Hunting Forum

As of my first cancer (Jan 2006--Jun 2007), I have been partially disabled (enough that I've on Social Security Disability
since then).  There are other aspects of the damage done that don't really apply, but the two that really do are A) low
energy levels caused by A) loss of one testicle (it was testicular cancer with many metastases---first my lungs, then three
brain tumors, then back to my lungs), B) damage to my thyroid by radiation therapy after the three brain surgeries, which
controls the metabolism, C) low B-12 levels caused by the inability to process B-12 in the digestive tract, which was in turn
caused by low levels of thyroid hormone, and D) very harsh chemo (high dose-long-duration of one of the most destructive
chemo drugs that exists).

To further complicate matters, the first metastasis to my lungs left them almost completely useless (in fact, one of my
three soon-to-be oncologists gave me a 50% chance of just getting out of the hospital alive---I quickly, and not so
politely, corrected him on that...under no circumstances would I allow the cancer to win (and it didn't).  My lungs are
now back to somewhere around 55--60% of normal (per regular tests I get at my allergist/asthma doc's office).  Oh,
and yes, I do now have asthma, too.  The reduced lung capacity means I get winded very easily.  More ** to deal with.

I am, this year, finally getting back to hunting after far, FAR too long away from it.  I will be hunting on the Eglin AFB
public land (WMA), and will probably not have anyone hunting with me 99% (if not 100%) of the time.  So naturally,
I have some questions that I'm hoping to get answered before Eglin's "General Gun" season starts in November.

What I need help with is suggestions on how best to A) move any deer I shoot to a nearby tree so I can hoist it up to
field dress it; B) get it back to my car (2007 Honda Civic Si ... no truck) and into the trunk, and c) raise it again when
I get back to this metal box (trailer) that I'm stuck in (I live on Social Security Disability) so I can process it. I WILL
be processing it myself, for two reasons. 1) I can't afford to pay to get it done, and 2) I've both read and been told
that when you do pay, you never know WHAT you'll get back...and that is TOTALLY UNSAT. Every now and then, I
might have a friend hunting with me, but my plan, right now, is to hunt weekdays, when most people are at work, so
I'm not counting on having help, except the mechanical kind. Oh, and did I mention that I'm on SSD, and have an
incredibly-limited budget?

Any suggestions would be most welcome!

Thanks,
   --jim

I have the use of one arm and use a power wheelchair. You could do what I have done for the last 19 years. Get a hunting partner or have someone on call for when you get one. Yes, I hunt alone once in awhile.

Posted By Straight Shooter on 05 Sep 2012 09:45 PM
I have the use of one arm and use a power wheelchair. You could do what I have done for the last 19 years. Get a hunting partner or have someone on call for when you get one. Yes, I hunt alone once in awhile.

I'm basically assuming that I won't have that option, so I'm looking for ways to essentially reduce the load (or rather, make it
easier to handle the load, e.g., by using a cart to haul the deer, etc.).  I am trying to find someone who'll want to hunt with
me, but everyone I know here works during the day, and I'm planning on hunting weekdays, while everyone else is at work
(when I'm hoping the deer will be at least a little bit more relaxed).

Thanks,
   --jim

I have not looked but have you posted this in the florida section .As I have read on here about others in your situation that hunt there .Chect it out if not .

Posted By holly on 06 Sep 2012 09:05 PM
I have not looked but have you posted this in the florida section .As I have read on here about others in your situation that hunt there .Chect it out if not .

I'm new here ... there's a Florida section?  Where?  If nothing else, I've got lots of questions about the Eglin land that
I'd prefer to have answered before 1 Oct.....  :-)

Thanks,
   --jim

Just keep scrolling down the forums page as the States forums are further down the page.

Posted By Big Dawg on 07 Sep 2012 05:37 AM
Just keep scrolling down the forums page as the States forums are further down the page.

Thanks.

Just looked in the Florida forum ... not a single post. Nothing.

