One Of My Best But
Disappointing Weekends
By Bryce Nielson, The Cisco Kid
I have always been a hunter.
I come from a long line of hunters from my great grandfather, Hans,
whose Danish parents were Mormon pioneers, to my grandfather, Con, who lived in
Salina, Utah to my dad, Rex, who lived in Cache County. They all hunted deer all their lives for the
meat, not the antlers. I am the
same. My family grew up in Rich County
eating deer and elk meat. When I was
young, I waited for the deer hunt more than anything else. With my peers, nothing was more important the
getting a buck deer.
After moving to Rich County and working for Fish and Game,
all types of hunting were ingrained into my soul. I have never got tired of it and basically
hunt everyday by observing wildlife where I live. Even though I kill animals, I have a deep respect
for them and have dedicated my time to making sure they prospered and continued
to exist. Since I had to do law enforcement
on all the opening rifle hunts, I took up the muzzleloader because I found it
more sporting and the hunts were at different times.
I have two fabulous daughters, Audrey and Ashley and my wife
Doreen, who understood my primal need to hunt.
Back in those days, girls deer hunting was just not the thing to do but
that was the way it was. Audrey and Jeff
gave us two great grandsons, Carter and Will, who live in Midway, I have had
opportunities to teach them how to handle and respect firearms and how to hunt,
with Mom’s support.
Carter turned 12 this year so he could hunt deer
legally. He had his hunter safety by 10
and was with me when I shot deer and elk and loves to waterfowl hunt. With Audrey’s permission, he skipped school
on Friday (we used to get out of school for the deer hunt), and we picked him
up in Evanston. He just like I was when
I was a kid. Tall, long legs and arms,
skinny with big feet. He had shot my
muzzleloader a few weeks before but did not do well with the laser scope. He could hit anything with open sights so I
took the fancy gear off. The night
before, we talked about “buck ego”, how to properly aim the gun, where to aim
on the animal and using a dead rest. The
next morning we saw a fair number of deer and finally spotted a nice two point
with some does and fawns. They were
about 100 yards uphill and moving so I set him up a hooting spot and he knocked
down the buck on the first shot. I
cleaned it and he dragged it to the vehicle and now he knows why grandpa never
shoots anything downhill. We talked
about the deer and the respect we had for it, got it skinned and put in the
cooler. You would have never seen such a
proud grandpa. That was the best part.
After everything settled down over the weekend he played
video games and worked outside. I asked
him if any of his friends hunted and he said not many. Most of the kids and their dads did other things. I asked him if I should print a picture of
him with the deer so he could show people and he declined. He said that if anyone knew he killed a deer
and showed them a picture, they would consider him cruel for killing such
a beautiful and defenseless animal. I
got a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had to face the fact that the anti-hunting
faction was winning. They got into the educational system and taught kids that
it was bad to kill animals. They
described wildlife like humans with all the same characteristics and
feelings. They never told them how
important hunters are to preserving habitat for all species with the money they
pay for their sport. They never talked
about the fact that wildlife are the true organic meat. They basically have filled their heads with
bull s..t (sorry). They never changed
the minds of the real hunters, just their children and grandchildren.
I don’t know whether Carter will continue to hunt deer after
I am gone, but I am afraid he is the last of a long line of deer hunters…
