tallen702
Active Member
I had a proud uncle moment today and I needed to go brag about it somewhere, so I figured this was the place.
My nephew is 16 and goes to boarding school in VA. He's a boy scout and has always taken an interest in my firearm collection and my stories of going hunting for deer, ducks, geese, and upland birds. When I was his age, I didn't have anyone to take me hunting or even show me the first thing about it. Nobody in my family hunted. No close friends offered to take me under their wing, nothing. That being the case, I didn't start hunting until I was nearly 35 years old. In the relatively short time since then, I've taken quite a shine to the practice and have tried my hand at a bunch of different things. When he started expressing interest in pheasant hunting, and moved up to the DC area for school, well, I saw my chance to make sure he knew he had someone that would help him learn the ropes if he so desired.
I poked around a bit this year to gauge his interest and when I was sure he was up for it, I packed up his Christmas present and excitedly watched him open it on Christmas morning when my whole family was together. In the box, he got a blaze orange Remington hat, an upland vest, and an empty box of #6 shot with a note from me that let him know it was good for 1 pheasant hunt with me. If he didn't want to hunt and just wanted to shoot, it said I'd take him to PG Trap and Skeet and we'd do a full day of sporting clays. He chose the hunt.
He had today off, it being the winter long weekend at the school, so I picked him up Saturday morning, and took him out to Tuscarora to practice with the shotgun I'd be letting him use. Sunday was a trip to DC to see Monster Jam with his little cousin (my son), and today was the big day. We woke up at 5 AM, packed up the car, and headed on up to Pheasant Valley Farm in Robesonia, PA for the hunt. I had them put out 12 pheasants total for us, and we hunted over flushing retrievers with a guide. My nephew missed his first couple of shots, and I knocked down a couple that popped up near me. When we got back to the cars, grabbed some water, and headed back out for more, we came across the motherload of birds. Some of ours that had been stocked joined up with several birds from this past Saturday's "European Shoot" that they put on (20 people 250 birds, all day hunt with pass-shooting in the morning and guided hunts in the afternoon). We had a double pop up on us almost right off the bat, the rooster shot my way and the hen he was hollerin' at flew in my nephew's direction. We hit both birds nearly at the same time. He got his first bird. He nailed another shortly after as well. All said and done, we bagged 10 of the 12 that were stocked for us. Not a bad day at all.
I was VERY proud of the way he conducted himself. He never pointed his muzzle in an unsafe direction, never took a shot unless he knew it was clean, was aware of where the dogs and other people were the entire time and handled himself extremely well. You would never know that it was literally his first hunt ever. Our guide was very complimentary of him as well.
Anyway, I was just glad to be able to help my nephew experience something that he really enjoyed. I think he'll keep coming out year after year now that he has a taste of what it's like. I'm glad to see someone from a much younger generation getting out there and hunting even though it's not a part of his family's traditions. It makes me hopeful for the future.
My nephew is 16 and goes to boarding school in VA. He's a boy scout and has always taken an interest in my firearm collection and my stories of going hunting for deer, ducks, geese, and upland birds. When I was his age, I didn't have anyone to take me hunting or even show me the first thing about it. Nobody in my family hunted. No close friends offered to take me under their wing, nothing. That being the case, I didn't start hunting until I was nearly 35 years old. In the relatively short time since then, I've taken quite a shine to the practice and have tried my hand at a bunch of different things. When he started expressing interest in pheasant hunting, and moved up to the DC area for school, well, I saw my chance to make sure he knew he had someone that would help him learn the ropes if he so desired.
I poked around a bit this year to gauge his interest and when I was sure he was up for it, I packed up his Christmas present and excitedly watched him open it on Christmas morning when my whole family was together. In the box, he got a blaze orange Remington hat, an upland vest, and an empty box of #6 shot with a note from me that let him know it was good for 1 pheasant hunt with me. If he didn't want to hunt and just wanted to shoot, it said I'd take him to PG Trap and Skeet and we'd do a full day of sporting clays. He chose the hunt.
He had today off, it being the winter long weekend at the school, so I picked him up Saturday morning, and took him out to Tuscarora to practice with the shotgun I'd be letting him use. Sunday was a trip to DC to see Monster Jam with his little cousin (my son), and today was the big day. We woke up at 5 AM, packed up the car, and headed on up to Pheasant Valley Farm in Robesonia, PA for the hunt. I had them put out 12 pheasants total for us, and we hunted over flushing retrievers with a guide. My nephew missed his first couple of shots, and I knocked down a couple that popped up near me. When we got back to the cars, grabbed some water, and headed back out for more, we came across the motherload of birds. Some of ours that had been stocked joined up with several birds from this past Saturday's "European Shoot" that they put on (20 people 250 birds, all day hunt with pass-shooting in the morning and guided hunts in the afternoon). We had a double pop up on us almost right off the bat, the rooster shot my way and the hen he was hollerin' at flew in my nephew's direction. We hit both birds nearly at the same time. He got his first bird. He nailed another shortly after as well. All said and done, we bagged 10 of the 12 that were stocked for us. Not a bad day at all.
I was VERY proud of the way he conducted himself. He never pointed his muzzle in an unsafe direction, never took a shot unless he knew it was clean, was aware of where the dogs and other people were the entire time and handled himself extremely well. You would never know that it was literally his first hunt ever. Our guide was very complimentary of him as well.
Anyway, I was just glad to be able to help my nephew experience something that he really enjoyed. I think he'll keep coming out year after year now that he has a taste of what it's like. I'm glad to see someone from a much younger generation getting out there and hunting even though it's not a part of his family's traditions. It makes me hopeful for the future.
