EL DORADO — Katie Meade (AKA The Huntress) has contributed her Thursday hunting column to the El Dorado News-Times for over two years, offering advice and telling stories for hunters and enthusiasts in Union County. She offered similar advice as a guest speaker for the El Dorado Civitan Club at the Kozy Kitchen on Feb.16.
“Hunting has been a part of my life since I was three,” Meade said. “I used to go hunting with my dad and it took to me like a fish to water.”
At her table layed an assortment of mounted hogs’ tusks, deer antlers, arrows, and a hunting bow; and each item carried a story with it.
She held up a deer antler mount with a single feather hanging from it.
“My son was with me when we shot this one—he always makes a point to tell me,” Meade said .
In a deer stand at her family’s 100-acre farm located North of Strong, in between New London and the Ouchita River, she and her 3-year-old son, Cooper, stood still and quiet.
“It was brisk and he snuggled up real close and fell asleep in 15 minutes,” she said.
A few minutes passed and a young buck came by—too small to hunt.
He grunted and strutted, until a larger buck responded.
“An 8-point, 16-inch inside spread mature deer came along grunting and trotting,” she said.
Aware of her sleeping son, Meade reached for her Browning A-Bolt 270-caliber rifle, scoped the buck, grunted a faux deer call, and shot left handed. She jumped down, filled her tags and showed Cooper.
“‘You shot that mama?’ and I’m like ‘I know, you were sawing logs, sound asleep,’” she said.
Meade has accompanied him on many hunting trips and taught him outdoor lessons passed on from her family.
Recalling another story, she held up her right hand and morphed it into the shape of a turkey foot.
At the farm, Meade said when her son would find turkey tracks, she would quiz him.
“Now is that a turkey gobbler or a hen?” she said.
She taught him the way to tell the difference between a gobbler and a hen is by a turkey’s tracks. A gobbler’s toes usually have the same length, compared to a hen that has one long middle toe and two shorter surrounding toes, she said. Also, gobblers are heavier than hens and make a deeper track.
“In school they teach you A-squared-plus-B-squared-equals-C-squared—which is good and all—but I want to make sure he knows how to change a tire, hunt, you know be out on his own,” Meade said.
For her, hunting isn’t about blindly shooting anything that moves, but about being in the wild and helping prevent overpopulation of hogs, turkeys, deer and other wildgame in Arkansas.
“It teaches self-discipline, honor, and patience,” she said.
A common misconception is that hunters are allowed to shoot whatever comes into sight, but the Game & Fish Commission has a firm set of laws that specify what hunters can or cannot do. If those laws are breached, commission officers will fine, retract or arrest whomever is breaking the law.
“They have more rights than a police officer does,” she said. “If they even think you’re doing something illegal, they will look in your freezer, check your deer stand, whatever to see if you’re following regulations, and they don’t need a warrant either.”
Cooper is five, going on six, and will be old enough for deer season this fall. In preparation, he’s been training with a BB gun for the last couple of weeks.
“It’s the best way to teach,” Meade said. “I believe everyone should basic knowledge of gun safety. That way it will prevent more accidents from happening.”
In her column, she has shared photos of hunting trips, given advice, shared stories and proven that hunting isn’t about finding the best kill or filling every tag.
“If I didn’t find anything one day I still had a good time,” said the Huntress.
Nathan Owens can be reached by phone or email at [email protected]. For news updates follow him on Twitter: nowensednt.