d e l b a n E DISABLED HUNTING Austin’s Story
At the age of 6, Austin Jones went into respiratory failure. He was able to leave the hospital more than a month later, though he has been on a ventilator since.
BY SAVANNA SIMMONS
W
hen Austin Jones was a baby, his mother Stephanie knew something wasn’t quite right with her youngest child. His hands and feet didn’t develop as she knew they should have, and, at the age of nine months, he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. For several years of his life, he was able to walk with the aid of braces, however, when he was six, Austin went into respiratory failure. Since then, he has been on a ventilator and in a wheelchair.
Following the passion of his hunting father, for his sixth birthday, Austin took his birthday money of $168 and purchased a Cricket .22 rifle, an upgrade from his BB gun. 30
OPEN SEASON 2020
“That was the only thing he wanted,” said Austin’s dad Jason. “He still loves to shoot guns, but he just won’t hunt with guns because he thinks they’re too easy.” He got his first crossbow at the age of 12, and Austin and Jason took quite some time to get a system figured out for shooting. Jason places the crossbow near Austin in his track chair and directs the aim as Austin looks through the scope, telling Jason, up, down, your way, my way, and shoot. Jason pulls the trigger with his left thumb. “We were really, really bad for quite a while. If we got a 10-inch group, we were pretty proud of it,” Jason said. “Part of it was we didn’t have a real great crossbow, and part of it was we just sucked.” Now, at the age of 23, Austin is an avid crossbow hunter, and roams the United States with his dad, hunting large game like white tail and pronghorn in Wyoming, black bear and Rocky Mountain elk in his home state of Michigan, American bison in Texas, coues deer in Arizona, and much more.
TRI-STATE LIVESTOCK NEWS | FARMER & RANCHER EXCHANGE
