I’m still acclimating for a very special trip to Alaska. A few days prior to my trip my son Joey (11) broke his foot and a toe goofing off at a friend’s house. He thought the toe was dislocated and he set the bone himself only later to find out it was broken. We had been training for months for the up coming football season. Yes we since my wife thought it would be nice for me to attend the conditioning training with my son. His season was over and he had some time on his hands so he started reading his hunters safety manual. When I returned home from AK, I learned that my son had taken and passed his hunters safety class. It’s a pretty tough test now and very few kids passed it in his class. I was pretty darn proud because they cover a lot of information. He was pumped upped and wanted to get a shotgun. I guess they come out excited about hunting and shooting. He had his heart set on a Charles Daly 20ga pump they demoed in the class.
So off we go to J&G gunsmith’s to see what we could find. Now he is what I call a tweener. Not quite and adult size and not quite a youth size. They had a nice selection of used guns to choose from and we checked them all out. Now I didn’t want to break the bank or get a piece of junk. So we just keep checking them until one of them called to us. We were lucky enough to find a Remington 870 Wingmaster 20ga pump in excellent condition. It was a little more than I wanted to spend but I know it was a quality gun that would last a lifetime. I didn’t think those 10 days would come fast enough because he just couldn’t wait.
The day arrives and we head to the store to pick up the gun. It seems there are almost as many signatures required as buying a house. Now here we are with a new gun and my son’s foot in a boot/cast. My son reminded me that there was only a 30 day warranty on the gun so we should go shoot to make sure it works.
So off we go to Coon Creek to shoot some trap. I was not sure how it would work with his foot in the cast but there was no way in hell he was going to let me test his gun without him. They were pretty open to him shooting as long as he could stand up. I made him watch the Pachmyer Trap and Skeet video’s prior to our trip. I took the first 3 shots and handed the gun to him. He broke his first target on his first try
. He did pretty darn well for his first time and only thing we need to work on is a little trigger safety and awareness. I do enjoy shooting trap and skeet and now I have someone I can go with more often.
Now he’s been watching the hunting channel non-stop since he has had his hunter’s safety. I just realized that I am 44 years old and have never once in my life had a hunting license. I think I took hunter’s safety back in 1979 and still have the stub in my wallet. I don’t think there were many years that I did not have a fishing license if any at all. I think we will take it slow and after some practice I would like to go Pheasant hunting. We could hunt and take a bird, have a meal, tie some flies and catch some fish. Well my little boy is growing up and he out fishes me 9 times out of 10 times and soon will be out shooting me at the range. If you know of any programs to get youth started off right please let me know.
Dead birds & tight lines,
Jet
Favoured: 0
