Sorry for the delayed response, but I had lots to catch up on at work after the holidays.
Len,
I am pretty sure I came into this world hunting! I remember my Dad carrying me duck hunting and swinging the gun for me as I pulled the trigger. Hunting and fishing has always been an assumed major part of my family's life.
I wish I had a less selfish reason for my involvement w/ long range hunting and my kids. You see, I am used to hunting quite a bit. So when my wife kept having babies (4 at the moment)
, it became very difficult to maintain my regular hunting schedule. Then one night I saw The Best of The West and a light bulb lightbulb went off! While searching the internet for TBOTW webset, I stumbled onto your incredible site. I found I had discovered the perfect answer to my hunting/parenting problem! What followed has been very exciting, fun and rewarding (and expensive).
I quickly went about building an 8x8 shooting house complete with heat, swivel chairs, carpet, sleeping bags, DVD players with everything from Barney and Sesame street to Real Tree Road trips and lots of snacks! The next step of the process, equipping this ultimate daycare/deer stand with the proper firepower, has probably gone a little too far but has been a lot of fun. These shooting houses/daycares have benches on several sides w/ windows. On any given day, if a kid is not asleep on a bench, you are likely to find the handy work of Nathan Dagley, Dan Glover, Kirby Allen or Shawn Carlock sitting in each window.
As you can see, I have really capitalized off a difficult situation. I have become the ultimate babysitter and hunter all at the same time
. I never thought I could score brownie points at home w/ the wife, while spending time in a deer stand. 4 kids, ages 4-13, all playing, fighting, watching DVDs, etc. in a "deer stand" can make quite a bit of ruckus for deer hunting, hence the necessity for long range rifles (and insulated walls). The cool thing about this set up is the deer and bear at 500- 1000 yards never even know they have been hunted! My two oldest children in the videos have been around hunting and shooting their entire lives, so the shots that they are able to make w/ this equipment are not surprising. Hopefully, next year my third oldest (6) will make it on video. Thanks for a great site Len, the ride has been fun and rewarding!
Jett