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Taihlor Flowers, 11, got her deer despite cerebral palsy and wheelchair confinement. 11-year-old Conway girl gets her deer Saturday, Nov 19, 2005 By Joe Mosby Determination can be a factor in successful deer hunting every bit as much as advance scouting, accurate shooting, use of an effective scent and all the other necessities. Look at Taihlor Flowers for an illustration of determination. She's just 11 years old, she has cerebral palsy, she's confined to a wheelchair - and she got a deer. Squeeze the trigger when she got the deer within her sights? No, she had to suck hard on a tube to operate the rifle's trigger. Thousands of youngsters went deer hunting on "their" two days, the special two-day youth deer hunt Nov. 5-6, and many were successful in getting deer. Taihlor Flowers had further to go than the other eager, excited young hunters across Arkansas. She holds her own in classwork at Bob Courtway Middle School in Conway, but deer hunting produces a variety of hurdles for her. She cleared all the obstacles. She killed a nubbin or button buck near Sparkman in Dallas County with one shot from her .223 rifle. And she smiled when she told about the reactions from classmates two days later when she was back at school. "They all said, 'I'll be the next one' to get a deer." Taihlor has been around hunting all her young life. She's a daughter of Matt and Amy Skelton of Conway, and Matt has been deer hunting himself on that same tract in south Arkansas since he was about Taihlor's age. This is good deer country in the Ouachita River bottoms of South Arkansas. Several times in recent years Taihlor has gone along with Matt on a deer hunt as a companion or observer, not as a hunter. This year, it was her turn. Matt and his uncle, Ronnie Robertson, have been active in Central Arkansas Buckmasters and the club's ongoing project to raise money for power-lift deer stands for aiding wheelchair-using sportsmen. Taihlor had the use of one of these stands for the 2005 youth hunt. She didn't have to wait long the first morning of the hunt. One deer came within a few yards just after daylight, but it wasn't in a position for Taihlor to shoot. Then a second deer approached. The stand was on the edge of a food plot. This time, Taihlor could see it over her New England single-shot rifle in its vise across her wheelchair. Matt quietly cocked the hammer for her. The rifle was equipped with a laser, and when the red shot stopped on the button buck's shoulder, Taihlor inhaled. Yes, she sucked in hard on a tube attached to a battery-assisted trigger mechanism. Her shot went through both lungs of the deer, and it dropped immediately. It was 7 a.m. on opening morning. This was Taihlor's own rifle, the .223 in a short or youth configuration. She bought it herself at a fund-raising auction. Taihlor was back in the deer woods on Nov. 12, opening day of the regular modern gun season. No deer showed up, but a fox did, close to her stand. But Taihlor didn't shoot. She told her uncle, "We're not fox hunting. We're deer hunting." The special two-day youth deer hunt is new this year in Arkansas, a creation of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission aimed at encouraging and introducing young people to deer hunting. Youth waterfowl hunters have been held for several years during duck and goose seasons. The young deer hunters have to be accompanied by a nonhunting adult. Youths who have completed a hunter education course can hunt within the "supervision" of the older person. Those who have not had the hunter education course must be next to the adult, "within arm's reach." -------- Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com. |
