RIVER VALLEY (KFSM) -- For the first time in almost two years, a River Valley man returns to the woods to hunt after a life-altering accident.
Brandon Jones said he has been hunting with his father since he could walk.
He explained what it is about the sport that he enjoys so much.
“Just the joy of getting out and experiencing the outdoors and stuff," Jones said. "You can’t be just cooped up in your house all day, you have to spend it out here in nature.”
In December of 2015 though, something happened that kept him from his passion.
“I was taking pictures at Glory Hole and I fell off a 30 foot cliff to the rock bottom and hit my head," Jones said. "I lost all my skull, like from here over broke both my arms and deflated both my lungs.”
Jones said he has been fine since then, but still suffers from chronic headaches.
Saturday (Nov. 11) afternoon he said he was just happy to be back out in nature, doing what he loves with his dad.
For others curious about his passion, he advised to simply give it a try.
"Even if you don’t want to go kill anything, even if you don’t want to go hunting, just go outside and sit," Jones said. "Just take it all in. Life is too short not to just experience it all.”
Saturday was the start of modern gun deer season.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission expected anywhere from 300,000 to 400,000 hunters to be out in the woods this weekend.