Hunting For Life's Big Trophies
Camo-king Toxey Haas believes the sport of hunting is ultimately a chance to make bigger connections with our children, family and God.
By Joe Maxwell
Carl Fox Haas was always telling a young Toxey during 
their hunts in the woods, “You got to walk faster and you got to pick up your feet.”
The outdoors was the boy’s classroom; his father, legendary hunter Fox, was Toxey’s master teacher.
“You’re making too much noise,” the father would say as they prowled toward the sound of a gobbler.
Toxey’s time with Fox shaped him for life. “I grew up following him around the woods,” recalls the 48-year-old founder of American’s biggest hunting brand, Mossy Oak Camo, based in West Point, Mississippi.
“I remember the very first time he took me turkey hunting,” he adds. “I was too young to shoot but he wanted me to go, and I heard that first gobble and—oh my goodness, it was unbelievable. I was smitten. And I shot a turkey that day.”
At 78, Fox has been hunting more than 60 years.
But he never forced hunting on Toxey; and Toxey hasn’t forced it on his 18-year-old twins, Daniel and Neill, nor his 21-year-old daughter, Sara Frances.
Fox and Toxey have built a hunting empire by helping people hide in the woods. Their goals are bigger than killing a prey.
“Hunting is all about that deep love and connection with our creation and getting outdoors,” Toxey explains. “It’s a way to connect with all that God has made.”
Adds Fox: “And what you see when you’re in the woods, the sunrise or the misty rain or whatever, I’ve got to say, it’s a spiritual experience.”
Back in the mid-1980s, Toxey saw something others didn’t.
One day under his favorite hunting tree, Haas looked around and saw wooded patterns and hues and shadows others had taken for granted. His was an artist’s eye, not a hunter’s. He stuffed dirt, leaves, and sticks into a bag and took them to a local fabric factory.
“Can you print fabric that looks like the stuff in the bag?” he asked.
Camo until then was large splotches of green, brown and tan. Toxey’s camo patterns reproduced God’s own patterns, and he named the brands for what they resembled: Bottomland, Greenleaf, Treestand, Full Foliage and Fall Foliage.
“It’s about putting nature on fabric,” Toxey always says.
Even the company’s name, “Mossy Oak,” came from a favorite hunting spot Toxey and hisfather shared.
Now, when Toxey takes his sons hunting, “It’s a lot bigger and deeper than hunting,” he says. “It’s really just that love of being in nature and the outdoors. Hunting is our way to connect with all of that.”
Both of Toxey’s sons play sports at Oak Hill Academy in West Point. They compete at a high level and Toxey has enjoyed watching them over the years. Sure, hunting is a sport at some levels, and no doubt it qualifies as one of Mississippi’s top youth sports.
But hunting offers something more than a final score. Toxey believes it’s a way to connect with family. “It’s not a whole lot of fun if you don’t have someone to share it with,” says Toxey, whose wife, Diane, is his
“soul mate.”
Toxey and Fox still connect for long hunts together. Except now their roles have changed.
Fox chuckles at the thought: “Now Toxey’s with me in the woods and he says, ‘Dad, pick up your feet. You’re making
too much noise!’ It’s all made a 180-turn.”SS
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