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  • 08 Jul 2012
    The Beginning Pt.2
    Everybody's first tagged kill is something to be remembered for a lifetime. I remember my first kill like it was yesterday. With the help of my encouraging husband Chris,  I had previously overcome a very strange fear to firearms and shot a rifle for the first time in my life. I felt so empowered, like I could hunt King Kong! I was ready to begin training for my first hunt! I could do this, right? Chris and I began nightly shooting lessons at the range. I completed my Hunter Training Safety course to become eligable to hunt in Canada, and even applied for my own Firearms License. I was on a roll! Chris came home from work one night with my very own Weatherby 243 rifle, my own gun!! Never had I thought I would be the owner of a rifle, now I was. We decided to hunt for a whitetail buck. For whatever reason, I have yet to be able to explain, I cannot shoot anything female. The bucks are a general tag here in Alberta and I did not need to be drawn for it. Every evening, we began "scouting" on land we had gotten permission to hunt on and Chris taught me that it's a great way to see what animals are out there. To me, the best part of our pre hunting training was when Chris taught me the art of "patterning." I have always thought hunting was like this: A deer is in the field and it's eating....you shoot it, that's it. The truth is, I was able to pattern deer movement and behavior every single night! I couldn't believe that whitetails do the same thing and pattern their routines on a daily basis if they aren't spooked...how cool!! This is when it became a real sport for me. I watched does with their baby fawns, bucks fighting and challenging eachother, herd movement, and I even learned which tree they favor. On the third night of scouting, we spotted my first buck! He was a 5x5 whitetail . Not a huge guy, but for my first buck, I felt he was perfect! He walked with pride, and had respect from every other deer...a sign that he is the dominant buck in the herd. It wasn't opening day of rifle season yet so I was unable to set up on him. I watched him for 4 more evenings and I knew what time he would cross the field to eat, and which buck he would fight to prove his authority. I knew where he bedded down and even where his favorite spot was to eat. This was incredible! I always thought deer hunting was point and shoot, done. Not at all. The way I look at it, to be a successful deer hunter even for your first kill, you have to learn the pattern and routine of the herd. Opening day. Finally. I hardly slept the night before. Chris worked all day and we weren't able to go hunting until that evening...that was the longest day ever! Would the buck be there? Would I get a shot? Would I be successful? What if I wound him? All thoughts that ran through my mind and actually made my heart race. 5:00pm and we're off. I didn't say two words the entire drive out there due to nerves. We wanted to be in the field set up before the herd came out for their nightly routine of eating. Chris had been out a couple days before and set up a tree stand over looking the entire field. From there, I could shoot in every direction with my 243 Weatherby. Something we never practiced in the training was sitting in a tree stand. I am not a fan of heights and being in this two person tree stand with Chris was making me squirm. Every move he made, the tree stand would move and I would clutch on like I was falling to my death. "Relax" he told me but I couldn't! How would I tell him that there was no way I would be able to shoot from up there? After 20 minutes, and still no deer in the field, he sensed my fear and we made our way down the tree stand. Time for plan B for this hunt. We would wait until the buck came onto the field and stalk up on him in the high grass. This is not the ideal plan for a first time hunter as stalking takes much more skill and experience. We had no choice. Not every hunt will go as planned and you have to be ready to modify any situation. An hour passed and out came the does. I learned in my training that does almost always step out onto the field first, followed by the fawns, smaller bucks, then the big guy. The most dominant buck will step onto the field last. The deer trickled onto the field one after the other so I began feeling confident that my buck would appear soon. A few minutes later, he stepped out. OK...heart pounding I was trying to organize my thoughts. Everything I had learned in the last two months was flying through my mind like a blur. After a few deep breaths, I was able to gather my thoughts. Patience. He ate at a tree right on the edge of the bush line for quite some time. When he continued to calmly move onto the field I slowly crawled in the long grass. Because I knew from patterning where he loved to eat, I knew I was safe crawling on this specific route to get closer to him. One thing that I realized during my stalk was you also have to be careful not to get busted by the other deer in the herd. That's tough, they're everywhere! We had been crawling and stalking for 35 minutes. With Chris right behind me, I ranged him 220 yards. Ok I can shoot 220 yards right? I did at the range. My hunting instincts took over from that point on and a sense of calming came over me. I knew that 220 yards would work, and I knew that I had managed to stalk up on this buck without any other deer busting me. I was not going to blow this hunt by trying to get closer. I waited patiently as he finally moved broadside for a perfect shot. My patience and skill sort of impressed me at that moment.  I had my chance. I sat on the ground, used my knee as a rest, and I saw him perfectly through my scope, his lung in my crosshairs. I heard "Good luck honey" whispered behind me and that gave me all the courage to take the safety off and shoot. BOOM...every deer around me ran as I automatically re loaded for a second shot, I found the buck in my scope again...running...down! I got him!! I shot my first animal and succeeded with one shot! Chris laughed with me and hugged me and we hi fived about 6 times then I rememberd safety...unload your gun Shelly. It's so easy to get caught up in the emotion and adrenaline and forget about what you should actually be doing. Once the gun was unloaded I sat there reflecting on what just happened. I couldn't help it but happy tears filled my eyes as I realized I could actually feed my family if I had to. What an accompished feeling! I wanted to scream to the heavens I GOT HIM...but in training I learned to sit and wait for about 30 mins to make sure the animal is dead. I could only wait about 10 mintues and I ran up to him in excitement. A perfect double lung shot. I grabbed his horns and beamed as I sat there speechless. I'll remember that day for the rest of my life. That was the most fun I have ever had. It was that night that it dawned on me, I am HOOKED. I can only learn more from here and face myself with new challenges and that is what I continue to do today. I encourage all of you to challenge yourself becuase you can do anything you set your mind to!   Shelly Kruger- Prostaff/TV host for Those Guys Outdoor Adventures on Wild TV Follow me on Twitter @shellykruger
    869 Posted by Shelly Kruger
Hunting 907 views Jul 07, 2012
The Beginning

