Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Hunting Safely

I'm going to break up this Birthday week with a little talk about deer hunting. Modern gun season in Arkansas opens on Saturday, and I will join thousands of other hunters that morning in my quest to kill a deer. Time in the woods has always been a little like therapy for me. It helps me decompress. If the decompression gets interrupted by killing a deer all the better.

As I have mentioned before many of my greatest memories with my Dad involve hunting. I can't wait until Braden is old enough to hunt with me. Those times shared in the woods will be amazing. But just like any other father I will have the responsibility of teaching my son how to be safe in the woods.

Hunting probably scares a lot of parents. I know Arica is not crazy about guns herself. I try to comfort her by saying that I am extremely careful with guns and I will always teach Braden to be as well. "Unloaded" guns kill a lot of people. That is why it is imperative to treat any gun as loaded, and to never point a gun towards another person. NEVER.

When I first started hunting my dad showed me a demonstration of a guns destructive power. I'm not saying I will do this, but it has stuck with me all my life. My dad took his shotgun and shot a roughly 3-inch diameter tree. Of course the gun destroyed the tree toppling it to the ground. Dad said something to the effect of "just imagine what it could do to a person."  That may be a little too John Wayne for today's society, but it worked.

I don't think many of my readers hunt. Maybe there are some of you lurking out there that prefer to remain quiet. If so, please be careful as you hit the woods this year. Please teach your children gun safety. The anti gun nuts already want to take our guns from us. Don't give them a reason.

7 comments:

twistedxtian said...

Our season opened on Monday, and already there have been reports of people being hurt. :(

I'm heading out tomorrow with someone I've never hunted with before, and it makes me a little nervous because safety is always my #1 priority, and you never know with new people.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Katherine said...

Rifle season opens in Missouri on Saturday, too. My husband will be out there in the woods, too.

I cringe at the thought of the day when Ethan can join him. I know my husband will teach him hunter and gun safety, but there are a lot of idiots out there who get themselves stupid drunk at deer camp, hop into bed around 1 or 2 and hit the woods around 4 or 5 still half drunk. That's what scares me.

I'm pushing the whole bow hunting thing. We live right next to a conservation area where that does not allow rifles, so it's possible he'll transition over to more bow hunting than rifle.

Alright....I wrote a book! Good luck this weekend. Enjoy the decompression!

Ryan Holota said...

My dad and I used to hunt a lot too - I took a Firearms Safety Course before I was ever allowed to shoot. At the end of the course we went to a firing range, and the instructor shot a watermelon with a .22 to show the power even a 'small' firearm has.

I think it's a great visual for kids to see!

Brandy@YDK said...

my friend sheila got drawn in for a hunt. i think that means something important because she's excited. we always had guns around when I was growing up

Rob said...

Good Luck on Saturday. I have been deer hunting a few time but is just wasn't my thing. I use to be a big time duck hunter with my pops back in the day. He still goes but I have stopped but would love to get back out and do some hunting with him again. We always had a great time.

Captain Dumbass said...

Does hunting zombies count?

Anonymous said...

We've had our house broken into and, more recently, our minivan rummaged through in our driveway. I'm currently lobbying the wife to go with me to a handgun safety class because I want to have some protection for my family. When I was in the scouts we learned all about respect for firearms and it is very important that you understand just how incredibly dangerous they can be if you aren't dilligent.