Passing down the tradition is a big part of hunting

Published 4:09 pm Friday, January 4, 2019

Jona Lake grew up in East Texas. It was 35 years ago during the Thanksgiving holidays that the then-12-year-old took his first buck while hunting in Cherokee County.

His father, David Lake of Tyler, was an avid outdoorsman and introduced him to hunting.

“I had had a few missed opportunities. He took me from the time I was really, really small. He used to take me quail hunting back when we had quail in East Texas. He took me deer hunting when I was real young,” Lake recalled.

He hunted from a tree stand alone for the first time when he was 11. Using a Remington Model 7 .243-caliber rifle the next year he took that first buck. The deer was a small, atypical East Texas 8-point in an era when hunters were out to get their buck, but was no doubt a trophy to a young hunter and the next step to what has been a lifetime of hunting.

“I pretty much hunted throughout high school and college. It turned me into a diehard,” Lake explained.

Now fast-forward to last Thanksgiving, and change locations from Cherokee County to Bosque County in Central Texas. This time instead of Lake being taken to the blind by his dad, he was the father escorting his 7-year-old son, Hudson.

“I started taking my son probably a couple of years ago. Last year he shot a hog and that was his first kill,” Lake said.

He introduced Hudson to shooting sports plinking with an open-sight Henry .22-caliber rifle. Lake stepped him up to a bigger platform, but same caliber using his brother-in-law’s AR .22 with a suppressor. Then came the opportunity to shoot the wild pig.

“I took him out and he shot the big boar. I let him shoot the .243 without telling him it was a different caliber,” Lake said.

The .243 was a Remington Model 7, the same rifle Lake had used in 1983.

Seeing he was capable of handling the rifle, Lake tried to get his son on a buck during the 2017 season, but the young hunter was not able to master finding a deer in the crosshairs fast enough.

This year the plan worked to perfection.

“We went out and got in the blind. I put him at a spot where the feeder was relatively close. It was only about 75 yards away,” Lake recalled.

He put his backpack in the chair to elevate Hudson so he could see out the window better and was beginning to go over the procedures of where to hold the crosshairs and how to slow his breathing. The tutorial was not over when a gnarly looking 7-point walked out.

“It was only 30 yards away and then made a beeline to the feeder. I told Hudson to wait until it was sideways so he could hit it right behind the shoulder,” Lake said.

Hudson shot and the deer dropped. A little far forward the shot was not a textbook shot, but ironically he hit the deer in the same spot Lake hit his first deer.

Lake said he thinks his son may be a little young to understand the scope of his achievement, but not too young to be proud for having been successful. He also learned a lesson when his dad turned the buck into about 20 pounds of snack sticks.

Lake, on the other hand, was instantly a proud father. It was an experience he had previously enjoyed with two of his daughters.

“I was on cloud nine. To have that experience is very special. I had the same exact experience two years ago with Gemma in the same spot. She shot a nice cull buck,” he explained. Another daughter, Emerson, also took a doe that season.

Lake still understands one harvest will not make a youth a lifelong hunter. He is hoping to add turkey, quail and more hunts to make it more of a tradition for his children. Continuing a family hunting tradition is important to him. That is the reason Hudson was not only hunting with the same rifle his dad had used, but also wearing the old Duxbax camo hat Lake wore when he took his first deer.

“It is something our family has always done, be out in the woods. In some way I feel closer to God out there. It is good to have those one-on-one times, and creating those memories,” Lake said.

And he hopes the tradition will start anew again in a couple of years when he gets to take his youngest daughter, Jordyn, for her first deer.