Young Guns : State-Sponsored Pheasant Hunt Aims to Attract the Hunters of Tomorrow

Joshua Rose took to the field dressed in a bright orange vest and matching cap, worn backward of course. Rose is 9.

Not 4 feet tall but carrying a shotgun big enough to blow a full-grown man off his feet, the youngster from Moreno Valley moved through the brush as cautiously as if he were stalking lions, not birds.

“He’s very serious about this,” said his mother, Theresa, watching from a distance.

Apparently so. When a dog flushed a pheasant, Rose performed with the precision of a veteran hunter, swinging to his right and leading the bird just enough before squeezing the trigger.

The sound of the blast rang through the hills, but the bird made it 50 yards more before falling to the ground, apparently only a single pellet in its chest.

Without changing expression, Rose followed the dog to the bird, grabbed his prize by the feet and lugged it back to camp, in this case on a dirt road within the San Jacinto Wildlife Area, a 5,000-acre state-run facility east of Riverside.

Rose dropped the bird at his father’s feet then became a child again, running to play in the dirt with his younger brothers, Michael and Dylan.

*

Rose was one of 65 hunters 16 or younger who visited San Jacinto Wildlife Area recently to participate in the state-sponsored junior pheasant hunt program.

The program is designed to attract potential hunters at an early age during a time when dwindling numbers of young people seem to be engaging in the sport. Since hunters generate much of the revenue that helps California manage wildlife, and because hunters are responsible for much of the habitat restoration and conservation projects that have benefited wildlife over the years, a shrinking pool of hunters is the last thing the state wants.

And this sort of recruiting technique seems to be working.

“The first couple of years, we only had about 15 kids,” said Tom Paulek, manager at San Jacinto. “Now we’ve got all we can handle.”

Statewide, the program, sponsored by the California Department of Fish and Game, has expanded in seven years to accommodate more than 2,000 young hunters at 29 state wildlife areas and private hunting clubs. Only those picked in a drawing can participate, so many more are turned away.

Some, however, refuse to give up.

At San Jacinto headquarters on the morning of the recent hunt, a dozen or so young hopefuls, their fathers waiting in the wings, stood around like groupies at a rock concert, hoping to find a way in.

Brandon Cowan, 10, was so intent on adding pheasant to the list of birds he has hunted--he shot seven doves on opening day in September--that he hounded the wildlife area’s Tom Trakes until Trakes finally told him, minutes before the hunt, that there were 10 no-shows and, therefore, 10 openings.

“Oh, cool,” Cowan replied, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

His father, Mike, who like most of the others has a hunting background, was equally pleased. It was a graduation of sorts for his son, who left his .410 shotgun at home in favor of dad’s larger single-shot 20-gauge.

“He wanted to use a big-guy gun,” Mike Cowan said.

*

Staring into an army of children clad in camouflage pants and shirts, wearing blaze orange vests and caps and carrying shotguns of various power, Gary Burke gave a sort of pep talk.

“The people, the (dog) handlers, myself and the other gentlemen out there--we don’t want to get shot,” said Burke, one of a few dozen volunteers from the sportsmen’s group, Quail Unlimited, that has been instrumental in the success of the program. “We don’t want our dogs shot and we don’t want any spectators shot.”

To the young shooters, he added: “If we say no, that means do not shoot that bird because the bird is flying in an unsafe manner: too low, it has a dog on it or it is flying toward somebody. You need to back off and let that bird go. We want a nice, clean harvest here--then everyone will have a good time.”

That said, the DFG’s Paulek, Trakes and Lupe Zamora started the trucks and the caravan began across the reserve and into the fields, beneath the rocky ridge known as the Bernasconi Hills, which separates San Jacinto from Lake Perris Recreation Area.

The pheasants, bought from a game breeder, had been planted in the brush to give the dogs and young hunters a chance to find the birds quickly, both to keep their interest and to make sure that all 65 youngsters got a chance to shoot.

*

The hunters, accompanied by a volunteer and a dog, took to the field two at a time, with one acting as the primary shooter and the other as a backup.

Most found their birds within minutes.

Ian Slaney found his before his dog did.

“I almost stepped on it,” he said, laughing.

But the bird flew, and Slaney hit it from a fair distance. It continued to fly about 200 yards before falling to the ground. The dog, a German shorthair, ran it down and came bounding back to the young hunter, the bird hanging from its mouth.

“It’s fun hunting with the dogs--you saw how far he went to get that one,” Slaney said. “I hunt, so it’s just a lot of fun. I like hunting birds.”

Derick Schlarb, 11, of Riverside, stumbled upon a pheasant that refused to fly, choosing instead to run, as if it knew what would happen when it took to the air.

Not sure what to do, Schlarb took aim and shot the bird as it sprinted across the field.

Nearby, 10-year-old Sean Driscol was preparing for his first pheasant hunt.

Like most of the others, he was not without experience.

“I start my boys early,” said his father, Steve, a life sponsor of Quail Unlimited. “I take them out when they’re 5, and the first two years I have them pick up shells and just stick around with us. At 6 or 7 I start letting them carry a BB gun. And by 9 years old, I start letting them carry a .410 (shotgun).”

Roger Johnson, 16, of Riverside, was here for the third consecutive year. He bagged his limit of two pheasants on both previous trips.

“I like the chase,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun, you know, when the pheasant jumps up there.”

His father, Charles, had other reasons for bringing him out.

“They get to learn how to hunt with dogs,” he said. “They have to use more of their common sense and their safety skills when they hunt with dogs, because, of course, you don’t want to shoot the dog.

“It teaches them that, and it teaches them to be alert, to respect the wildlife and proper handling skills. . . . You know, you can do classroom teaching of safety, but out here it’s the real thing.”

True enough.

Joshua Rose was in the field with Sarah Martin, a 12-year-old from Oceanside who drew the No. 1 slot, and they behaved like veteran hunters when a bird was flushed from the bushes and flew to their right, where an observer had unwittingly wandered.

As they swung their guns, they caught a glimpse of the man and resisted the temptation to shoot, even though their guns were aimed well above the man’s head. They missed the bird but passed a test.

“Our main concern is not so much that the kids put a bird in the bag, but that they learn the lesson they just learned, which is you’re going to have to let birds go if it’s not safe,” said Bob Collins, of Quail Unlimited’s Riverside chapter. “We don’t want to make game hogs out of them. All we want to make is safe hunters.”

Boys will be boys, however.

Stephen Given, 15, of Joshua Tree, aimed at a pheasant when it suddenly turned in flight and flew right at him. He shot it from about 10 feet away, sending a cloud of feathers across the reserve.

The other children howled with laughter. A red-faced Given seemed to enjoy the attention, though. “Well, there isn’t much left--but that was fun,” he said.