ORIGINAL: tatonka

These boys had an absolute blast hunting this fall. If you could have seen the area they had to drag this buck out of you'd be impressed. It was back in about the nastiest hole you'd want to see......the kind of places most hunters avoid. It took the 5 of them most of the day to just get it to where they could get the Suburban to, but it didn't discourage them....they went back and two of the other boys got nice bucks also (but they had a 4-wheeler and a pickup when they went back.......they're learning!!!).

As far as the anti-hunter aspect is concerned, they didn't parade around town with the buck like this. It was after dark by the time they got it out and all they did was bring it home and hang it in the one boy's garage. My biggest concern was the meat, but it was fine. The boys skinned and cut up the 3 bucks they took by themselves. I was there to sort of guide them through it, but I never touched a knife.

I'm just happy to see these young hunters out there hunting instead of partying, plunked behind a video game, etc. Another thing that was refreshing was that there was no mention of what the bucks "scored", or any of that stuff. They enjoyed the hunt for the sake of the hunt, being out with friends, etc.

And by the way, they were all staying in a bunkhouse at the ranch where they were hunting. I took a drive out (they were about 25 miles from town) to check in to see what they were up to one afternoon and when I pulled in they were fixing a fence around a haystack that the cows had knocked down. I think they're going to be be a very responsible bunch of hunters.....they just need to do a little more planning!!!!