# Great Story



## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

Getting their turn
By RICHARD HINTON, Bismarck Tribune 
CENTER -- Once they would have shunned these rides in favor of the more sporting, time-honored method of hunting roosters -- walking.

But accidents, illnesses or other factors have left them incapable of walking a long tree row or through a short harvested field in anticipation of gaudy rooster pheasants flushing within shotgunning range.

Now an overhauled Spra-Coupe, complete with open-air seats flanking the cab, and a couple of pickups serve as some disabled hunters' legs.

And last weekend was their chance to get on board those vehicles and go after those roosters, thanks to Sporting Chance and its four-year arrangement with BNI Coal, which owns the land they hunted, just south of here.

Early Saturday afternoon, six wheelchair hunters, five ambulatory hunters and a throng of volunteers -- many with dogs -- were refueled and refreshed after a wet morning hunt, with mud so thick as to double the weight of walkers' boots and grass so damp as to hold birds tight and stifle dogs' ability to catch a scent.

The refueling also was courtesy of Sporting Chance. Chili ladled up steaming hot by Sporting Chance volunteers was the main course, and the desserts were plentiful enough to knock an afternoon walker out of commission even before he or she started.

Everyone ate in the comfort of a huge parking garage for small vehicles at the BNI Coal headquarters complex.

"It works out well," said Jim Fagerland, the BNI supervisor that day. "They can drive inside and roll out."

Sporting Chance, the Bismarck-based organization that hooks up the disabled with opportunities to experience the outdoors again, is in its 12th year. The nonprofit organization also offers opportunities to shoot sporting clays, snow ski, water ski, ice fish, open-water fish and hunt, including this pheasant hunt and some bow-hunting for deer.

Dan Avard, of Lincoln, already had gotten his deer with a bow about two weeks ago.

He has been in a wheelchair for three years, ever since a car accident put him there. Saturday morning he was chasing pheasants, perched in his wheelchair strapped securely in the bed of a pickup that was keeping pace with walkers, dog handlers and dogs.

He had hunted most of his life before the accident, he said, and this was his second year to participate in Sporting Chance's opportunity to hunt roosters, although he cut short the afternoon hunt to help his wife with the kids.

Leslie Moss rode the driver's side chair on the Spra-Coupe, a converted farm vehicle that can carry two disabled hunters.

The hunter riding on the other side got all of the shots that morning, Moss said. Holding his shotgun pointed skyward with the action open, he was more than ready to go again that afternoon.

Injured when he rolled his pickup four years ago, Moss has been participating in the Sporting Chance pheasant hunt for three years.

John Lain, of Reynolds, and Steve Piper, of Bismarck, one of the founders of Sporting Chance, shared the bed of one pickup. Each sat in a wheelchair with the knees close against the cab and their wheelchairs securely strapped in. Rolled-up sleeping bags on the pickup's roof offered a gun rest. A partially full box of Fiocchi Golden Pheasant shotgun shells was tucked between the bags, offering handy access for a quick reload.

Dan Johnson, the president of Sporting Chance, was among those walking with the slow-moving truck. He wasn't carrying a shotgun, and neither were any of the other volunteers. The volunteers' philosophy certainly gave the participating hunters more than a sporting chance to bag a rooster.

Also one of the hunt organizers, Johnson saved the best field for last.

And that hunt through a field of dried corn stalks that stretched for maybe a mile was planned and executed in classic driven-bird fashion. A party of blockers at the far end. Enough ambulatory hunters, walkers, dog handlers and dogs working close enough to each other to prevent many pheasants from slipping through their net. Piper and Lain's vehicle was on the right flank, just on the other side of a tree row.

Although the dogs -- hard-running Labrador retrievers mostly, but with others, including a nice-working pair of vizslas -- busted a few birds, most pheasants were running to keep ahead of the line of walkers.

If luck plays a part in being in the right spot for a shot when a rooster flushes, Piper and Lain probably were glad they weren't in a casino. They would have left broke.

A few birds came out well ahead of their shotgun's ranges. A couple flew out behind them.

As the walkers drew closer to the blockers, the action got heavier. More and more birds flushed, and walkers started identifying the fleeing birds. "Hen," one would shout. Another bird would fly and another shout. "Rooster." And, rarely, a "roo Š hen!"

Piper and Lain also were calling out genders to each other, but only hens seemed to fly within range.

Finally, someone called "rooster," and the brightly colored bird came over the trees within easy gunning range.

Lain swung and fired, and the rooster cartwheeled into the adjacent field and was quickly retrieved by Amos, a yellow Lab.

Turns out the shot was a dicier call than it looked.

"I almost ran out of swing," Lain said.

It's sort of like his and all of his colleagues' hunting trips these days -- just another obstacle to overcome.

(Reach reporter Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or [email protected]

Kudos to Sporting Chance, BNI and all involved, Great story!!! Nice to read good things about ND Hunting! 

Bob


----------



## jamartinmg2 (Oct 7, 2004)

Great post, Bob. It is great to see that people with disabilities can partake of this great sport.


----------



## jmmshadow (Oct 31, 2002)

awesome post bob, helping people with disabilities enjoy the outdoors is what it is all about.


----------



## leadshot (Aug 2, 2004)

Excellent !!!!


----------



## Remmi_&amp;_I (Dec 2, 2003)

Great Story! More of this is needed! :beer:


----------

