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Hunting with the Young Guns
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010
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Hannah O'Neil shows her impressive 8-point first deer.
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Saturday was Junior Hunt Day throughout Maryland.
On this one special day, young hunters, if accompanied in the field by a licensed but unarmed adult, could give deer hunting a try with modern firearms a full two weeks before everyone else is allowed to do it.
Around Southern Maryland, modern firearms usually translate to slug-loaded shotguns — rifles aren't allowed — and this Junior Hunt Day is intended just for the kids.
Well, I thought it was.
But I'm not so sure anymore after spending several hours Saturday at the Izaak Walton headquarters in Waldorf.
The Izaak Walton League is supposed to be dedicated to defending our soil, air, woods, waters and wildlife.
Maybe so, but there was most definitely a family aspect to this place last weekend for I saw moms and dads, uncles, aunts, cousins, a few grandparents plus little and bigger sisters and brothers everywhere I looked eagerly awaiting the return of their own family's junior hunter.
About two dozen kids had been out deer hunting in the woods since before daybreak on this day and they were scheduled to arrive later in the morning for lunch here at the Izaak Walton headquarters.
They were all participating in the inaugural event of the Young Guns Hunt Club, an idea launched by local firefighter and avid hunter Bill Crutchfield Jr.
"We're just trying to make a positive difference, one child at a time," said Crutchfield, who started organizing this event with several of his friends back in September.
Meetings were held at Crutchfield's own home and he enlisted the aid of deer hunting buddies from throughout the Southern Maryland area who acted as guides and mentors to these kids, many of the young ones going deer hunting Saturday for the first time in their lives.
During the past few months, Crutchfield visited several of the area hunter education courses and asked the participants, "Who doesn't have a place to hunt? Just raise your hands."
He then took down their names and matched them up with guides for this special hunt. The actual hunting took place on Southern Maryland local farms where those adults each had permission to enter.
The week before, many of the kids had a first meeting with their companion mentors and some even went out to scout together where they'd be hunting on this Junior Hunt Day.
Arrangements were made where they'd then meet up before the hunt and Crutchfield even hosted a 5 a.m. breakfast this special Saturday before the hunt at his home, serving scrambled eggs, muffins and sausage.
"I knew all the guides personally," Crutchfield said, "and integrity was certainly a required trait."
A few years ago, Crutchfield shot an amazing 28-point buck right here in Southern Maryland that turned out to be the top record deer from the entire east coast of the United States.
"That 28-pointer caused me to travel quite a bit and I saw a lot of hunting opportunities across the country for kids and just decided to do something right here at home," Crutchfield said.
He also mentioned that it had to be done without costing a lot of money, but he did find support from the National Rifle Association, which stepped up to this plate with all kinds of help.
Anthony Lucas, 15, from Lusby, was one of the first back at the Izaak Walton building and he was sporting a huge smile. I thought for sure he had scored a deer.
"No," he told me, but he had seen a nice 8-pointer that just didn't come close enough for a clean shot.
Lucas was using a bow he was hunting from a ground blind with his mentor, Robert Turner, and his dad was there, too, up in a nearby tree stand.
Dad saw the big buck first and immediately sent a text message to his son to be on high alert. They then saw the deer from the ground, but the big buck just wouldn't cooperate.
I also spoke to Gina Frye, an eighth-grader who attends Piccowaxen Middle School in Newburg.
She's more a veteran hunter, having been out deer hunting "five or six times," she said, but so far has been unsuccessful herself. However, her twin brother, Cory, did kill a deer on a previous hunt. She let him have that first shot, but her turn is surely coming.
Hannah O'Neil, a sophomore at La Plata High School, was hunting with Bill's brother, Eric, and did score early on this day with a fine, 8-point buck.
Hannah had taken the Maryland Hunter Education Course earlier this year with her mom and younger sister, Nora.
"It's just something I always wanted to do," the older sister said.
Eric Crutchfield said they saw the deer together running through their area. He had earlier prepared that spot by clearing some brush for shooting lanes and used a grunt call to halt the deer where there would be a clean shot.
It worked. That 8-pointer came to a stop in a perfect spot and Crutchfield said he just waited.
"Do you want me to shoot now?," O'Neil whispered excitedly to her guide.
"If you're on him, take him," Crutchfield softly whispered back.
Using a borrowed 870 Remington shotgun, O'Neil dropped that big deer with one precise shot.
The O'Neil family was probably out pricing freezers later that day for Nora also took a nice buck in a separate hunt on this same morning.
Besides that O'Neil 8-point buck, other successful Young Guns hunters Saturday were Ashley Wall with another big 8-pointer, Brent Gardiner with a doe, Nick Gardiner, a 6-pointer, Dayton Webber, a spike buck, and Hunter Mattingly, a doe.
That's a lot of venison meals in the coming months, but as mentioned before, the really big win for this day was bringing all those families so much closer together.
