OUTDOORS TO THE CORE
OUTDOORS TO THE CORE
DAD ’ S , TAKE YOUR KIDS DEER HUNTING AND MAKE A LIFETIME MEMORY — by Tom Claycomb
Bear with me today and let me ramble a little or maybe it ’ s just reminiscing . I bet if a poll were taken that 99 % of us would say that the first big game animal that we ever killed was a deer . I think that the skills that I learned while deer hunting as a kid have since made me successful at hunting antelope , bear , elk and moose . You learn to be quiet , stalk , glass , play the wind , cover your scent , wait and be patient and all the other traits that make a good hunter . If you learn how to fool their sense of smell , sight and hearing you can be successful at any hunting can ’ t you ?
I hunt and fish from Alaska to La and to this day my best hunting memories are deer hunting as a kid with my dad . Hands down . I don ’ t even have to think about it . Just me and dad together . It was awesome . And deer camp . He always hunted with some upstanding guys that set a good example for us . We had good clean fun and a blast together .
Like I say , I get to do a lot of cool hunting and fishing now . I write Outdoor articles for a living . I ’ m on Prostaff for multiple companies and get to test a ton of products . All of that pales in comparison though to how much fun my brother and I had deer hunting with dad .
So with all of this said . Take your kids deer hunting if they want to go . I know you want to get away with the boys and hit it hard but take it from me . You only have your kids for a short period of time . I know when they ’ re small and you ’ re tied down it can be rough at times . But when they hit 16 , they ’ re pretty much grown ( in their minds ). I think that it ’ s a big mistake to make kids wait until they ’ re 12 to big game hunt .
Value every minute with them and if they want to go hunting-take em . Of course of all people , my girls have no desire anymore to go hunting with me …. although the little one is getting interested in fishing again the last few years .
For years after I left home and moved out of state I ’ d still call dad after every deer hunt and tell him about getting my deer . Every detail . He died in 1990 and it was quite a few years later I ’ d still come home from hunting and want to call and tell him about it . I had a cool dad . Don ’ t gyp your kid out of having that experience too .
Don ’ t push them too hard . Let them have fun . Take some S ’ mores and enjoy your time around the camp fire . You ’ ll be building memories that will last a lifetime .
Semi on the same line of thought . I help every year with the Scooters Youth Hunting Camp . One year a taxidermist was giving a talk and said if a kid kills a doe for his first deer that it is a trophy and should be mounted . Inwardly I thought yeah , right . You just want their money . But as I got thinking on it later I thought , you know , he ’ s right . We ’ ve cheapened our hunt when all we do is measure our success by the size of the rack . Does a kid on his first hunt with his dad not have just as much fun as a kid with a rich dad that can afford to take him on a high dollar guided hunt ? And what about the whole experience of boning out your deer and making your batch of sausage for the year ? Is that not a quality experience ?
I still love deer hunting . I love everything about it . The hunt , the camping , the packing him out , processing him-everything . I ’ ve since killed moose , bear , antelope and elk but to this day , my best hunting memories were as a kid deer hunting with my dad . I wouldn ’ t trade those memories for a million dollars . And I think we cheapen the whole outdoor experience when all we do is measure our success by how big our rack is . Do I love big racks ? Sure I do . But in all the rush , let ’ s remember why we hunt .
22