Liere: Prerequisites crucial for every junior hunter

At the March Bighorn Show, I helped register my 10-year-old grandson, Walker, in a Hunters Safety Course. Walker has accompanied his father, Matt, on a couple of successful deer and dove hunts, and he’s pretty sure he wants to give it a go himself this autumn. Pretty sure.

After he passes the safety course, Matt and I will have a better idea of his dedication to doing it right. I’m excited because I think Walker has what it takes and I would love to have him along on some of our hunting adventures.

My cousin Raymond’s kid, Jake, is also taking the course. Because Raymond has never hunted but nevertheless realizes its wholesome, healthy benefits, he has asked me to show the kid everything there is to know about hunting. Evidently, decoy placement, blind location and the applications to proper lead of both Maxwell’s Theory of Electromagnetism and Einstein’s Principle of Relativity are lost on Raymond.

Actually, there is much more for Jake to learn than a few simple mathematical calculations regarding shooting a shotgun or rifle, and I haven’t yet promised to take the lad under my wing. Before I get too serious about sharing my sport with just any 10-year-old, I need to know if there’s enough potential to justify my time commitment.

Woodpile genes, passing interest and mere residence in the same state are not enough common ground to form a hunting partnership. In deference to George Herbert and his line about stones and glass houses, however, I’ll stay off my soap box in that regard.

It is my belief that real hunters carry a special gene. Normally, it manifests itself within the first 8 years of life, but there are instances of latent emergence. That said, if Junior has not demonstrated at least five of the following six tendencies or inclinations by age 12:

• Given their choice of watching TV, playing video games, listening to iTunes or catching tadpoles, they’ll take the tadpoles every time;

• Upon rising on a weekend morning, the first thing that comes to their mind is getting outside;

• They are not overly infatuated with money, jewelry, tattoos or hair styles;

• They would rather pet a dog than admire a Lamborghini;

• They do, on a regular basis, fiddle with homemade propulsion devices such as slingshots and bows’

• They are in awe of nature and will talk endlessly about the string of geese that flew over the schoolyard or the flock of wild turkeys they saw on the way to school.

I really am enthusiastic about welcoming new blood into the hunting ranks. Hunting, though, is a lot more than passing a gun safety course and learning to shoot. The foundation, in fact, is established long before any exposure to firearms. A hunter must quickly develop a reverence for nature, an understanding of their relative insignificance in the big picture and an instinct that nearly drags them into wild places where their nose runs and hands get cold. Five out of six and I figure the aptitude is there to develop.