6th Prize
Hunting Journal with Weatherby Logo (100 awarded)
Donald Brongiel, Illinois
“My name is Donald A. Brongiel Jr. My dad started us out hunting when we were about nine years old. He would take my twin brother and me out hunting for rabbits and pheasants. My brother and I were basically his ‘bird dogs.’ We would walk through the brush and scare the game out, and then retrieve it after he shot it. For us, it was a lot of fun just to be outdoors and spend time with dad. Over the years, my brother and I eventually got our own guns and moved on to bigger game such as wild turkey and whitetail deer. We took Dad with us most of the time, but he never really had any luck getting a buck or even a turkey.
My dad's name is Donald A. Brongiel Sr. He suffered a very traumatic accident at work about 16 years ago, which nearly cost him his life. He actually flatlined twice, but fortunately the paramedic on hand was able to revive him each time. He was a foreman in construction in charge of a roofing crew. One day after a brief rain storm, he slipped and fell off a third-story roof and landed on concrete and rubble in a hole in the ground. He suffered multiple internal injuries, including a separated pelvis, cracked and compressed vertebrae, a torn shoulder and deep bruising on his heart, liver and kidneys. His right leg was pushed up about four inches into his hip. The doctors gave him less than a 10 percent chance of survival. Needless to say, after multiple surgeries, traction, two metal plates, 14 bolts and having his lower vertebrae fused together, miraculously dad is still with us and living a pretty normal life. The injuries forced him into early retirement at the age of 51. We eventually got dad to go back out hunting with us, but growing up in the midwest, the cold weather prevents him from sitting out in woods for any extent of time due to the lasting effects of his injuries. He can handle warm weather, but not the cold.
I look forward to the fall season each year because it means one thing...deer season! I love to hunt whitetail deer. For me, just like Mossy Oak, deer hunting is not a passion, it is an obsession!
My eldest son is 14, and he is starting to get into deer hunting with me. As you would guess, his name is Donald A. Brongiel III. We have a picture that sits on our fireplace mantel at home with the three generations of Donald A. Brongiel. My dream hunt would be to be able to take my dad and my son on a trophy whitetail deer hunt down in Texas, and have the three of us bag a trophy buck. It would have to be Texas because it is warm and Dad would be able to handle it. Texas is known for its trophy whitetails. I would love to add another picture of the three generations of Donald A. Brongiel to the mantel. Only this time, the three of us would be posing with our trophy whitetails! More important, I would love to be able to repay my dad back for all the memories he's given me by getting me started in hunting. I would love to see the smile on his face when he finally gets a big buck. I would love to see the smile on my son's face too, when he gets his first buck.”