By Krista Duhon
news@joplinglobe.com
MIAMI, Okla. — David Shier held his breath, steadied his hand, then gently pulled the trigger and waited for the bullet to find its mark on a paper target. It was high and to the right. Shier made a mental note of the trait of the blackpowder gun and prepared for a hunt last weekend.
The 40-year-old veteran from Muskogee, Okla., joined three other disabled hunters in the annual Great Muzzleloader Hunt sponsored by Northeast Oklahoma residents who support the Mid-America Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. The four-day event wrapped up Sunday at the Jack Darymple farm just north of Miami.
Eddie Camara of Shawnee beamed after taking the day’s biggest deer — a 10-point buck that he killed with a single shot.
“Thank you,” Camara said repeatedly to volunteers. “Thank you for everything you have done. This is a wonderful program and you all have gone out of your way to accommodate us.”
The hunters are shooting from stands engineered to accommodate wheel chairs and designed so that hunters have good protection but can easily take their shots, according to Dalrymple.
“We wanted the hunters to be able to be comfortable in the blinds and be able to relax and enjoy the sport,” Dalrymple said. “These are not just hunters. These are men who fought for this country and they deserve an opportunity to enjoy the freedoms they protected.”
Though Shier had seen several deer pass before him Friday he didn’t fire a shot Friday afternoon and found himself hoping that his luck would change Saturday. He attempted to kill a doe early Friday morning but the shot rose just over the shoulder of the animal, which is why he chose to check the sights.
Hunter Richard Harrell a Vietnam veteran from Earlsboro, Okla., said the event, now in its second year and born from the “Great Turkey Hunt 2008,” offers paralyzed veterans more than an opportunity to tag a deer on some of Northeast Oklahoma’s best hunting land.
“When you have a catastrophic injury, sometimes you think your life is going to pass you by and you will never again enjoy all the things that you enjoyed before,” Harrell said. “When you get to participate in an event designed to accommodate a disability, it takes away the frustration that you sometimes encounter when events are not so well planned.”
Harrell’s weekend trip to Miami was his second for a PVA event and he said Ottawa County had again displayed unparalleled hospitality. He arrived Thursday to a stream of American flags flanking Main Street.
It was enough to cause the 62-year-old Seabee to pause.
“Never, when I came back from Vietnam, did I know of anything like this for veterans and it makes me feel really good that something like this is going on.”
