elkyinzer
WKR
I have a great friend from PSU, Kevin, who always showed an interest in hunting. He's a city boy, but knowing that his motivations were true as we was purely interested in killing his own meat, and that he was a coachable fellow, I agreed to take him out.
PA has a cool program where license holders can mentor adult hunters. They buy this mentor license, without having to take the hunter safety course, and have to hunt alongside their mentor. My unused doe tag is then transferred to him if he kills one.
We get up to camp Friday afternoon with enough daylight to get a couple shots in. Knowing he had limited experience with firearms, I wanted to see what we were working with to help judge how close of a shot we needed to give him the OK. After reviewing all the safety provisions I had already discussed with him, we back up to 75 yards, load up my .270, and have him shoot the target offhand. First shot...he looks very steady and natural...bang...3 inches right of bullseye. Ok...do it again...second shot, 2 inches high. Not bad for offhand from that distance.
We head out the next morning and climb in a double ladder stand on the camp's property. One of my favorite parts of hunting is just watching the woods wake up in the morning, taking it all in with the anticipation of the day's hunt. It was a really peaceful sunrise with surprisingly very little shooting, and a light snow falling. Kevin also appreciated how awesome that was and I was glad to see that.
Not a half hour in, a big group of does crested the hill behind us. The wind was swirly as it always is in our area, and they either winded us or caught some movement, but either way they were out of there too quick for Kevin to even shoulder the gun.
About fifteen minutes later another group of does approaches from the same direction and this time they definitely wind us, but one was separated from the group and instead of leaving with the herd, sneaks into some brush to our right and doesn't come out. I tell Kevin to keep an eye on that brush, and when ten minutes pass I start to wonder if she did sneak out.
Just then, out she walks to try to rejoin the herd. I verify it's a doe, albeit a fawn, and give the ok to shoot if she stops and he feels comfortable. She stops at about 80 yards, I hear the safety click off, and bang! Down she flops! One hell of a shot it was for a first deer being offhand and how quickly it happened. He hit her right in the back of the lungs. We easily dragged her back to camp and I demonstrated the gutless method on half, then flipped her over and Kevin did the other half. Yesterday we cut and wrapped all the meat which he is super excited to start cooking up.
Anyway, moral of the story is it was really cool to mentor Kevin to his first deer. If there is someone in your life who is a good candidate to do something like this, I highly encourage it. One of the most rewarding things I've done in hunting, much moreso than I expected. I think Kevin will stick with it. I'm going to help him get a gun and some other essential equipment and get his hunter safety course taken care of, and he plans to buy a real tag next year.
I don't expect him to go balls to the wall obsessed with hunting and getting into the backcountry like myself, but I've recruited a city boy to join our ranks and spread the good word on hunting to his city folk circle. I think in today's day and age, that is very important. I often give the PA Game Commission a hard time, but props to them for a good program. It would be hard for Kevin to take the prerogative to get all the equipment and take the HSC without getting to experience it. Looking back I was so thankful that my dad and grandpap taught me the ways at a young age. There is so much involved it is nearly impossible to learn how to hunt from books or the youtube.
PA has a cool program where license holders can mentor adult hunters. They buy this mentor license, without having to take the hunter safety course, and have to hunt alongside their mentor. My unused doe tag is then transferred to him if he kills one.
We get up to camp Friday afternoon with enough daylight to get a couple shots in. Knowing he had limited experience with firearms, I wanted to see what we were working with to help judge how close of a shot we needed to give him the OK. After reviewing all the safety provisions I had already discussed with him, we back up to 75 yards, load up my .270, and have him shoot the target offhand. First shot...he looks very steady and natural...bang...3 inches right of bullseye. Ok...do it again...second shot, 2 inches high. Not bad for offhand from that distance.
We head out the next morning and climb in a double ladder stand on the camp's property. One of my favorite parts of hunting is just watching the woods wake up in the morning, taking it all in with the anticipation of the day's hunt. It was a really peaceful sunrise with surprisingly very little shooting, and a light snow falling. Kevin also appreciated how awesome that was and I was glad to see that.
Not a half hour in, a big group of does crested the hill behind us. The wind was swirly as it always is in our area, and they either winded us or caught some movement, but either way they were out of there too quick for Kevin to even shoulder the gun.
About fifteen minutes later another group of does approaches from the same direction and this time they definitely wind us, but one was separated from the group and instead of leaving with the herd, sneaks into some brush to our right and doesn't come out. I tell Kevin to keep an eye on that brush, and when ten minutes pass I start to wonder if she did sneak out.
Just then, out she walks to try to rejoin the herd. I verify it's a doe, albeit a fawn, and give the ok to shoot if she stops and he feels comfortable. She stops at about 80 yards, I hear the safety click off, and bang! Down she flops! One hell of a shot it was for a first deer being offhand and how quickly it happened. He hit her right in the back of the lungs. We easily dragged her back to camp and I demonstrated the gutless method on half, then flipped her over and Kevin did the other half. Yesterday we cut and wrapped all the meat which he is super excited to start cooking up.
Anyway, moral of the story is it was really cool to mentor Kevin to his first deer. If there is someone in your life who is a good candidate to do something like this, I highly encourage it. One of the most rewarding things I've done in hunting, much moreso than I expected. I think Kevin will stick with it. I'm going to help him get a gun and some other essential equipment and get his hunter safety course taken care of, and he plans to buy a real tag next year.
I don't expect him to go balls to the wall obsessed with hunting and getting into the backcountry like myself, but I've recruited a city boy to join our ranks and spread the good word on hunting to his city folk circle. I think in today's day and age, that is very important. I often give the PA Game Commission a hard time, but props to them for a good program. It would be hard for Kevin to take the prerogative to get all the equipment and take the HSC without getting to experience it. Looking back I was so thankful that my dad and grandpap taught me the ways at a young age. There is so much involved it is nearly impossible to learn how to hunt from books or the youtube.
