Took a 14 year old boy that doesn’t have a father, had never fired more than a BB gun a few times, but wanted to try hunting. I brought him to our property for some gun safety and shooting training. Fortunately, he was a natural with the shooting and very teachable with the safety part. After two lessons, he was hitting close to 75% on the clay birds. In short, it went as well as it could have and he was ready to hunt.
Saturday was as good as I expected, With two cold fronts in as many weeks and a truckload of ducks around. Seasoned hunters would have limited out in an hour or less. As it was, he and another 14 year old (on his 3rd year of youth hunting) shot their limit in a little less than 2 1/2 hours. 9 teal, 2 gadwall, and 1 wigeon. The on-the-water to flying kill ratio was about 50/50 but both kids had a few very nice shots on the wing.
Sunday was also as expected. About 1/10th of the ducks. Same two boys walked out with 4 ducks after 4 hours. But they did get to learn the art of passing time in a duck blind when the ducks aren’t flying hot and heavy. Lots of telling lies, eating and cutting open a shotgun shell…
Overall a great experience, bringing a new kid into the duck hunting fold. He was over the top excited and I think Saturday may have hooked him in. Now I have to figure out how to get him up during the season.
Anybody else take a yute?
-------------------- "Hunts are best measured by the endurance of the memories they produce..."
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