For the past 20 years,
I’ve made a living in the outdoor industry. For
many years, most of my income came from writing hunting articles and selling
them to publications such as this. It’s safe to say that for many years, my
business revolved around traveling across the country hunting and writing about
the hunts. A few years ago, that changed when my son Thane was old enough to
start hunting. My home state of Michigan and several other states hold mentored
hunting programs that let adults take young children hunting before they take
hunter’s safety courses. The goal is to get youngsters involved in outdoor
sports as young as possible. The program worked on my son. By the time he was
10, he was obsessed with hunting.
During the past few
years, my hunting has taken a back seat to his hunting. I decided long before
he was old enough, that when he started hunting, I would step back and focus my
efforts on him and his success. I know my strengths and weaknesses. One
weakness occurs if I have a bow or gun in my hand. I will go into kill mode
and focus on filling my tag. I didn’t want to be a guy who made his living in
the outdoor industry but had children who weren’t interested in the outdoors. Two springs ago, I believed the timing was
right to focus on having a great year afield. The season started with a trip to
Florida to chase Osceola turkeys. My wife has always wanted to take our
children to Walt Disney World, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to
meet Mickey Mouse and a few strutting longbeards. I called my buddy Jeff Budz,
owner of Tag-It-World Wide, and lined up a spring turkey hunt. Before the trip, I worked extensively with my
son on properly aiming and shooting his shotgun. However, I couldn’t teach him
how to control gobbler fever. After a couple of days of hunting, he killed a
jake, and it was an experience I will never forget. The next day turned out to
be a bit of a struggle for him. In Florida, you can tag two spring gobblers, so
after shooting the jake, we decided to pursue a mature gobbler. Budz set us in
an area where he knew a lone gobbler was hanging out. Sure enough, soon after
daylight, the gobbler walked within 20 yards of our blind. My son missed him.
He was devastated afterward, but I told him that was part of hunting. It won’t
be the last turkey he misses.
Later that day, he turned things around and took a huge longbeard I called in for him. We experienced low lows and high highs in one day. That’s something many hunters who keep at it after a miss have experienced. Many people wouldn’t take a week off work to take their son to a far-off place to kill their first turkey. The cost combined with time away from work scares them from taking such a trip. We did it because I wanted my son’s first real turkey hunt to be in a far-off place. I wanted him to go on a hunt that neither of us will forget. I wanted him to get hooked on hunting. The Florida turkey trip lit a spark in him, and when deer season arrived, the spark had turned into a full-fledged fire. He couldn’t wait to deer hunt. Before the deer season, I decided I wasn’t deer hunting unless my son filled at least one tag. Michigan has a two-day youth deer season in September. Opening day of that hunt, my son and I sat in a Redneck bale blind at my small hobby farm. Soon after daylight, my son experienced buck fever for the first time. A doe walked out at 60 yards and was as broadside as a barn when I told him he could shoot. The gun barked, and the doe took off. My son missed her clean. The next day, he missed a small buck at another property we had permission to hunt. To say he was frustrated is an understatement. I was frustrated, too. I began to wonder how many deer he would miss before he put it altogether. It was four.
During the archery season, he missed a buck with a crossbow. On opening day of gun season, he missed a doe. After each miss, we went home and shot the bow or gun. He would hit the bullseye almost every time. I realized buck fever had him in a stranglehold, and the only thing that would cure it was killing a deer. Four days after missing the doe with a gun, a 6-point buck walked onto our property while we were sitting in a Redneck Tower Blind. This time, my son held it together long enough to make a killing shot. The shot was low but somehow found the vitals, and the rest, as they say, is history. For the rest of the season, my son and I hunted hard in hopes that he would tag another deer, but it didn’t happen. I didn’t go hunting without him. In fact, I never deer hunted by myself during the season. Given what I do for a living, many people are amazed I didn’t hunt. I’m amazed more dads don’t do the same thing.
I have cerebral palsy. Hunting of any kind is difficult for me. As I age, it’s becoming even harder. Sitting in a tree stand or blind, hiking for hours in the woods, and dragging or packing an animal out of the woods can be tough. I knew when it was my son’s turn to hunt that I had to give it my all or we wouldn’t be successful. If I tried to hunt hard for myself and try to help him fill a tag, our odds of success would be slim, because filling my tags is sometimes difficult. Looking back a year later, I know I made the right choice. Until he grows up and leaves home, hunting will revolve around him and my other son. There are only so many hours in a day. It’s difficult to accomplish everything we want to. Sometimes, we have to make tough choices. I have chosen to take a back seat and make sure my children fall in love with hunting. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to see why children don’t hunt. They have so many other distractions. Sports, activities, computers and video games compete for their time. Parents are also spread thin. As a result, many parents don’t have the time to take their children hunting. When a parent has a little bit of time to hunt, they hunt by themselves. Life pulls at all of us. Finding time to hunt can be challenging. If you remove yourself from the equation and focus on taking your children hunting, finding time is a little easier. I believe we cannot do everything. When we try, we often fail. I chose to sacrifice my hunting season, so my son would get to experience all the outdoors has to offer. When I speak at hunting banquets, I’m often asked how my hunting season went. I tell people I had my best hunting season ever this past year and didn’t fill a tag.
Many people look at me like I have three heads. I follow that by saying my son shot two turkeys, a buck and a pile of fox squirrels. I can tell many people think I made a huge sacrifice by not hunting. The truth is it was not a sacrifice. It was the best season I ever had. Watching the joy on my son’s face when he wrapped his hands around the antlers of his buck is something I will never forget. Often, we choose to fill our children’s lives with sports, homework and piano lessons. The only way our children will fall in love with hunting is if it’s a priority in their lives and yours. If you are reading this and have young children at home, make hunting a priority in their lives. Cut back on your hunting if you have to. You will be amazed at how fast they fall in love with all things outdoors.
