Mentor

one shot scott · Post by **one shot scott** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:33 pm

I suppose my mentor is my crazy American friend. He moved to Ont. about 5 years ago with his canadian wife, who is my wifes best friend. He of course was a die hard deer hunter. I got hooked by shooting his compound, and a month later I bought a compound as well. We hunted the first year without seeing much. The second year I had 3 does come to me at 30 yards. I took a shot at one with the compound and I think I shot the poor thing in the leg. To say I felt like crap would be an understatement. That day I gave up the compound and bought the exomax. I heard about the accuracy and thought I would give it a go. the following year I hit every deer I was aiming at, and where I was aiming at. I managed to tag out!! I teased him every year since buying that 'max, and this past season he finally saved enough to buy one. he loves it! I think his old bow is still on the trading post.

Both him and the excalibur forum are my mentors. Now you guys have me thinking about hunting 'yotes

MPSNIPER · Post by **MPSNIPER** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 5:38 am

My mentor is my father. He turns 82 in a few weeks and is still very much part of the hunting gang. Rifle hunts with me for the full two weeks in November ! He started me out very young, and there are pictures of him carrying me on top of his shoulders while he was hunting Jack Rabbits when I was 3 years young. When i was 15, he wanted to see me with property of my own to hunt on, and he and my mother bought a couple hundred acres which I have since added another 100 to adjoining it. I recognize that he had a huge part in moulding me into the person I am today and that I had opportunities presented to me that many can not say the same about. He was / is my mentor, and for that I am truly blessed.
-Michael.

raydaughety · Post by **raydaughety** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:43 am

As many others, my father was my mentor. I was at his side for as long as I can remember. I killed my first deer at age seven and I think that he was just as excited as I was. I actually took up bow hunting on a challenge by a hunting buddy. I bought a Bear Whitetail 2 in 1988 and harvested a buck on my second day of bowhunting. Dad had no interest in hunting with a bow what so ever and stuck to his old shotgun. He passed away in 1992 from cancer and I sure do miss him. Thanks Pop

Now, I guess you would say that I'm mentoring Tyler. He is my hunting buddy and I never leave the house without him

. We sure have had some incredible times in God's great outdoors that neither of us will ever forget. Boo brought up a good point. Who are we mentoring? We have a hunt on a local farm that is loaded with deer every fall and it has always been a event for handicapped hunters. The landowner is going to change that this year and invite 8 youths that have never harvested a deer before. This hunt should be a blast next fall

.

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:46 am

I don't know that I can name any one person who mentored my interest in hunting and associated pursuits, but I had many influential personalities in my young life.

My youth was spent in the country, among family and friends who were almost entirely country folk ... and that makes a big difference ... so much so, in fact, that I don't even think of loving the outdoors, knowing it's ways, and practicing outdoors activities as anything but normal. It's what I saw growing up, it's what I did growing up, and it's what I do now.

That said, here are some influential people in my life:

My maternal grandfather (deceased), a trapper and small game hunter who I loved like no other on earth. His old bolt-action shotgun was my first firearm.

My paternal grandfather (deceased), who was a woodsman, root-digger, trapper and small game hunter of unusual ability. I've never known anyone who knew the woods and it's plants and animals any better than he did. I've never met anyone to this day who knows more about the flora and fauna of the woodlands in our home region than he did ... and that's not just youthful adoration speaking. He was a distinctive individual, in many ways, and a vast repository of knowledge; a nurseryman, amateur botanist and ornithologist, author and poet. Although I wasn't all that close to him, he still influenced me.

A friend of mine, whom I first met when I was 13 and he was 26, who was and is a Conservation Officer. From him I learned a deep respect for protecting the resources that we all love, and from him I developed an appreciation for and interest in the work that goes into protecting those resources. He introduced a certain honor into my practice of outdoor pursuits that perfectly compliments my backwoods country background.

My dad, who while no hunter, is still a woodsman of a different sort, who modeled for me the life that respects the world as God made it; who gave me a passionate hatred for litter and the abuse of natural splendor; with whom I picked mushrooms, dug sassafras root, cut bean-poles, gathered bittersweet and walked the hardwood forests of home.

A friend of Dad's, who shared his interests, and who bothered to include me me not only in their ramblings, but also in fishing trips to local placid farm ponds and laughing streams and creeks; who made a difference in the life of a boy.

