If you are one that believes there is no good left in this world then this is one message to read.
This all started with a young man in my ward that lives down the street. He is a good kids and his parents like many parents want the best for their kids. Like many parents they tried to figure out what his interest were so they could support those interested and grow their sons talents. They tried all the sports and other extra curricular activities and nothing seem to interest him. His mom works at a school and one day she noticed a poster in the hallway that had information about the shooting sports team. Ding ding ding winner, she took him to try it out and he loved it. In a short time and with a lot of practice and dedication he become one of the best skeet shooters and he is now competing at a high level in sporting clays.
With this passion born it placed him naturally around people with common interest which included friends that hunt. This is where I come into the picture, I love hunting and being involved with teaching youth new things. His parents do not hunt and with their support I stated working with their son on the hunting processes. First you need to get your hunters safely certification, a short time later he completed that. The draws had closed so what next? I am not much of a bird hunter but that was our only option to get him in the field hunting that year so with the generosity of a land owner and with my brothers help this young man was able to go duck hunting for his first time. He took his back up trap gun out in the swamp and on his first shot two teal dropped out of the air. He was hooked.
Next, what about deer hunting? Now we’re talking right in my wheel house. I love deer hunting and so our mission was to draw a tag so he could go deer hunting this year. He got a rifle for Christmas so that was the weapon of choice which limited the tag options to have a reasonable chance to draw with zero points. A kudos to the Utah DWR for providing endless opportunities for youth to hunt in Utah if you are flexible. Some of the other things to consider in the process of drawing a tag was school so the unit would need to be close so after school hunting would be possible. We picked a unit that checked all the boxes that I knew well and had had a lot of success on in the passed. One major problem was that this unit got hammered by the 22/23 winter and it had reduced the deer population significantly. He drew the tag and we started to make plans and preparations for the hunt which included trips to the ranges to sight in his rifle and to teach him proper shooting techniques. He was a good student and was shooting MOA groups right off the bat. I have a flexible job so I scheduled the time I felt would be needed to be successful on the hunt. This plan was challenged by the difficulties of the hunt.
Here is a quick recap of our hunt. Opening day of the early rifle hunt, Me and my son picked the youth hunter up after school and we headed to one of my spots, no deer spotted that night. Friday after school, again no deer and very little sign in a different spot. Saturday morning Me and my son picked him up at 4:30 AM and off we went to one of my spots that had never failed me, we seen 15 deer and one was a small buck that was running for his life at 1200+ yards after gun shots went off in the canyon to our north. Hey at least we seen some deer. Though the hunt was turning out to be tough this young man was having a great time be on the mountain. Opening day of the late rifle hunt was a early morning pick up with anticipation of the area being busy. We got to our parking spot and no one was there yet so we hiked into our spot lower on the mountain than we had been on the early hunt in anticipation that there would be plenty of pressure above us pushing the deer. We seen three deer, heard a few shots but otherwise it was a slow morning. We had a drop dead time to leave our spot by 10:30 that morning because we had some church obligations to get back to. I am a spiritual man and believe that we are blessed in life when we commit to doing good in life and following our Savior. We did what we should do that day even though we had to miss some time on the mountain trying to get a deer.
This is where Wapitiwilly comes into the story. I check into Monster Muleys nearly every day to check on topics I’m interested in. I noticed Wapitiwilly’s post on Monday afternoon offering to help a youth hunter on the general deer hunt. I had followed the amazing story of Wapitiwilly and his family helping on a youth moose hunt and with that understanding I knew this post was no joke. I tried talking myself out of reaching out to him thinking that others would have already reach out for this opportunity. A few quick PM’s and I was on the phone with Wapitiwilly’s son working out details. I only had Tuesday left on my committed schedule to hunt with the youth hunter. After talking to Wapitiwilly’s son that scheduled was freed up due to his flexible with this opportunity. Plans were made for a Tuesday night hunt. We arrived early as I have tried I teach this young man that you are never late for a hunt. Wapitiwilly and his son met us and soon after we were heading up the mountain. We were into deer all night and about 45 minutes before dark we found the buck that fit the bill. Wapitiwilly’s son was amazing with this youth hunter as he worked through the shot opportunity and at the shot the buck jumped and disappeared into the oak brush. Through my binoculars it looked like a great shot but we gave the buck some time. He had made a perfect double lung shot and Wapitiwilly’s son found the buck dead 75 yards away from where the buck was standing at the time of the shot. This youth man is shy by nature but you could tell he was very excited. Everything was new to this young man, hunting, feeling the trigger pull on a buck, trying to find the buck, taking harvest pictures, dragging, gutting, tagging, skinning, everything. He did not grow up around any of this and he was taking it all in and enjoying the adrenaline rush that we have all experienced. Again he got hooked on Tuesday night to something he can enjoy for a lifetime. After the work was done, we was talking to Wapitiwilly’s son and tried to make some kind of offering to have the boys work for a day with any needs they may have to offer our thanks. They are not in this for anything but to provide a youth hunter a first time experience of a lifetime and that is what it was.
I am always looking for bigger meaning in life’s experiences and that is what Wapitiwilly’s son offer in the last minutes of our hunt. As he was talking to my son and the youth hunter, he said “we love doing this for people and if you ever get a chance in life to pay it forward, pay it forward, it makes a difference”. That is the type of people Wapitiwilly and his family are and I thank them for this experience. I was able to enjoy the night with my 80 year old dad, my son, and the youth hunter which made the night special to me. Wapitiwilly’s son had his young son’s along with him and you could tell they were loving it. Just and all round amazing experience. I can’t say thank you enough.
I finished it off on Wednesday by spending most of the day with the youth hunter cutting up his deer and European mounting his buck. As we where talking as we worked, we talked about the bigger meaning to all of this and that is that I believe there are no coincidences in life and that this was all a blessing sent into our lives by good people, for people that are trying to follow our Savior. One last highlight to mention around this topic that happened on Tuesday night as we were gutting the buck, my son look up in the darkness and glowing on the hill was a cross. my sons words were “dad look, a cross, the Savior died for us”. The bigger meaning was all around us during this hunt.
Have fun and happy hunting.
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