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Following is a note that we recently received from David Singer who is a friend
and a Four Seasons customer...
Gentlemen,
Two years ago, several companies made contributions to assist my friend, Jeff
Vandyke of Columbia MO, in his effort to go hunting for the first time in his
life.
Each of you also donated encouragement for this gentleman.
You saw his first-time-ever practice at a range from this link:
http://www.islandterrace.com/J1.html
Together, Jeff and I proto-typed a rig for him to use - rough but workable as
you can see from the web pages. It helps to understand Jeff's accomplishment
by noting Jeff can only move his right thumb and trigger finger, and his left
thumb.
Attached are photos from last year where we made a more robust rig for his
new chair. Now Jeff can control muzzle elevation up-down, lateral movement,
safety on, safety off, and trigger all by using micro-switches, 12v auto door
lock actuators, and a worm drive thrust rod.
Included below is Jeff's account of his first hunt ever. Except for the fact
that he had to wheel in where others walk, it sounds normal to me <grin>!
It's been a long road to get him out hunting, but as you can see it has
definitely taken him to new previously unthinkable levels in life.
For that we both thank you.
David Singer
Lakeville, MA 02347
David's email address is:
ThePump@StoryPump.com
Web site:
www.StoryPump.com
Jeff's email address is:
jvandyke@outdrs.net
--------------------- Jeff' Personal Report
------------------------------
Subject: Went hunting Sun 16th, 2003 -- 1st time!
This is my first-ever hunting trip. Alice and I have been looking
forward for the last 2 years to the chance for me to get some deer meat
for the freezer. I guess you could say visions of roasts, steaks and
jerky danced in our heads...
Sat 15th, 2003
Checked with gun shop we are familiar with -- they do not do sight-ins.
<sigh> Since I have had no chance at going to the range the last couple
of months, I will have to hope the scope will be back to true since we
re-mounted it.
Most people that know me know I like to be prepared for whatever comes
along. This doesn't happen often enough though. For
some things I was prepared, some not.
We already had the "little" parts
of my wheelchair rifle mount packed in a nice lightweight aluminum
military shipping container (4ft x 1ft x 1 ft) -- the stainless
pivot/rifle cradle, the rifle elevation actuator,
the wood lever-arm, the control micro switches, the power relays
assembly, the wheelchair "bumper mounts" as I call them, etc... all
total weighing in probably 75-100 lbs! I had that put in the deer cart
for easier transport. The wood part made of 2x12s won't fit, and weighs
in at 40 lbs or so. This John and Tonja took out to the farm beforehand.
I had laid in 4 sets of "man traces" (man-powered sled-pulling
harnesses -- kept in an ammo box for convenience) just in case my
wheelchair broke down and I had to be dragged to the van. Why have
them? I weigh somewhere around 200, and my chair weighs in around 460
by itself!
Add 20 lbs of clothes, and it starts getting heavy. The traces
would help eliminate a lot of back strain. (I had also bought them to
make it easier for someone to drag a deer out, but this was before I
found a deer cart I liked.) Even Godzilla isn't pushing me across
farmland by himself, though Dale comes in a close second. We decided
not to take them because John insists he can drag me out if need be with
his tractor and a tow-strap.
I also have another ammo box full of heat-stick hand-warmers, and the
chemical kind. Didn't take them because 62F was forecast. Are you
seeing a trend here?
I also have a Yazoo cap (very warm); neoprene socks; Air Force Extreme
Cold Weather System (ECWS) Mukluks; ECWS Arctic-Weight
military-issue PolyPro long underwear tops and bottoms; military Arctic
Pants (I do not know their designation, but almost impossible to get in
my size -- I can't find F1Bs in my size, and the price of the new
Gore-Tex stuff is astronomical); a thin pair of neoprene gloves (I need
something warm and
thin) for my right hand for driving and seat controls; forgot my
earplugs, but with them Dale and I would not have been able to
communicate (I need those Walker GameEars!); a set of cheap but warm ATV
winter handlebar mitts; my Hunter Orange
Thinsulate-insulated stocking cap; my cheap PVC-covered
"windbreaker" because it is waterproof and windproof and insulated and
is warmer than most coats........
John was delivering me out there, and Dale was to be my hunting
companion/helper (he's not hunting). Alice would have come along, but
her lupus and
arthritis were in the middle of a raging flare-up, causing humongous
amounts of pain. We got the transportation arrangements made for the
night before -- Tonja throwing me in bed at 7pm, and John scrounging me
out at 2am. Who in the world has ever heard of me going to bed that
early???
Sun 11-16-2003
Since John and Tonja are usually short on sleep, this turned into
8pm-2:24am. We got out the door at 4:30 or 5am after a short breakfast.
