Brotherhood Outdoors

In a twist of irony, Jessica Reagor, a member of Ironworkers Local 395, suffers from Hereditary Hemochromatosis, a disorder caused by iron overloading.  Though the disorder can cause damage to internal organs, especially the liver, it hasn’t stopped this vivacious young woman from embracing life to the fullest.

  She and her husband adopted a special needs baby and spend a great deal of time hunting, camping and hiking in the outdoors, often with their two-year-old son, who loves to blow the grunt tube they gave him.

  Reagor started accompanying her father on deer, woodcock, rabbit and pheasant hunts as a little girl, shooting her first .22 at age five. During her first few years with the Ironworkers, she also worked part-time at a local Bass Pro Shops store, helping customers with guns and hunting supplies.

  When she got married, Reagor and her new husband took their hunter safety course together, and she decided to accompany him afield. At first, she only took photos, but it wasn’t long before she traded her camera for a gun. 

  “Girls need to go hunting too; it’s not only a sport for males,” Reagor said. 

  In her second hunting season, Reagor took a small seven point whitetail buck, followed by an eight pointer the next year. Since her husband didn’t harvest a deer either season, she was the meat provider and the holder of bragging rights.

  After adopting a 12-day-old baby who suffers from Periventricular Leukomalacia and mild cerebral palsy, Reagor didn’t have a chance to hunt in 2009 or 2010.  So she was floored when she learned she was selected to hunt wild hogs in California as a guest on Brotherhood Outdoors.

  Reagor received a warm welcome from host Tom Ackerman, the film crew and the folks at Red Bank Outfitters when she arrived in The Golden State, and they kept her busy shooting clays, hunting quail for the first time and, of course, hunting tough wild hogs. Descendents of feral pigs and Russian boars that escaped from high fenced hunting operations, wild pigs are quickly becoming one of California’s most popular game animals.

  Reagor, Ackerman and their guide used ATVs to cover ground, stopping frequently to glass for hogs. When the first opportunity to shoot came, Reagor quickly proved herself when she dropped the pig in its tracks.

  With one hog down and one to go, the pressure was off but not the excitement. The group saw numerous pigs, many with babies, and mostly at long distances before Reagor’s second chance presented itself. Once again, she made what appeared to be a fine shot, but this time, the hog disappeared into a thicket.

  If you haven’t been in a pig thicket, where visibility is measured in inches and feet rather than yards and you’re not sure if the boar is dead, you become hyper alert.  While it may not be like following a wounded cape buffalo or grizzly, wild hogs have been known to charge and inflict nasty damage on hunters.  So with care and a degree of trepidation, Reagor and Ackerman followed their guide into the tangle of brush.

  See how it all pans out on this action-packed adventure.  Tune into Brotherhood Outdoors on Sportsman Channel at 8 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, January 5.