And finally ... my maternal grandmother (deceased) ... who did not hunt, but who was the quintessential country woman, herself a vast repository of skills handed down from her pioneer Kentucky ancestors. She was the one who showed me how to skin my first squirrel; she showed me how to cook and process a hog's head; she showed me how to make soap; how to "make garden", how to can produce, how to cook from scratch ... how to do a thousand things that have now become knowledge kept alive by enthusiasts.

There are many more ... too many to name, but loved the same.

I think that the influence of individuals upon our formative lives is like the work of craftsmen upon a building; there are those who lay the foundations of our experience; those who frame who we will become, those who finish our structure, and those who finesse our interests.

In our continuing life, there are countless individuals who contribute to the maintenance of what has already been built, and the occasional few who build additions or who remodel what already was.

I believe this forum is a body of such people.

Let's give ourselves to building the young, finishing the advancing, and maintaining the accomplished! What good work we have to do!

saxman · Post by **saxman** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:50 am

That would be my dad but for the past few years there have been and still are many,most are on this forum

Pydpiper · Post by **Pydpiper** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:32 am

I have to admit, I am a bit envious of you guys who got to share these times with their fathers. There were always firearms in my home as a kid, but under very different circumstances, my father was not a hunter, he was in the US air force. He did however give me my first gun, a chrome .22 revolver, H. Schmidt I believe.
I can only hope that I am doing right by my son and he will look up to me the way you guys do your fathers, I can not think of a nicer way to be remembered and thought about.
Now, I am going to call my Dad.

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:13 am

Boo wrote:So the question begs, who are we mentoring?

Bullseye Boo!

This is the number one threat to the sport of hunting. The anti's can pick at us and tear away little pieces but the decline of our numbers is what will be the ultimate downfall.

We as hunters have to realize this.

And to stay on topic I will quickly tell you of the program we have at the farm.

Every year we mentor two new hunters. There is only one cast in stone prerequisite for being selected; they have never been successful in harvesting a whitetail.

This year we had a 27 year old male from Dayton, Ohio and a 25 year old male from Wilmington, Ohio. We have had several females in the past involved in our program.

Doc and I met these two young men last March at the Ohio Deer & Turkey Expo in Columbus. We were eating lunch at a table near the back of the show and these two young men sat down at the same table. We started talking deer hunting as one is prone to do at these shows. Usually I discount a lot I hear because there is a penchant to exaggerate a smidge at these shows regarding ones "hunter prowess."

These two young men were different. Both were most enthusiastic and had been archery hunting for two years. They were both looking forward to the time that they would experience their first success.

Doc looked over at me and I nodded my head. He said to them "Boys, you are going to accomplish that task next season."

We teach them as much as they will accept. Shrader and I do most of the actual "woods work" and Doc and Becker contribute very much in other ways. The kids (sometimes older) in the program always are successful in taking a doe out at the farm. They are not allowed to shoot bucks and this sometimes tests their self control to the very limit. We think the self control will serve them well in all their future hunts.

We find what we do very rewarding. The joy I feel when one of the program kids harvest their first deer is hard to explain. I look at their faces and the bigger then life grins and think to myself "Yes! They are hooked!"

And as for my mentor, he was a farmer forced to be a warrior.

And I don't think he ever killed a deer his entire life.

Normous · Post by **Normous** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:16 am

Nice Mike!!

maple · Post by **maple** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:54 am

Good insights here guys and gals.

My Dad immersed me in the wonders of the outdoors when I was a kid. Fishing, swimming, catching frogs and bugs, eating flowers, boats and motors, garter snake pets, camping, SCUBA diving, and hunting. I lapped it up. He bought me a .22 for Christmas when I was 13 (Mom was not impressed) and I slept with it beside me in bed for weeks. With this, many expeditions followed.

Although he was a great outdoorsman, he never killed a deer. Not for lack of trying, for every fall he'd go into the Laurentian mountains with his usual crew, and they'd hunt hard for two weeks. There were not many deer around in those times and I can only remember a couple being taken. Once, he came home with a few strands of hair and told tales of shooting them off the belly of a doe. That was as close as he ever got.

We travelled Algonquin Park together for years as I went to school (biology

), got married and started a family. Those were the good old days. He passed off this earth 16 years ago, and it hasn't been the same since. Obviously.

It was only in 2002 that I started hunting deer. With my new Exomag in hand and the bush before me again, it's been a welcome re-awakening.

I now have a new hunting buddy who is much younger and better at dragging than I

and, my son is now often by my side in the field. At 21 he is no longer a neophyte to the outdoors either. He's another frogger, fisher and hunter by nature. He's taken two dandy deer so far and is the one begging to chase grouse, ducks, deer with his dad at every opportunity.

