Outdoor Adventures

[Colt1861Navy]

Heroic hunter

2-16-03

BY BRYAN BRASHER
Staff Writer

The stacks of thick photo albums in Cindy Jones' living room offer indisputable proof that her 10-year-old son, Matthew, was born to be a deer hunter.

One photo shows Matthew with his first shotgun -- a Christmas gift from his grandfather, Larry Phillips, when he was just 3 1/2 months old. Another shows a 7-year-old Matthew, still decked out in camo after killing his first deer.

The albums also house dozens of the child's elementary school drawings. The theme for each of the Crayola renderings is the same: "I love hunting with my Granddaddy."

Since Matthew was barely old enough to toddle around in an oversized camouflage T-shirt, he has spent every weekend during Georgia's deer season tagging along behind Phillips. So the afternoon of Nov. 9 couldn't have seemed more normal as the pair entered the woods near Waverly Hall, Ga.

It was the kind of day deer hunters pray for -- cool but not cold. Cloudy but not yet raining. The deer were moving.

Just before sundown, however, the day took a terrifying turn.

Near-fatal mistake

Fifty years of hunting experience have taught Phillips that the biggest whitetail deer prefer thick, harsh terrain -- the kind that's toughest for humans to access. Few places are thicker or rougher than the one he and Matthew chose to hunt this particular afternoon.

"We were in an old clear-cut that has been planted for about three years," Phillips said. "It's grown up with a lot of vines and tangles and it's impossible to walk in, but the deer really like it."

The hunters plowed through the thick underbrush on Phillips' Kawasaki Mule -- a hulking all-terrain vehicle that works more like a tank than a standard ATV. Phillips bulldozed a path through the mangled mess until he spotted a large tree with two trunks.

"It was perfect," Phillips said, "because Matthew could get on one side with his stand and I could get on the other side and stay close to him."

Though Matthew is an experienced hunter, he's still a rookie when it comes to self-climbing tree stands. He received a climber for his birthday in September and was using it for only the fifth time.

As Phillips watched closely, Matthew climbed the left trunk of the tree and positioned himself facing the clearing. Phillips climbed the right trunk and faced the opposite direction toward the hardwood forest that bordered the clearing. Both were nearly 30 feet off the ground.

While climbing into position, the hunters did everything right. They pulled their unloaded guns up one at a time with a rope. They removed their fanny packs and carefully loaded their weapons.

They followed every rule -- except, perhaps, the most important one. Though Phillips had a safety harness with him, he chose not to use it.

Still facing the tree with his back against the tree stand's gun rest, Phillips fell asleep.

"I could hear him snoring, so I know he was asleep," Matthew said. "I think he was putting too much pressure on the gun rest. His feet did something funky, the gun rest slipped a little bit and he fell out."

Matthew turned just in time to see Phillips crashing through the tree limbs below. Then he heard him land in a heap at the base of the tree.

Moment of panic

Still perched high above the ground, Matthew experienced a split second of panic -- until his grandfather, bruised and broken below, mumbled a few words of instruction.

"At first I didn't know what to do," Matthew said. "But Granddaddy talked me through it. He was out of it and he says he doesn't remember it, but he told me to unload my gun and lower it down."

Matthew unloaded his weapon. But before lowering it, he had to swing his stand around to the right trunk where the gun rope was still tied to Phillips' stand. Then he climbed down -- for the first time without supervision -- and raced to his grandfather's side.

"I asked him where it hurt and he said, 'All over,' " Matthew said. "But it was mainly in his right leg."

By now, darkness was falling -- along with a steady rain. Phillips was bleeding from his scalp and unable to move his legs.

The youngster tried three times to lift his grandfather onto the ATV, but he was too heavy. He needed help -- even if it meant leaving the person he loved most in the world alone in the dark.

"It didn't want to leave him," Matthew said. "But I couldn't just sit there and watch him die."

That's when the fresh-faced young boy began thinking more rationally than many adults would in the same situation.

With rain falling and the temperature dropping, Matthew pulled Phillips under a tree to keep him dry and covered him with his jacket. He hung his orange vest on the tree to make sure he could find the spot again and drove away into the darkness.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/enquirer/5192162.htm