GREENWOOD (KFSM) – Hunters across the area spent the weekend in the woods, as modern gun season began in Arkansas.
Some, like 11-year-old Cash Oliver, were able to take advantage of opening weekend. He shot his first buck Sunday (Nov. 15) morning, while hunting with his dad and grandpa.
Just before 6:00 Sunday morning, they were in the woods. Cash said he has been hunting for five years.
“I get to get outside and move around and get some fresh air -- and I get to explore,” he said.
He said shooting his first buck was something he won’t soon forget.
“It was kind of adrenaline,” he said. “Like your heart starts beating really fast, and then you start shaking. It’s just -- just a good feeling. Once you shoot it, you're happy.”
Cash, and his father Mark, went to J & D’s Custom Meats Processing on Sunday. Cash said he plans to have his deer processed into ground meat and jerky.
John Valencia has owned the processing plant for seven years, and said one of his favorite parts of the job is seeing families come back from the woods every fall.
“We have lots of families that are just entire families are hunters -- dads, moms, daughters -- the whole nine yards,” he said. “And it's really good to see the kids get into it. And we have a lot of fun with it. It’s really -- it's really important to us because my family hunts and we really enjoy watching the families come in."
Valencia said if customers do not pick up their orders after 30 days, the meat is donated to churches in Scott and Sebastian Counties.