CAMP GRAFTON, N.D. _ The buck was a dandy _ a "nice 4x4," as they'd say in the hunting lingo _ and Dennis Heap came within seconds of having it in his sights for an opportunity to pull the trigger on a recent Tuesday morning.
Seconds are a long time when it comes to deer hunting, though, and there wasn't enough time for Heap to get into the right position for a clean shot.
And so, he's left with the memory of a very impressive deer and the reminder every deer hunter gets at some point _ that dandy bucks get to be dandy bucks for a reason.
"I wish I could have gotten a good shot at him," Heap said. "I just didn't have the right angle."
Heap, of Grand Forks, was one of four military veterans participating Tuesday in a special deer hunt for disabled North Dakota veterans at the 1,500-acre National Guard training camp near Devils Lake.
Col. Dean Hildebrand, a former commander at Camp Grafton, started the hunt in the early 1990s as a way to control deer numbers on the grounds and give qualifying veterans a place to hunt, said Larry Walford, retired chief warrant officer at Camp Grafton.
The Camp Grafton hunt been an annual event since Hildebrand founded it, says Walford, who has organized the hunt since 2001 in conjunction with Barnes County Veterans Services.
Hildebrand, who died in 2008, served in the National Guard 40 years and was director of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department from 1996 until 2005.
"You see a lot of guys coming back year after year, and they enjoy it," Walford said. "It's pretty rewarding to see that they can come out and have a place to hunt and somebody to help them get their deer and be successful."
