Meet Queen Jessica – Arkansas Huntress, Wife, and Mother

My name is Jessica; I live in a small southern town in Arkansas. I am a wife, and a mother to two boys and one girl and a step-mother to three girls. I grew up in a hunting family, where some of my earliest memories are of my dad and I hunting and fishing. As a mother of three children I understand more than ever the importance of introducing your children to the outdoors. As hunting season approaches it always gets interesting in our household, it’s a busy time as we spend afternoons and weekends in the woods getting feeders, stands and shooting lanes ready. To be able to provide food for my family that I killed, cleaned, and processed is gratifying. My husband and I make a great hunting team; God has blessed us with one another; for four years every time one of us kills a buck it seems like the other one does the same, pretty amazing.

The 2014 hunting season was an amazing time for me in the woods, it was opening morning and I had seen about 20 deer so far, I love watching the young bucks being feisty and feeling their oats in the early morning. I have three shooting lanes to observe, it was cold and I was sitting patiently waiting and watching and I turn to my left shooting lane and oh my goodness a buck stood about 115 yards from me I could see antlers for days without my scope. I pull up on this deer and quickly realize this big guy isn’t staying, he isn’t here for eating and I sure wasn’t supposed to see him. I knew in the event that I had to shoot out of my left side of my stand it would be interesting as I had to shoot on shooting sticks, well that was the last thing on my mind is grabbing them so I free hand and attempt to control my breathing and I squeeze the trigger. Oh my the buck is down, dropped him in his steps, I’m shaking all over I’m attempting to text my husband and tell him I shot and it was hard to send the text I was shaking so bad, I tried to stand up and couldn’t, I was a wreck. Well this hunting trip was a hard lesson learned, I looked up from gathering myself and emotions and HE’S GONE!!! My heart sank one minute he was down, the next he’s gone, I don’t get down for a little bit I’m listening for crashing in the leaves or and ruckus I would make out, I love how my hearing is so intense in the woods. About 15 minutes later I get down and meet Stephen, my husband, in the edge of the shooting lane and there is blood, and lots of it, I was positive it was a good hit. We listen and start following blood and round a corner 10 yards off the shooting lane and there he is ALIVE, trying to get up, so he is shot again….I stand close guard this time and make sure he is dead, no repeats mistakes. I’m so excited, at this point my legs are jelly all of my adrenaline is gone; he’s so much bigger than I thought he was when I shot him. My mistakes I took my eye of him following my shot and he took two steps when I pulled the trigger and made a bad shot through his hips and backbone, lessons learned that’s for sure.

My 2015 hunting season was also great, Stephen, Dylan (my son), Hannah (my stepdaughter) and Cason (my son) and myself all took deer this year and had a great season. I killed my first deer with a bow this year, it was a very emotional time I was excited, nervous, scared and happy all at once. I have a three year old little girl that loves sitting in the stand, feeding the deer, checking the cameras, and even cleaning the deer with me; I can’t wait for her to get a little bigger to hunt. Anytime my family can spend outdoor time together is wonderful.