The Ultimate Hunting Partner

MissouriWhitetails.com

"The Ultimate Hunting Partner"
By Rick VanDyke © 2005

I can’t complain ~ I’ve got it good. No, it’s not all good, but I have much to be grateful for just the same. I’m not independently wealthy, in the best of health, or without everyday concerns. Life can still be good though, in spite of the cards you’re dealt. I’ve had the good fortune of being blessed with the best hunting partner a man could ever ask for. And then some…

When I first decided to take up hunting, I didn’t have a clue. I learned on my own, by reading hunting books & magazines, watched hunting videos & channel-surfed the airwaves for hunting shows into the wee hours of the morning. I was a man on a mission.

I couldn’t get enough, and my dreams of pursuing of wild game were bordering on obsession. As much as my wallet would allow, anyway. For this pursuit wasn’t cheap ~ by far. In the beginning, I owned one deer rifle, a few boxes of ammunition & and a hunter-orange hat & vest. I had no idea, of what I was getting myself into. And neither did my wife…

I met my wife, just four months before my first hunting trip. She was on hand that very morning, to witness the excitement of my trying something new. My Dad arrived around 3:30am, raring to go, for this was our first hunting trip together. But little did he know, the woman in my life had prepared a breakfast fit for a king, and a place had been set for him also. Once we had finished our pre-dawn feast, it was time to head out the door. Without blinking an eye, my Dad turned to her, looking her square in the eye, and said, "I just want to know one thing, young lady. Are you still going to be here in 10 years, doing the same thing?" Her reply: "You bet’cha!"

My Dad was just as excited as I was, probably even more, that I had taken an interest in hunting. He remembers all-too-well, the disabling accident I had over 10 years before, and he liked to see me be actively engaged in positive activities. And he wasn’t going let anything get in my way, if at all possible ~ especially a woman. It was more than obvious, though ~ Dad was definitely impressed…and so was I.

Many hunter’s moons have passed since then, and I’m still at it ~ and so is she. Since that fateful morning, we’ve moved to the country, bought our own hunting property, and it only keeps getting better. She no longer limits her participation in my hunting endeavors, to sending me off hunting with a full stomach & a good-luck kiss. After witnessing the accomplishments & gratification I get from hunting, she decided she wanted to try it for herself. So I signed her up for a hunters-education course, she aced the test, and my hunting partner was born.

It’s common knowledge that men & women think differently, and it’s no different in male/female hunting partnerships. She has the firearm-safety part down, pretty good ~ but that’s where our similarities end.

I have my own methods of hunting, and I try to pass them on to her, hoping that she’ll be successful as well. But it doesn’t always turn out that way. Hunting in freezing temperatures, isn’t exactly her idea of having a good time. Nor is coming home empty-handed. When boredom strikes, she’s ready to leave the woods. I can’t really blame her, so I try to spice things up a bit.

We were out in our blind one morning, and the deer just weren’t cooperating. I was hunting with my crossbow, and she was just along for the ride. I called & rattled most of the morning, without any results. I could tell she was getting bored, and I figured, "What the heck ~ we aren’t seeing anything", so I began blowing a tune on my deer call. She started laughing, and then joined in with the rattle-bag. We were having too much fun, to notice that 3 deer had walked out of the woods, looking directly at us, wondering what the heck was making all that noise. We must have noticed the deer at the same time, because we both turned towards each other, our eyes wide open ~ with our jaws dragging the ground, not believing what had just happened. The deer turned & walked away, and we started laughing even harder. We might not have tagged a deer that morning, but we sure didn’t go home empty-handed. That’s one of my most precious hunting memories, to this day.

When I talk to other male hunters, I hear an awful lot of complaining about their non-hunting spouses, like "she just doesn’t understand". I don’t have that problem. As a matter of fact, it’s completely the opposite. She always knows what kind of gift to get me, for instance. Birthdays, holidays & anniversaries, she knows she can’t go wrong with giving me hunting gear. After all, a man can never have enough gear!

And I’ve got quite the collection, courtesy of the wife. By now, I own numerous rifles, hunting knives, 3 different wardrobes of camouflage clothing (warm weather, cold weather & rain gear), portable hunting blinds, an ATV & UTV, and a myriad of miscellaneous outdoor gear. I constantly remind her of how grateful I am, to have such an understanding wife, and her reply is always, "I just want you to be happy…"

Well, if I was any happier, I’d have to build an addition onto our home, for storage.

But it’s not about the gear, to me. It’s about a woman who understands that her man needs time in the woods, time to himself. There’s even been times when she’s nearly shoved me out the door, saying, "Go hunting ~ you NEED some time in the woods." Does she know me, or what?!

Her goal of making me happy, has been met ~ by far. I’m possibly one of the happiest hunters in the woods. Not only do I have a wife that understands my hunting obsession, she also likes to come along for the ride. She’s right there beside me in the hunting blind, hoping to fill her own tags. She can shoot a deer, field-dress it & have it ready to butcher, without batting an eyelash. Not to mention, whip up a feast of wild game, that would put the chef of a 4-star restaurant to shame. Which my waist-line can boldly attest to.

My proudest moment of our hunting partnership, came on opening-weekend of the firearm deer season, in 2002. She was hunting the middle of our property, and I was hunting the South end. Not long after sunrise, I would have swore that I heard a shot on our property. But with all the open fields surrounding our land, it could have been an echo. I shrugged it off, and went about my business.

Around 30 minutes later, my wife paid a visit to my blind, bringing me a kerosene heater. All she said was, "I thought you might be getting chilled by now". But all the while, she had this sheepish grin on her face. I couldn’t take much more, so I finally asked her, "What’s up?" She said, "I just got my first deer". I wasn’t sure I heard her right, but all of a sudden, the pieces of the puzzle came together. It was about that time, I realized the shot I had heard earlier, wasn’t an echo ~ it was my wife shooting! "Oh my God ~ why didn’t you just say so, in the first place?!" She told me, "I didn’t want to mess up your hunting". I said, "To heck with my hunting, let’s go get your deer!" But she said there was no hurry ~ she’d already dragged it out, and it’s in our driveway. "I didn’t want the coyotes to get to it…" What a woman ~ my beautiful hunting wife! I’m so proud of you!" I congratulated her constantly, for the rest of the day ~ and possibly into the next month. So often, in fact, it was probably embarrassing for her.

This special event also fell upon the 10^th anniversary of when I first started hunting. Which also meant that it had been 10 years, since that first breakfast. It just so happened, that my Dad came down to hunt with us that season. On the first morning of hunting with Dad, she fixed another feast fit for a king. As she served Dad his breakfast, that sheepish grin reappeared, and she said, "By the way, Pa ~ I’m still here…" She had been waiting to say that, for ten years.

On our wedding day, I would have never dreamed of the adventures that were about to take place. We had plans of course, but do we ever really know the cards we’re going to be dealt. In a word ~ No. But somehow, I was dealt the Queen of my heart. There’s just something about a woman that wears camo, drives a 4-wheel drive truck and can hunt & track a deer, that really trips my trigger.

I’ve got it good… You bet’cha!