Staff photo by Connor Cummiskey Non-profit Ardent Outdoor Group brought together wounded and disabled veterans for bow hunting outside of New Ulm Saturday, Oct. 28. Pictured left to right, front row: Thomas Brown, Aamir Halfal, Charreise Norris, Matt Wilkie and Doyal Johnson; back row: John Chance, Jesse LaMere, Tom Norris, Scott Zeig, Jason Halverson, Dave Strenge and Dale Gersch.

NEW ULM — Disabled veterans went bow hunting near New Ulm Saturday as part of a new non-profit.

Six hunters and 19 total participants went hunting on Dave Strenge’s property to thin out the doe herd as part of Ardent Archers.

“I run a non-profit called Ardent Outdoor Group (AOG) and Ardent Archers is a program within that syllabus,” AOG Organizer Matt Wilkie said. “It is an introduction to archery deer-hunting program for disabled veterans.”

Veterans get training sessions in August and can go out and practice tracking and other skills pre-season. Then they get to try out bow hunting.

This is the first year of Ardent Archers, though this was the third hunt Wilkie had organized. While they had not bagged anything Saturday morning, the veterans were enjoying themselves and were optimistic about getting their quarry.

Skill levels ranged from never having hunted before to being familiar with using bows to fish. Aamir Halfal was one who had never been hunting before.

He enjoyed sitting in nature, listening and watching. At one point he saw a couple of bucks, but they never got too close.

“Nothing but an ATV came our way,” Halfal said.

Plus, they were not allowed to shoot any bucks during this hunt anyway, Wilkie said.

One hunter, who has experience hunting from his youth was Jason Halverson. He saw multiple groups of deer, both buck and doe, but did not get the proper angle.

“This is the first time I have been big game, or larger game, hunting since I came back from the war so it is a big deal,” Halverson said.

Halverson used to go stalking through the woods with his step-dad, however, his experience overseas means he has been relearning the trade.

“I grew up hunting and trapping and fishing,” Halverson said. “I got a couple of traumatic brain injuries when I was deployed so a lot of what I knew I am re-learning so this has been a really great program.”

Along with re-learning, the experience of hunting from a blind is mostly new to Halverson because he was used to sneaking around the forest to find his quarry.

“You definitely notice and hear a lot more when you are sitting there, quiet, than when you are walking quietly through the woods,” Halverson said.

One thing he was excited to see was the behavior of deer. Halverson talked about having learned of deer “scratching” where they the bucks and doe will scratch in the dirt to communicate their presence to each other.

“It was cool to see in real life, right in front of us,” Halverson said.

Charreise Norris was one of the more experienced bow-hunters, having used a bow to hunt carp. She enjoyed it she said. Norris and her husband are expecting to get their own blind soon and intend to keep bow hunting.

“Shotguns are fun, but bow hunting takes a lot more skill because you have to know exactly how you are sighting things in and overall I just think it the skill-sets are just totally different,” Norris said.

Norris was the closest to getting a shot Saturday morning. Unfortunately the doe had come up at an angle she was not ready for and was gone before she got it.

Bow hunting is also good for disabled veterans like Norris, who suffered a shoulder injury. Bows do not have a kick like a shotgun.

Not everything was about bagging a deer. The veterans also had a chance to talk with people who could relate to them on multiple levels.

“Once we all get together and share stories and we talk to each other and we can open up about other aspects of things that happened to us when we were overseas that they cannot really talk about to their families,” Jesse LaMere said. “That is what I think is the best part of the organization.”

AOG only recently received its 501(c)(3) status and does not have its own website. The aim of the organization is to introduce people, particularly veterans, to outdoor activities.

Wilkie, a self-admitted city boy, only recently started hunting himself. As his professional work is only seasonal, he decided to start a non-profit to bring that joy to others.

Wilkie can be emailed at mwilkie@diveguysmn.com.

ccummiskey@nujournal.com