While watching TV my neighbor calls and asks if I’m home; his son Matthew wants to talk. Matthew knocks on the door, excited and nervous he comes in dressed in all his hunting gear. He had just shot his first deer with a crossbow and couldn’t find it and wanted to know if I would help him recover the deer.
I get dressed in some suitable tracking clothes, grab a flashlight and head out. As we walked up the road Matthew eagerly and hesitantly tells me the story of the hunt all while worried that he did something wrong because he has never taken a deer with a crossbow and didn’t know what to expect.
We get to his spot, walk in, he shines the light and there is his deer. He spent the next 30 minutes showing me where he was, where the deer was, how quick it happened, how nervous he was and how he couldn’t hold the bow steady, where it ran, last blood, etc. All the things that you expect from a young hunter. The next few hours were spent showing him proper gutting, skinning and butchering techniques.
His dad tried to take his excitement away because of being a smaller deer. My response to Matthew; ignore your dad's comments, you just shot your first deer with a bow and should be proud and so should your dad.
Wanted to pass this first hand story along for a reminder of why we are doing what we are. So when politicians such as Representative Keith Gillispie tell us that we need to do “damage control” we know why we must double down - so they, the politicians, can’t take these memories away from a young hunter like this.
Kevin B. Askew, Executive Director
Hunters United for Sunday Hunting
