Article published November 03, 2009
Hunting is not just for boys
Father-daughter pairs take aim at waterfowl, deer
Girls are just like boys - well, not exactly - but they do like to hunt when given the same opportunities.
Witness 13-year-old Paige Collingwood of Willard, Ohio, who bagged her first deer on her second hunt with her dad, and 23-year-old Kacey Smith Funk of Weston, who honored family tradition and shot Canada geese and mallards with her dad, Tom Smith, on the opening day of the waterfowl season - which also was her wedding day.
Jan Smith, Kacey's mom, said that the conversation last August, when father and daughter were in town to buy licenses, went something like this:
"Dad: Kacey, look up and see when the first day of duck season is.
Kacey: "OK … it is Oct. 17."
Dad: "Uh oh! That is your wedding day."Kacey: "Not a problem, Dad. I don't get my nails and hair done until 10 a.m. We have plenty of time to hunt!"
Daughter proved as true to the hunting promise as she did with her matrimonial vows later that day to Josh Funk.
Tom, the renowned custom gunstock maker from rural Wood County, said that they hunted on the wetlands on their farm homestead.
"It's always a tradition here, father and daughter on opening day. We shot four [Canada] geese and three mallards."
They split on geese and Kacey bagged the ducks, he said. "Be honest with you, I was tearing up a little bit. I couldn't see them as good as I should."
Oh, yeah - "the wedding was terrific," Smith said. "The following Saturday we started another tradition. She and Josh went duck hunting. They each limited on mallards."
Speaking of starting a tradition, how about Jeff and Paige Collingwood, another father-daughter duo 10 years earlier on the curve than the waterfowling Smiths?
Thirteen-year-old Paige also took her limit - one buck - while hunting deer for only the second time with her dad, Jeff, an investigator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
"She told me this past summer that she wanted to try some hunting this fall," Collingwood begins. "So we took the hunter-education course in August.
"She originally didn't want to hunt deer," Collingwood said. But after practicing with a crossbow a bit, "she got excited about it."
Their first afternoon afield in early October they had a deer come in nearly at dark and "it was too late to shoot," said Dad. "But she was hooked." Next time afield in late October found them on a farm near home.
"We had seen a buck and a doe. Then a second buck stepped out about 100 yards away in a CRP field. I made a few grunt calls and he came right in."
The buck was a mite nervous the last few steps, Collingwood said, "but he stepped right into a shooting lane 20 yards out. [Paige] did the rest." Her arrow flew true and she owned her first deer, an eight-point buck to boot. Collingwood estimated its field-dressed weight at 135 pounds.
Paige is a student at Monroeville Junior High School and her brother, Seth, 15, a sophomore at the community's high school, "already is an accomplished deer hunter," Collingwood said.
"Paige is a petite little thing, a cheerleader, an animal lover, and wants to be a veterinarian when she gets older. But she's learned the cycle of life and accepts it and how we participate in it."
All of which speaks volumes.
Three Champaign County men, who allegedly shot at a state wildlife cruiser, hitting the windshield with two wildlife officers inside, were taken into custody on Friday and released Saturday.
Charges will be filed and the individuals identified as soon as the investigation has concluded, possibly later today, the Ohio Division of Wildlife said yesterday. The division gave this account:
Wildlife officers Jeffery Tipton and Adam Smith were in a cruiser parked in a field on surveillance looking for poachers. A vehicle pulled into the field and directed its headlights at the cruiser. One shot was fired, hitting the cruiser in the front windshield. The officers turned on their emergency lights and the suspects fled.
The wildlife lawmen pursued the suspects 4 1/2 miles from Johnson Township to Concord Township in Champaign County, about 30 miles west-northwest of Columbus. Three suspects were arrested with assistance from the Ohio Highway Patrol and Champaign County sheriff's office.
An investigation is being jointly conducted with the state's wildlife law enforcement section and the Highway Patrol. A copy of the patrol's report of the incident notes "no information available" about the suspects.
Contact Steve Pollick at:
spollick@theblade.com
or 419-724-6068.
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