Mills County, Texas did itself proud on Saturday, January 8, 2011 and successfully completed its first Wounded Warrior Hunt!  It was a success from the start at noon, the weather was nice, there was a terrific lunch of beef stew, biscuits, peach cobbler, coffee or sweet tea and the soldiers loved it!  After dinner we matched up the guides, the landowners and the hunter-soldiers and moved the festivities out to the various ranches.  All told over 30 ranches and landowners participated and over 50 soldiers with various wounds hunted.

A little after 2:00 PM, when we arrived at our place the hunters were anxious to get on with the hunt, but being too early we watched football until 3:30. Then I told them we better have some weapons familiarization training and we heid out to the range.

First to go was Phillip, a vet with experience in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  He was using my .270 and his shots were right on.  Tim Albee was guiding Phillip. Next, was Ted, but because of his severe wounds from an IED on his last day in Iraq, his Son was taking his place and his shots were true.  My son Randy was guiding Ted and Howie.

Here’s Phillip shooting from a squatting position.

 

Onlookers watching Phillip shoot.

Next up was Tim, with his black powder rifle, the same  one he used to shoot a nice buck on November 23 in “[Gruntin]”.

After the smoke cleared, the hunters and their guides headed out to their assigned spots, Tim and Phillip were hidden in the brush behind the Porta Potty Blind and Randy and Howie were in The Tree Stand.  At 6:30 PM we were to be at the fried fish supper provided by the Texas Games Warden School located in Mills County.

Five minutes before the supper was to start, in came the hunters.  Phillip had shot a doe and Howie hadn’t scored, but in the rush to get into the fish fry I didn’t get a “shot” of  the deer.  Arriving at the supper all the troops were excited.  The total harvest was 30 doe and spike, 1 black buck and 1 coyote, overall a very successful hunt.  Talking to one trooper in a wheel chair, I found out the he had scored on a nice doe, their wounds not preventing them from having fun and getting outdoors!

Supper was a roaring success, fried, cat fish, hush puppies, French fried potatoes, slaw, jalapeno peppers and sweet tea – a feast fit for a king!  The troopers loved it, the guides loved it, the ranchers loved it and I kidded the Wardens frying the fish that it was probably confiscated fish and the fryer’s reply was “Of course it was confiscated, because that’s the best kind!”

For everyone it was a very rewarding experience!