Hi I’m Laura Bell. I’m 17-years-old and I live in the Northeast part of Ohio, which is also where I do most of my hunting. I’m part of a family of five, made up of my two sisters, one older then me and one younger, and my mom and dad. I’m home schooled so this is probably one reason why I can spend more time in the woods.

I love to hunt deer, turkey, and coon and I’ve been going out hunting with my dad for as long as I can remember. I passed my Hunters Education Course in 1999 when I was 10 and I’ve carried a gun with me to the woods every season since. I bagged my first deer in 2000, during the Ohio gun season, it was a nice little 8-point buck that I took down with a 410 single shot.  I couldn’t have been happier. Then when the spring turkey season for Youth came around in 2001,  I got my first bird, a jake. I still had a tag to fill that year and was rewarded with a tom that had an 11 ½ inch beard, 1¼" spurs, and weighed 17 lbs. A Mossberg 500 20 gauge did the job on both of these birds.

Not to be left out are my two favorite hunting dogs, Teddy and Quest. They’re both Treeing Walker Coon Hounds and better yet, father and son. I compete in coon hunts and bench shows with them at local and some long distance coon clubs. I couldn’t ask for better dogs to take hunting as they both have the drive and determination to do what they were bred and trained for, and that’s hunting the masked bandit during the nighttime hours.

I’ve been lucky enough to take a few more deer and turkey and some with a new gun, a Youth model Mossberg 500 20 gauge, but I had always been fascinated with archery. In October 2004, I got my first Compound bow by Browning. If fits my needs perfectly for now and I’m still looking to get my first deer with it. That day will come soon enough and I hope all the practice time I’ve put in will ensure a good shot.

I’m almost always doing something related to hunting, whether its target practicing, scouting, or dressed up in camouflage.  It’s my every day life and I love it. Other then going out hunting I like to write. I have been writing about my hunts for a few years now and this past December I was asked by CoonHound Bloodlines magazine to join in on a monthly section called "Next Generation News" that they were introducing. My job is to write about how the hunting is and what the kids are doing in the competition events, just keep it interesting. Happy Hunting All!