Junior Hunters Come of Age by Phil Bourjaily

Summer camp used to mean beadwork, sing-alongs and canoes. Maybe if you were lucky, there was a range for BB guns or .22s. The closest you got to hunting was the classic rock-and-burlap-bag snipe hunt. Now, thanks to programs like SCI's Apprentice Hunter Program, NRA's Whittington Adventure Camp and others, kids can burn serious powder at summer camp. They can learn hunting and survival skills, earn a hunter-safety certificate and expand their knowledge of conservation and wildlife management. At the SCI camp, the six-day session culminates in an actual hunt. Each camper has the chance to stalk an exotic deer, shoot it, field-dress it and bring it home.

These camps are wonderful opportunities for kids who don't have parents or relatives who can teach them to hunt. And as I saw for myself last March, a sleep-away hunting camp in a faraway place is a great adventure even for kids who have grown up around guns and hunting.

I accompanied my younger son, John, then 13, to a shortened version of the Apprentice Hunter camp at Indianhead Ranch in Del Rio, Texas. SCI holds summer sessions both at Indianhead and at the Willow Lake Sportsman's Club in Three Rivers, Michigan. The program follows a comprehensive curriculum that exposes students to as many aspects of hunting, conservation and the outdoors as can be shoehorned into six days.

Our mini-camp consisted of all of two campers (usually there are 12-15) for two and a half days. In the short space of time, I was ale to get an idea of the curriculum while John found himself in a place that pried his 13-year-old eyes wide open with wonder from the minute we drove down the long track to the lodge, where the Tricolor and the Lone Star flew from twin flagpoles.

French transplants Laurent and Diane Delagrange have run Indianhead for 20 years in a style that's half-Continental, half Texan and the best of both. There was an espresso machine in the lodge, and the food was a delicious Tex-Mex-Euro hybrid. Chili and Pepper, a pair of imported wire-haired dachshunds, served both as camp mascots and ace deer trackers. There were even French hunting magazines (France has over a million hunters) among the piles of Texas Sporting Journal and other outdoor publications. Outside the large lodge windows the rocky, scrubby Texas terrain stretched toward the Devil's River, with herds of oddly horned animals visible here and there. Visiting Texas, to me, is always a little bit like going to another country. I don't think John knew exactly where he was, but it was clear we were far, far from our home in Iowa.

After unpacking and moving into our very comfortable accommodations we wasted no time in getting to the range. Under the watchful eye of guide and counselor Darren Carr, John practices with a .22, first punching paper from a bench, then moving on to metal silhouettes from shooting sticks in various field positions. Later the kids would also shoot T/C Contender handguns, muzzleloaders, centerfires and shotguns.

We took a break from shooting to walk the "skills trails," a shoot-don't-shoot exercise under simulated field conditions that is part of the SCI curriculum and one of the hands-on requirements for earning a Texas hunter-safety card (live fire is the other). Through the walk, John had to make safe decisions in deer, turkey and upland scenarios. He also had to cross creeks and fences safely. The highlight was Carr's stuffed rattlesnake, head raised to strike, which always makes a surprise appearance somewhere along the trail. It startled John, but not as much as it later startled SCI's Taz Ridley after Carr forgot the snake in the back seat of one of the ranch Suburbans.

During the full length six day course, campers also learn orienteering, blood trailing, how to build emergency shelters and other outdoor skills. A long hike to a remote campsite where they spend a night under the stars makes up part of the full course. As we were only there for two and a half days, we spent our time at the range and in the field. The next morning we loaded into a Suburban. It was painted a drab green and the back had been cut away to expose the high, open-air bench seat where the cargo area had once been. The windshield was held in place by clips so it could be popped out for unobstructed glassing. To John it looked like a vehicle straight out of the "Road Warrior." The idea that he actually got to ride in it and carry a rifle jacked the weekend's already high coolness factor straight into the stratosphere.

Indianhead covers 10,000 acres on the banks of the Devil’s River, a tributary of the Rio Grande that’s been dammed to form LakeAmistad. Tall bluffs overlooking the lake form one of the ranch boundaries; a high fence runs around the other three sides. There are no internal fences; animals range free. Just like native game, the animals at Indianhead are where you find them, if you find them at all. We bounced down the dirt and rock tracks, Carr behind the wheel, unerringly spotting game long before the rest of us. We saw elk, and a trophy axis buck, and a few odds and ends of strange sheep and goats, but a low, cloudy front kept the animals from moving much and we never found the cull buck or doe we were looking for.

