A LANDSCAPE, A  PRONGHORN AND A HUNTER’S SMILE                                                                      

I have long considered what makes someone become a hunter.  We can all agree that once someone embraces the hunting lifestyle, they do so with a passion seldom seen in other activities.  Their commitment is to conservation, safety, ethical behavior, respect of others and landowners, and hopefully passing knowledge to others who want to join the ranks.  Let’s focus some on the latter.

Accompanying this writing is a picture of my son, Matthew, with his first pronghorn buck.  Yes, he is obviously smiling, but his smile pales in comparison to mine, even as I write this three months later.  I can think of no other hunt that I have been on where so many of the important tenants of hunting have surfaced in a short hunt.  In addition to the joy of the hunt, Matthew was allowed to take another step in his development as a hunter.  This piece is about him, but could just as easily be about your son, daughter, grandchild, neighbor, or child of a non-hunting friend.

Our hunt started with securing permission to hunt a ranch that has graciously allowed me to hunt for many years.  Matthew has come to appreciate such relationships, and has on occasion, had to remind me that we must secure a proper inventory of pies before each visit, a token reminder of our gratefulness for this invitation.  Seems like all landowner relationships focus around something.   It is not so much the object of focus, in this case, pies, but the symbolic gesture these objects demonstrate.  How our pie tradition got started, I don’t know, but the landowner knows that every pie is our way of leaving him an expression of appreciation after our hunt has concluded.

Upon drawing tags, many hours were spent at the shooting range.  For us, this has not become a mere requirement the day before opening of season, but a way to spend more time together, away from the hassles of life.  We make it fun.  Does it take time?  Yes, but what doesn’t.  After a summer of shooting, Matthew was ready.  In his hands, his .243 had become a comfortable tool that he could employ with skill.

We were fortunate to be joined by one of our dearest friends on this first day of the season.  Our weather was spitting snow and intermittent sunshine, and a constant wind blowing a good 30- mph.  Not the best conditions for a youngster to be in, especially when the warm confines of home and video games seem to be a teenager’s first choice.  Kevin offered to let Matthew and I hike to the farthest reach of the basin, thinking that is where the greatest number of pronghorn would be.  He was right.  Within a short time, a stalk was being planned.

I will not bore you with the details of the stalk and the specifics of the shot, as those are mere sidebars to a bigger story.  The big story was this.  A thirteen year-old hunter had experienced another of the necessary events to progress in his desire to become a hunter.  He had demonstrated the many traits necessary for a hunter – skill, patience, persistence, ethics, and commitment.

This hunt reinforced all the positive things that hunting teaches, and it taught that with commitment and work, rewards are soon to follow.  And maybe more importantly, Matthew had a special day with his "life is real busy" father focusing on nothing but what Matthew wanted, and did so in the company of great friends.

How did this happen?  Not by accident.  It has taken a commitment from me, my wife, uncles, grandfathers, friends, and many others to interest Matthew in exercising his uniquely American opportunity – the opportunity of becoming a hunter.  Matthew does not have the world of wealth at his disposal, but by drawing a tag in a random lottery, and earning the respect of a landowner, he is able to do something that others in the world would pay thousands of dollars to enjoy.

By making the decision to hunt, and having the experience of other hunters at his aid, Matthew has become a new carrier of our torch.  With more time invested by him, and me, Matthew will be a valuable player in our team of hunters and conservationists.  We as hunters need to spend more time building this team for the future.

In a recent conversation with Mark Hirvonen, one of my fellow board members, we ponder why so many kids were choosing a pastime other than hunting. His son Cory is the boy pictured with the fine whitetail deer. We found many reasons, many of which we have no control over. One big issue we determined hunters could control was how much time we invested in our youth as hunters.

Seems as though hunting today has become too much about big racks, exotic locations, gadgets and gizmos, and less about time with our kids, sharing a resource with others, teaching the ways of nature, and the skills of life.  As hunters, we are collectively responsible for the increase or decrease in future hunter numbers.

Maybe it is time we put our guns away for one weekend and do nothing but teach.  Maybe we need to invest in others the way our parents and grandparents invested in us.  Maybe our focus on trophy scores and our perverted sense of hunting success turns off these kids.  Maybe they are more interested in learning about the coon tracks in the mud bank than sitting over a bait pile only to participate in a shooting event.  Maybe we have lost sight of what is important to our kids – time with their parents, and that which is so necessary to the future of hunting.

To this end, I ask that all of you take the time in the next year to introduce one new person to hunting, or to take the time to mentor a newcomer, young or old, that has shown an interest in our great endeavor.  You will be repaid in many ways, and I hope one of your repayments will be the smile of a youngster expressing his or her love of hunting and their appreciation for making time for them.

Happy Hunting -- Randy Newberg, Past President of Orion