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- Prostaff Member Trout Whisperer
Once a year, every year, for the last twelve years, we've had a guy come to deer camp who has away of knowing it all, without coming off as a know it all, unlike some of us who know abit, and pretend to know quite abit more, myself included.
He teaches gun safety while showing the young shooters how to aim and fire accurately. The kids get the point and come away from the experience not only gaining practical experience, but gaining a sense of responsibility. You can see the young kid's acquire a sense of pride in loading, aiming and eventually firing, and then after dark in the deer shack cleaning that rifle or shotgun. He lets them pull the trigger, but little do they know how much he makes them follow through.
He adopts one young hunter each year, he prefers the youngest, thinks there more likely to listen and takes them for a walk without anybody else to add or subtract to what he's passing along just about each day and they learn to hunt deer.
They really learn to hunt.
He shows them not only tracks, but deer trails. Why the deer, be it a doe or buck, like those trails and what the trails to lead to, and from. He even teaches the kids to track deer backwards with a tracking stick. He points out different trees, shrubs, or bushes and sometimes branches that get browsed on. He puts his fingers on little deer nipped browse then he has the kid do the same thing. Then He asks each kid he takes, how tall do you think that deer was to stand in that spot and nip that branch to eat it. Then he makes them kneel down to a deer's level and take a look around at what's at a deer's eye view would look like.
He teaches them how to walk in the woods, when to step, where to step, without making anymore noise than you have to. How to walk through some brush or up and over a hill keeping an eye on wind currents without walking through a tangle that leads no where and how to navigate tricky creeks without getting wet all the while watching for maybe a deer's ear or a whitetail deer tail flick.
I take a walk with him each fall during the deer season. We make it a point that one day from before sunup to way past sundown, it just me and gramps. We have what I consider our day, and not to be rude, but no one else is invited, because I learn a lot from him to. The trout whisperer