Tuesday, September 16, 2014

South Dakota Mentor Season with Josh

South Dakota Mentor Season with Josh


By Matt Schlueter

With the passing of the hottest temps of this summer, and now the cooling nights and much needed rain to these parts of South Dakota, the hunters in my house begin to plot and plan for this year coming deer seasons.

The deer season will begin with my son Josh’s mentored hunt. Josh has been hunting with me during black powder seasons since he was five years old. So this Mentor Season will be very exciting for him as he will be the hunter, and I will be the guy to help carry gear and make the needed arraignments.

I will say with Josh’s experiences of Muzzle loading with me, I am not worried about him suffering from any disappointment of missed shots, and long days on the stand without a deer in sight. For my Ten year old apprentice, this has all been suffered in good stride during previous seasons. My son will tell you when dad shoots his Muzzle loader most of the time the deer just jump and run away. His only concern was would he have to use a Muzzle loader; when I broke the news to him he was going to be using my Remington 700 in .243 Win., it was almost funny to watch the look of surprise come across his face.

The first step to beginning the preparation process for Josh’s Mentor Season began back in March. We talked about where we should be hunting at for his Doe. Before we made it to the range to begin practicing, Josh helped me load up some practice ammo for his up coming range sessions. Once we had loaded up a sufficient supply of ammo we were off to the range.

Prior to going to the range, I made it more interesting for Josh by making a “Deer Silhouette” for him to mount his Shoot N See target too. After a warm up session with his Savage Single shot .22Lr with Peep Sights at about 10 yards, Josh moved onto some practice with the Ruger 10-22 with the scope out at about 25 yards. This range session was his first time shooting the .243 so I moved the silhouette out to the 75 yard line for the last leg of our range session. I watched him load the rifle up with some parental suggestions to make it easier; once he was ready to shoot, I stood behind him and watched. I hate to say it, but I held my breath longer than he did both before and after that first shot.

Once Josh squeezed the trigger, I watched his ten year old body absorb the recoil. This was the moment of truth on how he was going to react. He turned and looked at me with a grin that went from ear to ear, I asked what he thought of the shot. Josh made the announcement he hit the target, but he wanted to go and check. I suggested he look through the scope again. After he checked he turned and said “I hit it in the middle.” I looked through my binoculars and saw he had hit just below the bulls eye.

By the end of our range session Josh had made a nice group with the .243, and posed for his photo by his Deer.

Please continue to follow along with me for more adventures in shooting and up dates on Josh’s 2012 Mentor Season.

About Matt Schlueter
Matt Schlueter is a retired Deputy Sheriff from South Dakota with 19 years of combined experience in corrections and law enforcement, and held the position of Firearms Instructor and DARE officer with the Sheriffs Office he worked at till his retirement. He is also a NRA Certified Pistol Instructor, and owner/chief instructor of Schlueter Firearms Instruction. Matt’s goal is to provide the best information possible for those who want to further their knowledge and skills in shooting handguns. Matt’s goals also include providing the best training courses possible for students who attended courses he is offering. For those wishing to contact him please visit his website at www.learntwoshoot.com, or www.zwarriortraining.com or you can join him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SchlueterFirearmsInstruction

Originally published in the Outdoorsmen Magazine September, 2012



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