6th Prize
Hunting Journal with Weatherby Logo (100 awarded)
Jesse Cochran, Georgia
“My personal dream hunt would be hunting whitetail deer with my father and best friend in an area somewhere around Matfield Green, Kansas. I specify this area for the simple reason that I briefly had the oppurtunity to hunt this area in the past and while doing so I fell in love with just the overall beauty of the land and the abundance of trophy deer in the area. I did not have any real success while I was there and financially I don’t see myself able to repeat this trip anytime soon.
I would like to take my dad and best friend because I know they would both truly enjoy it and we all get along great together. My best friend was supposed to go when I went in the past, but due to finacial responsibilities (the expectation of their first child) he could not make it. I tried to relay the beauty of the land and abundance of the trophy deer in the area when I returned but I found it extremely hard to describe something so beautiful. My friend is still at the same point I was before I went out there. I want him to see it and feel it in person.
I was only in the Matfield Green area for five days and I was truly shocked at the overall beauty of the land. Everything about the area seemed to heighten my senses. The smell and feel of the early morning air while sitting in a tree stand early in the morning. The sounds of the coyotes calling to each other from far off on the prairie at night. And the scenery around you while sitting in your tree is just amazing. If I knew I could make a living there I would move tomorrow, but unless you are a farmer or rancher you can forget it.
I’ve been through the southern Rockies via Wolf Creek Pass and while the area there is beautiful also, I still think that sitting in a tree on a crisp fall morning in a little draw overlooking an alfalfa field in Chase County, Kansas, is the best place in the world as far as I am concerned. I firmly believe that situation I just described would convert almost any person who states that they do not see a reason to hunt or cannot make any sense of a person wanting to hunt in general. They just do not know what they are missing.
I have got to get my dad and friend to see this area for themselves as soon as possible, and I highly recommend that you make a trip there also if you have never been. It’s beautiful fellas. Trust me. There may be bigger deer in Canada, or prettier scenery in Alaska, but in the lower 48, it gets no prettier than the geographical center of the U.S. You honestly feel and can even pretend if you want that you have stepped back in time, maybe 100 years. I never saw an airliner fly overhead believe it or not. There was no light pollution, so you could see every star in the sky on a clear night. I’ve never ‘won’ anything in my life and to win this competition to me would be right up there with winning the state lottery. Hope to hear from you soon and good luck hunting in the future.”