Vincent Wilson, 39, wanted to hunt. Overcoming physical and mental challenges, Wilson persevered and recently fired a crossbow at his first deer hunt with his dad by his side. Many people, both friends and strangers, helped him realize the dream.
By Ad Crable
Published Oct 25, 2005 13:55
After all these years, it was their first hunt together. Vincent’s first hunt ever.
That Vincent Wilson was sitting there in a wheelchair with a cocked crossbow next to his father, straining to see the next whitetail, is testament to the power of collective caring.
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Wilson has spastic cerebral palsy, which causes limbs to contract. He has spent most of his life in a wheelchair and his left arm is all but useless, his hand shriveled.
He grew up on his family’s farm outside Strasburg until 16 years ago, when he moved into a group home in Leola run by Friendship Community, a nonprofit Christian ministry that has 17 homes in Lancaster County.
Wilson’s first blessing was that Jason Hamilton and his wife, Jennifer, became houseparents a couple years ago. Not long after, Hamilton was at a gathering of Vincent’s family at their rural home when he saw two impressive buck heads on the wall.
That got Hamilton thinking. A longtime hunter in his native Alaska, he wondered if Wilson would be interested in hunting, despite the physical challenges. When Hamilton spotted a newspaper story about a special hunt for disabled hunters at Muddy Run Recreation Park, he broached the possibility with Wilson.
The suggestion was greeted with an enthusiastic yes. After all, Wilson had been watching Sunday morning hunting shows on television with Hamilton. And he had been eating the venison fajitas and Chinese stir fry Hamilton likes to whip up for the home’s three residents.
The first step was to get a hunting license. Wilson signed up for the requisite training course offered by the Lititz Sportsmen’s Association. He loved the experience but ultimately failed the written test.
Feeling awful, Hamilton called several Pennsylvania Game Commission officials to see if there was any other way to get Wilson a hunting license and into the special hunt. No, all hunters have to pass the training course, he was told politely but firmly.
End of story, Hamilton figured. But he was wrong.
Exactly a year later, Wilson, who has a terrific memory, started bucking to take the course again. Apprehensive but moved by Wilson’s tenacity, Hamilton found another course.
This time, Hamilton found sample questions online. Hamilton and staff at the home quizzed Wilson for two months before the course. So did his co-workers at Occupational Development Center, a nonprofit employment and training center in Lancaster for adults with developmental disabilities.
Everyone, it seemed, was rooting for him. This time, he passed the hunting test, correctly answering 82 percent of the 50 questions. A picture of a grinning Wilson holding his official Pennsylvania hunting license graced the front page of the ODC newsletter.
The next order of business was making Wilson proficient in the use of a weapon. Hamilton settled on a crossbow. They went to The Sportsman’s Shop in New Holland to price them. There, they ran into general manager Scott Bachman, who, it turns out, is one of the organizers of the special deer hunt. He got a disabled friend to loan Wilson his crossbow.
But other challenges appeared.
Wilson has such poor eyesight he’s legally blind and would need help in aiming the crossbow at the spot on a deer that would ensure a clean kill. Bachman contacted TRUGLO Sight Co., a Texas company that sold Wilson, at a reduced price, a second, fiber optic scope with which Hamilton could sit behind Wilson and see where the hunter was aiming. A special mount for the scope was provided for free by the Physically Challenged Bowhunters of America.
With one incapacitated arm, Wilson couldn’t lift and hold the crossbow steady. Hamilton called a Michigan chapter of Safari Club International for help. At a board gathering in Arizona, the request was passed on to Craig Kauffman, a Landisville man who represents chapters in Pennsylvania and two other states.
Kauffman got to work. He got all four Pennsylvania chapters and a regional chapter to fork over $420 to buy a gun rest that could be mounted on Wilson’s wheelchair.
“The Michigan guys wouldn’t leave it it die,” says Kauffman. “That’s what we’re all about — getting hunters in the field.”
Now armed, Wilson and Hamilton began putting in practice time at the indoor range at Lancaster Archery Supply. And they bought an interactive TV hunting game that used the type of optical sights Wilson would use in the field.
With his income from his five-day-a-week job as an assembler, Wilson bought camouflage pants, boots, hat and hunting coat.
“Vincent was never wound up about anything until this thing came up,” says his mother, Ann Wilson.
Meanwhile, Wilson, who greets each question asked of him with an aw-shucks laugh, was telling everyone about his upcoming hunt.
“Everybody was rooting for him,” his mom recalls.
Finally, the sixth annual antlerless deer hunt for disabled hunters arrived on Oct. 17. Wilson was one of eight hunting with crossbows or compound bows. Twenty others used muzzleloading rifles. Eleven of them would get deer and almost everyone would get an opportunity for a shot.
Some 70 volunteers got the hunters positioned in blinds, delivered meals, drove deer toward the hunters and recovered and field-dressed shot deer. Exelon Energy, which owns the park, once again opened it up for the special day.
Wilson arose at 3:30 for his first hunt. He let out a whoop while riding in an all-terrain vehicle — his first — to his spot on a hillside.
He had asked his dad to come along, and the elder Wilson was along, dressed in his aging hunting orange.
Wilson was bursting with excitement. “My mom gave me a kiss in her robe,” he reported.
The deer came in bursts. Twice Wilson had close-range broadside opportunities at does. Hamilton ruled out the first one when he spotted the ears of a fawn directly behind the doe. He advised against the second shot because of a clump of grass and branches in the way of a clear shot.
Shortly before noon, Wilson did take a shot at a doe, but the arrow sailed harmlessly underneath. Hamilton later paced the distance at 37 yards — he had helped Wilson aim for a 30-yard shot.
Wilson’s dad, thrilled and proud at how quiet and focused his son was during the hunt, was naturally disappointed his son didn’t get a deer.
But he’s already planning to increase his son’s odds next time by building a Lazy Susan-type device that will enable his son’s wheelchair to spin noiselessly to aim at deer.
“It’s been good for him and it’s been good for me,” adds Hamilton. “It’s just been a lot of opening up and I like to see that.”
Wilson, meanwhile, started planning next year’s hunt as soon as he was lifted back into the van.
Later this week, Wilson will be toasted in front of 800 people at Friendship Community’s anniversary banquet. The theme: Breaking Barriers.
