When Debbie Hart married retired Marine Jeff Cox in 1989, her exposure to hunting had been nearly zero. Jeff was a self-taught deer, turkey and bear hunter who recognized that the true satisfaction of hunting was simply enjoying the great outdoors. To him, harvesting a game animal was secondary. Debbie never nagged at Jeff about all the hours he spent in the woods with his gun and bow, but she surely wondered why Jeff came home so exhausted and usually without game.

Debbie Cox might have lost one dream buck to an unethical landowner who also happened to be a conservation police officer for the state of Illinois, but in the end she prevailed with this awesome 4x4 that grossed nearly 160 inches. Sharing that moment is Debbie's husband Jeff.

Living in rural Virginia, Jeff felt uncomfortable leaving Debbie alone so often at home, so he taught her to shoot a pistol. Jeff eventually posed the second biggest question of his life to Debbie: "Would you be interested in learning to hunt?" Surprisingly, the answer was a resounding "Yes!"

The first weapon of choice for Debbie was a muzzleloader. Though she began spending many hours in a tree stand alone, she could not force herself to pull the trigger on a deer.

She would just watch the deer and report to Jeff that she had not seen a thing. Then the inevitable happened!

While the couple exited the woods one morning, a spike buck stepped into their path. Jeff beckoned Debbie to "Shoot it!" She hated to disappoint Jeff, so Debbie raised the gun and dropped the deer. Instead of feeling remorseful, she felt only satisfaction and pride. A hunter was born that day!

At first, Jeff's buddies were tentative about Debbie's presence in hunting camp. They eventually treated her like one of the gang when it became evident that she was becoming a legitimate hunter who enjoyed the sport and fellowship as much as they did. Jeff upped the game and taught Debbie to shoot a bow. Being aboard a tree stand or in a ground blind before daybreak waiting for the woods to come alive quickly became Debbie's favorite way to spend time.

EXPANDED HORIZONS
In 2002, friend Rodney Williams asked the Coxes if they would be interested in going to Illinois with him on an outfitted bowhunt. Rodney had located an outfitter in Adams County near Siloam Spring State Park. Jeff and Debbie had always heard and read about the huge bucks taken in Illinois, and they booked the five-day outing.

After two years with the Adams County outfitter, the three friends concluded that this outfitter was unethical. For one thing, his stand sites always seemed to be overused before their arrival. In 2004, Rodney, Debbie and Jeff booked an archery hunt with Midwest Extreme Hunting in Hancock County, Illinois.

The trio quickly found that the accommodations and hunting situation in Hancock were far superior to what they had experienced with the Adams County outfitter. Sally and Kevin Neill, owners of Midwest Extreme Hunting, managed plenty of great whitetail habitat and it was not over-hunted.

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