5th Prize
Weatherby Soft Side Gun Cases (10 awarded)
Brad Lawton, California
“Growing up a country boy in northern California, I have been blessed with the chance to experience some beautiful country. I was equally blessed to have been born to a father who believed strongly in our country’s hunting heritage, which he passed on to me. I could never put into words the love and gratitude I have for the time he took to teach me, or the patience he showed when I would shout, ‘There’s a buck!’ (Followed closely by a magnificent view of a blacktail’s rear end.) He also instilled in me a deep respect for the animals which we pursue, the lands we traverse in that pursuit, and the other hunters we share the sport with. I hope that I can be half as good a teacher as he was with my children.
Recently we were watching one of the hunting shows on TV. It was an elk/mule deer hunt in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Now we have some beautiful mountains here in California, but the landscapes of that show had us both mesmerized. The aspen’s golden leaves lining broad valleys under the shadows of the mighty peaks that divide our country was truly amazing. Equally impressive were the animals being hunted. It always amazes us to see the deer that are passed up on these hunts, bucks bigger than any we’ve seen in our neck of the woods. And that’s not counting the ones they end up harvesting! And listening to the elk, with their calls ringing through the mountains, seems to echo inside both of us. Stirring up emotions that must be passed through the generations, of our ancestors and hunts of days long gone. We have never had the opportunity to elk hunt, but the call seems to beckon us both.
Unfortunately, financial limitations will most likely keep us from the Rockies. But here is an opportunity to make our dream come true. My dad has always wanted to be hunt where the big boys are, mine would be to give him that chance. He will be 60 next year, is in great shape, but we all know how time has the nasty habit of slipping away, leaving us to wonder where it went. My dream hunt would be a pack in elk/mule deer hunt in Colorado. My dad and I on a great adventure that perhaps, generations from now, will echo in the souls of those who follow us. And this time, when we see a buck, I’ll wisper.”