It wasn't until about 9 years ago that I began hunting. Growing up hunting was a man's sport, mainly for meat. My own father went hunting only every 2-3 years for a doe just to fill our freezer. He usually set out for his hunt in the morning and was back within a couple of hours where I assisted and watched in curiosity as we dressed the animal and cut and wrapped it for another long Canadian winter.

I understood what the concept of hunting was and was always raised to believe that God placed these animals on our earth to feed us so it never bothered me to see the dressing and skinning of an animal. Besides, I grew up on a cattle farm and the sight of butchering an animal was only another part of our annual routine.

It wasn't until my teenage years that I developed an odd fear to guns. Perhaps it was one too many episodes of Cops, or too many action movies? Anytime my father would grab is 30-06 to blast a shot or two into the sky to scare away howling coyotes, I would cringe, and had absolutely no reason to. I knew at a very young age that my fear of firearms was something I would have to overcome in my future.

Fastforward to my high school years which was when I met my high school boyfriend who is now my husband and father of my precious two kids. While dating, we discussed our hobbies and what we enjoy doing. I always enjoyed the outdoors, camping and fishing. When he mentioned to me that he loves to hunt, my stomache dropped. Not only did I have zero experience in the sport, I was so afraid of guns that I didn't know how to handle it. How on earth would this ever be something we could do together?

For years, hunting season came around and he would hunt for hours, while I sat at home...BORED out of my mind, somehow wishing I was with him out there. Something in me longed to be a part of it. It was unexplainable the unsettled feeling I got of wanting to go along and experience the outdoors right along with him. He would share the stories of things he saw, witnessed, and the gorgeous animals he tagged and I sat wondering if that was something I could really witness myself?

Nine years ago, my hubby offered to show me how to shoot his gun. Here was my chance to face the greatest fear I had, shooting a rifle for the first time. At first, I said NO but he of all people knows me so well, and he sensed my curiosity and my urge to challenge myself.

He took me to the range, went through a complete lesson on gun safety to which I found quite impressive! When it came time to shoot, I clenched as hard as I could and I think my eyes were shut, heart pounding so hard I thought it would pop out of my chest.  After a few laughs and another lecture about how to hold and shoot properly, I was ready! BOOM....the first shot to the rest of my life! I felt incredible. I felt powerful, accomplished, overwhelmed, and not scared for the first time in my life. My husband was beaming with pride as he showed me how close to the center of the target I was. "Sniper!" he called me which made me feel even more successful. Not only did I overcome the greatest fear I had, but I HIT THE TARGET!!!

After that first shot, I challenged myself that fall to tag my first buck! Another unbelievable milestone for me! It was an unexplainable feeling of accomplishment and love for the outdoors that made me realize this was my long lost passion! And somehow I think my heart was always trying to tell me that. As I began to inspire others, especially women like myself, my love for hunting, nature, and the outdoors blossomed into something so much greater then I had ever dreamed.

