Plan a Texas-Sized Hunting Quest this Holiday Season

THE CHRISTMAS SEASON is a time of reflection for many people.

Family traditions bring joy, laughter and thoughts of yesteryear that can put a smile on the face or bring sadness. Sometimes the reason there are fewer presents under the tree is because there are fewer people in the family.

Christmas can be a reminder of loss.

The deepest roots of Christmas are celebrating the birth of a savior that brought hope to the world and this article is to inspire all of us to search out that hope in the great outdoors.

Plenty of hunting challenges exist out there.

The Grand Slam of turkey means lots of travel and some challenging times calling in America’s greatest game bird.

The Grand Slam of sheep means lots of travel, far more money than most of us have and the incredible physical strain of hunting in North America’s highest elevations.

Hunters can even take up lesser-known challenges such as those involving pursuing myriad whitetail subspecies, However, we want to put out something perhaps more challenging than these.

The good news is it won’t cost you like the sheep slam, require the travel of pursuing turkeys from Florida to South Dakota or make you dig out a whitetail distribution chart figuring out where one subspecies ends and another begins.

This challenge is all about the heart and blessing others.

Two groups of people are disenfranchised in our hunting culture—impoverished youth and the elderly.

Let’s start with the latter first.

Imagine that you spent most of your life hunting. You craved the encounter with whitetails and waterfowl and spent thousands of days on your life in the field, but now you’re relegated to a retirement center.

When fall comes you see it through the windows of the facility as graying skies and falling leaves reminds you of something you used to love.

Maybe your spouse is gone and your children simply don’t care.

What would it mean to one of these senior citizens if you committed to picking them up and taking them to hunting camp this Christmas season? Maybe they can’t get out to the blind, but they would certainly love the camaraderie at camp and being part of something that brings life to them. After all, their heart is still pumping.

Maybe you could bring out a .410 and set them up in a pecan grove to hunt squirrels or shoot doves in the field behind the camp. The encounter would bless them but the fact someone remembers them might just restore their hope.

And then there’s the economically challenged youth.

The only thing standing in the way of youth from poor communities getting opportunities to hunt is us. Yes, us.

These kids live in our neighborhoods, go to our churches and are parts of our community.

We get incredible feedback on the photos of smiling kids with game and fish we run at fishgame.com and here in the magazine. The only difference between these and thousands of poor kids in our state is someone brought them into the field.

Although it has become politically incorrect to say men have an important role in our society, we refuse to bow to this idiotic thinking.

God created man and woman and when men fail their families in large numbers, entire communities fail. The majority of our readers are men. By connecting with young people you can show the boys how a man leads and the girls how a good man treats women.

Young people are easy to please in a hunting setting.

Take them on a stock tank hunt for ducks where the action will be fast and the results spectacular. Let them take the does on your lease or bring them out at night on a spooky, fun hog hunt.

That connection to hunting might just save a young person’s life.

An interest in something natural and challenging might be the thing that inspires them to push beyond the temptations of drugs, gangs and even suicide. The highest rate in suicide growth is 11- to 14-year-old teens. Suicide rates go up during the Christmas season for the reasons stated at the beginning of this article—memories of loss and despair for the future.

Hunting isn’t a cure-all for the young or the fountain of youth for the old. However, this year could be the thing that lets them know life is worth living and great things can still happen.

This year has brought incredible challenges to our world, nation and state. For some it has been a challenge to simply go on and fight to live when they don’t feel like fighting.

No matter what you think of COVID-19, consider the elderly locked away and literally not able to see any guests for months. Children in foster facilities have experienced the same thing.

Jobs have been lost and so have lives.

This Christmas, take up a greater cause and bring those who are struggling the most to hunting camp. You can shoot all the big bucks, banded ducks or trophy elk you want, but it won’t fulfill you like taking someone hunting or fishing.

Give the gift of hunting and know the joy you give will come back to you, perhaps in miraculous ways.

 

 

 

—story by CHESTER MOORE

 

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