WHY, HOW AND WHERE TO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO HUNT

The Camerons Answer Questions

EDITOR'S NOTE: Don't ask a youngster to sit still and quiet and like it. As a matter of fact they hate sitting still and quiet. For this reason, young children sometimes don't enjoy hunting deer and turkeys. But, you'll have kids wired if you show them some action. For an all-together different idea, try hunting quail at a shooting preserve. Shooting preserves have horses or mule-drawn wagons kids can ride. At a shooting preserve, you will have non-stop action to occupy the youngsters. They'll enjoy riding the wagons or the horses, watching the dogs, shooting the birds, finding the birds and petting the dogs. You can't find any sport better for wired youngsters than preserve quail hunting. This week let's look at Cameron's Hunting Preserve in Panola, Alabama, in west/central Alabama and learn how to build memories with your family. Bubber Cameron started Cameron's Quail Preserve in the late 60s. John Cameron and his older brother Rush Cameron, Bubber's sons, now operate the preserve.

Question: What about people who have come to your preserve for some time?
John Cameron: Dr. Scofield from Birmingham has been coming to our hunting preserve since we first opened. He first started bringing his sons down here. Then he brought his grandsons, and now they all come together. The Scofield family has made a lot of memories on this land riding horses, shooting quail, missing quail, picking up birds and eating together. But most of all they have shared a lot of laughs and lots of good times together here.
Rush Cameron: Mr. Vernon Crowder used to come down here with his son. They shared many of memories shooting quail together, riding the horses or riding the wagons and working with the dogs. Those memories are what family members can give to each other that has much more value than money.

Question: John, why do you and Rush run the hunts the way that you do, so that your hunts are so family-friendly?
John Cameron: Some of the best memories that my brother Rush and I have are being with our dad, working with the dogs and shooting at the quail. We were fortunate that we not only got to work with our dad, but we got to play and hunt with our dad. And some of the greatest memories that we both share are the times that we spent with our daddy, the dogs, the birds and the horses. We have learned that the richest part of our lives is the memories with our dad and the things that our dad taught us when we spent this time together. Because building those memories were so important for us, we want to continue to provide that opportunity for other families with our quail preserve.

Question: John, what is the difference in wild quail hunting and hunting at the shooting preserve?
John Cameron: There are not as many quail as there once were. Wild coveys are few and far between. In many areas, you can hunt all day and walk all day and not find but one covey. Within the first hour or two, if you haven't found a covey, the youngster is not going to be having any fun. All that walking and no shooting does not make a child happy. But on our preserve, youngsters will not go more than 15 minutes at the very most without seeing dogs point and 20 to 100 birds come off the ground. They are going to have the chance to shoot a lot, work with the dogs, ride a wagon or horse, and have much more fun than they will trailing along behind an adult all day and finding few if any quail.

Question: Rush, tell me about a family hunt that you remember.
Rush Cameron: We have a man who brings his wife down here, just the two of them without any children. When they first started coming, she could hardly hit a quail at all. She might take eight to 10 in a day while he took double or triple that number. But now when they come, she can hit as many if not more than he does. Not only do they have a good time shooting the quail and riding the horses, you can really tell that they have a good time being together. I think that sometimes Mom and Dad need to go hunting together by themselves to deepen and strengthen their own relationship.

Question: Tell me about a grandpa who brings his grandson.
Rush Cameron: Sonny Sterling really started his grandson, John-John, off right. He started bringing John-John to hunt with us when he was a little fellow. The first gun that John-John brought was a popgun (a toy gun). The little boy played like he was shooting quail, and when Sonny would down a bird he would tell his grandson that John-John killed the quail. When John-John got older, Sonny let him bring a BB gun. Although John-John couldn't hit the quail with the BB gun, the boy learned to be safe with the gun and to aim and shoot at the quail. When John-John was older, he had a single-shot .410. At that point, he could actually shoot and bag quail. Since John-John's gun would only fire one shell at a time, he had to learn to aim accurately, pick out one bird when a covey got up and shoot that one bird. Now John-John is 12, and he is shooting a 20-gauge automatic. I saw Sonny in a restaurant the other day. He told me that his grandson had become such a good shot that he could now take more quail than Sonny could afford. "I think I'm going to cut him back to a single shot again," Sonny said. "He can really shoot those quail." I know Sonny is proud of his grandson, not only for his shooting ability but because the youngster is so safe with firearms. Last year on the last covey we found, when the quail came up, John-John dropped two quail on the covey rise. John-John has really turned into an excellent quail hunter and more importantly a really safe quail hunter.

If you want to teach your children how to hunt, how to shoot, how to ride horses, how to work dogs and how to enjoy the beauties of nature and all that is wild, then take them on a preserve quail hunt like the one the Camerons offer. As Rush and John Cameron told me, "John, be sure and tell the folks, how much we have appreciated all the folks who have come and hunted with us over these many years. And how much we feel the Good Lord has blessed us by allowing us to earn a living raising quail, training hunting dogs, operating a shooting preserve and being able to spend quality time on the hunting field with families. We love our work and enjoy all the people and families who come and hunt with us. The people who come here come as customers but they leave as friends. We know that the Good Lord has really blessed us."

For more information on Cameron's Quail Preserve, you can write John Cameron at 1001 Brockway Road #4, Aliceville, Alabama 35442. Or, email John or Rush Cameron at Cameron@froglevel.net or call (205) 455-2420.