Learning to hunt

My grandfather was a hunter, rancher, and executive director of the Texas Game and Fish Commission. My father both hunted and fished until a big war took him away. I was about six, then, and sadly never got to hunt with either of them.

Hunting can be instinctive. My son, Dan, once brought his new, eightweek- old Labrador puppy and new .22 rifle out to the ranch where I lived. Danny wanted me to shoot his rifle. We set a beverage can on a fence post and I took aim, making sure Danny and his pup were both safely behind me.

A lucky shot blew the can off the post. Something darted past me. Amazingly, the puppy grabbed the can and dutifully brought it back to Danny. We looked at each other in disbelief. The pup, named Gandolf, had never even had a stick thrown for him. Retrieving was a born instinct.

Many dogs have it. Some humans have a hunting instinct, too. My father died in Africa during the war, and a kind gentleman, Josh Munro, began taking me to his “camp” deep in the woods at the edge of the Big Thicket. I followed him as he hunted squirrels. I wanted to be a hunter, too.

With no men in the family, hunting opportunities didn’t exist. A friend and I tried hunting ducks, fruitlessly. We sloshed through the marsh, unsuccessfully, and all we got was cold and wet.

The path to becoming a hunter was blocked by boulders like inexperience, no place to hunt, no one to teach me, and sometimes cost. Those kept many young’uns out of the game.

I began noticing magazine articles on hunting. Later, a friend invited me to hunt deer. I didn’t see a deer that day, but realized I had stumbled onto a passion that would remain for the rest of my life.

There are ways to learn how to hunt nowadays. The Texas Wildlife Association partnered with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to form the Texas Youth Hunting Association. During weekend hunting/camping events, kids learn firearm safety, wildlife and conservation knowledge, rifle handling, and actually get to hunt with an adult mentor. Parents may attend with the kid. I wish that had been available when I was young.

I needed something similar when I started deer hunting in my twenties. That, too, is NOW available. It’s called the Adult Learn to Hunt Program -- also a TWA offering. Although I learned a lot from reading hunting books, magazines, and from friends that hunted, I would have greatly benefitted from that program. An adult can learn in the three-day course what took me years to accomplish.

Applicants must join TWA ($75), buy a hunting license, and take the nominally priced Hunter Education Course. They’ll receive nutritious wild game meals, lodging, wildlife conservation education, an experienced guide/ mentor, and an opportunity to hunt a private ranch. And they go home with fresh meat!

It’s an opportunity that could open a path to precious times outdoors.