Earlier this week, I received an email from an outdoor mentor with a picture of a young man and a nice buck. The mentor told me the story of the hunt, but asked me to keep their names out of it so as to not embarrass the young hunter. But the story is too good not to share.
The mentor, I’ll call him Bob, said that they had seen pictures of this nice buck on their trail cams and there had been several archery hunters who had tried without success to get this buck. Bob and the young boy (I’ll call him Pete), got out to their blind early in the morning for the opener of the rifle season here in KS. Bob said he has some nice video of Pete snoring away! A little after daylight, they saw some movement and Bob woke Pete up and they got positioned in the blind so that Pete could shoot. The deer were moving around and Pete was having trouble finding him in the scope. The 1st buck they saw moved back into the brush and Bob instructed Pete not to shoot until he came clear again. About that time, another buck came out, even bigger than the 1st. Pete got all excited and Bob had to help him hold the rifle to get him on the deer. When the moment was right, Pete pulled the trigger and dropped a nice 11-point buck…a real trophy! Bob said it weighed over 300 lbs… so much he could hardly get it loaded up on the trailer. He said his back was still sore days later!
When they got back to town, Bob spoke to Pete’s family about getting the meat processed. It became apparent that they probably didn’t have the money to pay to get it done, so Bob volunteered to take care of it. He spent the next 8 hours deboning the meat and grinding the burger and getting it all packaged up. They ended up with about 150 lbs of burger and steaks. While they were grinding away, Pete asked Bob if the meat was like hamburger and Bob told him, “Yeah, it’s just like hamburger but better!”
As Bob was telling me the story, the line went quiet at this point. After a few seconds, I was afraid I had dropped the line on my cell phone and asked if he was still there. Bob was still there…but he was too choked up to finish the story. Pete’s next comment had been something to the effect that having hamburger would be great because they had been eating Hamburger Helper but didn’t have any meat to put in it.
Over the years that Pass It On - Outdoor Mentors has been giving kids the opportunity to hunt with caring mentors, I’ve come across a lot of great men like Bob. Men who are stepping up to make a difference in a young man’s life. Sometimes, these men end up making a bigger difference than they ever anticipated…Pete’s family will have burger in their Hamburger Helper for many meals to come! And Pete will know that he was the one who put that meat on the table…a pretty significant feat for a 13 year old. The pride and self-confidence that comes from a successful hunt…it’s all magnified when the results of that hunt end up feeding your family as well.
Pete is very lucky to have someone like Bob in his life. And Bob will tell you that he is even luckier to have someone like Pete in his.
Pass It On - Outdoor Mentors is looking for more mentors like Bob. Men and women who will step up and make a difference in the life of a child. If you are interested in finding out more about how you could help make that difference, please give me a call at 316-290-8883. There are kids all across the country just like Pete that need someone to show them they care and to give them the opportunity to get outdoors.
Mike Christensen
Pass It On - Outdoor Mentors, Inc.
http://www.outdoormentors.org
The mentor, I’ll call him Bob, said that they had seen pictures of this nice buck on their trail cams and there had been several archery hunters who had tried without success to get this buck. Bob and the young boy (I’ll call him Pete), got out to their blind early in the morning for the opener of the rifle season here in KS. Bob said he has some nice video of Pete snoring away! A little after daylight, they saw some movement and Bob woke Pete up and they got positioned in the blind so that Pete could shoot. The deer were moving around and Pete was having trouble finding him in the scope. The 1st buck they saw moved back into the brush and Bob instructed Pete not to shoot until he came clear again. About that time, another buck came out, even bigger than the 1st. Pete got all excited and Bob had to help him hold the rifle to get him on the deer. When the moment was right, Pete pulled the trigger and dropped a nice 11-point buck…a real trophy! Bob said it weighed over 300 lbs… so much he could hardly get it loaded up on the trailer. He said his back was still sore days later!
As Bob was telling me the story, the line went quiet at this point. After a few seconds, I was afraid I had dropped the line on my cell phone and asked if he was still there. Bob was still there…but he was too choked up to finish the story. Pete’s next comment had been something to the effect that having hamburger would be great because they had been eating Hamburger Helper but didn’t have any meat to put in it.
Over the years that Pass It On - Outdoor Mentors has been giving kids the opportunity to hunt with caring mentors, I’ve come across a lot of great men like Bob. Men who are stepping up to make a difference in a young man’s life. Sometimes, these men end up making a bigger difference than they ever anticipated…Pete’s family will have burger in their Hamburger Helper for many meals to come! And Pete will know that he was the one who put that meat on the table…a pretty significant feat for a 13 year old. The pride and self-confidence that comes from a successful hunt…it’s all magnified when the results of that hunt end up feeding your family as well.
Pete is very lucky to have someone like Bob in his life. And Bob will tell you that he is even luckier to have someone like Pete in his.
Pass It On - Outdoor Mentors is looking for more mentors like Bob. Men and women who will step up and make a difference in the life of a child. If you are interested in finding out more about how you could help make that difference, please give me a call at 316-290-8883. There are kids all across the country just like Pete that need someone to show them they care and to give them the opportunity to get outdoors.
Mike Christensen
Pass It On - Outdoor Mentors, Inc.
http://www.outdoormentors.org
