Photo by Skip Lawrence Jimmy King, 9, of Brunswick, got his wish, going deer hunting and bagging a buck. His uncle, Kevin Beachley, right, helped make the wish come true.

Nine-year-old Jimmy King had one wish -- to go deer hunting with his grandfather and uncle. But Jimmy's health made what seemed a simple desire more complicated.

Jimmy was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy when he was 2 years old. Muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle wasting and weakness. There are nine types; Duchenne is one. As muscles degenerate over time, the person's muscle strength declines. Usually by the teen years, DMD can also affect the heart and respiratory muscles. DMD affects boys almost exclusively.

Jimmy lives with his grandparents, Ruby and Claude Darr, whom he calls Pap-pa. He's a third-grader at Brunswick Elementary School and uses a power wheelchair to get around.

A co-worker of Ruby's knew of Jimmy's wish to go hunting so she nominated him to Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic, which fulfills the wishes of children with life-threatening medicalconditions. However, Ruby said because Jimmy's wish involved the use of firearms, the foundation could not grant it.

"I was mad," said Jimmy when he heard his wish had been denied; however, the organization did allow him to make another wish. This time he chose a trip to Disney World. That was granted.

Jimmy's uncle, Kevin Beachley, was sharing Jimmy's hunting wish with some of his friends on a fishing trip in August. Sensing Beachley's desire to take his nephew hunting, his friends, Ricky Sandy and Jimmy Remsburg, helped organize and raise funds through friends and business associates to take Jimmy hunting at The Wilderness trophy hunting ranch in Everett, Pa.

"(Ricky) agreed to set it up and three days later he called and said, 'We're going,'" Beachley said.

Jimmy is used to shooting -- he target shoots with his grandfather at the Catoctin Fish and Game Protective Association in Myersville , using a .410 shotgun.

"He's a pretty good shot," said Beachley, who owns Beachley Builders and Custom Cabinetry.

Jimmy, his uncle, grandfather and other family and friends headed up to The Wilderness on a late September Friday night. The hunt would be the next day.

That night, Jimmy was given camouflage apparel, donated by Extreme Camouflage; a hunting knife; and a .243-single-shot rifle and scope for the hunt -- one he had been practicing with, but didn't expect to have it given to him.

Saturday morning, the team loaded Jimmy and his wheelchair on a trailer pulled by a utility vehicle and traveled to a wooded area in hopes of seeing some white-tailed deer. Bales of straw were stacked around Jimmy and his wheelchair to camouflage him and to use as a bench rest for his rifle.

"I saw a whole bunch (of deer). I was looking for a buck," Jimmy said.

Jimmy's grandfather and uncle were by his side, scouting the woodland. When an eight-point buck showed up in range, Beachley sighted in the rifle and told Jimmy to squeeze the trigger.

"I got it! I got!" the normally quiet Jimmy is heard shouting in the hunt video after he shot. "Yeah, boys! I did it!"

As a smiling Jimmy held the buck's antlers in his hands he said, "That deer feels good."

Beachley said the eight-point deer weighed about 250 pounds. "That was more fun than anything I ever did, watching his enthusiasm," he said. "I'm a pretty tough fellow and I cried my eyes out."

Beachley processed the deer into bologna at Jimmy's request and the youngster's cousin, who is a taxidermist, is preparing the mount which will hang on the wall across from his bed "so I can see it," said Jimmy.

About a month after the hunt, Jimmy, his sister and the Darrs flew to Disney World where they stayed at the Give Kids The World Village, a residence for Make-A-Wish families visiting central Florida.

"He has a star with his name on it" in the Castle of Miracles, said his grandmother Ruby Darr. During the week long trip, they visited Disney World, Universal Studios and Gatorland.

"I got to hold an alligator. It was slimy," Jimmy said with a smile, then handed "Uncle Kevin" a package of gator meat sticks.