6th Prize
Hunting Journal with Weatherby Logo (100 awarded)
Clint Rogers, West Virginia
”First off, my dream hunt would be any hunt.
It's 4:00 a.m., can't sleep, I remembered the commerical on TV, and thought, what the heck. My story starts that I am one out of four brothers, who are my closest and best friends. We're a bunch of jokesters that are always goofing off and having a good time. But unlike my brothers, straight out of highschool I went to college into Mechanical Engineering at WVU...the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. While my brothers joined the local Millrights Union, working at local power plants, just out of high school. I have been busting my butt through 18-20 hours/semester and working 30-40 hours a week in a diesel engine lab for five and a half years now. I'm currently in graduate school getting my master's and am considering getting my PhD.
All along, my two brothers making good money and jokingly rubbing it in my face...that I'm the college boy who makes no money. Although they know that eventually I'll probably end up being their boss at one of the plants. But like I said, while I'm in school busting through the hard life knowing what a good life for my future family I'm working for...they're living it up, with the nice new rifles, bows, trucks, guitars, etc. all the goods, but the main thing that drives me nuts, is the hunts.
They go on all kinds of hunts. They've been on moose, brown bear, black bear, trophy whitetail, caribou, and artic musk ox hunts. The stories they tell about every aspect of the hunts are awesome. They have offered to spot me the money till I graduate for me to go with them, but I turn it down. When I see the pictures of there trips, all I can think is, that's where I want to be, right there. The wilderness has always been my favorite pastime. When it comes time for our local hunting seasons, I'm always the most successful out of the four, and they give me heck cause I always wait for the big one.
If someone said, you can go on any hunt in the world, I'd probably say a grizzly hunt, mainly becauseI know it's hard to get to go on one, and there really expensive. But my actual dream hunt would be a trophy elk. To me they're the king of the America big game animals. To hear a bugle across the mountians and stocking it, oh man, that'd be just awesome. Mainly because I've not done any stocking hunting. I've walked up on deer, but hunting an elk seems like calling a giant turkey, and then stocking it down. Also, just for bragging rights, because my brothers haven't been on an elk hunt. Another reason is that out of all of the game animals, my girlfriend picked a big whitetail and elk to go in our living room, the rest has to go in my basement, or ‘man cave.’ But the main part, even if I did't get a shot at anything, would be the trip...just getting out, and away, and the experience and hopefully making some big stories of my own.
Who would I hunt with? I would love to hunt with my brothers, or any of my other close friends but as for someone famous, any of the people I watch on TV would be awesome...to meet Hank Parker, anyone, even good ole uncle Ted, fellow hunter and guitar player.
It's been hard, many times I've wanted to quit and join the union, sadly, just to afford a dang hunt, but I've stuck it out. I've never written something like this before, I guess it's just early and I'm in the zone, kind of venting, but thanks for the opportunity.”