spectr17
11-29-2002, 02:04 PM
Handicapped hunters get a boost at Illinois club
By TIM RENKEN, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
11/28/2002
From his command post atop deer stand No. 1 at the Higgdisaw Hunting Club, Warren Ilges announces vital information about the progress of the deer hunt.
"I've got romano cheese and ham here for a sandwich," he said into the microphone.
"Romano cheese?" a voice answers over the walkie talkie. "We've got bacon and eggs frying here. Smell it?"
From another quarter comes, "Biscuits and gravy here. What kind of a breakfast is romano cheese?"
A little later all talk of breakfast ceases as the hunters watch and report on the movement of two does across an immense field. The deer get away without a shot.
The 17 deer stands on the club's 400 acres east of Ashley, Ill., about 65 miles east of St. Louis, guard fields and forests in some of the best deer habitat in Illinois. Most of the stands are small rooms on stilts with all of the comforts of home, including heaters, stoves, ice boxes, chairs, food, two or three radios and just about everything else to make a hunter content through a long hunting day.
This is deer hunting Illinois-style with emphasis on comfort, because this club is slightly different from other clubs across the state. Higgdisaw offers its accommodations to any hunters with disabilities, not just members.
On this morning, opening day of the first segment of the shotgun season last Friday, only members were hunting but some of them, including founder Ilges, have permanent health problems. Ilges, 48, was severely injured in a farm machine incident at age 7. Then, while working as a carpenter in 1989, he ruptured three discs in his back, had surgery and has been in constant pain since. Last year he had two heart attacks.
Several other members of the club have permanent injuries. That's what prompted the development of these elaborate blinds for deer and turkey hunting. The name of the club, Higgdisaw, is a combination of the first initials of the original members.
"I had almost stopped hunting," Ilges said, "and I really missed it, until we built these blinds. People make fun of our hunting like this, but there's no rule that says a deer hunter has to be miserable."
All of the blinds are linked by radio, and "traffic" is constant. Sometimes it's about deer.
"I see one walking along the edge to the west of Neal," Ilges reports. "You see it, Dustin?"
"Yep, it's a doe," replies Dustin, Ilges' 15-year-old son, from his blind directly across the immense field. "It's going to walk right in front of Neal."
It does, but Neal doesn't shoot, apparently preferring to wait for a buck that early in the season.
Later two more does cross the field. Behind them is a nice buck. Ilges opens the double-pane front window and lays his gun on the sill. But the six-pointer is far away and spooky and gets off into the thicket to the east without being fired upon. Ilges, who had bagged a buck earlier during the archery season, doesn't seem to mind.
"The radios not only keep everybody up on what's going on, they break the boredom," he said, settling back into his recliner seat taken out of a Ford Bronco. Then he checked the video camera mounted above his head and aimed out the front window.
"We've got everything it takes to accommodate severely handicapped people," he said. "We've got a hydraulic wheelchair lift. We've got elevated and ground blinds that are wheelchair accessible.
"We can accommodate people who can't stand the cold, of course. If they can't walk, we move them around with our ATVs. Hunters can bring helpers with them or we can provide assistants. Or they can hunt alone.
"We do pretty good here. Since 1998 on these 400 acres our hunters have bagged 28 deer by bow, crossbow and shotgun and seven turkeys."
Higgdisaw has helped a wheelchair-bound hunter continue the sport. Another man, a quadriplegic who fires a gun via a tube in his mouth, was going to hunt at the club this fall but failed to draw a deer tag from the state.
"He'll probably hunt with us next year, or sometime soon," Ilges said.
Ilges owns the land and the club leases it from him. All of the members help out when people with disabilities hunt. It can cost $450 per hunt for the three-day and four-day firearms seasons or during the archery, muzzleloader or handgun hunts for deer and the hunts for turkey.
"Most of our hunts to date have been donated as fund-raisers for various clubs," Ilges said. "We haven't sold many hunts because we haven't been able to get the word out to handicapped hunters."
For information call 618-594-4302 or write: higgdisawhuntingclub@MSN.com.
