Photo courtesy of Smithville Corp of Engineers
MissouriWhitetails.com
Photo courtesy of Smithville Corp of Engineers
Smithville Special Hunts
The Corps at Smithville pioneered the handicapped deer hunting program for the Kansas City Corps of Engineers fourteen years ago.
Since that time, other Corps projects like Truman, Stockton and Milford have fashioned similar programs to offer quality deer
hunting to disabled folks in their respective communities. Since we started here at Smithville with 17 hunters in 1990, we have grown
to hosting 65 or so hunters each year for the past three years. We will not grow past this number as we are out of room for blinds in
the "non-public-hunting" areas. We have constructed 55 blinds for these hunters
in high quality, premier deer hunting territory. Last year our hunters harvested
72 deer in the two day hunt. This hunt is supported by local service groups which provide breakfasts and lunches and last year
over 2,500 man hours of volunteer service was donated by guides and their assistants.
If you want additional information I would be pleased to provide it to you. This hunt is not about the Corp, it is about the handicapped hunters! This is a great opportunity for folks that can't get out and hunt, to have two days of extremely high quality deer hunting each year. Additionally, the volunteer aspect is very heartwarming. Most volunteers get as much good out of their effort to help someone that needs assistance as they get from hunting going hunting themselves.
If you want more info on this great hunting opportunity please send an e-mail to me at this address:
Corps’s Annual Hunt Nets Deer, Creates Memories
By Michael A. Watkins
Kansas City District
The brisk Saturday morning air of mid-November stung as the pickup truck with a disabled hunter and volunteer guide turned into the Smithville Lake parking lot.
“Do you think they have a deer?” someone inquired. As the truck pulled around back of the visitor center and came to a stop, the huge smiles on the faces of hunter Lloyd Fosdick and volunteer guide Kathy Meier beamed through the windshield. The door opened and Fosdick announced, “It’s a boy!” With that, the first deer harvested during the 14th annual managed deer hunt for the physically challenged at Smithville Lake, Mo., was ready to be checked in.
Excitement filled the air as people gathered to admire the nice 8-point buck Lloyd had in the back of his truck. Fosdick has an outgoing personality and a rather unique sense of humor. He relished the opportunity to entertain the group with a somewhat embellished tale of the hunt. Meier managed to interject a word or two in an attempt to keep the story somewhat factual.
Fosdick suffered a spinal column injury in an automobile accident in 1980. He has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. Fosdick is a 10-year veteran of the hunt but didn’t harvest his first deer until last year. “I read about the hunt in the newspaper,” he said. “I use to squirrel hunt when I was a kid. The deer hunt sounded like fun so I thought I would give it a try. I have made some great friends over the years and I will keep coming back as long as I am healthy.”
The managed deer hunt for Physically Challenged individuals was the brainchild of Bruce Clark, the project manager at Smithville Lake. In 1989, Clark and the project staff noticed that the Waterfowl Refuge and several undeveloped park areas at the lake were becoming overpopulated with deer as these areas were closed to hunting. They concluded that the best way to control the population was with an intensely managed deer hunt. Clark and the staff thought an excellent target hunter audience would be people with disabilities; those with limited ability to go to the field to hunt deer.
Clark lobbied for and received approval from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) to conduct the first hunt in the fall of 1990. Over the years the Smithville Lake project office has cultivated a number of beneficial partnerships and MDC has been one of the hunt’s staunchest supporters. In fact, MDC designated the hunt headquarters as an official game check station and annually provides department personnel to issue tags and check deer.
Upon the hunt’s inception, one of the most valuable partnerships was forged with the Paralyzed Veterans of America. In the early years they helped locate paralyzed individuals that liked or wanted to try deer hunting. More recently they have assisted by donating funds to local service groups who support the activity.
“Volunteers are the backbone of this event,” according to Clark. “We simply couldn’t do it without them!” Each hunter is paired with a volunteer guide. The guides shuttle the hunters to the field and stay with them throughout the day. They field dress the deer and assist with transporting the game to the check station and locker plants if necessary.