That very day out on our little shooting range was the beginning to a whole new future to me. Once I was able to overcome that fear, I found myself purposly challenging myself, somthing this shy farm girlie girl had never done. It changed the way I lived my life, it completely defined who I was as a woman,  and it was that very "BOOM" moment that formed my future of professional hunting on television. I now film and hunt along side my amazing husband and best hunting partner a girl could ask for. He believed in me from day one and has been such an inspiration to me.

I work hard every day to inspire others, especially women and youth, who may have the same feeling or thoughts that I once had. I am blessed to have the opportunity to share my hunting and outdoor experiences with you all. Knowing that I have made a difference in someone's life is the most rewarding feeling :)

Face your fears, it may be the beginning for you!

 

Shelly Kruger

Prostaff/TV host for Those Guys Outdoor Adventures on Wild TV

twitter- @shellykruger

 



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  • By Chris Avena
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    Get to know SeeMeHunt by Neil on January 25th, 2011 Posted In: SeeMeHunt, Chris Avena, SeeMeHunt Today, the Social Network is probably the most powerful tool for just about anything. Keeping in touch with friends or family, following celebrities or just another form of advertising. These such social networks are very common in the world. Pretty much, any website you visit these days has the Blue “F” icon for Facebook, or lower case “t” for Twitter prominent somewhere on the page. I’d like to mention to you about a new and upcoming social website specifically for the hunting niche. A website born last May that has steadily grown to over 1000 registered members. I recently discovered SeeMeHunt after Following this @SeeMeHunt on Twitter. Curious, I clicked on his link provided in his Tweet which brought me to a familiar looking looking web site. I could almost compare it to Facebook but for this guy looking for a new venue of sharing my hunting experiences and getting to know other hunters like me, I figured the creator was a genius! I was honestly frustrated of the same old hunting and fishing forums and jumping all over their sites reading new and different threads pertaining to different items. Here I was staring at a new site and immediately registered as a member. I really struggle to stop making the comparison to Facebook as it acts and feels a lot like it but has it own uniqueness that makes SeeMeHunt one of a kind. So I quickly began fishing around with the site and uploading my profile picture. Entered a few bits of information about myself to share with others. The basics were done. Next was interacting with the members. It became apparent who the creator was after a friendly welcome message appeared at the top of the News Feed page and shortly after a personal message welcoming me to the site and explaining a little bit about it’s purpose. We exchanged a few more messages in the next couple days. Since then, I check SeeMeHunt almost daily now.   Chris & his big boar So who was this faceless person I was chatting with? I only had a name “Chris Avena” and a distant profile picture of a guy standing behind a huge boar with his face slightly shadowed by his hat. So without further ado, here are some Q&A’s for getting to know Chris Avena – creator of SeeMeHunt.com.  UGA: What inspired you to start a hunting related social network site?-How long has the site been up?-How long had you been “planning” a hunting social web site? C.A.: I have been hunting for 30 years. What inspired me to Start SeeMeHunt.com was thedesire to spend more time doing what I love. I have always loved Hunting and beingoutdoors. I had a vision of creating a place where hunters from around the world canmeet and get to know each other. I wanted SeeMeHunt to be a place where hunters couldshare their Knowledge, Friendships and Experience. I launched the site in May 2010 andI am very pleased at how well received it has been.UGA: Do you feel your page layout stands out much better than the other typical forumlayouts?- Do you feel it has its advantages or disadvantages?C.A.: When I had envisioned SeeMeHunt.com I really wanted something that was more interactive than the standard blog or forum format. I wanted a place where hunters can meet, socialize & get to know each other. SeeMeHunt is an ever evolving cycle. Hunters get to indulge themselves and interact with other SeeMeHunt members. There are no disadvantages when everyone is enjoying their favorite sport. This makes SeeMeHunt become an everyday adventure. UGA: Do you have web design or computer technology background? If not, What is yourbackground (work experiences)? C.A.: My time is spent on certain aspects of my website. I have a web designer who works with me but I am responsible for every aspect of SeeMeHunt. UGA: What are some of your most memorable hunting experiences? C.A.: I would have to say that this past October during bow season when I came face to face with a big 350lb black bear at 30 yards was something that I will never forget. It was just about dusk & I was waiting to meet up with my hunting partner Bill and I see this flash of black about 100 yards off. I looked again and I see this black bear heading in my direction. I was on the other side of the stream sitting in a natural ground blind. The Bear seemed to be walking at a normal pace looking for a place to cross the stream. The bear appeared to have a big gate & was closing ground pretty fast. I had an arrow knocked but I couldn’t draw. It kept looking in my direction. 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