Boys Just Want to Bag Something

This weekend I’ll be taking my son hunting.  We’ll go to our favorite canyon in San Diego County and look for rabbits, and maybe a quail or two if we jump some. The last time we hunted together, my son didn’t kill anything, and he was really disappointed.  He’s just not swinging the shotgun fast enough yet. But something occurred to me the following weekend, when I was hunting alone.  I took some time to rest on some rocks about thirty feet up on the side of the canyon.  As I sat on the boulders watching the field below, a couple of jack rabbits wandered out into the open, casually making their way from bush to bush.  I was carrying the 870 because I was hunting quail, but if I’d had a .22 I could have nailed at least two large jacks.  That’s when I thought of it.  My son is a pretty good shot with his little Marlin.  If I could get him up on those rocks early in the morning, he could pick off jacks and come home feeling like a real winner. I hunt because I like being outside in the back country, and because I love spending time with my son doing guy stuff.  But he hunts because he likes to bag something.  Not that I don’t, but it seems more important to him.  So I’m looking for ways to make it easy for him.  Taking up a sniper’s perch may be just the thing for a boy. I’ll let you know how it goes!