My First Hunting Experience
By Christine Francesconi
Like many wives, fall brings hunting and the loss( temporarily) of my husband. It has always been my favorite season, but I began to dread it because I knew it meant that John would be out having fun while I was at home. After 17 years of feeling sorry for myself I agreed to go hunting with him. If you can’ t beat them join them, right?
So with my new rifle in hand, which was a Valentine’ s Day gift, I headed to Riggins with my husband and our friend George for a hunting weekend. I didn’ t really think I would be successful. I had practiced shooting some, but was not super serious about the whole thing. I was just glad to be invited, and in on the fun. We arrived at camp late on a Wednesday night, set up, discussed the plan for the morning( well they discussed I just agreed, I was along for the ride) went to bed with the anticipation of the hunt in our dreams. Truthfully I was wondering how many layers I should wear, which jeans would be the most comfortable while still looking cute and should I wear my earrings which I had forgotten to take out at home before we left.
Thursday morning arrived, the guys loaded me in the truck and we started up the hill to“ glass” the area. I had no idea what that meant, but didn’ t want to appear stupid so I sat in the backseat with my coffee and quietly paid attention to what they did and said. Somewhere along the way it was decided that John might not be the most patient coach in the field with me so I would hang near George. So while John drove, we got out periodically and“ glassed” the hillside’ s which I quickly figured out meant staring through the trees with binoculars looking for animals. Feeling smarter I asked for my own binoculars and proudly wore them and pretended to know what I was doing should another hunter happen by. There was some chit chat( mostly by me as men are not big on that sort of thing) but mostly lots of“ scouting”, which is what they call driving and walking around looking for animals.
At one point a few hours into the scouting process George spotted a deer, we abruptly stopped. I tried to take aim but couldn’ t get the shot. I was not quick enough to react as I still didn’ t really know how this whole thing was going to work so I missed the chance to shoot him. It was at this point that I started to really get excited about what we were hopefully going to accomplish on this trip. George reminded me that we were just scouting, we would have to hike in somewhere, but on the off chance something was spotted I needed to be ready with my gun when told.
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