A Vision for the Outdoors

North Carolina NWTF chapter continues offering hunting heritage opportunities to disabled outdoorsmen and women, including one remarkable hunter who lost his sight years ago.

Written by Garrett Willoughby of the NWTF

On Dec. 12, with Christmas just two weeks away, the sun shined bright with no clouds in the sky and temperatures reaching a high of 59 degrees ― a warm one for December in North Carolina. The sounds of laughter from children playing filled the calm still day, as guides and their hunters arrived through the 15-foot archway that reads, “The Farm,” a plot of land in Dobson, North Carolina, where in the fall, kids can come enjoy a corn maze, pet farm animals and many other fall attractions that are offered. But on this day, The Farm opened its doors to a unique event: the Surry Longspurs annual youth/handicap hunt.

The Surry Longspurs, a chapter of the NWTF located in Surry County, North Carolina, was founded in 1994 and is dedicated to the conservation of wild turkeys while providing opportunities to all individuals interested in hunting. Co-founder of the chapter, Eddie Barr, said the chapter first started to give back to the community through a sport he enjoys doing. Barr, who is no longer directly involved with the chapter, said he is “happy to see the chapter still thriving and seeing community members continuing to grow the chapter.”

When the chapter first began, banquets were put together to raise funds for the NWTF and grow the Surry Longspurs Chapter. Twenty-eight years later, banquets are still organized, and special hunts are prepared throughout the year to continue the growth of the sport by hunting whitetails, turkey and even squirrel. In 2021, their youth/handicap whitetail hunt began with one legally blind individual in attendance, alongside chapter member Adam Simpson as his guide.

Richard Bedsaul, an elderly gentleman, had attended several handicap hunts in previous years and grew up hunting his entire life. But, in the early 2000s, Bedsaul became legally blind due to a rare, genetic disorder called Retinitis Pigmentosa or RP.

“They describe it as tunnel vision at first,” Bedsaul says. “My mother had the same thing, but they never diagnosed her because it was not yet discovered. She eventually became legally blind as well.”

Before losing his eyesight, Bedsaul managed and owned a grading business that offered services in the Surry County and surrounding areas. During this time, Bedsaul took his own equipment and dug a catfish pond in his backyard where people could come to fish for their own enjoyment or compete in tournaments. This is where he met Simpson, his friend and hunting guide.

“The Longspurs were hosting a fishing event at his pond several years ago,” Simpson says. “He was already legally blind by then, so I offered to drive him around that day and told him to give me a call if he ever needed help on his land. He ended up calling me a couple days later, and we’ve been friends ever since.”

Simpson is from a small town in North Carolina where he enjoys everything about the outdoors. He has two boys and a wife, Jessica, who is also an avid outdoor enthusiast and member of the Surry Longspurs. Their love of the outdoors run through them both, but growing the sport and teaching others about safe, ethical hunting is their main goal — no matter the physical capabilities of the individual interested in the sport.

Since meeting Bedsaul, Simpson has been his hunting guide on several hunts, and even though Bedsaul had hunted his whole life before becoming legally blind, he had never harvested a deer. All that changed on Nov. 19, 2016, when Simpson and Bedsaul headed to the woods that morning. At 6:45 a.m., Bedsaul had his first deer on the ground. Since then, he has harvested a turkey in 2019 and a coyote in 2020, with Simpson by his side.

“It was very calm and quiet the day I shot my turkey,” Bedsaul said with a smile. “It was so still, and it seemed like nature had just stopped. All of a sudden, I heard a gobble that sounded like it was right in front of me. Adam got me set up and I pulled the trigger. I later found out the turkey was only 15 yards from me.”

With Bedsaul being legally blind, the success of harvesting these animals came about in a unique way.

“We’ve tried to use the camera that goes on his scope so I could see where he was aiming with my phone, but it didn’t really work,” Simpson says. “Now, I just get him and his gun set up in the blind when we first come in and if an animal comes walking out, I just tell him to get his gun up and whether to move left or right, up or down, by peeking through his scope for him. It sounds crazy, but it works for us.”

Bedsaul has been legally blind for 21 years, and there is a lot of things he had to give up. Although his catfish pond is still located below his house, the fish had to be relocated because it was too much to maintain. At first, simple tasks seemed almost impossible, but Bedsaul relied on his memory and other senses to do things like getting around the house on his own, and he never let the loss of his eyesight hold him back. 

“I was fortunate to lose my eyesight in my later years,” he said. “I have lived a good life and got to see a lot of things. I still have a great life, and although it took a while, I can still do everything a person with sight can. It’s really not all that different.”