Many of us want to share the love of our sport with others. I spend a lot of time working with new hunters either in game and fish hunters education courses or when I get to mentor people. This weekend I got the priceless opportunity to take out my friend Char's daughter Jess for her FIRST predator hunt.
Jess is 10 years old and has hunted birds with her father who is a bird dog guide and trainer. So she has some hunting experience. A week ago she asked about going predator hunting. After discussing it with Char we decided that this weekend was going to be the one. Unfortunately it was a holiday weekend so you know that everyone and their brothers were out in force hunting the almighty trash that they seem to only be bale to hunt. So I was more than a bit apprehensive about the hunt. I agonized over where to go and finally decided to hit some canyons where I figured that the predators would be trying to wait out the holiday/trash shooter onslaught.
We got lucky, as we were entering the area we only saw one truck and it seemed to be in a spot for a bird hunter. So we crept down into our area. I took Jess with me and had Char flank out to our right. We had a hillside to our right, one to our front and Char was watching a draw from our left.
About 45 seconds into our stand I see a fox pop up on the rocks to the left of Jess and I. I whispered to her and tried to point out the fox. But we had a tree next to us so she couldn't see it. A second fox pops up next to the first, but Jess couldn't see it either. She was moving her head to try and see through the tree and the foxes spotted her. They began to slowly move off. I tried to get them back with vole squeaks, but they left. I waited about a minute and triggered grey fox distress. The foxes came blasting out of the rocks and around in front of us. I got Jess squared up on the male that was coming in hard. I told her to shoot and she said "I can't." I said "go ahead and shoot," and again she said that she "can't." I was beginning to think that she was having second thought about shooting the fox when I saw that she was trying to get her head wiggled around to see through the dot sight. I realized she was having a hard time getting the fox lined up. I told her to place the dot above it's head and one more time I told her to shoot. BOOM!! Fox down. Then I hear Char shoot at fox #2 and I see it circle around in front of Jess and I. I was going to have Jess shoot the second one but that would have required her to pump the gun so I dropped fox two.
She looked at me and through her mask I could see her ear to ear grin. She started saying, "I did it, I did it!" I gave her a high five and told her to go and get her fox. Char and Jess went and collected them up. We talked about our set up, and why I called it the way that I did so that she can start her education on predator hunting. We called another stand but then the dirt/trash shooters started to show up and it was getting warm so with her first fox in tow we headed off to show Jess' grandparents and her dad what she had done. Jay and Char are great parents and have raised a great little girl.
Look at that smile. I live for days like this. I feel lucky to have been a part of it.
Good job Jess!
Mo.
20170904_080726 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr
20170904_080754 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr
Jess is 10 years old and has hunted birds with her father who is a bird dog guide and trainer. So she has some hunting experience. A week ago she asked about going predator hunting. After discussing it with Char we decided that this weekend was going to be the one. Unfortunately it was a holiday weekend so you know that everyone and their brothers were out in force hunting the almighty trash that they seem to only be bale to hunt. So I was more than a bit apprehensive about the hunt. I agonized over where to go and finally decided to hit some canyons where I figured that the predators would be trying to wait out the holiday/trash shooter onslaught.
We got lucky, as we were entering the area we only saw one truck and it seemed to be in a spot for a bird hunter. So we crept down into our area. I took Jess with me and had Char flank out to our right. We had a hillside to our right, one to our front and Char was watching a draw from our left.
About 45 seconds into our stand I see a fox pop up on the rocks to the left of Jess and I. I whispered to her and tried to point out the fox. But we had a tree next to us so she couldn't see it. A second fox pops up next to the first, but Jess couldn't see it either. She was moving her head to try and see through the tree and the foxes spotted her. They began to slowly move off. I tried to get them back with vole squeaks, but they left. I waited about a minute and triggered grey fox distress. The foxes came blasting out of the rocks and around in front of us. I got Jess squared up on the male that was coming in hard. I told her to shoot and she said "I can't." I said "go ahead and shoot," and again she said that she "can't." I was beginning to think that she was having second thought about shooting the fox when I saw that she was trying to get her head wiggled around to see through the dot sight. I realized she was having a hard time getting the fox lined up. I told her to place the dot above it's head and one more time I told her to shoot. BOOM!! Fox down. Then I hear Char shoot at fox #2 and I see it circle around in front of Jess and I. I was going to have Jess shoot the second one but that would have required her to pump the gun so I dropped fox two.
She looked at me and through her mask I could see her ear to ear grin. She started saying, "I did it, I did it!" I gave her a high five and told her to go and get her fox. Char and Jess went and collected them up. We talked about our set up, and why I called it the way that I did so that she can start her education on predator hunting. We called another stand but then the dirt/trash shooters started to show up and it was getting warm so with her first fox in tow we headed off to show Jess' grandparents and her dad what she had done. Jay and Char are great parents and have raised a great little girl.
Look at that smile. I live for days like this. I feel lucky to have been a part of it.
Good job Jess!
Mo.
20170904_080726 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr20170904_080754 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr
