A boy's first hunt.
I made another trip back to the farm in northwestern Minnesota. This time an ex-employer turned friend and his son came up from Rochester, Minnesota. It was the 2nd weekend of the firearms deer season.
I met Mike and his son Josh in a small town about a half hour from the farm, around 9pm. They then followed me the rest of the way so as not to get lost.
We were up until well after midnight talking and playing a dice game called "farkle". Josh kicked our butts! But Mike and I kept trying to beat him, figuring that eventually the kid's lucky streak would come to an end. Ya, right...
Mike had been deer hunting for years and had taken quite a few bucks in his life. But Josh, well, this would be his first deer hunt. So Mike and I were both going to do what ever we could to make his hunt not only successful, but fun too.
The alarm clock went off at 5:20am Friday morning. We all got up and hurried to get ready to go. Since we had arrived at the farm after dark on Thursday, I walked with them out to the western 40 acres of CRP and got them up on one of the rock piles. Overlooking an area where two deer were taken the weekend before. Then, since I wasn't going to be hunting, I went back to the house and went back to bed!
I guess it was around 9:30am, or so when I woke up to the sound of them coming into the house. They had gotten pretty cold sitting out there. The temp. was in the low 20's. So they put on another layer of clothes and since they hadn't seen anything, they headed out to a box blind on the south end of the farm.
I spent the rest of the morning getting more firewood moved into the house and kind of arranging all our stuff so we could move around the house easier. Mike and Josh came back a little before noon. Again saying that they'd seen nothing.
Mike looked like he was thinking "well, that's deer hunting". But Josh had a less patient attitude going on. It was obvious that he was excited to be out there with his brand new 30-30, and that he wanted to shoot a deer. Now!
As we ate lunch all conversation centered around where the deer might be. Where they would be going, and when they would be going there. Also, where Mike and Josh should be sitting when the deer did start moving. It was easily decided that Mike and Josh would split up for the afternoon hunt. With Mike in my brother's stand, out in the middle of the big eastern field, between to small islands of trees. Josh would sit in an elevated stand in the corner of a smaller field about 500 yards west of Mike.
Like I said, Josh was excited to be deer hunting and didn't want to miss out on one minute of hunting time. So he headed out to his stand as soon as he was done with his lunch, about 12:45pm. Mike wasn't quite as quick, he got going about 1:00pm.
I cleaned up from lunch and went out to look at the farm equipment that is in a small clearing just south of the house. It's the equipment that I had used during the 2+ months that I stayed at the farm back in 1986. As I was poking around, having one flashback to that summer after another, there was a loud BANG! I knew by where the shot came from and how loud it was, that Josh had shot at something.
I went back to the house and started reading a book off the bookshelf, waiting to get some kind of news from Josh. A few minutes later my cell phone rang. It was Mike, he was with Josh and yes, Josh had shot a deer. So I jumped on the three wheeler, with a trailer attached to it, and headed out to Josh's stand. When I got there Josh had a grin on his face. Not really a super happy grin, or your normal "shit-eat'n-grin", but more of a "I've done what I came here to do" type grin. And laying on the ground about 25 yards from the stand was Josh's buck. It had dropped where it stood. No following a long blood trail for this one.
Since there was still a lot of daylight left, Mike wanted to get back out to his stand. Knowing that I really didn't have anything better to do, and that I was quite happy for Josh, Mike asked if I'd teach Josh how to gut the deer so he could get back to hunting. I was honored to do that. To be able to pass on to a first time hunter skills that are necessary to hunting. The same way that my father had passed them on to me.
So that's what we did. Josh got to gut his first buck, on the first day, of his first deer hunt. Sure, it was obvious that he really didn't enjoy the gutting process. Nobody does. But once he set his mind to the fact that he was going to have to just dig in and get bloody, he did it. I could see a very real change happen inside him. His attitude changed from that of a young teenager to one of an adult. I'm positive that Josh did some serious growing up, right there before my eyes. I know that it's something I'll never forget. My only regret is that Mike wasn't there to see it too. Although I'm also sure that both Mike and his wife will notice that he has changed. Their "little boy", isn't anymore.
The rest of Friday and all of Saturday went by without anymore shots being fired on the farm. Mike and Josh hunted together because party hunting is legal in Minnesota. I read and bummed around the house and yard. With a 3 hour visit to one of the neighbor's that I've known since I was a kid. The only thing that got my heart pumping fast was Josh's ability to continue to whip Mike and I at "farkle". I still can't figure out how he did that.
Sunday Mike and Josh hit the road at 6:00am. It's an 8 hour drive for them back to Rochester, and Mike wanted to get it over with before the roads got crowded with other deer hunters heading home. I slept in again. Then cleaned the place and closed it up for the winter.
It was hard though. To drive away from a place that I'd really rather stay. A place with so many good memories. Memories that go all the way back as far as I can remember.
And as I drove out the driveway I thought: "definitely pushed the reset button good this weekend".
I met Mike and his son Josh in a small town about a half hour from the farm, around 9pm. They then followed me the rest of the way so as not to get lost.
