I got to take my Youngest daughter out deer hunting this past firearms season. She had asked mom if daddy could take her. Mom said ask him. Man that felt great to say get some clothes around and let’s go, I’ll load the truck!
She’s only 7 so it’s hard for her to be patient. She didn’t like sitting still and fell asleep quickly. Haha
I woke her up a little before that magic time when the deer start moving. A small 6 point came out but it was the biggest buck in the world to her. She said pleas shoot it daddy.
This hunt sure was special to me.
The time you spend with her is the best investment you'll ever make. As long as you don't push her too hard, or keep her out too long, you've got yourself a great partner! Your smiles bring back lots of memories of my own.
I was 7 when Dad took me on my first deer hunt, and I'll never forget the little buck that he shot at the top of a side canyon on the Washington end of Hell's Canyon of the Snake River. That and earlier duck and pheasant hunts started my own lifelong fascination with all things outdoors. All the way through high school, Dad and I were best hunting and fishing buddies, and about 20 years ago I took him on his last hunt - for gophers in the pasture behind the little farmhouse in NW North Dakota where he grew up. That pasture was where Dad did his first hunting - for gophers and jack rabbits in the hard years of the 1930s. The pasture in North Dakota was always the center of Dad's life, and that's where he introduced me to gopher and jack rabbit hunting. In 2019, after taking care of Mom and Dad and managing all of their farmland and finances through 14 years of dementia, I buried their ashes and said goodbye for now in a tiny country cemetery that looks out across that pasture.
I started taking my two boys duck hunting when they were about 5, and the hunts we had together are some of my fondest memories. It was a challenge to find hunting spots that we could get to on foot without wading more than ankle deep, where there was likely to be enough action to keep them interested, and where I could retrieve ducks without a dog, but we found some great ones. It was sometimes hard when things were a little slow and they got bored, cold, and wanted to go home, but I soon learned ways of keeping them occupied for another hour when they reached the end of their attention span - and also learned that it was often best just to pack it in when they lost interest because then they'd be excited for the next hunt. Things got easier as the boys got older, and at about age 9 they acquired shotguns of their own, and I also introduced them to western mule deer and elk hunting, gopher hunting, and more. When my oldest boy, Chuck, was in college and medical school, hunting and fishing got him through some very hard times, and became the center of his life. They are still the center of his life, despite a very busy medical career.
On 27 November of this year my first grandbaby, Callahan Daniel Schultz, was born to Chuck and his wife. Chuck has already bought little Cal one of those three wheel all-terrain strollers, and is asking me about mounting bow and rifle scabbards on it.....
