Sportsman's Blog

Playing Hooky To...Well, Play "Hooky" This Weekend

To some people I’m doing a bad thing on Friday.   I’m forcing my child to miss a day of school.   It wouldn’t be so bad, but so far this year he’s had perfect school attendance.   One of just six or seven students in his small school who can still claim they’ve had no blemishes on their attendance record.   And to make matters even worse, to reward the students with perfect attendance at the end of the year, the school is giving away two bikes as prizes drawn from a hat.

Wow…his odds of winning a new bike would be quite impressive.   Still, I’m not allowing him to go to school on Friday.   I am such a terrible stepfather.   What am I doing with him instead, you might ask?   Hell, we’re going fishing.   That’s right!   This weekend marks the official Minnesota fishing opener and this year Fish Camp is once again seductively calling out both of our names.

For those readers who might be new to this blog let me say that for some of us opening day of fishing in Minnesota is a BIG thing.   It usually happens the second Saturday of May, which means most times the boys are gone over Mother’s Day weekend, but the tradition has lived on for some of us so long a part of our soul would simply die if we just didn’t head north to the lake.

This happens to be Luke’s first time heading north with the gang.   Oh, his mother was not real keen on letting her little boy join the “men” in camp at the ripe old age of only 11 years, but I finally convinced her it was time.   Indeed, there comes a time in the maturation of all sportsmen when they must join “the club,” so to speak.

Needless to say Luke is excited…and I am excited for him, as well.   The experiences he’s going to discover this weekend will truly last him a lifetime.   And I dare say the life lessons he’s about to learn while in camp will far surpass any opportunity cost of what he would have learned while in school for that one day.   Suffice it to say, no matter how you want to look at it, this IS an excused absence from school for what I like to call “a little home schooling.”

Luke won’t be the only youngster in fish camp this spring.   There will be other kids approximately his age also skipping school.   Sure, there are the nay-sayers who will tell me that it is utterly foolish to take a young child away when he should be in school learning with his peers.   To that statement I simply say HOG-WASH.   On one day each year Luke is learning that sacrificing studies is acceptable when it comes to going fishing with the guys on opening weekend.   What do you think that tells a young boy?   Maybe that fishing is not only fun…but the activity is serious enough that a first day missed from school is perfectly acceptable?

Hey, I’m one who normally advocates perfect school attendance as being critical in the development of good future career skills in most children.   Still, I am not faulting Luke for wanting to miss school and break his current perfect attendance record.   More importantly, what message will be sent to his classmates as to why he will be gone.   “Oh, Luke’s dad took him fishing.”   Absolutely perfect.   I want all of his cohorts in school to realize that Luke is one lucky kid getting to go fishing rather than learn geometry, social studies, and so forth on that day.

Yup, I’m just a terrible dad enabling my stepson to do something ordinarily frowned upon by most parents.   In the end, I am also extremely confident that my actions will someday reap great rewards as I fuel the intrigue of another young person’s soul for the importance of living life as a sportsman.

2008 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.

Tags: youth+fishing, hooky+from+school, Minnesota+Fishing+Opener

Out of Tragedy Inexcusable Mistakes Were Allegedly Made

Just a quick follow-up to my last post about the turkey hunter who mistakingly shot and killed his 8–year old son.   While I am not trying to dismiss, in any way, the tragic circumstances of this situation, it is now becoming more apparent the father made some serious mistakes allegedly not based on poor judgment alone.

An earlier Minneapolis StarTribune article suggested the father was not even licensed properly to be out turkey hunting and was trespassing on someone else’s property.   As if that action wasn’t bad enough, today now additional details of the incident were released stating the father has been shown to have been under the influence of alcohol (Breathalizer reading = .06) and urine testing showing the detectable presence of marijuana in his system.

While my heart goes out to the family who tragically lost a young loved one, the more I read of this incident the less I can sympathize with the father, despite his poor actions.   Indeed, the father may have been out hunting but NONE of his actions exemplify the kind of sportsmen with whom I associate.

2008 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.