Weather was rather miserable -- 42F, but predicted to be 62F and sunny
by afternoon. The fog was everywhere. We got out to the farm.
Everyone bailed out of the vehicles. We used the LED light I had gotten
for the occasion. I got it so no matter what happened, we would have light
(one set of D cells is supposed to last 400 hours on low power).
We walked on down the driveway, which is all dirt except for the rock
lining the edge that John and Tonja had just gotten through laying down
this last week. It was very quiet and reminded me greatly of going fishing
on my granddad's farm as a kid.
Since to drive the chair, I have to keep the seat at a specific angle, I
wound up having to have Dale hit the switches to make
at least half a dozen seat angle
adjustments. Though the neoprene gloves are thin and easy to bend, my
fingers were not up to the task. One thing that did come in very handy
was my homemade 4-point harness. Rehab places make something similar as
body position controllers for those like myself who have a hard time sitting
up when bouncing or sitting around off-road (or on road). I guess they run
somewhere around $300. Sport scar places have them for less, but I bought
an army surplus pistol belt H-harness, hooked on webbing loops at the front
lower ends so they would go around my seatbelt. The back end of them
just tied to the push handles at the back of the chair. Works great, is
very strong, and provides 2 handy metal D-rings to attach anything
extra to the front if I so need to. Not bad for $5 worth of used stuff
that I couldn't tell from new!
John led us the blind he had set up for us using the camo
material I gave him. He had made it into an extension of the woodpile
they had accumulated by stringing it up on a series of stakes. The fog
was so thick that the really tall trees only 50 yds away were only detectable
if you already knew they were there. I would have had to wander around
just to find the blind, and it was not small. Dale and John went to the shed
to get the deer cart with all the heavy stuff. They had taken it all down
there beforehand on Thursday for us.
After that, John left to go back to work, and Dale had to make 2 or 3
more trips back to his truck for the rest of his stuff. About this
time, I had him take off my right glove because it was hindering me too
much. Then he unpacked my rifle mount box (I'm so glad he was down here
a week ago and we got to do a practice assembly in the apartment).
We were just barely starting to assemble the "back bumper" of the rifle
mount to the chair, when Dale thought he heard something. We looked
around, and 3 of the prettiest deer you ever saw came strolling along
25-30 feet in front of us. That's feet, not yards! It was a buck, a
doe and a yearling. We froze in place. The doe circled around behind
us and then got alarmed. She started snorting and bounded off with the
yearling. Meanwhile, the buck stayed standing broadside looking at us,
looking more than anything like he was thinking, "What in the heck is
THAT?!?" Dale was about to have a buck fever stroke, saying "None of my
buddies are ever going to believe this!" We were not sure how many
points he had on his rack due to the thick fog, but it looked to be
about 3 on each side. If it had gotten any closer, Dale was real
tempted to just jump the camo and go after it with his knife. Common
sense prevailed, and he started putting the bolts in the bumper again.
Incredibly, the buck continued to stand broadside to us and watch us.
At any rate, after 3 incredibly long minutes of this, he tired of the
spectacle we were making and decided to wander off.
I think it took 30-45 minutes to get all the parts assembled. Then Dale
taped the switch controls to my hand, which was a process, as my hands
do not work near as well as they did 2 years ago. We got that, my left
hand, and the wiring strung through the ATV handlebar mitt. This was
real welcome, as my hands were starting to freeze up. Unfortunately,
with my winter gear on and in the mitt, I was not able to handle the
switches at all, and my arm was pretty worn out by the previous driving.
Not good. Dale tried laying the second ATV mitt across my
right hand to lend it a little warmth, but then I could no longer
use it or drive my chair. Different approach needed. I had Dale cut
open the inner seam of the "elbow" of the ATV mitt, and had him slide
both of my hands inside. This got them sheltered enough to function,
but meant he now had to steer the chair and adjust the seat. I had slid
down in the seat a very tiny amount, so this meant I had to sit the seat
back up even more than during our trial run, just to be able to see out
of the scope. Sitting up the seat so far caused the rifle buttstock to turn
my headrest to the side about 45 degrees -- squishing my head against
the stock. Good thing we had the headrest wrenches along just in case,
so that was another thing that got changed a little by circumstances.
Somewhere in this whole process we (earlier, I think) got on all our
hunter orange gear. I think you can read by the stuff at night, it is
so bright. It is necessary though Just In Case!
So anyway, we settled down to wait. We heard gunshots off in the
distance as the morning wore on. The fog eventually lifted enough to
see the close tree line by the creek as well as the far one about 100-125
yards away. Dale heard something again, and a doe bounded through on
her way to the cover of the creek bed.