His friends are often invited over for a venison BBQ, which can be a drain on the supply, as they INHALE it. It's become a neighbourhood party event. Being largely boys of my son's age, I've invited many of them to come hunt with us and share in the experience. As they say, isn't the way to a man's heart through his stomach?

Although some are not too keen on the idea, others jump at the chance and open a new door to the world outside the city we live in. This I find most satisfying and rewarding. Swamps, trees, animals and lunch on a fallen log is often in a day's adventures when we are out. They love it and so do I. Soon enough they will be on to their own persuits of what calls them, and take this knowledge with them for their own use.

At the very least, not one of them is an anti.

Maple

Grizzly-Papa · Post by **Grizzly-Papa** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:40 pm

Canabow · Post by **Canabow** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 3:17 pm

My mentor was and is my father. He started us hunting at a very young age. I was lucky as my mother also hunts so it was always family time to go out. I have passed that love for the outdoors to my 3 daughters though only my youngest still hunts at the moment.

awshucks · Post by **awshucks** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:38 pm

My mentor was my Uncle Paul Freeland. He got me my first sling shot [Whammo] and my first BB gun. [Daisy Cub] No one in my family hunted save him. He taught me: ethics, safety, ballistics, honor, responsibility, ect. No particular order, btw.

I had the distinct honor of burying him a year or so ago. He is gone but will never be forgotten.

I find myself in the unique position of passing on what I've learned to a young man.

It's an awesome responsibility, one of those things you can only learn as you grow older.

I hope to make my Uncle proud.

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:52 am

awshucks wrote: I had the distinct honor of burying him a year or so ago.

I'm glad to hear that, 'Shucks. I believe in facing hard tasks squarely, and I believe in burying your own. I dug my own daughter's grave, with the help of my dad and brother. A friend of mine built her casket from cherry wood another friend donated to that task. She was dressed by her mama, kept at the house, and buried here at home. My home-congregation preacher flew in from 750 miles away to comfort us.

When people asked me, "How could you do those things?", I replied, "How could I not?"

I think the last and best thing we can do for our loved ones is to lay them to rest personally, like it used to be done. Death is all to real, and nothing is gained by avoiding it's reality.

I sure hope that when I die family and friends will roll the clods in over me, and that the task isn't left to some guy sitting on a backhoe in the distance, waiting like a buzzard for the preacher to end and the people to leave!

bassboater · Post by **bassboater** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:58 pm

Dad got me started with a pellet gun , until i graduated to firearms in Va mountains and Md. Granddad got me into fishing on Lake Erie.
Both past away. Now i mentor son in law and nephew. The things they taught me i pass along, mainly its not the killing and the catchin but the friends we meet along the way, squirrels, (bothersome at times i kno), eagles, foxes, and occasionally bass and deer.
I now fish the Chesapeake bay, Potomac river, and hunt Md mainly.
We hung a plak at dad's favorite tree in the Va mtns. He passed in 2000, grandad in 98....

awshucks · Post by **awshucks** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 7:32 pm

Grizzly Adam wrote:
awshucks wrote: I had the distinct honor of burying him a year or so ago.
I'm glad to hear that, 'Shucks. I believe in facing hard tasks squarely, and I believe in burying your own. I dug my own daughter's grave, with the help of my dad and brother. A friend of mine built her casket from cherry wood another friend donated to that task. She was dressed by her mama, kept at the house, and buried here at home. My home-congregation preacher flew in from 750 miles away to comfort us.

When people asked me, "How could you do those things?", I replied, "How could I not?"

I think the last and best thing we can do for our loved ones is to lay them to rest personally, like it used to be done. Death is all to real, and nothing is gained by avoiding it's reality.

I sure hope that when I die family and friends will roll the clods in over me, and that the task isn't left to some guy sitting on a backhoe in the distance, waiting like a buzzard for the preacher to end and the people to leave!

Thanks, Adam. It's what we do. Each generation buries it's elders. I never shed a tear at my mom and pops funeral. Their time had come after long illnesses. It was to be expected and I miss them a lot. My wife at 52 was a bit tougher.

Somehow, I was closer to my Uncle. My parents prepared me for life. My Uncle taught me how to enjoy it. Guess you had to be there, maybe some of you were. Thanks for this thread, and the memories it invokes.

I won't bore you w/ mine. He was one hell of a man.