Your heart is pounding as you hear the sounds of a deer or hog rustling the brush near your stand after spending hours sitting quietly in the woods.  Then comes the adrenaline rush as the animal materializes out of the shadows and into your shooting range.  I just can’t get enough!  It was only recently that I have been able to experience the excitement that comes with hunting game both on the ground and in the air.

Like lots of kids, I grew up in the suburbs with houses plopped in between some wooded areas.  I always loved nature and spent lots of time wandering the woods with my friends building forts and fishing in the streams that held trout and bluegills.  But with my Mom being a WW II refugee, guns, even BB guns, were a no-no for us boys to own.  As my buddies got BB guns, we’d shoot cans and bottles in the woods, being careful not to let-on to my mom.

My dad had hunted as a young man, but that was long before we came along.  He did teach my brother & me to shoot .22s on the rare occasion of a Catskills trip and even set up a bullet trap in the basement for a while. As I got older, I enjoyed shooting guns, but I did not have any opportunities to hunt and “life” took over.  15 years later and with 2 young sons of my own, teaching them about the outdoors was priority 1. My youngest had a friend whose dad hunted and took the boys hunting with him.  Soon after, my neighbor had an opportunity to hunt north Florida and asked if my son and I wanted to go.  We camped and while the two of them hunted I sat around the camper thinking, “Next time, instead of sitting around, I’m going to try hunting.”  Boy, that opened a whole new world for me!

I went out and bought a shotgun and next time at the camp, I got up in a climber and waited for some action.  Hours passed watching the birds, squirrels and tree frogs scamper in the brush. About the time the sun went down, a big black hog appeared out of the woods and came down a trail straight at me.  No warning!  Just all of a sudden - there he was.  Of course I did not have the gun pointed at him and all I could do was stare at him.  The he stopped – and don’t let anyone tell you that hogs don’t look up, ‘cause he looked up at me in the tree and took off before I could get a shot.  My heart was pounding at this point but the adrenaline buzz was addictive and I knew that this was something I was going to enjoy.  I could hear the hog circling around and he was determined to get some of the corn that was on the ground, but never showed anything more than the tip of his snout.  I could not get a clean shot lined up.  I waited til well after dark to come down from the tree and told my tale around the campfire over some cold ones.

The next day, I figured I’d relocate to the far side of the clearing so the hog would not see me if he came back.  I jacked myself way up in a palm and waited.  It was getting late and about the time I figured that I lost my opportunity, the big guy popped out of the shadows right under the tree I was sitting in the night before!  Again, he was silent.  I waited until he cleared the brush, lined the shotgun up behind his shoulder, and pulled the trigger.  The hog made no sound, just took off into the brush.  I thought that I had missed, but gained hope as the sound of crashing bushes stopped.  I waited for a while, but I just HAD to see what happened.  I climbed down and slowly crept through the brush, sweating, heart beating a million miles per hour, and there he was, my first kill, lying next to a water hole.  I knew right then that I could never go back.

It has been about 5 years since that day, but I remember every detail like it happened yesterday.  I have since taken up archery and muzzle loader big game hunting, as well as turkey and duck hunting and have been pretty successful.  Thankfully I have a supportive wife, because I’ve done my part in keeping the economy going to support my “habit”.  I have made many friends and have spent countless hours scouting and learning new things to become a safer and better hunter.   I am now a NRA Life Member and even obtained NRA certification to teach basic pistol training.  I do not want anyone to trample on my second amendment rights and NRA membership is a cheap investment to prevent this!

So whether you are a seasoned hunter, or never had an animal in your sights, the lesson in all this is, “give it a try”, you might like it!