GT a lot of the states in the forum are not used much. Most other forums see a lot of use particularly the Misc thread. Always remember we are disabled and NOT helpless.

Posted By Big Dawg on 08 Sep 2012 08:46 AM
GT a lot of the states in the forum are not used much. Most other forums see a lot of use particularly the Misc thread. Always remember we are disabled and NOT helpless.

And, other than Social Security Disability's verdict (disabled), I consider myself only partially disabled.  My energy levels
start out well below normal, and after a little while, drop like a lead brick to zero.  My vision is impaired when reading due
to a 2.5" tumor in my left occipital lobe (the part that processes vision).  That one basically mixes words around.  For
example, look at the first two lines in this paragraph.  I might read these (several times over) as:

......  disabled.  My levels
start energy well below normal

Or words simply vanish, move around, or get completely changed.  It's incredibly annoying, and I have to read slowly and
meticulously just to TRY to catch my brain shifting stuff around.  Oh, and those puzzles on IQ tests, the online sample
admission test for MENSA, etc., where you have a bunch of squares, with dots in some, etc., and you're supposed to figure
out the pattern and identify the next image from a group ... I used to be able to do those with just a glance.  Now I
can't even see the patterns at all.  Along with all of that, for any group of one character or number, repeated more than
three times, I can't identify how many there are without breaking them up somehow.

Another of the three brain tumors I had affects my typing and spelling; when I'm typing, if I start thinking of the next
word while typing the one before it, I'll often mix the two words (i.e., start typing the second in the first, and put the
missing chars from the first into the second), spell words backwards, and so on.

Btw, the three tumors were:  1cm left front, 1cm right front, 2.5cm left occipital lobe.  Three brain surgeries in one
ten-hour session, followed later by whole-brain, max-dose radiation therapy (which took out my thyroid.  The lack
of thyroid hormone (Free T-4), in turn, took out my body's ability to process B-12, which I now have to inject
(SUB-Q, alternating arms) every other Saturday (today being one) along with an IM/leg injection at the same
time (more hormone replacement due to damage from cancer #1).  Low B-12 can have devastating effects on
energy levels (starting with fatigue, and getting worse from there), thought and concentration, and can cause
depression....

After taking my cast net out this morning for the first time in probably 12 years (one throw on 3 speckled trout,
and they got away before the net hit bottom), my arms are not exactly being forgiving right now.  :-)

Chemo took out my short term memory.  My friends here know that, if I suddenly stop talking and look confused,
one of a few things has happened:  either I've forgotten what I was going to say next, or I've forgotten what we
were talking about completely, or (and this is REALLY annoying), I *KNOW* the word I want to say.  It's as if I
can "see" it on one side of my brain, but can't get it to the other side to actually say it.  They all know to start
giving me cues as to what I might have been about to say.  When, in the middle of a sentence (or even a WORD),
I forget what we were talking about, the back up the conversation and remind me....

But despite all of that, I only consider myself partially disabled, out of respect for those who really are disabled.

Later,
   --jim

jim

first welcome to the club and the boards! as the name implys i am disabled, not by cancer, my was a cell phone driver! 27 surgeries so far,another 1 in less than 3 weeks,waiting for a new heart too! now i would never recomend anyone who is handicapped to go in the woods alone! that being said i have done it myself!

in order to hoist a deer you should go early and place a block and tackle in a tree, if no 1 see it and steals it, you should be able to lift a deermaybe a friend could climb up and camoflage it for you, if you wind easy dont climb! have you scouted a location to hunt, are you ground blinding it, tree stand(which i have stated my opinion on this method) or spot and stalk? if you have picked a tree to work from, can you get you car close to it? there are some deer drags that might help, the 1 i am thinking of is like a wheelbarrow, only just a tubular frame!

again i would strongly recomend a hunting partner! best of luck to you!

