I had started my three sons hunting, one grandson and lent guns and clothing to three different nephews. I don't recall any of the PGC supports on here talking about their sons going along hunting with them. Lets hear what BTB, RSB, Doug and some of the others on here have done.
Well now let’s see. I guess the first one was about 35 years ago or so, before I had any kids of hunting age I started a young hunter who was interested but his dad didn’t hunt. He hunted some archery and rifle deer season with me for a few years until he graduated from high school and went into the service. I lost track of him during his service years and have no idea where he is today.
About 20 years ago or so, still before my boys were of hunting age, I formed and organization that was set up just for the purpose of matching older hunters and youth with no adult mentor to get them started in hunting. You USP members might even want to check on when your organization presented an award to me at your banquet for that project.
In fact I even traveled over to Renovo several times to assist the then USP President in setting up a similar mentoring program in his area.
As part of that program I took one youth of about 13 years old out on his first ever pheasant hunt and was there when he shot his first pheasant. I took him hunting several times over that first year and got him matched up with a couple of other mentors that had more time to devote to hunting then I could come up with.
Now he is one of the leaders in not only the local pheasants forever but also within the state. He served as the Habitat Chairman of the local Chapter and lead their habitat work to where it was one of the top 20 in the nation several years in row.
He now takes me pheasant hunting with him, and his three top notch bird dogs, several times each fall.
We both work with the local P/F Chapter that mentors between 40 and 50 youth each year on the Youth Pheasant Hunt where each youth gets a two hour hunt with a mentor, a dog handler and one of the best bird dogs in this part of the state.
I also taught my two sons to hunt when they reached hunting age. Both were avid and enthusiastic hunters right up to when they left for the service. The older one is still in the service and hasn’t been back home to hunt since 1997 though he still hunts in areas of the country where he might be stationed during a season.
The younger son just got out of the service about a year ago and just got back to this state as his residence early last fall. His work schedule doesn’t give him much time but we hunted together a day in the past flintlock season.
I also spent many hours taking my stepson out before he was old enough to hunt and then when he started hunting. He too is still a very active hunter though he to is now out on his own.
In a few more years I will also be working on starting two grandsons as hunters.
I think the thing that makes them hunters yet today is they always got to hear and experience a positive attitude when they were hunting even though they weren’t always successful at making a harvest or even at seeing game on each trip a field.
I never hear them complaining about not getting something or seeing something. They just talk about a new plan and then somehow always end up enjoying their season and looking forward to the next one.
Maybe that is the difference between a hunter and someone who is only out there for the quick and easy kill. Maybe it is just a difference in personalities, some people just seem to have a positive attitude and some people are never positive about much of anything.
R.S. Bodenhorn