Today is my sons 7th birthday and I asked him yesterday if he wanted to go for a hunt with me this morning. He was unsure until I told him we would make sure to be home in time for his party and then he jumped on the occasion.
This morning I got him all dressed warm and wearing my camo hat. He was cute. It was a beautiful morning, just a trace of new snow and crystal clear skies. The clouds had just cleared about 6:30am so the big moon didn't shine all night.
As we walked to the first stand we crunched on the frozen ground with every step, all the way. We stopped a couple of times on the way to listen to the coyotes howl and he really liked that! I walked him over and showed him where to sit. Then I proceeded to go set the e-caller that I was using and came back and sat with him.
He was a little restless and I don’t blame him, after all we got up early (5:30) and he is only 7. I sat still as I usually do scouring the landscape for movement. And after a short while of calling, then silence, I realized that I had failed to set my e-caller on repeat. I don’t have a remote for it is just an inexpensive homegrown model. I told Lukie that I needed to go reset the call and asked if he wanted to come. He, of course, nodded in excitement. So we left our sitting pad and went to go reset the call. CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! I was sure that we would not see anything at this stand now. After we had reset the call and went back to sitting, not more than 5 minutes passed and I caught a glimpse of a coyote. It went behind a juniper and must have stopped to stare toward the call that was about 40 yards from us. I scoped and scoped but could not see him. Lukie started to fidget and I saw the coyote move off but couldn’t get a shot. I lip squeaked and pup distressed but couldn’t get that coyote to stick it’s head out again. And unfortunately Lukie didn’t see anything but his silly dad making funny noises.
By now Lukie is bored and restless so I ask him if he wants to make another stand with me or go see if we can jump a rabbit to shoot at. He gets excited again and says rabbit! So we go back to the truck and grab the shotgun with some game loads and start beating the bushes. It only took him about 10 minutes before he was just tooooo tired to go on. So what I did was head back to the truck in a roundabout sort of way.
When we got back to the truck I pulled out the Ruger Bearcat .22 revolver and let him take a few whacks at an old tin bucket. That was fun. Then we hopped in the truck and I drove to another spot where I attempted to call something in from the truck bed, no luck. Maybe it was partially because I was in the bed of the truck, and also that Lukie was singing in the cab at the same time that I was calling. Anyway after about 20 minutes there I hopped back in and we took off.
In my mind it was a successful hunt even though there was nothing in the bag. In Lukie's mind it was a halfway boring morning, but time spent with dad, which is good. I hope to at least ingrain in my kids that hunting may not always be fun but it is part of our tradition and heritage. And without tradition our lives are as shaky as…bad joke sorry.
My hat is off to you guys who have helped to encourage me to get my kids out in the field at a young age. Thanks! And I hope that those of you with kids who have not had them out yet will be encouraged to do so.
God bless...rock on...kill 'em dead!
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Matt/Spinner
[This message has been edited by SpinnerShark (edited 01-04-2002).]
This morning I got him all dressed warm and wearing my camo hat. He was cute. It was a beautiful morning, just a trace of new snow and crystal clear skies. The clouds had just cleared about 6:30am so the big moon didn't shine all night.
As we walked to the first stand we crunched on the frozen ground with every step, all the way. We stopped a couple of times on the way to listen to the coyotes howl and he really liked that! I walked him over and showed him where to sit. Then I proceeded to go set the e-caller that I was using and came back and sat with him.
He was a little restless and I don’t blame him, after all we got up early (5:30) and he is only 7. I sat still as I usually do scouring the landscape for movement. And after a short while of calling, then silence, I realized that I had failed to set my e-caller on repeat. I don’t have a remote for it is just an inexpensive homegrown model. I told Lukie that I needed to go reset the call and asked if he wanted to come. He, of course, nodded in excitement. So we left our sitting pad and went to go reset the call. CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! I was sure that we would not see anything at this stand now. After we had reset the call and went back to sitting, not more than 5 minutes passed and I caught a glimpse of a coyote. It went behind a juniper and must have stopped to stare toward the call that was about 40 yards from us. I scoped and scoped but could not see him. Lukie started to fidget and I saw the coyote move off but couldn’t get a shot. I lip squeaked and pup distressed but couldn’t get that coyote to stick it’s head out again. And unfortunately Lukie didn’t see anything but his silly dad making funny noises.
By now Lukie is bored and restless so I ask him if he wants to make another stand with me or go see if we can jump a rabbit to shoot at. He gets excited again and says rabbit! So we go back to the truck and grab the shotgun with some game loads and start beating the bushes. It only took him about 10 minutes before he was just tooooo tired to go on. So what I did was head back to the truck in a roundabout sort of way.
When we got back to the truck I pulled out the Ruger Bearcat .22 revolver and let him take a few whacks at an old tin bucket. That was fun. Then we hopped in the truck and I drove to another spot where I attempted to call something in from the truck bed, no luck. Maybe it was partially because I was in the bed of the truck, and also that Lukie was singing in the cab at the same time that I was calling. Anyway after about 20 minutes there I hopped back in and we took off.
In my mind it was a successful hunt even though there was nothing in the bag. In Lukie's mind it was a halfway boring morning, but time spent with dad, which is good. I hope to at least ingrain in my kids that hunting may not always be fun but it is part of our tradition and heritage. And without tradition our lives are as shaky as…bad joke sorry.
My hat is off to you guys who have helped to encourage me to get my kids out in the field at a young age. Thanks! And I hope that those of you with kids who have not had them out yet will be encouraged to do so.
God bless...rock on...kill 'em dead!
------------------
Matt/Spinner
[This message has been edited by SpinnerShark (edited 01-04-2002).]
