Blind deer hunter Leroy Lahti of Iron River is able to shoot deer with the help of relatives who assist him. They transport him to his hunting spot. This year, it was a hay wagon with slotted sides in a hayfield near his home.
He uses a regular rifle but has a pistol-style scope mounted on it. A pistol scope allows a shooter to sight through the scope with his eye a couple of feet behind the scope. Because Lahti is blind, his assistants, looking over his shoulder into the scope, do the sighting.
The assistants tell Lahti which way to move his rifle -- left, right, up, down -- until it's on the target. Then they tell Lahti to shoot.
Donny Reijo, Lahti's brother-in-law, is one of his shooting assistants. He said he and other guides have put themselves in Lahti's place, trying to align the rifle with someone behind them.
"We've held the gun and had someone else try to guide the other guy," said Reijo, of Oulu. "It's not easy. You really have to get a feel for it."
