SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa | For being just a middle school student, Reid Cummings is already a sure shot.
Exhibit A: A 10-point whitetail buck he felled last fall near Ponca, Nebraska.
Exhibit B: A group of four pheasants he harvested in the Woodbury County Pheasants Forever Youth/Mentor Hunt this fall near Sioux City.
Exhibit C: A mule deer he shot near Faith, South Dakota, in November 2014.
"He loves to hunt," says Reid's mother, Lisa Cummings, who then lists Youth/Mentor hunts in three different counties that Reid will take part in during the school year's first semester.
"I love being outdoors," says Reid, an eighth-grader at Sergeant Bluff-Luton Middle School. "For deer, it's fun because you get to track the animal and it's such a rush to finally see it and take your shot.
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"For pheasants, it's really exciting to see the dogs, see the bird flush up and take a shot. Again, there's the adrenaline," he says.
Cummings is just the kind of "student of the game" that Scott Rustwick, secretary with the Woodbury County Pheasants Forever Chapter, loves to encourage. The future of hunting and local conservation efforts probably rests with young people like Cummings.
It is why area Pheasants Forever groups host events like the Youth/Mentor Hunt each season. The special day in Sioux City took place on Oct. 10 this year. It placed children ages 12 to 15 with an experienced adult hunter.
"We try to make it a one-on-one (ratio) and if parents want to walk along, they may," Rustwick says of the free program. "We make it a safe hunt, but we want to give them a chance to shoot some birds."
Cummings hunts with his dad, Mark Cummings, on occasion, but is limited in those chances because his father resides in Idaho. The two team up every November for a deer- and pheasant-hunting excursion in South Dakota. "It's a blast," Reid says.
Lisa Cummings likes to shoot, but cannot kill an animal. That makes the Youth/Mentor Hunt for a beginning hunter like Reid such a rich and worthwhile experience.
"Reid did the Youth/Mentor hunt in Woodbury County, Plymouth County and he'll do another one in Dickinson County," Lisa says.
Seven children harvested 12 pheasants in the Woodbury County event, one that played out on a preserve at the KD Hunt Club on Sioux City's northern edge.
"I think every kid got a shot off," Rustwick recalls. "Reid got several birds. He's a pretty good marksman."
"I got four pheasants and then assisted on another one," Reid discloses.
He cleaned the pheasants at the site and will dine on pheasant at home during November. He'll work up an appetite by walking miles in additional hunting treks, including the big one out west. He shot a mule deer near Faith, South Dakota, in 2014.
That's about the same time he succeeded in harvesting a 10-point whitetail. He located that buck near Ponca, Nebraska.
"We were in a corn field and saw this deer about 250 yards away on a terrace," Reid says. "We saw it through the brush and then it came closer to about yards."
Young Reid positioned himself and his Savage 308.
"The deer came into a clearing and I shot him, got him in the heart," he says.
His mother had the deer mounted and presented the prize to him over the summer. The buck now hangs in the living room, reminder of a successful hunt, and, maybe, a sign of things to come.
