
Small Talk
New Hunters
by
Don Bekeleski
Well it’s fall and again it’s also hunting
season. Many of you that are able to take a new person hunting with you should
be considering it. There are a lot of people who work in an environment where
their fellow workers have never experienced the pleasure of a hunt. Maybe when
you talk to them about your adventures, they just seem to say, “I don’t know how
you can get all excited about going out and shooting at some game bird”?
If you have a hunting club where you can bring guests or even take that person
to a public area it could be very beneficial to bring someone onto our side by
showing them the challenge involved in the hunt. I would say to that person,
“I will even buy your hunting license and habitat stamp and if you like and I’ll
even pick up the breakfast.” That whole deal may run you $25.00, which you will
blow over a bar or some other function in an hour. But think of what that money
spent here could do!
First of all you have picked up his expense. Then you tell him he can use one of
your guns and you will supply the shells. Of course he has to have his own FOID
card. Most people who have never hunted do not know how to even go about it.
When you simplify the whole deal by setting everything up for him or her and
they realize all they have to do is accept your invitation and go, it makes it
much easier to just try it out! If they go with you and have one hell of a good
time, they will want to pursue it again or if not they will realize the fun and
comradery involved. They will see it’s more fun then sitting at home in the
living room looking out a window on a cold day.
A lot of people are hunters because someone took the time to introduce them to
the sport by making it very easy to experience it, without a great deal of cost
and preparation. Once they liked it they went after getting their own equipment
etc. I urge any of you that have the chance to do something like this for a
friend to just decide this is the year you will go ahead and do it. I guarantee
you will have some laughs and get a big kick out of watching the new greenhorn
as he tries to prove his worth. Then at work he will be telling others about his
trip and how they really don’t understand from this side of the fence what goes
on out in the wild and how it’s not as easy as they think to bag that bird.
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