Posted By crippledhunter on 08 Sep 2012 10:06 PM
jim

now i would never recomend anyone who is handicapped to go in the woods alone! that being said i have done it myself!

in order to hoist a deer you should go early and place a block and tackle in a tree, if no 1 see it and steals it, you should be able to lift a deer maybe a friend could climb up and camoflage it for you, if you wind easy dont climb! have you scouted a location to hunt, are you ground blinding it, tree stand(which i have stated my opinion on this method) or spot and stalk? if you have picked a tree to work from, can you get you car close to it? there are some deer drags that might help, the 1 i am thinking of is like a wheelbarrow, only just a tubular frame!

again i would strongly recomend a hunting partner! best of luck to you!

I'm going to be hunting...one way or another.  I haven't had any way to since I was about 16 or so...no land to hunt on,
didn't know about hunting on public land, etc.....  So as you can imagine, I'm ready to go now (but can't).

As for ground vs tree vs spot/stalk, ground....definitely ground.  No, I wouldn't dream of trying to climb a tree.  Those
days ended around the time I turned 20 (back then, I could climb any tree with ease...not now).  And my "blind" will
be whatever I can use on-site.  The regs say you can NOT cut down any branches, etc., but you can use any that are
already down (those that fell naturally).  So I'll be doing what I can.  When I was a kid, we sat on rocks, tree stumps,
whatever we had available.

As for getting on the land and choosing areas to hunt, etc., I can't get my permit for the Eglin AFB public land until
1 Oct.  It's a year-long permit, so next year, I'll be able to get in a bit earlier, if I want to.  Another bit in the
regs  states that while you can bring in certain types of blinds (there was something about only one type of tree
stand, but I didn't really read that, as I'm not climbing), they state clearly that whatever you leave behind may not
be there when you come back (they are not responsible, blah blah blah).  So basically, I have to carry what I need in,
and carry it out.  I'm already planning on doing some intelligence gathering (where the deer are moving, etc.) starting
on 4 Oct (I have more stuff I need before then, so I won't stick out, so I can use my old digital camera AND so I can use
my 35mm, etc., and I can't buy anything more until I get my monthly SSD deposit on the 3rd).  I'll be checking one area
after another (spend a few days at one, then the next, and so on), looking for signs of deer movement (or better still,
seeing and photographing deer movement (and either with my Android phone, or, if I can afford it, the $97 GPS I'm
looking at, logging GPS coordinates).   I'm planning on hunting weekdays, while (hopefully) most people who would
otherwise be hunting there are all at work, and resting on Saturday and Sunday (or maybe taking my cast net out
on the weekends!).

But until 1 Oct, all I can do is wonder what I'll be seeing when I get out there.

Later,
   --jim

PS:  Good luck with the upcoming surgery.  May they put you on Dilaudid faster and more consistently than they
did with my cancer #2 surgery....  (I had a thousand lifetimes worth of horrifying pain from the second of  two chemo
types during my first cancer...and that's as far as I want to go into that...those memories cannot be allowed to escape
the mental prison I have them locked away in.)

i know how you feel about pain and memories, my first surgery was anterior posterior 3 level fusion with robotic cage! fancy way of saying cut front and back! it was a 11 and 1/2 hour surgery and i was woke up at the 9 hour mark to view myself in 2 pieces upper and lower halves! i see that every night in my dreams!!!

now that being said, for 3 years i did surgeries every 3 months! barely got to heal before i was on the table again! after i was hit(i was stopped he was going 55) i went skunked for 11 years, dont get discouraged. things come when they are supposed to come! just enjoy the time you have in the woods, wheather you get an animal or not, cause sitting in your room sucks alot more!! you might try HHH for help, thats hunters helping hunters, or try going to the local fish and game office, some one may help you or know someone who can!!

i wish you all the best my friend, keep your chin up and keep moving foreward!

Posted By crippledhunter on 09 Sep 2012 03:23 AM
you might try HHH for help, thats hunters helping hunters, or try going to the local fish and game office, some one may help you or know someone who can!!

i wish you all the best my friend, keep your chin up and keep moving foreward!

