7x7 Roosey! Outdoor Dream Foundation Hunt

This year has been the beginning of a new life for Jessica, who's spent nearly 4 years fighting two forms of cancer and recovering from the treatments she endured. Now in remission, she's gaining strength and energy each day, and was finally able to go on her "hunt of a lifetime" put on by the Outdoor Dream Foundation...a South Carolina based non profit agency providing the means for children like Jessica to experience the outdoors in a way they couldn't on their own.

One of the options was an Oregon Elk hunt, and with the incredible support of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Stimson Lumber, the adventure was truly a once in a lifetime experience! Faith in the Field was lucky enough to film her time here, and I hope we captured even a fraction of how incredible this hunt was for all who were involved.

Jessica flew in Monday afternoon with her dad and a friend from the Outdoor Dream Foundation, taking in the sights of the Northwest for the first time. We sighted in her rifle and settled into "elk camp" the evening before day 1...



We shot a .22lr with a scope for practice...Jessica put 100+ rounds through the target one afternoon...




I don't have photos of all of the experiences, but our video cameras were rolling every day out. :wink: We saw a lot of elk...and experienced more than most do in a lifetime! We had elk far and near, big and small...chuckles, bugles, cow talk...it was amazing! On our third morning we had dropped into a canyon chasing a bugle, and had a mature bull only 70 yards away...we could hear him breathing and raking, we felt his chuckles and his bugle shook the ground...he just never gave us an open shot before his cows led him away. That same evening (day 3, Thursday night), all of Jessica's hard work paid off! At 210 yards, it was as if she was pulling the trigger of that .22lr and was shooting that cardboard box...she DRILLED this DANDY bull through both lungs with the first shot out of her 7mm-08, and punched her tag on an unbelievable, and unique, roosevelt bull!

Enjoy the photos...

Getting our hands on him...




Jessica and her dad...


The crew...


Sunset...


You can best see the points in this photo...both inner brow tines had stickers coming off...





With a few days left in the Northwest, Jessica made it to the beach, toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, took a helicopter ride over the areas we'd hunted and even went crabbing so we could add to the table fair of Saturday night's barbecue.

Thanks to Sitka gear for donating a jacket for her hunt...well, at least for the crabbin trip... :wink:


And thanks for all the others who donated equipment and time to make this hunt what it was...it truly was a "dream hunt."

The footage will be on this year's dvd coming out in February!