“I can do all this through Him who gives me strength”
Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
In the spring of 2012 I began shooting my bow more often, with the specific purpose of getting ready for the upcoming deer season in California. The waterfowl and upland game bird seasons had ended, so I put the shotgun away and began to focus on getting my archery skills back into shape. Rifle season wasn’t far off either, but anyone that shoots a bow knows, getting muscle memory back takes a bit of shooting. Not that shooting a rifle accurately doesn’t take some preparation, but it does come a bit more naturally than a lay off from archery.
I had not had a great upland and waterfowl season shooting my shotgun, I had more misses than I would like, and that wasn’t normal for me. I had a heck of time trying to figure out why I had been shooting so poorly, I didn’t stress much over it at the time though, I figured I always had next season. The excitement of starting another archery season for deer, turkey, and hogs was my distraction. Besides I could always hit the sporting clay course to work on my shot gunning issues during the summer.
After about two or three days of shooting on my archery range, I began to get frustrated with my poor shooting. I was shooting less then OK, I was having trouble with the clarity of my pins and the targets down range, they seemed to all blur together and shooting tight groups wasn’t even close to happening yet. I don’t wear prescription glasses, but at 56 I used over the counter 125 cheaters to read with. I thought it was just a matter of another year older and needing that pair of cheaters to sort out my pins and maybe even the targets, but the fact that it was only an issue with my right eye was kind of weird. My good buddy and hunting partner Rene Vargas, suggested that I should see an Optometrist and maybe look into a single contact for my right eye.
I took Rene’s advice and went to see about getting that right eye checked. After several appointments with Optometrists, Ophthalmologist and Surgeons over a 4 week period, the diagnosis wasn’t very good. I had a condition which was developing, that in laymen’s terms is called Macular Pucker. This is where the membrane in the eye ball detaches from the retina, supposedly the retina reacts to this as an injury and it tries to heal itself. By doing so, scar tissue grows over and in the V shape of the retina causing blurred and distorted vision. That information threw me for major loop, especially as the condition continued to get worse over the period of time that this whole process of appointments was going on.
There was a surgery that could be performed, but it was one that was not recommended, because the chance of any real improvement was very slight and actually had as much of a chance of making things worse. I am a right handed shooter/ hunter, I need my right eye, so the surgery took place a month later per my request; I was willing to try anything. Well it didn’t improve, and after the healing process, the vision in that eye got even worse. What was God doing here? Why was this happening to me? He blesses me with the inspiration and support to start a hunting and shooting ministry (Hunters for Christ) and now I’m losing the sight in my dominate eye? I honestly spent the next 6 months feeling sorry for myself and spent a lot of unproductive down time asking God why? Instead of asking Him, how do you want to use me and this situation to glorify you?
Well, with some great support, encouragement and prayer from family and friends, I got up off my back side and got started left handed shooting. I sold my right handed bows and bought a couple left hander’s. Started hitting the rifle range and shooting my right handed bolt action rifles left handed, and began hitting the clay courses and shooting my shotguns left handed as well. The bow took a few months of conditioning the muscles on the left side and getting the level bubble in the center, but now two years later, I’m honestly 95% the shooter I was right handed and have taken a few turkeys and hogs left handed thus far. The rifle shooting has come along pretty well, except for the bolt cycling from the opposite side, but that is even getting to feel pretty natural now. I would say I’m about 98% with the rifle left handed and I took my first animal left handed last year. I harvested a hog on the run at 80 yards, the hog was the one running by the way. That shot boosted my confidence along with about 2,000 rounds with my 17 HMR at ground squirrels. The left handed shot gunning was a real challenge though. I had been hunting/shooting since I was 10 years old, mounting a shotgun on my right shoulder for 46 years was a natural movement, left handed was no such luck. Finally this last waterfowl season, after the 50th time of mounting the butt of that 12 gauge on my left collar bone, I said “that’s it!!!!” or something that meant pretty much the same thing, I changed back to right handed then and there and decided I would take my chances trying to shoot right with a dominant left eye. After a season of shooting that way for the first time in my life, it’s coming along pretty well and I am very encouraged about next season’s waterfowl and upland game seasons. I still have to shotgun for turkey left handed though, but that just makes my hunting style a little unique.
I look back at it all now, losing my sight in my dominant right eye. I think of the pity party I had and being angry with the Lord about the whole ordeal and being confused, but I can say with all my heart, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I grew closer to the Lord in that two year period than I had in the past 10 years. I matured as a Christian and matured as a man. I now know that with God anything is possible, Matthew 19:26 “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”. I have an awesome encouraging testimony to share and an awesome foundation in which to witness with. Sure, I struggle with reading and it can be a challenge driving at night sometimes, because one eye does all the work and the other can distract and disorient me if I’m tired, but God gives me wisdom in those times of when to rest. In regards to Hunting and shooting, I haven’t missed a beat. I’m firing on all cylinders. Point me to the range and tell me where we’re hunting and I’m all over it, and I’m good at it again.
Psalm 27:1 “Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; whom shall I be afraid? God has been my strength, through His word and through His promises and Grace along with great encouragement from my Wife and Daughters and my friends and my church, I’m not only continuing to enjoy my passion of the Hunting and Shooting sports, I’m flourishing in it and so is the ministry that He has blessed me with.
My eye is on the Lord!
God Bless and happy Hunting and Shooting
Gian