Ut oh, here comes trouble: Nash, left, and Zac tagged along with me on a deer hunt Sunday, Nov. 20, in St. Clair County.
MAHFS photo by Mac Arnold


By Mac Arnold
MAHFS Editor

Taking youngsters into the woods on hunts: There are joys and there are trials.

One thing I was once told by a very wise woman was "don't expect to kill anything when you're out with them."

That alone will lift unrealistic expectations and allow you to enjoy the hunt.

Along with this is the problem of boredom kids will experience if there isn't any action. I encounter this plenty with my 8-year-old son, Zac.

Our house is notched inside a woods so just being outdoors or with Dad apparently isn't enough to entertain him now because he's running in and out of trees every day as it is.

So I'm in a constant battle against these conflicting elements.

But Sunday, Nov. 20, I did find Zac's best friend Nash was more into hunting and would probably sit still enough for us to possibly get a shot.

I may just see if Nash wants to go again while the family is out of town over the Thanksgiving holiday and see how he does WITHOUT the antics of his entertainer friend.

On the Sunday hunt, we were joined by Marysville Dan who I posted up on the eastern end of the public land tract with the plan that our contingent would slowly work our way over to him and possibly push a deer his way.

After seeing what I was up against, I decided it would be best if we parked it outside a clear cut that had rubs on the outside of it so we wouldn't mess up Dan's hunt.

I believe this was the right thing to do because just at dusk Dan had a shot at "either a 5- or 6-point."

He was pretty sure he missed but I insisted we look the next day just to make sure since he didn't have a light (which is under Rule No. 1 for evening hunts).

So we joined up at mid-morning, Monday, Nov. 21, and actually had a decent hunt despite Dan not being able to pinpoint his exact location of the night before until hours later.

Before so, we sat up on a ridge at the spot I call "the ravine" and we had time to shoot the breeze while being set up nicely in case a shot was presented as a whitetail meandered along the small creek. Despite a stiff east-northeast wind, the yellow sunlight warmed the woods enough for us sit comfortably in the crisp fall weather.

And as I said in a previous post, this is one of the benefits of the gun season, being able to spend time with friends and family in the great outdoors.

Now if only those kids would sit still and Dan could shoot straighter we'd be all set.