A Day Just For...

...Young Guns by Ray Sasser of Dallas Morning News
Free hunt turns into fun outing for dads, too.
Copied and pasted from Dallas Morning News
02:29 PM CST on Sunday, November 11, 2007

GOREE, Texas – In the first gray, murky light of opening day, a whitetail doe slipped under the barbed wire fence and strolled into the wheat field in northern Throckmorton County. At about 10 yards, the doe stopped and stared at the mobile ground blind that Stony Trainham had placed in a clump of oak trees.

The doe watched for a minute, then twitched her tail and walked into the field, stopping to munch tender, green shoots as she walked. A slightly smaller deer strolled out behind the doe and never even looked at the blind. It took 10-power binoculars to see the bumps that identified the second deer as a nubbin buck, a buck fawn. The bumps are where antlers will eventually break through the skin.

Trainham had warned Jeff Patton and his son, Troy, to watch out for button bucks, which are sometimes misidentified as does. He needn't have worried. Troy, 8, wasn't quite ready to shoot a deer. His dad, an Oregon native who grew up hunting with his family, was playing it perfectly. "I can smell those backstraps and gravy," joked Jeff Patton, trying to gently urge his son into taking the shot. Troy got the joke and he even looked at the doe a couple of times through the scope of his new .243 but opted against shooting.

Trainham is a Rolling Plains hunting outfitter who guides for deer, ducks, doves, hogs, quail, geese, sandhill cranes, turkeys and predators. You name it, Trainham will take you hunting for it on Miller Creek Ranch (www.MillerCreekRanch.com). He was hosting a free deer and hog hunt for kids.

"Our bookings have been pretty good this year, and I felt like I needed to give something back," said Trainham, a lanky native of West Texas. "I posted the free youth hunt for kids accompanied by their dads on an Internet hunting forum. I figured I could handle six kids, so I offered six hunts and filled them up in 45 minutes. I had to post another request asking dads to stop e-mailing – they were shutting down my computer."

Of the six dads who signed up for the hunt, only three showed up. One called in with a sick youth hunter but the other two never even bothered to call or e-mail.

"They didn't have anything invested in a free hunt, so I guess they figured they had nothing to lose," reasoned Trainham.

They did have something to lose, however. They lost a fun weekend with their kids. Worse yet, by signing up for a hunt and then backing out, they kept the hunting experience from other kids who might never have the chance.

The Pattons live in Forney. James Hatfield brought his 8-year-old daughter, Taylor, from Haslet, near Fort Worth. Hatfield grew up hunting in East Texas and has two daughters. Dallas Sullivent and his 9-year-old daughter, Delaney, live in Graham, near Possum Kingdom Lake. Delaney was the only experienced deer hunter in camp. She and her dad rolled in after noon on opening day because Dallas Sullivent had taken Delaney's 12-year-old sister hunting on his deer lease that morning. Delaney was wearing a pink t-shirt with the logo "Blame My Sister." It was obvious from the way she handled her .243 that any fat doe that strolled out in front of Delaney's blind would be making a mistake.

With a light turnout, Trainham decided to include his eldest daughter, Madison, into the mix. Madison is 6 and was wearing a pink sequined shirt with the prophetic logo "I Was Born To Be Daddy's Girl." On Saturday afternoon, I sat with the Trainhams and soon dubbed Madison as the "Wiggle Queen."

Jeff Patton helps his son Troy, 8, get sighted for a West Texas deer hunt. Her mouth was red from the stain of a strawberry drink. The sugar content of that drink may have been working its magic on Madison. She draped herself upside down in her chair, she talked, she looked through the binoculars backwards and her dad finally resorted to thumb wars and games of rock, paper, scissors to sort of keep her quiet.

"I think she's two years away from being a deer hunter," Trainham admitted. No deer came to the blind in the pasture we named "Madisonville."

The next morning, Delaney Sullivent made a perfect shot on the only doe taken by the youth hunters. Trainham was disappointed because all the kids were not successful. They were successful, however. They succeeded in getting their father's undivided attention for an entire weekend. Troy Patton probably said it best when I asked him what he likes about hunting with his father.

"What I like most about hunting with my dad is that he's always by my side," said Troy.