A good friend of mine is also, unfortunately a patient. "B" was the best horse trainer I have ever met. He would take a string of owl eyed mustangs up into the Owyhee mountains and take turns riding each of them on a 25 mile circuit until they were all a bit more tractable. I have been treating him for Multiple Sclerosis for three years now.

I had filled out the paperwork for a handicapped hunting permit for him a while back and not thought much more about it since. Yesterday in the clinic he came right out and asked if I could take him turkey hunting this spring.

Once I got over feeling like an asshole for not asking him first I got pretty excited about the whole deal.

We will all be wearing diapers and sucking lime jello through a straw in the rest home soon enough.

I'll post pictures.

lawndart

Charlie

No good deed goes unrewarded, good going, dude.

Finally a Dr. who understands how to make a guy better.

I salute you sir. Keep up the good work.

lawndart,

You just wrote your best Rx ever. That hunt will do him more good than a boxcar load of colored pills.

Hope he gets a huge tom.

Hgo Killer

Good luck guys! My mom has MS too, make the most of your time.

Attaboy lawndart!
You got some brownie points towards a place in The Happy Hunting Ground some day.

My best hunting buddy is a cardiac patient whom I take care of gratis, of course he is a taxidermist and does things for me gratis too, so I probably am not getting any brownie points to cash in later.

We split our bison meat hauls between our families, as it is more healthful than the marbled stuff. I make house calls. He teaches me telepathic communication with four legged critters , and tells me war stories.

He is VIP and I am RIP. Vip and Rip afield, look out critters, we can read animal minds.

Vip is the finest man I know, and my hunting guru.

LD,

Good for you. You'll soon not even think about him limitations while out in the field and your friendship will likely just get closer.

My oldest close friend is in a wheelchair. He was Mr. Outdoors. Hunter, climber, whitewater rafter, and the best damn skier I have ever seen.

He fell out of a tree some years back and broke his back. He's now paralyzed from below his rib cage down. He hasn't let him slow him down (sometimes to his own peril).

We hunt deer every year together. He hunts off a quad and goes damn near any where. The first year I started out feeling all warm and fuzzy about what I was doing for him. Now he doesn't get a damn bit of sympathy from any of us any more as he usually shoots the biggest deer out of all of us. .

Here's a picture of him and an antelope he shot a couple of years ago.



We were going to go to Africa togther in '06, but his doctor has advised against it. He's been getting infections lately and the Doc is worried about bizzare bugs he might pick up there.

But we're doing a guided mule deer hunt in Montana this fall. we're all looking forward to it.

Enjoy your time with you buddy while you can, and don't feel too bad about not inviting him right off. Eric had to ask me too. Now I can't think of spending my Autumn with-out him.

-Steve

Let us not forget that Saeed hunts with the mentally handicapped: Walter.

Saint Saeed.

I'm a physician by training and, 2 1/2 years ago had the misfortune to have two young men, coming in the opposite direction to my motorcycle, decide to have a "road rage" episode. This resulted in one of the oncoming vehicles crossing to the wrong side of the road and colliding "head on" with my motorcycle with a closing velocity of around 100mph.

I broke pretty well every major bone below the waist bar my left femur. Nine fractures healed quickly but, unfortunately, my right thigh bone has refused to heal and I'm restricted to crutches between operations. This means I can only walk a few hundred yards and can't carry anything.

Before the accident I was pretty active, hunting, shooting, fishing, photography, cycling and motorcycling, surfing, scuba diving etc.

Now, the only things I can do properly are hunt and shoot. Admittedly, instead of walking around covering a vast amount of territory (and, no doubt, scaring a lot more game than I saw) I spend the non productive hours driving about looking for sign and then "camp" on a likely waterhole or game trail with a chair and a "swag" (bed roll) so I can lie down when I get sore. I seem to see more game than I used to when walking about.

Because of my extremely limited capacity to follow up wounded game I am more selective about the shots I take and use bigger bores than I would have previously.

I thought recoil would be a problem but I'm a big boy (110kg/240lbs) and have maintained good upper body fitness. I can accurately fire a quick (1.5 seconds) "right and left" standing on one leg using a 470, although I usually shoot from a chair. I break one every 6 weeks or so but I think that's my weight, rather than the recoil. My accuracy sitting is better than pre-accident, although, not surprisingly, off hand is not as steady.

After the accident, I had to spend three months in bed then had another three months before I got back to shooting. I was quite surprised and disturbed to find that my accuracy had really deteriorated. I also found that I was much more clumsy doing things like hand loading, minor mechanical repairs. I had no significant injuries above the waist and had no head injury.

The fine motor skills (and accuracy) came back quite quickly (4-6 weeks) and I think it was just the effect of a long period of non use. My rehab doctor's were unaware of this effect and thus, were not able to reassure me - it's worth bearing in mind if you have a problem like mine.

I'm off in three days for 4-6 weeks in the outback, with some pig and camel hunting, sleeping on the ground each night, no facilities. I'll leave to your imagination how I manage on one leg with no toilet facilities.

Lots of people are quite negative about my continuing hunting with many "what if" disaster scenarios ("what if you fallover and breakthe plate in your leg", "what if the car breaks down and your wife can't get back to pick you up" etc). Well, they all apply if I fall off the verandah at the farm when my wife is away. Most Australians are scared of the bush.

Disabled people really should be encouraged to hunt and shoot - it is one thing where you can succeed and feel you actually have control over your environment.

mike

Having been on the receiving end of such kindness myself I can assure you your efforts are greatly appreciated.

JCN,