Kansas with an 11 year old daughter
Kansas allows youth under 16, disabled and archery hunters a little head start on the season. I applied for a "special hunt" for her which allows for solitary access to Walk-in-Hunting land. I was able to call in 5 jakes into our decoys, but the nervous girl told me she couldn't clearly see her target. We let the birds drift away, and she moved into a different position, almost in my lap. I then hit them hard with the box call, and the goofy birds came back for another conversation with the decoys. I told her I was so proud of her that she stayed quiet and still enough for 5 birds to not bust us at 20 yards. The fact that the shot was not successful didn't mean that the morning was a bust.
Two weekends later, after Julia's orchestra recital (she is first violin in a youth symphony at Wichita State University), we jumped into the van and headed out for a late afternoon hunt. Julia took out the camera to capture some of the flavor of the outing.
We set up on a fallow corn field, decoys spread out in the corn, and a couple of jakes just 5 yards in front of us at the edge of the field.
Hearing just a few gobbles from a long ways off, I was caught off guard by the "Sneaky-Pete" that came in from our left. He had his wings down to the ground but never once spread his fan out. He came as close as 5 yards away to say hello to the jake decoys, before heading out to the tom decoy. I was able to bring my gun up from across my ankles as he headed directly away from us toward the tom decoy, and i nudged Julia to get her to get her 20 gauge up also. When she didn't move, I nudged her and whispered again, "get your gun up". I turned my head to see her with fingers in her ears, eyes nearly shut, and she said, "no, daddy, you take him". As the sneaky bird was seeming to get a little nervous, and I didn't think she was going to take the shot, I put him down.
With work, kids schedules, dance recitals (including the Dad's Dance!!) I only had one more opportunity to get out after a second bird. No birds were seen, but I did snap a picture of whitetail in velvet, one that could be a good one by the fall. Seems like some extras starting on his left side, and room to grow!!
