Kennon Lollar of Winona is an avid hunter, but hasn’t able to bow hunt after he lost a leg in an accident at work four years ago. In fact, the future and hunting in general wasn’t on his mind in the aftermath of the traumatic event. Thanks to encouragement from his friends, he did go hunting again and this year he was determined to hunt deer with a bow.
“I love to hunt ducks, deer, turkey, you name it,” said Lollar. “I just didn’t have the strength to pull a bow back after I lost my leg. But after I healed and got stronger, I thought I might be able to shoot a crossbow.”
Lollar’s hunting buddy, Hunter Dees, was encouraging, and they started hunting together. Both started making preparations to bow hunt together this fall. Scouting was done, game cameras put out and they both started watching their pictures in preparation of the harvest.
As you can imagine, hunting while using crutches is quite an ordeal, but it’s just something that Lollar has learned to live with. Lollar rides as close to his stand as he can get and then walks in on crutches. He recently received a new prosthetic leg, but he has not used that while hunting yet.
“Hunter called me one Saturday morning and asked me if I was ready to go hunting,” Lollar said.
Look at the camera
“Have you looked at your camera this morning,” Dees asked?
“I looked at my camera pictures on my phone app with him and saw a couple of small 8-points and then… Oh My Gosh,” Lollar said. “There was a monster 12-point buck that came in behind them. Right then and there we made plans to hunt that day.”
But it would take a lot of work before they were ready to hunt, so after breakfast Lollar got ready for the hunt and they came up with a game plan and went to the woods.
“Me and Hunter put up a ground blind and brushed it in with some cedar limbs in a location where we could see the deer approaching,” he said. “We were finished by 2:30, so we both got in the blind and the hunt began.”
Things didn’t start out fast, but around 5:15 a small buck came in acting nervous, according to Lollar.
“About 5:40, I heard something walking in the oak bottom and then I saw two small 8 points feeding alone,” said Lollar. “Suddenly they ran off and I couldn’t figure out why, but a few minutes later I saw them coming back toward my blind. I looked at Hunter and told him what I saw, and the tension was building.”
Movement
What seemed like an eternity was really only a short time, but Lollar spotted movement pretty soon.
“An 8-point came through a shooting lane and then the big buck came through and looked directly at me, but I didn’t have a clear shot,” Lollar said. “Then the other 8-pointer fed out in front of me and then the 12-point buck came back out hugging the tree line. He came out just enough for a clear shot.”
The moment of truth had finally arrived as Lollar squeezed the trigger of his Mathews Crossbow.
“Thwack!”
The crossbow bolt smacked the buck and it buckled and his head went down, and he ran through a group of cedar trees and disappeared.
With adrenalin pulsing through Lollar’s veins, they got out of the stand and went to the shot site, but didn’t find any blood.
“I finally found a speck of dried blood, while Hunter walked the whole ridge and didn’t find anything,” Lollar. “We knew that I’d made a good shot, but Hunter thought it best to call in a dog to help retrieve the buck due to the lack of blood.”
Retrieving the buck
They called Timothy Pearson, and he brought his dog, Rebel, out to help with the recovery.
“He said that if the deer was injured or sustained fatal wounds that they would find him,” Lollar said. “Sure enough they picked up the trail about 75 yards away and they found the buck only 200 yards away.”
The trophy 12-point buck was not only his first bow kill, but Lollar’s biggest buck to date! They did a rough estimate green score and the buck scored in the 155 to 160 range. Lollar harvested the buck with a Mathews Mission Sub-1 Crossbow with a Grim Reaper broadhead.
Needless to say the celebration that ensued was epic and was enjoyed by the whole family, which included wife, Jordan, and 5-year-old son, Kendan.
Lollar has overcome adversity and triumphed with a little help from his family and a lot of encouragement from his friends!
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