Thanks, I'll look into that (both).
   --jim

GT I now use a ground blind as like Humpty Dumpty they can't put me together again if I were to fall. I would suggest you go here http://www.sportsmansguide.com and type ground blinds in the search box and you will have a variety of blinds available to look at. I also would suggest you get one of the popup hub style blinds as they simply popup easily and take down is easy with a little practice. I love it when I see fellers like yourself who refuse to just lie down and not get up. Had I listened to the MD's that is what I would have done but I just ain't wired that way and I have to get up and go even when there are days I really don't feel up to it. Choices are ours to make and the only advice I will give here is to make your own choices and don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something. They may tell you this with the best of intentions but they don't have a clue as to what it means to someone like us who are disabled to be able to defiy the odds and live our lives to the best of our abilities. This is especially true of hunting as if I could not hunt I really don't know what I would do or how I would act as I have lived my life working and hunting and when I was medically retired from the Army I was a little lost at first until I decided that if there was anyway possible I would hunt as much as possible. I do have a son and a SIL and both hunt and don't mind in the least helping me hunt as well. The I have some of the best friends a man can have that hunt and they too have no problems helping me hunt and getting my deer out of the woods. The best to you my friend and don't ever lose that can do attitude !!! My email is bigdawgwalls@yahoo.com and you can email anytime you want just be sure to put NAHC BB in the first message so I will know that it is someone from the club.

Posted By Big Dawg on 09 Sep 2012 08:52 AM
GT I now use a ground blind as like Humpty Dumpty they can't put me together again if I were to fall. I would suggest you go here http://www.sportsmansguide.com and type ground blinds in the search box and you will have a variety of blinds available to look at. I also would suggest you get one of the popup hub style blinds as they simply popup easily and take down is easy with a little practice. I love it when I see fellers like yourself who refuse to just lie down and not get up. Had I listened to the MD's that is what I would have done but I just ain't wired that way and I have to get up and go even when there are days I really don't feel up to it. Choices are ours to make and the only advice I will give here is to make your own choices and don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something. They may tell you this with the best of intentions but they don't have a clue as to what it means to someone like us who are disabled to be able to defiy the odds and live our lives to the best of our abilities. This is especially true of hunting as if I could not hunt I really don't know what I would do or how I would act as I have lived my life working and hunting and when I was medically retired from the Army I was a little lost at first until I decided that if there was anyway possible I would hunt as much as possible. I do have a son and a SIL and both hunt and don't mind in the least helping me hunt as well. The I have some of the best friends a man can have that hunt and they too have no problems helping me hunt and getting my deer out of the woods. The best to you my friend and don't ever lose that can do attitude !!! My email is bigdawgwalls@yahoo.com and you can email anytime you want just be sure to put NAHC BB in the first message so I will know that it is someone from the club.

As far as a ground blind goes, I like the idea of a quick pop-up blind, but I don't like the extra weight (and the high price
of some) that they list.  HOWEVER ... seeing that gave me an idea.  I have some old mosquito netting that someone gave
me a long time ago.  It was from Vietnam, and is the usual olive drab color.  I could easily spread some of that around at
just below my eye level.  It'd easily fit into my backpack (DOD issue from my Special Ops Intel days) and probably weighs
in at a few ounces (in other words, negligible), and could be deployed in no time.  Thanks for the idea that led to the idea!

