This is my youngest son's first big game animal. The back-story to this hunt begins when my son was barley able to walk and I would take him into the woods with me, usually gun or bowhunting for whitetail. We had so much fun and share many fond memories of those days. As he grew older, he would ask, "can I shoot a deer this time", and of course my reply was always "I'm sorry son, your not old enough to hunt" (in Michigan you had to be 16 at the time to hunt big game). This went on for several years and always ended with the same disappointing answer. Finally one day he asked "how long do I have to wait until I can hunt a deer?" Now I can tell you that telling a kid that's eight years old that he has to wait another eight years (which is the entire span of his short life to date) is like telling him you can go hunting in a gazillion years! It is truly crushing. I slowly noticed that my son was loosing interest in tagging along on our frequent deer hunts, and because of those archaic laws we had at the time, I was loosing a future hunting partner. I immediately knew that I had to make this right. I formulated a plan, made some phone calls and book a boar hunt on a ranch in Northern Michigan. We had fun preparing for my son's first hunt. He was excited about every aspect of the prep work and practiced his shooting and even helped load the rounds he would be using for the hunt (which was a .264 Win Mag). His big day arrived on a crisp fall morning, which was made even better due to the fact that he was missing school to go hunting with dad! My son did eventually get his hog after a hard says hunt, and I got a hunting partner for life. The bait was taken, the hook was set, and the rest is history. My son is now 18 and has been hunting with me ever since his "Big Game Hunt" (and coincidently, our state changed the age limit shortly after due to pressure from dad's like me who give a damn about hunting) We had a father & son South African safari booked for this summer (as a graduation gift for all his hard work and effort), but things happen and life has a strange way of destroying the best laid plans and our trip will not be possible this year due to an unexpected lay-off. Maybe next year if things work out.
