LETTER FROM BOB BERQUIST

Iwould like to thank the MBA and Steve LePage for assisting me as a disabled bow hunter. More accurately, a long-time bow hunter who had to stop bowhunting many years ago due to combat injuries suffered over in the desert that caught up with me more and more as I aged. I managed to fish and rifle hunt, and was even able to work as a fishing guide, but what was missing was simply shooting arrows at a target and secondary harvesting an animal with my bow. I missed the peace of mind, the sight, smells, and Zen of simply sitting in the wild and watching nature at work close up. Part of me was missing.

I was in a VA program for disabled combat vets in which they offered archery as a way to combat PTSD and it all clicked. I had long read about the disabled bowhunter provisions in MT law but never explored the program until last summer. I was put in contact with Steve who by providence lives a short way from us. I bought a draw lock and we tried to utilize it with my trusty Martin Lynx from 1982 but no luck. After consultation with Marlon Clapham, the MBA offered to buy a new bow that would work with my draw lock.

I spent the next few months practicing and getting used to the contraption, how it worked, how to shoot from my track chair, anchor point adjustments and all the requisite repetitive muscle memory retraining. I soon got decent groups from thirty yards and set my limits as such. Steve invited me to take a doe or cow from one of his blinds and I showed him just how rusty I was by missing two sitter does! Back to the Block behind the shed for me.

Later in the season I was able to do a solo hunt on a ranch in Sand Springs. I had an antelope tag and my general deer tag to fill and the alfalfa field was filled with deer and antelope at sunrise. I sat and waited for the animals to all go off to bed and then started in on my track chair with my bow and rifle, but determined to use the bow if at all possible. I found where the antelope were going in and out and set up. Within an hour they were back and a nice buck presented a decent but close 10yard shot. I prayed the most intense prayer of thanks one can imagine as I reached him. Then his horns fell off as happens with late season goats! The mule deer were a different story as the forty odd head had bedded in a coulee off the property. As the sun fell, they started to make their way back but too late for my comfort so retrieved my rifle and took a fine old 4x4 that was worn out and past his prime. Sort of like me, or so my wife claims! Many of our “yard deer” had contracted blue tongue so we left those alone.

I guess the point of all this is to not just express thanks but to also convey that bow hunting is more than just a sport, more than a way to harvest some meat, but rather a passion. In my case, a lingering passion of mine and that of so many others who cannot participate any longer due to physical restraints.

As for the third rail of bowhunting, crossbows, I am a bit torn. I would not use one myself but then again, I am for accessibility for all sportsmen. It sort of reminds me of the ongoing battle of sorts between fly fishermen and spin/bait fishermen. We do have fly only sections of rivers in Montana which do serve to protect the trout from treble hooks and swallowed bait. I recall the same sort of mild conflict between traditional archers and those who used compound bows 40 some years ago. In the end, we are all sportsmen and infighting will at some point hurt us all. I can see the advantages of a crossbow for many as my brother-in-law uses one in Minnesota for deer hunting as he can’t draw a bow any longer. But I have to side with the MBA on this issue. The argument that crossbow approval even for disabled sportsmen will get out of control as the medical cannabis program did is valid. After all, every government program habitually expands or can be abused. Crossbows do offer advantages that many find unsporting. But one must not conflate personal ethics with how one hunts within legal constraints. Shooting a pheasant on the ground rather than out of the air is legal, but to me unethical in so far as I would never do so. MBA’s disabled archer program goes a long way toward mitigating such divides. Not just in terms of PR but at the individual level. I have the motivation to get out there where I belong in the fall. I have a new set of goals to accomplish and will do so, God and the wind direction willing. As such I would like to reiterate my thanks and look forward to many more years smelling the sage and slinging some arrows.

Bob Bergquist Lewistown