The sun broke out after lunch and we tried again. Because this is an exotic ranch in Texas, the herd of Axis deer we ultimately found and stalked were feeding along the road, nibbling on corn thrown from a jeep-mounted feeder. I say that in the interest of full disclosure, and also to point out that just because a hunt starts near a feeder doesn’t mean it isn’t an exciting, “real” hunt. With Carr leading the way and me hanging back, the three of us hunched over and stalked from bush to bush on the side of the dirt track, sneaking to within 100 yards of the herd of 15 or 20 deer as they fed toward us. It was a fine piece of stalking for anyone, much less two adults and a 13-year-old rookie.

We crawled in to a natural blind formed by a bush and a fallen trunk. John steadied the rifle over the log, and wait again. The deer were in a solid group, with the management buck Carr had picked for John bringing up the rear. We’d have to wait until they milled around and that deer separated from the others. I could hear John breathing hard and see his knuckles tighten on the stock of the .243.

After 15 very long minutes, mealtime ended and the herd split and headed back to the shelter of the rocky draws to either side of the road. As soon as they were out of sight we made our move. Walking quickly, we angled through the brush until we popped over the top of the small ridge. Carr set up the shooting sticks and motioned John to get ready. The deer came into sight on the other side of the draw, 100 yards away. John had to take a faster, longer shot than we had hoped for, but the deer bucked at the shot and ran down into the bottom of a cedar-chocked ravine. Carr, Ridley, SCI’s Tina Perez, and I all searched for blood without much luck although we knew the deer was hurt and most likely lying down in the thicket below. Carr called back to the lodge for help, and it arrived in the furry form of Chili and Pepper. The two dachshunds plunged in to the thick stuff with Carr behind them. Before long we heard a yip, then the loud boom of a .300 Mag. Carr emerged from the brush smiling, with the dogs close behind, and we followed him back down to see John’s deer, a young axis buck with a striking red-and-white spotted coat, and spike antlers a full 20 inches long. Carr helped John gut the deer. Then the two of them carried it up to the jeep. Although the Apprentice Hunter program aims to create hunters with skills to be self-reliant, this hunt taught an equally important lesson: hunters help one another. When there’s a deer down and missing, or a big buck to drag, we all pitch in.

We returned to camp to find Jimi Stitts, the other camper, a 17-year-old from Del Rio, Texas, had killed a fallow deer. With both campers tagged out, the next day we had time to enjoy the scenery at Indianhead. We looked out over the bluffs at LakeAmistad. As a bonus, we saw the ranch’s herds of aoudad defy gravity, scrambling along the sideways escarpment. A bumpy Suburban ride brought us to the foot of another bluff along a dry creekbed. There we climbed straight up to look at cave paintings made by hunters 7,000 years ago – some of which depicted fish and game found in this rocky land. Although cave paintings aren’t part of the formal Apprentice Hunter curriculum, seeing them is a moving illustration that hunting is an ancient, natural and proper activity.

Memories of the trip stayed with John long after we went home to Iowa, even after we had devoured every last delicious bite of his deer. He put his Indianhead skills to good use this fall, too, calmly waiting for a whitetail doe to separate from a group before putting a slug through both lungs at 90 yards. John still talks about his visit. (Most recently, he gave a speech about it in Spanish class, in which he told the class Indianhead is “caliente, piedroso y seco” and “bonito y divertido,” meaning “hot, rocky and dry” and “pretty and fun.” That about sums it up.) Indianhead has earned a virtual pushpin on John’s Google Earth map of the United States, a sure sign that the ranch also made it mark on the young hunter’s heart.

~By Phil Bourjaily American Hunter, March 2008

Phil DeLone, Board Member, Northern Nevada Chapter - SCI

The Northern Nevada Chapter of SCI has sent each year since the inception of the program four to six youths to the Apprentice Hunters Camp at Indianhead Ranch. It is without a doubt the most sought after and popular of the many and varied youth programs our Chapter sponsors. For both boys and girls alike it is a safe, well planned and executed educational program and one of the only of it's kind in the United States.

The success of Apprentice Hunters, and the smiles on the faces of kids when they return home, is because the Delagrange's have put together a rewarding experience for kids to enjoy and learn. Our Chapter will continue to fund this excellent top-notch experience for youths for many years to come.-Phil DeLone, Board Member, Northern Nevada Chapter - SCI

Nevada