6th Prize
Hunting Journal with Weatherby Logo (100 awarded)
Eric Kruger, Georgia
“I need to give a little background info first on why this would be my dream hunt. My grandmother, Annette Jackson, won the big buck contest in Arroostacook County in Northern Maine in the early 60s, hunting with my grandfather, David Jackson, (the Game warden for that area of Maine) took a very large body eight-point whitetail deer. I would love to go hunt in northern Maine and follow in my grandmother's footsteps and try to take a large whitetail deer. To walk and hunt in the lands that my grandfather patrolled for 40 years,and my grandmother hunted and fished would be the thrill of a lifetime!
I have thought long and hard considering who would I take with me or ask to go on a hunt like this and it would have to the gentleman who introduced me hunting and whom I have hunted with for 25 years...who taught me that springtime was for turkey hunting and fall was for deer hunting. The thrill of the hunt and joy when successful. That would have to be David Blizzard. We have enjoyed many good hunting tripps together in Alaska and now in Georgia where I now live. He lives and works to hunt. He spent many hours looking at old photos of deer taken in Maine by my grand parents. We have talked and tried to plan a trip to Maine but it has just not worked out.
I wish that my grandfather would have been more of a mentor about hunting when I was younger, but living in northwest Florida, the only hunting they really did was with dogs. For my grandfather said there was no room in the woods for dogs and he did not believe in hunting with them at all. He would have been more apt to shoot the dog for running the deer than shooting the deer. He filled my head with stories from the great north woods of bears, bobcats and majestic whitetail deer and how they would take an Indian with them when he was cruising timber because the Indians were allowed to kill a moose. How he would catch poachers.
It would be an honor to take my friend and mentor to Maine and enjoy the hunt of a life time. To give back to him the joy and companionship that he has given me over the years. The smell of the pines, the noise of water running in the brooks, all the noises of the big woods. The way your heart speeds up after glimpsing that elusive buck, scanning the woods looking for the next glimpse, praying that he steps out and gives you the shot of a lifetime and when he does, the smell of the burned gunpowder, the noise of the shot, the sweat running down to the small of your back even though it is freezing. Did I get the shot? Then you look and see that the universe came together in one perfect moment, in that split second and there lays the deer of your dreams! You sit and shake with joy and the stupid smile appears on your face that only another hunter can understand. You get out of your stand and walk over still disbelieving that it was you who took this truly amazing animal. The look from the other hunters as you pull back into camp with your trophy, the joy they find in listening to you tell them of the hunt. Knowing that the next day will be their time to take the deer of their dreams and they will be the one telling the story and having every one listen.
For those who have never experienced the thrill and disappointment of hunting, I hope that one day they, too, can find the peace that comes with being in the woods and enjoying the thrill of hunting. The joy of seeing animals large and small move through the woods around you unaware that you are there. This is my dream hunt and as I have sat here and typed this, I can smell the trees and hear the scurry of raccoons and crunching of the leaves as that buck walks toward you! Thank you Lord for a great life and good memories.”