"Pass It On"
by Gordon L. Krause (Crow Busters Founder)

They say you never forget your first time. This sure holds true when it comes to hunting experiences. For those of us that have seen more than a few seasons change, our hunting firsts may be years, even decades in the past. Even so, who can forget the excitement mixed with pride that you felt the first time that you splashed a drake mallard or dropped a fat Canadian goose into the corn stubble? How about the rush you got when you saw your first whitetail on the ground, even if it was just a yearling doe? The memories of those back slaps of congratulations from your family and friends have lasted a lifetime. I will never forget the first time my dad took me to the woods with his portable record player and a "Crow and Owl fight" .45 rpm (to you young hunters, that is a plastic disk with recorded sounds, not a caliber). It seemed like the sky was solid black with screaming, diving, angry crows. To an 8 year old, it was magic, and I was hooked. Thousands of crows later, I still get a touch of that magic each time a crow turns and approaches to my calling. If we could only bottle that feeling for when we retire!

However, as experienced hunters we sometimes tend to get caught up in the science of pursuing a specific game animal. Perhaps it's the latest camo pattern, buck lure, turkey call, or motion decoy. We all want the latest and greatest. Add to that our often single minded trophy mentality, and our hunting trips can sometimes seem more like a military operation than a pleasant day afield. But let's not forget why we started hunting in the first place. Fun, plain and simple! And nothing is more fun than crow hunting!

This brings me to the point of this article. With the combination of anti-hunting sentiment pumped into our kid's heads on a daily basis, and the general level of distraction facing our youth, it's getting harder and harder to get young people involved in the shooting sports. The last thing we want to do is turn off a potential first timer by sticking him or her in a cold deer stand for 3 days where all they may see are a few "tweetie" birds. Let's face it; today's kids have been raised on a steady diet of video games and fast food. They have a short attention span, no sense denying it. That's why crow hunting can be the perfect startup hunt. A lot of action, mixed with blind making, decoying and calling make for a great introduction into our sport. Plenty of time for them to become "one with nature" in a few years. For now, some trigger time is the most important thing, and if they miss a couple, so what? There are always a few more crows around to take a crack at. This is also a great time to see if those hunter safety lessons were taken to heart. If a young hunter is going to get excited and break a safety rule, the hot and heavy action in a crow shoot is bound to bring out any bad habits.

So this year, try to make the time to introduce a young hunter to our sport. Besides making it possible for them to have their "first time", you might just experience a little of that magic again yourself.