earlier in the week in this particular area. We got Jeffrey to the blind along wit Jerald and Jason. They had a great hunt, seeing some good deer, but not seeing "the deer"
until right before dark when it was too late to shoot. That's why its called hunting!

Day 2:

We picked Jeffrey up about 6am and got him, along with Jerald and Jason, settled in the deer blind by 6:30am. I sat about ½ mile away from them at another stand so that I could be close by. At around 7:15, Jason sent a text saying that the deer we were looking for was out, but they could not get a shot at him. Either he would be standing facing away from them or another deer would walk in front of him at the wrong time. This went on for 30 minutes. Once again, that's hunting! The deer walked off into the brush and Jason text me again, and we thought it was all over with for the morning hunt. I guess the deer was hungry, because he came right back out to the feeder to eat some more corn. Jason messaged me again to let me know the deer was back out. Not more than a minute later, I heard the shot. After hearing the shot, I got sick to my stomach. It sounded like a clean miss. I told Jason to sit tight in the deer blind for a while and hopefully the deer would return for more vittles! He never did. Around 8:45, Vic and I went and picked the guys up from the blind and Jeffrey was shaken up badly! He couldn't believe that he had missed the deer. Well, he didn't! We went down to where he shot and found a small blood trail. The deer was dead 30 yards in the brush. He made a perfect shot at 160 yards. It sounded like a miss because the bullet went right through the deer without hitting any bone! Vic and Jason drug the deer out of the brush and the sight after that was unreal! When Jeffery saw his deer being brought out to the sendero, he started to tear up out of disbelief. Well, that started a chain reaction, and we all lowered our sunglasses to hide our emotions! None of us have ever seen a man so happy, so proud, or so appreciative to shoot a deer in our entire lives. We took a couple hundred pictures of the events and then went back to surprise Jeffrey's mother Odessa. When we got there and she received the news from Jeffrey, I am pretty certain that she was more ecstatic than Jeffrey. She instantly screamed and started crying happy tears. We, of course, took more pictures with Odessa and relished the moment with them.

The Rest of The Trip:

The following afternoon was mostly spent listening to Jeffrey and Odessa make phone calls back home to Kentucky telling his story to I think everyone in there home town! It was very exciting. We showed Jeffrey around the ranch later and then it was time to hunt again.
Odessa has never hunted a day in her life, and she decided that she wanted to go sit out with Jeffrey in his deer stand. So she did. I wish I could say that she also shot a buck, but she was just tickled with getting to look at all of the wildlife. Jeffrey also hunted Sunday morning, but with no luck on trying to shoot a pig. They never cooperate when you want them to!

Before leaving Sunday at noon, there were many touching moments, especially a very touching prayer in which we all held hands and joined in as Jeffrey prayed. It was special. There were many tearful goodbyes, hugs and handshakes.

Sunday Night:

Jeffrey and his mother get back to Kentucky at about 11pm on Sunday night. There has been freezing rain there for two days, and snow there Sunday morning. They live atop a fairly steep hill and do not have a four wheel drive truck to get them home. So, when they get to the bottom of the hill, they will stop, Odessa will get Jeffrey out of the car, and push him and his wheelchair to the top of the hill to their home. From what I understand, it is not the typical distance that you or I would walk on a daily basis. Picture that for a moment.

Same, but different note:

I am not telling this story because I think we deserve a pat on the back for helping provide this opportunity for Jeffrey. I am telling this story because we are not, or don't want to be, done giving to Jeffrey and his family. There are many obstacles of Jeffrey's family's lives that I have left out because you don't have time to read about all of them. What I will say is, they are among the less fortunate people of the world. Odessa does not work because she has to take care of Jeffrey. They live off of a small amount of Social Security and rely on Medicare and Medicaid for all medical bills.
Often, they have to go to friends, family and neighbors to borrow money to pay for bills. I have never been one to ask my friends and family of much, but I do have something to ask of you now. I am going to take donations for Jeffrey and his family to use for medical bills, lights, groceries, clothes, or maybe just a day of fun before a life ends, as Jeffrey's health is not all that great. As soon as I have a pledge for an amount of money, I am then going to send a check to Jeffery and his family. Not to be pushy, but I would like to get it done sooner than later. If you could, PLEASE pledge something.
Anything will help. You can either make a check out to me, and I will include it in the final check I write to the family, or you may make a check out directly to Jeffrey Watts and I will send it along with mine. I sincerely appreciate the help, and I know they will too.

I know you might not be as touched by this story as we are, because you weren't there. Believe me, if you could have been there, you would be just as deeply touched as we are. We take so many things for granted and think we have so much to complain about. We have nothing whatsoever. This weekend made me realize that my life, and most of yours too, is better than I could've ever dreamed about.

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this. And, once again, if you have the means, donating a little bit of money to this family would mean the world to myself and especially to them. Also, please feel free to forward this email to anyone whom I have forgotten and might have the heart to give!

Here are some pictures as well and more to come.

Sincerely,

Blaine Weaver
PO Box 235
Chapman Ranch, TX 78347
361-739-1955

blaineweaver@gmail.com
Hey could you let Blaine know its Josh Hale get my # from Blake and I will gather up all my hunting buddies and see what we can do for this guy. Man that must have been one hell of a trip. Teared me up Bro. But give me a call lets see what we can do.
 
#5 ·
No pictures have appeared? Thanks for taking the time to do something for someone less fortunite. You will always reap more rewards for helping someone else out in there lives. UNtil you help someone you just don't know the rewards you receive back. 0 what a better country this would be if everyone just helped one person out!

Thanks for sharing with us! If I ever could afford a guided or private hunt you guys would be my first pick!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top