We were up until well after midnight talking and playing a dice game called "farkle". Josh kicked our butts! But Mike and I kept trying to beat him, figuring that eventually the kid's lucky streak would come to an end. Ya, right...
Mike had been deer hunting for years and had taken quite a few bucks in his life. But Josh, well, this would be his first deer hunt. So Mike and I were both going to do what ever we could to make his hunt not only successful, but fun too.
The alarm clock went off at 5:20am Friday morning. We all got up and hurried to get ready to go. Since we had arrived at the farm after dark on Thursday, I walked with them out to the western 40 acres of CRP and got them up on one of the rock piles. Overlooking an area where two deer were taken the weekend before. Then, since I wasn't going to be hunting, I went back to the house and went back to bed!
I guess it was around 9:30am, or so when I woke up to the sound of them coming into the house. They had gotten pretty cold sitting out there. The temp. was in the low 20's. So they put on another layer of clothes and since they hadn't seen anything, they headed out to a box blind on the south end of the farm.
I spent the rest of the morning getting more firewood moved into the house and kind of arranging all our stuff so we could move around the house easier. Mike and Josh came back a little before noon. Again saying that they'd seen nothing.
Mike looked like he was thinking "well, that's deer hunting". But Josh had a less patient attitude going on. It was obvious that he was excited to be out there with his brand new 30-30, and that he wanted to shoot a deer. Now!
As we ate lunch all conversation centered around where the deer might be. Where they would be going, and when they would be going there. Also, where Mike and Josh should be sitting when the deer did start moving. It was easily decided that Mike and Josh would split up for the afternoon hunt. With Mike in my brother's stand, out in the middle of the big eastern field, between to small islands of trees. Josh would sit in an elevated stand in the corner of a smaller field about 500 yards west of Mike.
Like I said, Josh was excited to be deer hunting and didn't want to miss out on one minute of hunting time. So he headed out to his stand as soon as he was done with his lunch, about 12:45pm. Mike wasn't quite as quick, he got going about 1:00pm.
I cleaned up from lunch and went out to look at the farm equipment that is in a small clearing just south of the house. It's the equipment that I had used during the 2+ months that I stayed at the farm back in 1986. As I was poking around, having one flashback to that summer after another, there was a loud BANG! I knew by where the shot came from and how loud it was, that Josh had shot at something.
I went back to the house and started reading a book off the bookshelf, waiting to get some kind of news from Josh. A few minutes later my cell phone rang. It was Mike, he was with Josh and yes, Josh had shot a deer. So I jumped on the three wheeler, with a trailer attached to it, and headed out to Josh's stand. When I got there Josh had a grin on his face. Not really a super happy grin, or your normal "shit-eat'n-grin", but more of a "I've done what I came here to do" type grin. And laying on the ground about 25 yards from the stand was Josh's buck. It had dropped where it stood. No following a long blood trail for this one.
Since there was still a lot of daylight left, Mike wanted to get back out to his stand. Knowing that I really didn't have anything better to do, and that I was quite happy for Josh, Mike asked if I'd teach Josh how to gut the deer so he could get back to hunting. I was honored to do that. To be able to pass on to a first time hunter skills that are necessary to hunting. The same way that my father had passed them on to me.
So that's what we did. Josh got to gut his first buck, on the first day, of his first deer hunt. Sure, it was obvious that he really didn't enjoy the gutting process. Nobody does. But once he set his mind to the fact that he was going to have to just dig in and get bloody, he did it. I could see a very real change happen inside him. His attitude changed from that of a young teenager to one of an adult. I'm positive that Josh did some serious growing up, right there before my eyes. I know that it's something I'll never forget. My only regret is that Mike wasn't there to see it too. Although I'm also sure that both Mike and his wife will notice that he has changed. Their "little boy", isn't anymore.
The rest of Friday and all of Saturday went by without anymore shots being fired on the farm. Mike and Josh hunted together because party hunting is legal in Minnesota. I read and bummed around the house and yard. With a 3 hour visit to one of the neighbor's that I've known since I was a kid. The only thing that got my heart pumping fast was Josh's ability to continue to whip Mike and I at "farkle". I still can't figure out how he did that.
Sunday Mike and Josh hit the road at 6:00am. It's an 8 hour drive for them back to Rochester, and Mike wanted to get it over with before the roads got crowded with other deer hunters heading home. I slept in again. Then cleaned the place and closed it up for the winter.
It was hard though. To drive away from a place that I'd really rather stay. A place with so many good memories. Memories that go all the way back as far as I can remember.
And as I drove out the driveway I thought: "definitely pushed the reset button good this weekend".
posted by Al at 1:41 AM
1 Comments:
al...you have a gift for making a scene come alive....just a simple scene from years ago about a lad who grew up one day....though I dont like hunting or blood trails and all that, I respect the ART of hunting. This tale shows us the artistry, not the ego-ridden hullabaloo that a lot of "hunters" make of it.
Post a Comment
<< Home