Tags: hunting+accident

Out Of Tragedy Some Tough Lessons Are Learned

I’m taking a firearms safety class.   That’s right…taking the class along with me are 7 young ladies and about 20 young men ranging in age from 11, 12 and 13–years old up to the ripe old age of 45 (yup, that would be me).   Why am I taking the class, you might ask?   Mostly because my 11–year old stepson is taking it for the first time…but I’m also taking it because when it comes to gun handling safety you are never too old to learn.   Seriously!

I’ve hounded on my stepson that gun safety isn’t just something you learn once in your youth and forget.   It is a skill that takes years of careful honing.   And quite honestly, in the 33 years since I first took gun safety from the Minnesota DNR this will be my fourth class I’ve attended.   That doesn’t make me better than anyone else, and I certainly am not looking for a pat on the back, but I’m humble enough to admit that safety is a never-ending process for hunters and it doesn’t hurt any of us to sit in on a class if for no other reason than to refresh some of those forgotten safety principles.

This past weekend Minnesota experienced a fatal turkey hunting accident where a father mistook his 8 year old son for a turkey and shot him dead.   It’s truly a tragic story, the likes of which I can’t even imagine.   In this case a 39 year old father committed one of the most vital sins of firearms safety — being sure of your target before you shoot.   What he thought was a tom turkey ended up being his precious son.

Sure, these sort of gut-wrenching stories puts a lump in all of our throats as read the tragic details of the account.   Many times when it comes to gun safety you get one chance to do things right.   Sometimes accidents result in non-life threatening injuries.   Other times it is death.   Yet, many other times carelessness doesn’t result in anything serious so a lazy, sloppy hunter can become complacent with practicing these necessary safety skills.

Last fall I was dealing with a 22 year old hunter in my deer camp who was reprimanded by me twice for safety violations.   Once he lost muzzle control of his loaded gun and pointed it at me.   The other time he was gutting a deer in a very unsafe manner that could have easily resulted in a severe cut.   He didn’t take kindly to my criticism stating to me that it was “no big deal.”   Well, that sort of attitude doesn’t sit kindly with me.   This fall he will be finding different hunting grounds because he lost the privilege to hunt my farm until he cleans his act up and changes his young adult know-it-all attitude.

I have absolutely no time for someone who blatantly takes liberties with my health and safety when it comes to carrying firearms.   For this young adult, to earn the privilege to once again deer hunt on my farm will require him to humbly sit through another firearms safety class AND THIS TIME PAY ATTENTION!   Will he likely do it…probably not.   Still, he will soon learn that his behavior (whether he agrees or not) cost him a precious hunting opportunity on land where he has taken the two biggest deer of his life.

You know what…I hunt with a core bunch of hunters who actually take great pride in practicing safe gun handling AND in so doing setting a good example for the other hunters in our group.   Maybe some of this hearkens back to my ambulance days where I was witness to more than my fair share of human tragedy and suffering.   The truth is accidents will strike ANYONE and they can happen AT ANY TIME.

One thing I learned by my 11 years working on an ambulance was to learn by observing other people’s dumb mistakes.   Every time I pick up a circular saw I think of that victim’s thumb lying there in the sawdust with blood all over.   Every time I jack up my truck I think of the time one of my victims had his pickup fall on him and instantly kill him in a freak accident.   Oh sure, every time I climb a ladder I think of the many patients I have picked up when the climbing plan somehow went awry.

And yesterday morning, when I took my 11–year old stepson out turkey hunting with me for the very first time I was thinking of this grieving father who will never get that opportunity again.   Perhaps will never even want that opportunity again because of his carelessness.   Indeed, accidents happen and not a single one of us is immune.   Safety doesn’t just happen…you have to work at it.   It must constantly be on your mind.

Is there any wonder why I’m devoting over 20 hours of my life sitting in on yet another firearms safety class surrounded by kids 30 years my junior?   I’m doing it for me…but I’m trying to set a good example to them, as well.   The kids in class all know I am there not because I have to be, but because I care enough about my sporting heritage to accept the notion that you’re never too old to keep learning how to carefully handle a firearm.

2008 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.

Tags: firearms+safety, hunting+accidents