MS sufferer manages to get deer - again.

RANDY SEDLACEK, who has multiple
sclerosis, has taken 16 bucks since
1985, including a 7-point on Nov. 16.

Every year it gets a little tougher for 38-year-old Randy Sedlacek, and every year he vows that he'll try that much harder to deer hunt.

"It keeps me going. It keeps me motivated," said Sedlacek.

The Leland Public School graduate has always loved the outdoors. Although multiple sclerosis has had 12 years to wear down his body, it's having little effect on Sedlacek's desire to hunt.

"My legs are getting a little worse every year," said Sedlacek of the chronic disease, which affects the body’s central nervous system. “But I keep looking at my three head mounts, and I get motivated to get another one."

Sedlacek has been a successful hunter before and after MS struck. He's shot 16 bucks since taking up hunting in 1985.

"I've done pretty well over the years," he admits, when coaxed.

Within those bucks are 12-, 10- and 8-pointers that have been preserved in full head mounts. His latest buck, a healthy 7-point, will join other antler mounts in the Sedlacek home.

The buck was taken about 5 p.m. on Nov. 16 — the second day of the firearms deer season.
"He was coming out of the thicket in front of me, and I grunted at him. He stopped and looked, and that was all she wrote," said Sedlacek.

Getting to his blind on the family orchard in Leelanau Township is challenging. Sedlacek drives a 4-wheeler to the back of the "lower 80" owned by the Sedlaceks. He has attached handles to the blind to pull himself off the 4-wheeler and into the enclosure.

Sedlacek lives with his mother, Jean. They lease 80 acres of cherries that was once tended to by the family. "I can't take care of that anymore," said Sedlacek.

The MS also stole Selacek's career as an auto mechanic, for which he attended Northwestern Michigan College.

And it's altered his access to the outdoors. Sedlacek can no longer dabble worms in Leelanau's brook trout creeks. He traded in his compound bow for a cross bow, as is allowed under Michigan law for hunters with handicaps.

But MS can't keep him out of the woods during deer season. He observed five bucks from his stand — three of them "shooters" — before selecting one to harvest.

"One deer pretty much sets me for a long time," said Sedlacek.

One year, to be exact.