Hunting

Caty Langston, Features Editor

The sky is pitch black and the air is cool. The only thing in sight are two beams of light illuminating from the four-wheel truck. It is two hours past midnight and senior Mackane Burchfield is prepared to slaughter his favorite prey.

“My favorite animal to hunt is definitely turkey, which might sound weird but it’s by far the most exciting,” said Burchfield.

Hunting turkeys is becoming more popular, especially in Arkansas. According to the National Wild Turkey Foundation (NWTF), Arkansas has a three year plan to create 20,000 acres of access for hunting.

“I think it’s more exciting because of all of the close encounters and how much skill it really takes to get a chance to kill one,” said Burchfield.

Senior Brady Patrick’s favorite game is not turkeys, but ducks. He thinks that while duck hunting can be relaxed, it is very rewarding.

“You get more than one prize. You can talk and eat food while hunting and you can hunt with friends and family,” said Patrick.

Patrick has been hunting since he was very young, taking his first hunting trip to the Arkansas River with his dad. His entire family has a deep love for the outdoors and hunting in general, so naturally he fell right into place. The best memory he has of hunting was when he was with his dad unloading hunting gear from their boat.

“I thought I was doing some help for my dad until I tripped over the edge of the boat and dropped both guns and bags in the water,” said Patrick. He fell in the water along with the equipment and his waders immediately filled up with water. “The guns froze up in the 18 degree weather until the sun melted them enough to hunt,” said Patrick.

Junior Hunter Mueller has never had an incident like that happen to him, but he does love to hunt ducks.

“I own a 400 acre rice farm in Stuttgart and I go every weekend and every holiday besides Christmas,” said Mueller.

Stuttgart is the rice and duck capital of the world. It hosts the World Champion Duck Caller contests every November and is home to the premier waterfowl outfitter, Mack’s Prairie Wings.

“I love Stuttgart because it is very rare to go and not see a duck or goose constantly in a field or flying in the sky,” said Mueller.

Burchfield traveled to southeast Arkansas to hunt deer the weekend of October 23. He did not kill any game, but plans on hunting again soon.

“I’ll go again over Thanksgiving break,” said Burchfield.