Colorado PF chapter helps youths on memorable hunt

    Tuned in Saturday to The Ultimate Nature Experience, 12-year-old Jennifer Bice prepared to put her archery training to the test.
    The Venango youth hadn’t picked up a bow “since I was like 8 or 9,” she wrote that day, but – using pointers from the Pheasants Forever organization – she drew back her weapon, aimed true and “shot all my arrows into the target.”
    Previously, she wrote, “I could not make one.”
    Archery, for her, became “one of the best parts” of the weekend at Camp Machasay near Amherst, Colorado. For her father Nathan Bice, spending time in the outdoors with Jennifer and his 11-year-old son Lane was “priceless.”
    Though TUNE events started in 2014 with Pheasants Forever’s Northern Colorado Chapter located in Larimer and Weld counties, their Phillips County Chapter centered in Holyoke joined in as of last year.
    Both times, the local chapter sponsored two youths and an adult. In all, 18 youths participated this year, watched over by 20 mentors and volunteers.
    “It’s kind of an outreach to get the front-range and the kids and go, ‘You know, we don’t have to be fighting about everything,’” said Tom Olson, youth committee chairman for the Phillips County Chapter.
    TUNE events, he said, help introduce children from urban environments to outdoor activities. Most wildlife conservation is done by hunters and fishermen, he added and – as Pheasants Forever focuses on conservation – any chance to introduce young people to nature is time well spent.
    “It’s one of the richest [experiences in life],” he said. “If they decide they never want to do it again and they want to get into drone architecture, well fine. But at least you’ve done this.”
    Following a Friday check-in, the young participants learned outdoor skills on Saturday including horseback and ATV riding, clay shooting, survival skills, hiking, archery and more. By Sunday, they took to the prairie to hunt pheasant.
    Forty pheasants slipped into the grass: 10 birds, four fields at a time. The youths followed, along with hunting dogs.
    For Olson, the dogs themselves make a hunt worthwhile, becoming “locked into what they’re doing” and “so happy you can’t believe it.” Though the canines’ performance dropped in the second half of the morning due to hot weather, he nonetheless enjoyed watching the participants interact with their furry hunting partners.
    “If I never shot another pheasant in my life, that would be okay,” he said, “as long as I could still take my dogs out and share the experience with other people.”
    Hot weather or not, several youths obtained their first birds, including Jennifer.
    “It’s planted birds, but we make sure there’s an adult with each one of the kids because there are firearms involved,” Olson said. “It’s a simulated hunt, but for most of them, it’s a first-time experience.”
    Nathan wrote on watching his two children learn “how to safely handle shotguns” and “about ethical pheasant hunting,” calling the lessons “awesome.”
    “The Pheasants Forever volunteers and staff were great to work with,” he wrote. “I am so thankful for this opportunity that Pheasants Forever has to get children involved in this great sport.”