Bear Crossing Outdoors hunt reaches fifth year, creates more happy hunters

Opening day participants in the fifth annual Bear Crossing Outdoors LLC disabled deer hunt were treated to lunch at the Hammel Town Hall.

By Matt Frey, The Star News

Creating enjoyable hunting opportunities and, at the same time, saying thank you for their service reached a five-year milestone for the Bear Crossing Outdoors LLC disabled deer hunt, which was again held just outside of Medford in early October.

This year’s hunt was open to participating hunters from Oct. 7-15 on three neighboring properties –– Bear Crossing Woodland, Double J Ranch and Kohn Farms.

This year’s crew of seven hunters bagged four deer, two bucks and two does.

The annual hunt was created in 2019 and started on the 400-acre Bear Crossing Woodland property owned by James Livingston. The intent then was to focus on providing hunting opportunities for disabled veterans.

The event has averaged seven or eight participants per year. One hunter, James Frischmann of Medford, has been to all five and he’s gotten a deer in four of them, including a buck this year. There have been occasions where potential hunters have backed out due to health concerns at the last minute. But for all who do make it, it continues to be a day, a weekend, a couple of nights or an entire week well spent.

“In the past, hunters have been reluctant to participate,” Livingston said. “However, with encouragement from family and friends, once they have experienced the hunt, they have wanted to return again to hunt.”

Count Jay Ruesch of Medford, a firstyear Bear Crossing hunter in 2023, as one of the skeptics turned believers.

“They’d asked me a couple of times and I said I’m not that kind of hunter,” Ruesch said. “I still hunt by myself in the Chequamegon (National Forest). But after I did it, I told them I’ll be back next year. They can’t do it any better. Where else can you go out hunting and a guy comes out and brings you coffee?”

Ruesch, 84, spent four days sharing a blind with Harlowe Schwartz of Medford, who is 88.

“We shot the breeze from daylight through dusk probably,” Ruesch said. “We did a lot of talking. He used to live right in my neighborhood. He would deliver the newspapers. I remember him riding his bicycle even in the winter because he put a chain on the tires. He always said I should take over his route. I went on it with him for two days and said this ain’t for me.”

Ruesch got a doe, which is nothing new for him. He said he routinely bagged two deer a year up until last year, when he got one.

“We got in there early in the morning,” Ruesch said. “Jim dropped us off in his side-by-side. He had hardly just driven away and all of a sudden the deer was coming in. Just like that it came in and I shot it. The guys came out and tracked it for me and I was thankful they did because I couldn’t find a speck of blood. I knew I hit it. They did a great job. Jim, Jack Johnson and Mike Czerniak. I just followed along. Once they came out it didn’t take 10 minutes to find it.”

Bob Denzine, who lives in Milan, took part in his second Bear Crossing hunt and got his second deer, also a doe.

“They have really good setups,” Denzine said. “They have blinds set up that are like little buildings. They take you out and pick you up. They are really accommodating. I do still hunt. But I don’t get out as much as I used to. When you get old you can’t get around as well and now I don’t like to go out in colder weather.”

Denzine got a buck last year. This time around, he said he didn’t see as many deer. An evening hunter, he sat three nights and finally got his venison on the final night of the hunt, Oct. 15, while hunting with his grandson Brennan Denzine.

“I knew I hit it just with the way it jumped up, but it took off,” Denzine said. “After we found it and my grandson gutted it, he pulled the heart out. It was in two pieces and fell apart. I split the heart. It was a running dead deer.

“I use a grunt call. A fawn came out and then I saw the doe. She walked out and I thought she was pretty good sized. It was the last day, so I said I was going to do it.”

Turns out there was a buck lagging behind as well, but it stood too far back to get a clean look. Denzine said his shot didn’t scare it away either.

“I would’ve shot that, but I said this is it, this is the last day and I took the doe,” Denzine said.

The annual hunt is made possible through a variety of sources. Donors help provide seed and fertilizer for the hunting habitat as well as lunches on the first weekend. For three years now, the Town of Hammel has opened its town hall to serve as a base camp for the hunters, where lunch is served and hunters and their helpers spend time getting to know each other.

A crew of local hunters volunteer to help get the participants to and from their stands, bring them anything they need and help track, retrieve and field dress wounded/harvested deer. This year, a tracking dog was even ready if needed to track wounded deer. The chocolate lab was not needed.

The hunt started in 2019 with two custom hunting wheelchair accessible blinds. Now organizers have five hardsided blinds and five pop-up blinds available to hunters, who are required to have their own family member or helper along for the hunt.

Ruesch and Denzine both served their country in the turbulent 1960s, when events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the Vietnam War were in the headlines. Time served then took them away from hunting for a brief time. Otherwise they said it’s been a lifelong passion.

“I’ve hunted ever since I was 12 years old,” Denzine said. “When I spent three years in the Army I didn’t hunt but every other year I have. I started bowhunting in 1955 but I didn’t shoot a deer with a bow until 1965.”

Archery technology has obviously changed a lot since then.

“At that time, of course, I used a recurve bow that shot wooden sticks,” Denzine joked. “The broadhead you could ride all the way to China on it because it didn’t cut.

“I’m going to hunt as long as I can and this disabled hunt is one of the ways I can.”

Ruesch is fortunate enough to still be able to get around in the woods and fields quite well. He and his wife work with beagles and spend a lot of time taking part in field trials with their dogs. He said they are looking forward to the national event that will be hosted by the Borderline Beagle Club in Hurley the next two years.

“I told them I’ll be back next year,” Ruesch said of the Bear Crossing Hunt. “They couldn’t have been any better.”

Wisconsin sets aside nine days in early October each year for the gun hunt for disabled hunters. The annual process starts with landowners enrolling their property for the hunts with the Department of Natural Resources by June 1. After the land is enrolled, the list of properties is published on the Wisonsin DNR website and interested hunters who possess a valid Class A, C, D or long-term Class B shoot from a stationary vehicle disability hunting permit have until Sept. 15 to contact sponsoring landown-ers and set up potential October hunts.

More information on the deer hunts for the disabled can be found on the DNR’s website, dnr.wi.gov. Search key words “disabled deer hunt.”

[caption id="attachment_203630" align="alignnone" width="258"] Two of the lucky hunters who tagged their deer at the fifth annual Bear Crossing Outdoors LLC disabled deer hunt were (above) James Frischmann and (right) Bob Denzine, who is pictured with his grandson Brennan Denzine. Submitted Photo[/caption]