If a man is lucky, he will celebrate
many birthdays before his days on this earth are done. Some
birthdays mean little more than just another day on the
calendar, but some are special and are remembered as such.
My birthday was this past Friday and I was fortunate to be able
to celebrate it by hunting with two of my kids on our annual
Spring Break javelina hunt near Laredo, TX. For close to 20
years, I and my children have traveled across the length of this
great state to hunt javelina on spring break. Some years all the
kids get to go, some years only one or two – but these are
special times to me.
My 16 year old daughter, Madison made the trip with us this
year. She has recently begun to show an interest in hunting and
decided to go along this year. I know many folks start their
kids out hunting much earlier than this but I’ve always let my
kids decide for themselves when they were ready. I just feel it
means more to them when it’s their idea and not mine. All kids
are different. Some are ready to go as toddlers, some need a
little more time.
Madison started shooting her bow a few weeks ago and developed
her skills to the point that I was confident that she could make
a good shot if given the opportunity. We all know that making
the shot is only a small part of the whole hunting scene. Her
stalking skills had not yet been tested but javelina is the
perfect game animal to start a new hunter on. Play the wind and
pay attention to the animal and even a new hunter just might get
the shot.
The first day of our hunt started out great with my son Mike
taking a nice javelina just a couple of hours after we hit the
brush. Mike made a great stalk and put a perfect heart shot on
the little critter taking him down within 10 yards!
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The javelina were a little harder
to find over the next couple of days but we did manage to find a
few and give Madison her chance for her first bow kill. She made
two incredible stalks but the javelina were very spooky due to
the high winds and she was just not quite able to close the
deal. I must say I was absolutely impressed with her stalking
skills and I know she’ll get her first kill soon.
I hope to be able to continue this tradition and make many more
of these trips with my children. Hopefully they will all be able
to go at the same time on some of these hunts. I’m especially
looking forward to making these trips with my new grandson Gus.
I have been around long enough to have a sizeable number of
candles on my cake, but to me, birthdays are better remembered
for quality, not quantity. I can’t think of a better way to
celebrate a birthday than to take my daughter on her first hunt.
These are good times.
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