I was watching the outdoor channel on television the other day. I am amazed by the lack of training and actual babying of very youthful hunters by their fathers or guides on these shows.
The program I was watching was a father and his very young son in an elevated deer blind or “shooting house.”
When many deer showed up in the field they were watching, the father literally put the rifle to the boys shoulder, positioned it on a small pillow rest, then got the rifle pointed in the general direction, then told the young lad to put the deer in his rifle scope.
Upon doing so, he then reached over and took the safety off for him and then instructed him to squeeze the trigger. After the rifle went off and they had shot their quarry, the father took the rifle away from the son and unloaded it for him.
What’s wrong with this scenario? Lots!
The boy did not know how to operate the rifle, or his dad was not comfortable with his son’s knowledge with his rifle, or both.
Before you start harvesting game animals, you need to be properly trained in the operation of your firearm and the proper and safe handling of that particular rifle.
When I was a young boy, my father presented me with a beautiful .32 Special. But before he turned me loose with that gun I had practiced (with an empty chamber) releasing the hammer and bringing the hammer back to half-cock safety literally thousands of times.
What happened to marksmanship? It must be a thing of the past with all these fancy shooting rests and attachments. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for good bullet placement on game animals and clean kills, but it’s at a point of being ridiculous.
I don’t think some of these outdoor channel hunters would make out so well up here in Maine as most of you know our deer are a bit on the wild side and don’t stick around very long so you can place a rest or a pillow under your rifle barrel.
If you have a beginning hunter, go through the operation and function of that weapon until they are blue in the face, then take them shooting. Start with a big target to build their confidence, and then go to smaller targets as their skill and confidence improve. Keep practicing until they can consistently hit soda cans at 50 or 60 yards. I know it takes time and money, but it will pay off big in the deer woods.
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