12 year old gets his first duck...

[Redthies]

I am mentoring my wife’s best friends son. She is a single mom, who is cool enough to have gone out and gotten her CORE since her son is such a keen hunter. I’ve taken him out for grouse, and now twice for ducks.

His 13th birthday is a week away, so I surprised him with a trip to Reliable yesterday (said we needed steel shot) and bought him his first gun. He is a big kid, so I got him a Canuck 20 gauge pump. Mossy Oak bottomland stocks and dark bronze ceracote on the steel. It’s a pretty cool looking gun, so he is super thrilled.

We assembled, cleaned and lubed it, and then headed to the bay. We got there a bit early for the night flight, and I dropped a lone bird almost right away, and then we had very little action until dusk. He had taken a shot at some high flying ducks more to just pull the trigger on the new gun than anything. With about 10 mins of legal light left, he got his first duck! A wigeon flying fast and low. A great shot for anyone frankly. I taught him to “try an miss it in front”, and that is what he did. Hits in the head and neck. This was his first animal of any sort, so a very significant moment for an aspiring hunter. We are headed back out again this afternoon, but with a lot less pressure for him to put on himself.

This kid has an amazing grasp of ethics and integrity for his age. I think he’s going to be a heck of a hunter and ambassador for our sport.