The early goose season has been in full swing for over a week so I decided to get out in the field last weekend.
We headed up to the Park Rapids area to meet up with some of my friends and take their kids out hunting. Well they wanted to bring their friends, and so on and so on, so there ended up being seven of us. The good thing is at that age they are full of energy and do not mind getting up at 4 a.m. On the other hand they do eat a lot, and I mean a lot.
Although some of these kids started hunting with me a couple of years ago, for some of them it was there first time goose hunting. Over the years, goose after goose, it still makes me smile seeing their excitement when they see their first bird fall and when they pick it up and realize how big the birds really are.
So that made me think. Yeah, it's cool to take a kid hunting but seeing them learn is really what it is all about. You can tell a true hunter right away, always asking questions like why we set the decoys a certain way or if the blinds are camouflaged enough. It doesn't take long to pick them out.
Even when you do everything right things don't always go your way. Even when you have birds patterned and a good field, sometimes those birds with the pea-sized brain will outsmart you. That was the case on Saturday, but not on Sunday. We got a few good shoots in and everyone claimed a few good shots. As much as I am pretty serious with these kids about gun safety and the right way to do things - like not shooting them off their roost and taking good shots - let it be known that if you decide to sleep in your blind your shells will be taken out of your gun and you will not be shooting at the first flock of the morning. The blank stare on their face when they are trying to figure out what just happened is priceless.
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JAMIE DIETMAN, What's Up Outdoors, may be reached at 218-820-7757.
