The saying goes, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
That’s what Peggy Ott thought after suffering through years as a Hunter’s Widow. She knew once Aug. 15 rolled around she’d tell her husband good-bye and not see him again until after Christmas.
It was worse than football.
According to husband Kevin, Peggy didn’t suffer silently.
“Oh, she’d shut off my alarm on days she knew I’d be off hunting, or she’d hide my gun, or my keys so I couldn’t start my truck,” he said. “Worse part of it was, she’d just fuss at me for going hunting all the time.”
“I hated it that he’d go, all the time, every weekend,” Peggy said. “So I decided I wanted to come along, too. I wanted to hunt.”
Possibly choosing the lesser of two evils, bringing the wife along on a guy’s hunting trip over having to search the house over for hidden car keys, resetting the alarm or hearing her fuss, Kevin said “sure.”
Or perhaps bringing her along was another way to do things together as a family.
It didn’t take long for the bug to bite her. And no, she’s not talking about the swamp mosquitoes.
“We were out on a hunt and we came upon this doe in the clearing,” Kevin said. “I didn’t bring Peggy a gun because at that point she wasn’t all that interested in hunting.”
Peggy had other ideas.
“Gimme your gun,” she said.
Kevin at this point was already sighting up his shot.
“Gimme your gun,” Peggy again demanded.
“I couldn’t believe she was asking for my gun,” Kevin said. “I told her your gun is at home, but she wanted my gun. I gave her the gun but the doe never got close enough to set up a good shot. But since then, we bring two guns.”
The Otts are a hunting family.
Kevin has hunted since, as he puts it, “about the time I learned how to walk.”
Peggy is one of those who can do camouflage in the workplace, and make it look like “cammo” has always been a part of the office dress code.
Even their two kids, Dylan and Nathan, have grown up with hunting.
With two sons, the writing on the wall that come August Peggy, who works for the Town of Moncks Corner, would be spending her weekends alone was apparent.
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” she said. “So I did.”
So Peggy picked up a rifle and learned how to shoot.
Both Ott boys have long since bagged their first trophies.
Peggy, who has been hunting for a little more than a year, got her first dove late last year. “I got the first dove,” she beamed proudly, showing off the photo on her cell phone.
For the Ott family, Christmas comes Aug. 15.  “We always look forward to this time of year,” Kevin said.
Kevin has hunted just about anything that walks, flies, runs or waddles. He has bagged deer, wild hog, turkey, dove, squirrel and rabbit. He will stand-hunt, walk the fields, or hunt with dogs. He will use a high-powered rifle, front-end musket loader, shotgun or bow – whatever’s in season. He he prefers the more primitive hunting methods, a black powder or front-end musket loader and bow and arrow.
“You have to get close for the shot when shooting with black powder or bow,” he said.
The Otts hunt the Lowcountry, the government land being the Francis Marion National Forest.
“There’s a whole other society out there in the field,” he said. “Sometimes guys will be a little protective of their territory on government land if you happen to enter land they’ve been hunting for a long time, but if you’re polite and ask and not just barge in, most guys will be more than happy to let you hunt beside them.”
They have their own stretch of land as well.
“It’s small, though,” Kevin said. “Only fifty acres or so.”
But one thing is apparent when you sit down across a table from Kevin and Peggy Ott: hunting is their family’s passion.
They showed off photographs of their trophy kills. They shared recipes – the Otts don’t cook with beef. Any family dish that requires beef, the Otts instead substitute venison.
“We don’t buy beef anymore,” Kevin said. “Venison is a leaner meat and healthier in a lot of ways. You don’t have near the fat.”
“You have to add an egg to ground venison sometimes to hold it together it’s so lean,” Peggy said.
Hunting season begins Aug. 15. Any betting man would take one look at Kevin and Peggy Ott and know they’ve been counting down the days since May.
Just like Christmas.