Fosdick agreed with Clark’s assessment of the volunteers. “They are absolutely fantastic,” he stated. “If you need any kind of assistance there is always someone there to help.” Over 10,000 volunteer hours have gone into making this hunt a success the past 14 years. Local service groups and organizations have also embraced the hunt. Boy Scout Troup #397 out of Kearney, Missouri arrives at hunt headquarters at 2:30 a.m. each morning to prepare a delicious hot breakfast featuring biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, donuts, coffee and juice. The Smithville Kiwanis Club provides a vast assortment of homemade chili and soup for hunters who return from the field for lunch.
“One of the main objectives of the event is to provide a quality outdoor experience for the hunters,” Clark said. Each year with the aid of volunteers the Corps of Engineers prepares 55 blinds that will accommodate the hunters and their guides comfortably. There are 3 criteria that must be satisfied before a blind is constructed in a given location. “Hunter safety is the number one priority,” according to Clark. “Each blind must have a safe shooting zone with land and/or timber protecting it from other hunters.” In addition, the blinds must be accessible to allow vehicles within a few feet and must be located in an area where the hunter will have a reasonable chance of harvesting a deer.
The foundation for a blind is made by setting 2 four foot by four foot wooden pallets side by side. The pallets are leveled and a 4 by 8 foot sheet of plywood is attached using wood screws. Steel fence posts are installed at the four corners and half way between the 8-foot lengths. Burlap is used to enclose the blind and a door is created at one end to serve as an entrance. A 2” by 4” stud is attached to the shooting side of the blind to serve as a rifle rest and a retractable tarp is attached to the top to protect the hunters from inclement weather.
During the first few years of the event, the hunters and their guides provided feedback on the blinds. Information on blind orientation and the number of deer observed was recorded on an evaluation card. This information helped Clark and his staff modify the blind locations which resulted in an increase in hunter success.
Over the years the hunt has been expanded as the number of applicants has increased. In 1990, 17 hunters harvested 9 deer and by 2003, 58 hunters harvested 72 deer. “I doubt the hunt will get any bigger,” Clark stated, “We have pretty much reached our carrying capacity in terms of the number of blinds we can safely place in the 1,500 acre hunting area.”
The hunter success rate for harvesting a deer has also improved over the years. “In the early years hunters were very unprepared, according to Clark. Their equipment and shooting skills were poor.” As the years have passed, Clark observed that, “many of the hunters have acquired better equipment and they obviously spend more time practicing on the shooting range.” In addition, in 1998 MDC began issuing multiple deer tags at no additional cost to the hunters. The hunter purchases one statewide deer tag and exchanges it for 3 managed hunt deer tags. This was done to help reach the target harvest rate of 100 deer annually.
The overall hunter success rate has been phenomenal especially for disabled hunters. Over the past 14 years, 612 hunters have harvested 530 deer. This computes to a hunter success of over 86 percent, which far exceeds that of the general deer hunting population in the state of Missouri.
Larry Magill is a 5-year veteran of the hunt. Magill has been confined to a wheel chair since 1993 due to complications from polio, which he had as a child. He lives in Sunrise Beach, Missouri and travels more than 400 miles round trip to attend the hunt. He had not hunted deer since college and heard about the Smithville hunt from a local MDC conservation officer.
“I was apprehensive at first,” Magill stated, “but once I got here I just couldn’t believe the setup. I remember thinking, this is just too good to be true! Bruce, his staff and the tremendous group of volunteers attend to our every need. For the 2 days of this hunt, our physical impairments become totally irrelevant.”
When Magill returned home from the hunt this year his granddaughter couldn’t wait to hear about his experience. “Did you have a successful hunt?” she inquired. “Yes indeed!” her grandfather responded. It was very successful for 2 reasons Magill explained. “I had the privilege of once again renewing old friendships and making new ones and I left Smithville having been inspired to try and serve others despite my own physical impairments.”
But did you get a deer his granddaughter persisted? Yes, I killed two he told her. “But while it is nice to have fresh venison in the freezer, the meat will soon be gone,” he explained. “However, the memories I made and the inspiration I received from the Smithville hunt will be with me for a lifetime.”
The Smithville Lake Managed Deer Hunt for the Physically Challenged has served as a catalyst to spawn similar hunts in the Kansas City District. Managed hunts at Milford Lake in Kansas and Stockton and Truman Lakes in Missouri provide similar opportunities for physically challenged individuals in their communities.
Editor’s Note: Watkins is a wildlife biologist with the Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Kansas City, Mo.)