I was frozen almost solid by this time, so Dale laid his coveralls
across my feet, which only helped a little since the sun never came out,
and a thick layer of dew had settled on all of our stuff.
He drank his coffee and I drank my soup broth. He started getting
chilled, so he took twigs from the woodpile, lit them with his lighter
(they were wet, so the lighter was necessary) and cupped them in his
hands. A little later, he shaved wood from a chunk of wood and made a
miniature 6 inch bonfire to warm his hands and feet by. I had him take off
my orange stocking cap, put up the hood of my jacket and
slip my orange stocking cap over the top of that. We ate sandwiches and
bananas for lunch. Finally my rate of getting cold slowed down and started
to reverse itself. My hands got fairly warm, and I avoided my feet hurting
from the cold. This was a Big Deal!
We had been out there about 6 hours by this time. The temp had probably
climbed to 50F. This is the longest I have ever been out in this low of
a temperature. That is not much to most people, but I normally freeze
at 75F outside.
Then Dale saw another doe in the woods. Sometimes both of us could see
her, sometimes just me, and sometimes just him. She continued into the
clearing, whereupon I adjusted the rifle barrel elevation to its max,
and Dale pushed a little down on the buttstock to get a little more (it
would not go high enough, as my chair was pointed slightly downhill).
He also had to use the stick on my chair to "Go a little right." "Now
back to the left a little." This wasn't helped by the fact that the
rear casters had dug themselves into the mud, made turning almost
impossible, and kept changing the rifle elevation abruptly as the chair
worked itself in and out of the holes. Both of my hands were required
to handle the rifle switches. I had a perfect *easy* 50-60 yard shot and took
it.
The chair stayed pretty steady (actually very steady), but since my
thumb was not planted quite far enough into the trigger micro switch,
that slight jog at that time was just enough to touch off a second
round. Two rounds in a half-second, which I was not proud of doing.
The doe stumbled, then left the area limping. The rifle obviously
requires re-zeroing! Dale went in after her with his knife to find out
if she was mortally wounded or not. He found where she had bedded down
for a minute and had then moved on. There was no sign of blood at all,
nor anywhere else where he tracked her for the next hour and a half,
or at the spot she stopped to poop.
We waited back at the blind till about 3:20pm, when Dale started packing
us up to leave. He had to get up at 3am the next morning to get to
work! He called John to come pick us up at 4pm.
We went to go up the driveway to meet John at the entrance. I looked at
the slope -- it was all of 20-25 degrees (not percent)! My chair lost
traction completely right at the bottom, spinning in the mud. Dale had
to drop everything and PUSH! We went up, my tires spinning away,
swerving side to side from one rut to the other. My tires are the
narrow ones available on my chair -- 3.00-10. They are foam-filled so I
do not need to worry about flats, but the flip side of this is a rougher
ride and less traction. We made it to the top, Dale being a little tuckered.
When we got home, I was forbidden to enter the apartment until as much
mud as possible was sliced off my tires. Seems I had about an inch of
mud on all sides of my tires. I felt lucky it did not get up in the
frame of the chair. It was a mess as it was.
Mon 11-17-2003
Ordered in a laser sight-in tool w/software to avoid having to go the
range (can't get my junk and me down there, anyway). FedEx 2-Day will
have it here Thurs.
The dried mud in the tread of my tires continues to leave trails all
over the apartment. Someone is almost following me around the place,
sweeping, sweeping.
Wed 11-19-2003
To cut down on my indoor gardening, Alice takes a stiff brush to the
tires. Brushing does not do it, so she resorts to beating them with the
back of it. This works well, as the dried mud tends to pop right on
out. She got a huge pile out, which largely fixed the mud problem.
Plans are to throw me in bed 6pm Sat night and scrounge me out 1am
Sunday so Dale and I can get me set up on time this time. It is
supposed to rain all Sat, then clear off Sun.
Thu 11-20-2003
John & Tonja went out and made Dale & I a lean-to (pounded four
sharpened 2x4 posts into the mud & put a tarp over the top). They also
put a 4x8 sheet of plywood down so my chair would not dig itself
down into the mud again.
Laser sight-in tool came in today.
Had Tonja get out the box with all the hand-warming stuff, and my Arctic
boots.
Fri 11-21-2003
To install the sight-in software, I need to make sure the CD-ROM drive
is working (either of them), so I had Jerry stick the CD cleaner disk in
the computer. It pooped out after a bit, so he cleaned the salt off the CD
cleaner that it accumulated from the CD drive lens.
