longshot
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Mar 2006
Location: Southwest Missouri
Posts: 2057 |
A "Thanksgiving" Hunt
I hunt quite a lot by myself and at times it can be boring and even hard to get motivated, so last night I figured I'd try to get somebody to go since kill season just opened here. That's when I remembered a 11 year old kid from church that has ask me several times to go, but I've always put him off for some reason...
His story is a bit long but worth reading, so here goes...
This boy comes from a troubled home of drug abuse and neglect, but even far worse , molestation is in his past. His mother had 3 children with 3 different men and she is addicted to hard core drugs and went to Prison. By the age of 5 years old , he had already saw more than most of us see in a lifetime and none of it was good.... After being shuffled around in Foster homes for a couple years , a very generous Christain lady in our church adopted him. That's when his life began to turn around. He is 11 years old now and I've seen GREAT improvement in his outlook on life and hopes for the future because this lady gave him a second chance.
She has done an outstanding job of caring for him and raising him, but she is a single woman, so the boy has no father in his life. He has mentioned to me a couple times that he would like to go hunting or fishing sometime, but I was always just too busy to mess with a kid tagging along and in my way. My hunting and fishing is serious bussiness and I don't like somebody slowing me down or getting in my way, so I just didn't mess with calling him.
Well last night as I was leaving for the woods , for some reason I decided to call him. He answered the phone and I ask if he wanted to go tonight ? I got a giant "YES" !... This boy had never been to the woods and certainly never coon hunted. On the way to the timber I got the usual 100 questions about everything having to do with Coon Hunting. He borrowed some coveralls and a flashlight and away we went.
I explained to him to listen for a strike ( long bawls) and then a locate ( very loud long bawl) and then listen for the "chop" (tree bark). I don't believe I've ever seen anyone so excited to go hunting in my life.
Well , the 1st drop could not have went any better. It was a text book track that ran about 300 yards ( which I showed him on the Garmin) , then a big loud locate and steady chop.... It was a huge oak tree and I saw the coon immediately in the top, but I didn't say a word about it to the boy. He had a two cell flashlight and was shining all over trying to see but he couldn't see a thing, so I loaned him my spotlight and I heard him scream. " I see eyes up in the top, here he is ! "
Then a evil thought come to my mind.  .
I calculated about where the coon would hit the ground and had him stand about 10 feet from it and hold Sambo's leash while I shoot the gun... hehe.
All I could see of the coon was a piece of neck, so I zero'ed in and pow.... As soon as I shot , I knew it was a big coon and he began to fall and WHOOP , he hit the ground right beside the waiting boy holding Sambo. Of course Sambo grabbed the coon and the boy let go and ran for the hills from all the commotion. I finally caught up with the boy about 75 yards and calmed him down. We both had a good belly laugh and he was stuttering like Mel Tillis. lol..
We made two more drops and treed what I believe was a slick tree and then we treed another single board coon and shot it out. By now the boy is really getting into it and loving it. On the last tree I noticed him shining his light on Sambo and just watching him tree as I shined for the coon above.... Then he told me that he didn't know a dog would do that , and that he was definately gonna get him a coon dog as soon as he turned 16 and could drive. Sambo has never got so much petting and lov'in in his whole life at the end of the night. 
The botom line is that I'm glad I made that phone call and took him hunting. It could have been just another coon hunt for me alone , but instead I showed a kid what a good time really is and that not everybody in life is like the people in his past. It's almost Thanksgiving holiday and as I drove home last night, I was Thankfull for all the good times I've had in my life and how lucky I've been. I wasn't born in the terrible circumstances that this boy was born into and all I can say to that is " But for the Grace of God go I "....
I don't have a good picture but I did snap this with a phone. It's a blurry pic , but believe me when I tell you , this boy had a ball last night. Sorry for the long rambling post, but I thought it was well worth telling this Thanksgiving.
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 Mark Reavis
Southwest Missouri
Dual Grand Champion Super Sambo
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11-18-2012 10:38 PM
AWESOME!
