There are many special hunting opportunities offered by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, as well as other entities. They're designed to provide unique experiences for youth as well as inexperienced or even veteran hunters. The odds for a successful outing are good.
My son, Brandon, was fortunate to get drawn for a special youth deer hunt at Marion Reservoir. Actually, he didn't get drawn but one of the kids that did had already filled his buck tag so Brandon was next on the list. It was fortunate as he and his twin brother, Cody, only had two weekend days each to hunt with school and basketball commitments.
We crawled into a pop-up blind early Saturday morning. Within the first 20 minutes of shooting time we saw seven does and yearlings. After an hour Brandon started to get a little chilly as it was only 24 degrees outside. I had a little portable heater and kicked it on and things got quite comfortable as we chatted and waited but nothing else showed.
The evening hunt was in a different area. We were in a box blind but exposed to a 20 mph wind and with a temperature of 29 degrees it was chilly! I bundled Brandon up best I could when we climbed into the blind at 3 p.m. At 3:23 p.m. a button buck entered the field and we had deer in sight the rest of the evening.
Brandon was holding out for a buck and had does and yearlings all around us. Light was fading when another doe entered the field just to our right and a couple minutes later a nice buck walked out at 5:18 p.m. I helped Brandon get his .243 rifle up and steadied and I told him to keep the crosshairs on him as the buck walked. I bleated several times to get the buck to stop as I watched him through binoculars and he finally did.
"Can you get on him?" I asked.
BOOM!
Apparently he could as he shot before my mouth had even closed from the previous question.
He looked up over the scope and excitedly said, "I GOT HIM! He fell right there!"
He kept looking out at his first buck-ever 80 yards away and back at me. His smile said it all and he was obviously pumped up. Dad was proud, too.
Shortly after we shot, another participant, Laken Schroeder, made a great shot on a nice 10-pointer. She was excited as well and both kids were proud of their accomplishment.
Special hunts like these are a lot of work and time consuming for those involved. They don't reach thousands of kids or adults but they are truly quality experiences. And the memories they provide certainly prove the value of spending time in the great outdoors and they'll last a lifetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment