Blind hunter bags a bull

By BRIAN WALKER

Hagadone News Network

HAYDEN — Dale Stamper has conquered a lot of adventures despite being blind, but the Vietnam War veteran reached a new pinnacle last month when he downed a 6-by-6, 600-pound elk.

"I've had a lot of amazing experiences — downhill and cross country skiing, water skiing, boogie boarding in Hawaii — but this ranks as No. 1," said the 68-year-old Hayden man, who became blind due to injuries sustained by a land mine during the war.

"It's something that I never really thought that would happen."

Teamwork, Stamper said, made the hunting trip near Mountain Home the ultimate fulfillment.

"Being able to make that shot there had to be such a strong connection between me and the spotter," Stamper said. "We had to work as a perfect team to make it happen. The whole experience was based upon that sense of being locked into that moment of getting the shot lined up. Everything else around me was completely blocked out."

Stamper used a device that attaches to the scope that allowed spotter Kelly Yore and Stamper to work as a team to bag the buck.

"It was definitely a group effort from start to finish," Yore said.

Yore could see the crosshairs and buck through the device.

"Then it's a matter of having a spotter line up the shot," Stamper said. "I had to be ready to fire because you only have so much time to make the shot, but at the same time you have to keep calm to make sure to get a good shot and not jerk the rifle."

Stamper said he shot the elk on the first day about an hour and a half into the hunt.

"It was part of a herd about 300 yards way," he said. "One of the other people there started to call it and, when the bull responded, we knew he'd come up closer. When I made the shot he was about 120 yards away. Once I knew it was down, we did a lot of yelling."

Stamper, who has served as commander of Fort Sherman Chapter 9 of Disabled American Veterans and is the current national president of the Blinded Veterans Association, hit the buck in the upper heart with his first shot.

"He called me and sent me a photo because he was so excited," said Cora Stamper, Dale's wife. "We had been praying the day before that he'd get an elk."

Yore called the moment a "life-changing experience" for himself.

"To help someone that special who has gone through everything he's gone through and accomplish something on his bucket list, I feel like I'm the one who got the experience."

Yore said it was the first time he helped someone who is totally blind go hunting.

"It was unbelievable," he said. "Just to meet somebody like that was an experience in and of itself. What was amazing to me was how somebody can be completely blind, but he also could see everything so clearly. I think I learned a lot more than he did."

Cora applied for Dale to go on the elk hunt through the Idaho Division of Veterans Services. Two veterans with disabilities are chosen for such hunts statewide each year.

Stamper said after he was selected, he wasn't the least bit apprehensive.

"Whatever was going to happen was going to happen, he said. "There's no challenge that I'm afraid to take on. This was just one more challenge."

Stamper, who had not hunted before, said he had to practice shoot to make sure the device was working "and to make sure that I knew what I was doing."

"A big part of it was becoming familiar with the rifle in general and the scope device," he said.

Stamper encourages others with disabilities to have the confidence to overcome challenges.

"There's no limit, especially with technology today and the opportunities that are there," he said. "Don't hold back."