SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - The spring turkey season brings out hunters from all over the Ozarks, including those who might be unable to hunt independently. One group is hoping to make it easier for them.

Missouri Disabled Sportsmen is a statewide group that has been helping people with different levels of ability hunt like everyone else since 2008.

“I absolutely love it,” said Chris Pardue, a volunteer mentor with MDS. “The people are the best people you will ever meet in your life. There’s not a single person in the organization who is there for selfish reasons. They are there to make sure everybody else has fun and enjoys the things that we enjoy.“

On Friday, the group started its turkey hunt near Marionville. Two volunteers partner up with one disabled hunter to help with safety and the operation of accessible hunting gear.

The gear includes things like scopes that work with phones, guns that can be fired by blowing into a straw, and track chairs, a mobility aid that Pardue called “mini-tanks” because they can travel on any surface.

“It will give you goosebumps sometimes to see the reactions that some of these guys have,” Pardue said. “You take a paraplegic and you put them in a track chair, and some of these track chairs, they have the ability to make them even stand up, things that some of these guys maybe have never done, some of them they haven’t done in years. There’s nothing more important than letting them know that you can.”

For everyone in the organization, walking away with a bird at the end of the day isn’t the only prize.

“It’s more about the friendships and the camaraderie and the relationships that you make with these people, and for them to know that they can. It’s not as much about harvesting a deer, a turkey, or a fish. It’s about that relationship that you build with each other. All those other things are just icing on the cake.”

If you are disabled and want to become a hunter, click here . If you would like to volunteer or become a mentor, click here .

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