Reporter Tim Renken E-mail: trenken@post-dispatch.com Phone: 314-849-4239
By TIM RENKEN, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
11/28/2002
From his command post atop deer stand No. 1 at the Higgdisaw Hunting Club, Warren Ilges announces vital information about the progress of the deer hunt.
"I've got romano cheese and ham here for a sandwich," he said into the microphone.
"Romano cheese?" a voice answers over the walkie talkie. "We've got bacon and eggs frying here. Smell it?"
From another quarter comes, "Biscuits and gravy here. What kind of a breakfast is romano cheese?"
A little later all talk of breakfast ceases as the hunters watch and report on the movement of two does across an immense field. The deer get away without a shot.
The 17 deer stands on the club's 400 acres east of Ashley, Ill., about 65 miles east of St. Louis, guard fields and forests in some of the best deer habitat in Illinois. Most of the stands are small rooms on stilts with all of the comforts of home, including heaters, stoves, ice boxes, chairs, food, two or three radios and just about everything else to make a hunter content through a long hunting day.
This is deer hunting Illinois-style with emphasis on comfort, because this club is slightly different from other clubs across the state. Higgdisaw offers its accommodations to any hunters with disabilities, not just members.
On this morning, opening day of the first segment of the shotgun season last Friday, only members were hunting but some of them, including founder Ilges, have permanent health problems. Ilges, 48, was severely injured in a farm machine incident at age 7. Then, while working as a carpenter in 1989, he ruptured three discs in his back, had surgery and has been in constant pain since. Last year he had two heart attacks.
Several other members of the club have permanent injuries. That's what prompted the development of these elaborate blinds for deer and turkey hunting. The name of the club, Higgdisaw, is a combination of the first initials of the original members.
"I had almost stopped hunting," Ilges said, "and I really missed it, until we built these blinds. People make fun of our hunting like this, but there's no rule that says a deer hunter has to be miserable."
All of the blinds are linked by radio, and "traffic" is constant. Sometimes it's about deer.
"I see one walking along the edge to the west of Neal," Ilges reports. "You see it, Dustin?"
"Yep, it's a doe," replies Dustin, Ilges' 15-year-old son, from his blind directly across the immense field. "It's going to walk right in front of Neal."
It does, but Neal doesn't shoot, apparently preferring to wait for a buck that early in the season.
Later two more does cross the field. Behind them is a nice buck. Ilges opens the double-pane front window and lays his gun on the sill. But the six-pointer is far away and spooky and gets off into the thicket to the east without being fired upon. Ilges, who had bagged a buck earlier during the archery season, doesn't seem to mind.
"The radios not only keep everybody up on what's going on, they break the boredom," he said, settling back into his recliner seat taken out of a Ford Bronco. Then he checked the video camera mounted above his head and aimed out the front window.
"We've got everything it takes to accommodate severely handicapped people," he said. "We've got a hydraulic wheelchair lift. We've got elevated and ground blinds that are wheelchair accessible.
"We can accommodate people who can't stand the cold, of course. If they can't walk, we move them around with our ATVs. Hunters can bring helpers with them or we can provide assistants. Or they can hunt alone.
"We do pretty good here. Since 1998 on these 400 acres our hunters have bagged 28 deer by bow, crossbow and shotgun and seven turkeys."
Higgdisaw has helped a wheelchair-bound hunter continue the sport. Another man, a quadriplegic who fires a gun via a tube in his mouth, was going to hunt at the club this fall but failed to draw a deer tag from the state.
"He'll probably hunt with us next year, or sometime soon," Ilges said.
Ilges owns the land and the club leases it from him. All of the members help out when people with disabilities hunt. It can cost $450 per hunt for the three-day and four-day firearms seasons or during the archery, muzzleloader or handgun hunts for deer and the hunts for turkey.
"Most of our hunts to date have been donated as fund-raisers for various clubs," Ilges said. "We haven't sold many hunts because we haven't been able to get the word out to handicapped hunters."
For information call 618-594-4302 or write: higgdisawhuntingclub@MSN.com.
Reporter Tim Renken E-mail: trenken@post-dispatch.com Phone: 314-849-4239