Tried it in the other drive, and
it didn't work at all. Back to the first drive. This
time it kept going,
but was screwing up big-time. The only way we could get it to eject was
with the eject button -- software would not do it. Trying once again
showed the tracks on the CD cleaner were now scratched up, so that means
both drives are toast. I will have to figure out some other way to
sight it in tomorrow with the laser, as a trip to the range is out of
the question. Besides, most of the gear is still at John's place.
Found out that late last night, John and Tonja were driving the van down
the street here, and hit a piece of concrete someone had left in the
middle of the road. It lost most of its brake fluid, so they are going
to try to get it fixed tomorrow.
I keep checking the weather online -- it is supposed to get down to 50F
tonight, rain all morning, up to 51F, then by noon, the winds are to
pick up to 19mph, then sometime Sun night, get down to 19F with snow
flurries all afternoon and night. Blech.
Sat 11-23-2003
Got up early today to use the laser sight-in tool. The apartment is 54
ft long, so to get a 25 yd line-of-sight, I figured we could fold the
light path by sticking a mirror on one wall, getting about halfway
(actually I measured the proper distance) between the 2 apartment ends,
aiming at the mirror, then focusing on the other end of the apartment.
Aim the crosshairs at the laser spot was the name of the game.
Balancing everything on the little metal TV tray was not getting it, so
Alice got out the 2x3 ft folding wood table. Both Alice and Jerry
both had their hand in trying to adjust the scope. The scope knobs have
been twisted both ways so many clicks that there isn't any telling
what the original settings were. Neither one could make heads or tails
of it, so the scope are totally screwed up now.
Bad news on John's van. Brake line runs between the skid plate and the
van, and when it hit the concrete, the skid plate bent enough to cut the
line. Part of the skid plate will have to be torched off to get to it,
and since it is real rusty, the whole thing will have to be torched off
and replaced. That really stinks to have to do all that. One more
reason I don't want a minivan.
This means no transport from him, so I called Jerry to see if we could
get a ride in their van. Turns out they are going to be busy with it
all day, but they gave us Harley's number. They are the new owners of
Jerry's old van. John said that getting a ride through them would be
rougher than getting both ankles broken. We decided that at this point,
the Sunday hunt is a total no-go.
Seeing as it was now 7pm, I had Alice help me call Dale to tell him the
bad news so he could change his schedule back to normal. Turns out he
had not planned on coming anyway due to the weather!
Alice and I are drawing up a list of stuff I really need done before
going out on the second firearms season in December.
1) a "cocoon" for my right arm with hand heater cradle on the wire
frame that keeps the weight off my hands
2) make wire frame mentioned above
3) new gun control microswitch layout for right hand instead of the left
4) another microswitch layout to strap to left leg (as an alternate)
5) insulated layer to go under poncho
6) armrests from Walt -- I need better arm support, and I've been
waiting on United Seating for them since Jan. of this year
7) get my rifle sighted in for real!!!
8) a good checklist
9) have to get all my equipment back from the farm so we can work on it
10) more to be added...
In conclusion, we found out some stuff that did work, some that did
not... it was primarily an experiment to see if it was possible for me to
hunt at all.
I see I should be able to handle even some colder weather. I did not
even have on my breath-heat-recycling mask, or my neoprene socks, or my
LeggerAlls (sort of like highly insulated cowboy chaps with feet in
them), nor my mukluks. I do need to have a thermal "cocoon" made for
my right arm so it can be warm and unencumbered even in bitter cold.
Dale said halfway through it that he figured I would have to bail out by
9am. I also figured I would have had to bail at least that early. If
it weren't for him, I would have to have. Later, I found out everyone
at home was betting I would have to come home early, so this was a
surprise to all of us.
Some of this could only have been discovered under field conditions.
Some needed doing beforehand, but due to a lot of circumstances did not
get done. This made for an unsuccessful hunt even though it would
normally have been an easy one.
Sunday is now here. Alice was asked to fix part of Thanksgiving dinner
for both apartment complexes here for Tuesday. Friday she baked up 6
pumpkin pies. Tuesday she is really going to be busy. Good thing she
now has her own electric wheelchair.
jv
Feel free to contact Jeff. He will enjoy
hearing from fellow outdoorsman and outdoorswomen:
jvandyke@outdrs.net
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Jeff and I would like to thank
the companies that assisted
us in this project:
1. Buffer Technologies (Jefferson MO) donated a Mini-30 recoil buffer.
2. Four Seasons Firearms (Woburn MA) made a Mini-30 available at an
un-heard-of price.
3. Lee Precision (Hartford, WI) provided greatly marked-down dies and press.
4. OutdoorsUlimited.Net (Georgetown OH) made a contribution of dial-up
access time so Jeff and I could converse over the 'net. |
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