As to people telling me I can't or shouldn't, there's only one...and you'd never guess who:  my mom.  A couple of months
ago, when I bought my Remington 700 ADL .270 for deer/hogs, and my Mossberg .410 for any venomous snakes that
get too close, she asked if it was really worth it (like she always does when I tell her I bought something to, in my opinion,
get a lost part of my life back---she'd rather I spent that extra dose of cash (usually from tech reviews for a publisher of
Android development books) on paying off small chunks of the medical bills I'll be paying off for the next 10,000 years.....
This time, I told her that every deer and/or hog would be a bonus to my food budget.  She asked how much I'd have to
get before it paid for the rifle/shotgun....not realizing that A) this was a way for me to get more active again, and B) meat
is getting insanely expensive in the stores.  I started thinking cut per cut, price for the beef vs the cost of a bullet for the
deer, and when you add it up that way, even if all you look at is the dollar signs, it wouldn't take that many to add up.
But then, I'm not just looking at dollar signs.  If it improves my life, it's worth it if/when I can afford to buy it (right now,
I have to re-calculate my monthly budget every time I plan to spend more than about $10).  If it improves my life and
puts food on the table (well, I don't have a table, but you get the idea), then it's doubly worth it.

Oh, and one other thing:  SIL ???

Thanks,
   --jim

jim

sil= son-in-law! ibutcher all my own animals, elk i need help with, but deer are not a problem! just take your time, you can do anything you put your mind too! my doc`s all of them have pictures of me in thier offices, my regular doc has a shot of me 5 days after i broke my neck and on the ground in front of me is a dozen salmon! cardiologist has a shot of me with the 5x4 i took 2 years ago! but would tell you i am crazy for doing what i do, but like you say meat is expensive. and being 6 foot 2 and 275 i like to eat!!

Posted By crippledhunter on 09 Sep 2012 03:23 AM
  you might try HHH for help, thats hunters helping hunters, or try going to the local fish and game office, some one may help you or know someone who can!!

i wish you all the best my friend, keep your chin up and keep moving foreward!

Ditto, but I think the HHH Charter specifies that the $ provided is for medical or funeral expenses.

Posted By crippledhunter on 09 Sep 2012 11:24 AM
jim

sil= son-in-law! ibutcher all my own animals, elk i need help with, but deer are not a problem! just take your time, you can do anything you put your mind too! my doc`s all of them have pictures of me in thier offices, my regular doc has a shot of me 5 days after i broke my neck and on the ground in front of me is a dozen salmon! cardiologist has a shot of me with the 5x4 i took 2 years ago! but would tell you i am crazy for doing what i do, but like you say meat is expensive. and being 6 foot 2 and 275 i like to eat!!

Same here.  I should point out that when I started doing comparisons of the price of beef cuts, vs the same cuts of venison,
I quickly realized that I had to compare venison with the most lean (and thus most expensive) cuts of beef, which may still
not be as lean.  I strongly prefer the leaner cuts, myself, so that has to be factored into the cost comparison, as well.   :-)

I don't have any photos of times I've pulled around 75--80 pounds of mullet (not a trash fish here) up in my cast net
(catches like that take about 4--5 adults to pull up from 35 feet below, while not letting the net slide against the
bridge railing (which would rip my net, making me spend hours patching it), but if I get a net-full like that this year,
I'll try to get a photo and post it in the member photos area.  But then, as I've mentioned somewhere here, my first
bridge net is retired now (too many encounters with the bridge's pilings, after the currents pushed it right into them),
and I don't have the lead melting pot or the lead molds for making the lead weights, so I can't finish my new bridge
net, and am limited to my dock net (which I made right after making my first bridge net).  So, it won't be that big
of a haul (13.5 foot bridge net vs 10.5 foot dock net).....

Later,
   --jim

steve when i first heard of hhh, they had helped a friend of a friend`s cousin`s brothers uncle! well something like that anyway! he needed to adapt his truck to his new needs, got some kind of hoist to lift and swing, now that was like 8(or more oldtimers and all) years ago! now could be different now!

jim as far as i know you can on dip net for smelt here! i am a salmon guy! the kings can get to 60 and up! best i have done is 54 pounds! took me 20 minutes to land her! we fish with beads and yarn, using coils of lead, weight is factored different for each and every trip depending on speed of the river!
best of luck to you, hope you able to get out there and visit mother nature often! and that you fill all your tags!