Skeet with an inspiring stranger
A couple Saturdays ago I wasn’t on a lake fishing and didn’t spend the early morning working with the dogs. Instead, I coordinated a small RGS shooting event to raise money for habitat projects with a buddy of mine. We do these things to leave the place a little better than we found it and for the people we meet along the way.
We held the event at the Eau Claire Rod and Gun Club where 37 shooters shot a combined 85 rounds trap, skeet, and 5 stand. It raised a tidy sum for habitat projects that will touch the public lands that many of you readers frequent in the coming years.
It was a hot day reaching into the low 90’s by noon. It was supposed to rain but we didn’t see a drop. Maybe there was some divine intervention.
Bear with me here, because this writing is about far more than a small habitat shoot. It’s a story about life: about one man’s display of courage, perseverance, courtesy, and indomitable spirit. It’s about someone coming into your life for a brief moment in the most unexpected way at the most unexpected time and truly inspiring everyone around.
Just before the registration started an older, thin, soft spoken gentleman walked in wearing a back brace and using a wading stick like a cane to steady himself. He introduced himself to us.
He wanted to shoot skeet and only skeet. After waiting for 45 minutes, he was still the only person signed up for skeet. It became clear that some of us from our committee needed to go shoot with him. I was elected and grabbed a hunting buddy who came to the event. The license plate on his truck told everyone that this guy spent his life in the outdoors. He needed to park close to the skeet range but he managed to carry his side by side, himself, and his shells out onto the course. “Remind me how this goes again,” he said. “I haven’t been able to shoot skeet in a couple years.” We made it through that round just fine with him providing my friend and I with a couple laughs. By the time we finished the round, more friends had come to shoot with us. He wanted to shoot back to back rounds. I needed to run up to my truck for more shells.
When I returned, I found him sitting on a bench with everyone standing around him. The story started to unfold. Not only was he a very nice and witty gentleman, we were lucky he was even here. He’s been fighting cancer for two years and it had metastasized throughout his body. Back in January he was told he had a few months.
He said he was ready to shoot and we all walked back onto the range. He told us that he just bought this new hunting vest since his old one was too big after losing 60 pounds. He joked about sending a message to his doctor that he wasn’t quite done yet since he’s still buying new hunting gear.
Halfway through the second round he started to hold his right shoulder and we told him he didn’t have to finish. “No way I’m quitting,” he said. “It’s just a little pain.”
He had to abruptly sit down just after we finished shooting and pulled an emesis bag from his vest. He apologized to us in advance if he had to use it.
We sat there with him and he started to entertain us with stories of fly fishing while waiting for his strength to return. It should have been the other way around, but he was the one entertaining us.
The pain in his shoulder, where the cancer in his bones started, was acting up and his stomach was hurting from the cancer as well. He didn’t want to take any pain meds because he had “plans” later that day.
He ended up winning a couple of prizes from the bucket raffle. One was a flask and shot tumbler for the field. “I can put that to good use tonight,” he said.
Had we not run this event or any of us come to shoot at it, we would not have ever met this man that none of us will ever forget. He might not be able to wade a trout stream anymore, but he found a way to keep on fighting and living. He made everyone feel more alive that day.
Through a
Decoy’s
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