Cray Weirich’s hunting story includes Iowa deer, pheasants, fishing, and a dog named Reggie who sometimes knows more than the hunter following him. In episode 9 of A Hunter’s Legacy, he joins longtime friend Mitchell Fox for a conversation about the experiences that keep them going back outdoors.
Cray grew up in southwest Iowa and met Mitchell while working a part-time seed-research job during college. Their friendship continued through hunting trips, shared interests, and helping each other outside the field.
A College Spring Break Started the Bowhunting Interest
Cray did not begin with a carefully planned archery setup. During a college spring break, he went along to a 4-H shooting activity with a younger cousin. Another participant had a compound bow and let him try it.
That was enough to get his attention. After working during the break, Cray used some of the money to order a ready-to-hunt bow package. It included the basic gear he needed to get started.
He bought the bow in 2013 and took his first archery deer in 2018. College and life interrupted his involvement at times, but that first success helped make the interest stick. He describes the excitement of having deer close by without knowing he is there as a feeling that is hard to duplicate.
Deer Camp Before the First Bow
Cray already had a family hunting background. Growing up, pheasants and shotgun deer seasons were familiar. Large groups of relatives and friends hunted together, and processing and sharing the deer were part of the experience.
He and Mitchell also remember hunting the steep country of northeast Iowa together. The hills and long walks provided plenty of material for jokes afterward, even when the effort did not feel especially funny at the time.
Bowhunting added something different to those memories. Instead of a group moving through a section, it could be one hunter sitting quietly and waiting for an animal to arrive on its own.
A River-Bottom Buck He Could Hardly Believe
Cray talks about the surprise of receiving a trail-camera picture of an unusually large deer. He had seen the buck the previous year, but the new image still caught him off guard.
He hunted near a river in Hardin County, an area that is easy to overlook when people talk about Iowa’s better-known deer country. The conversation moves through the cover, farmland, and access that shape the deer they see there.
They also discuss local deer losses and the uncertainty of what the next season might bring. Familiar ground can change, and camera pictures from one year do not guarantee the same animals will return the next.
Pheasant Hunting With Reggie
For Cray, a good day outside does not have to involve a deer stand. Pheasant hunting with Reggie brings another kind of anticipation, including moments when the dog finds something the people would have walked past.
He recalls a late-season hunt when Reggie pointed, checked the area, and then moved on. The hunters started walking away before a rooster flushed a few feet beyond the original point. Looking back, Cray wondered how often the dog had been closer to the answer than he realized.
He and Mitchell talk about how watching a dog work can make a hunt worthwhile even when nobody gets a shot. It also gives them a new set of mistakes to laugh about: paying too much attention to the dog, losing track of a bird, or calling the dog away from somewhere it wanted to investigate.
Permission That Became a Friendship
One of their shared pheasant-hunting spots began with a request to get a young dog on birds. Permission for a single hunt eventually became a longer relationship with the landowner.
The landowner sometimes joined them, initially just to walk along and enjoy being outside. Cray and Mitchell remember that part of the experience fondly. Respect for the property and enjoyment of the company gave everyone a reason to keep getting together.
That is the thread running through Cray’s episode: learning something new, sharing it with a friend, and collecting memories that are worth retelling long after the season closes.
Listen to Cray Weirich in episode 9 of the A Hunter’s Legacy archive. For another Iowa hunter’s account of family ground and unexpected bowhunting opportunities, read Taylor Harris’ guest story.
