This weekend was the last weekend of the Idaho upland game season, but it was also the first time my son Samuel could hunt. He just finished Hunter Ed (we’ve never seen him study anything so hard in his life; I wish his school work could motivate him like that did), turned 10 and was able to hunt. He bought his first hunting license with birthday money from Grandpa and was keyed up to go.
Previous to this he had only shot his .410, but felt he was old enough to handle the 20. We hunted quail along the river the first day, chukars in the rocks the second and back to quail for the third day. Late season hunting is always a little tough, the game is wiser and little more scarce. Quail were on level ground, but were tough to dig out of the thick cover. Chukars were out in the open, but the walking was more difficult. The best part of the weekend was when Sam walked right into the middle of a flock of 20+ chukars. They flushed all around him. The look on his face was priceless. He forgot to shoot until I yelled “Chukars!” then he launched a round in their general direction. He bragged how the 20 gauge kicked less that his .22 and how close he was to that one chukar. We had a grand weekend together. I was sad to see the season ending, but excited to have a new hunting buddy.
