SHERIDAN — Joey Puettman seemed uncharacteristically nervous. He said he wanted to make sure his guys got their jitters out — he was jittery too. The group parked their trucks on a dusty two-track that rose up to the blue-sky horizon somewhere east of Sheridan.
The young hunters, all dressed in blaze orange, introduced themselves. They were veterans of the Cutt-Slam Challenge organized by Puettman, the executive director of Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation. Throughout the year, students at Joey’s foundation learn rod-building, fly tying, mentoring and other skills to help build self-esteem.
“Casting for a better future” is the motto, and Puettman believes the soft skills will serve the youngsters as they mature and move into college or careers. The foundation has served thousands of children in the Sheridan community and beyond, but until recently, fly-fishing and rod building were the vehicles. Introducing young people to guns and hunting is a new challenge Puettman added to his program in 2020.
Each year, as the boys headed into the field, they held their shotguns with the barrels straight up in the air, as they had been taught earlier in the fall. They communicated with each other, as in, “My gun is not loaded and on safe; I am stopping to reload.”
As the group moved up a draw thick with buckbrush and sage, good cover for sharptails and Huns, Puettman walked behind the boys with a clay thrower — the same red, plastic version many would recall from their youth. He whipped clays up into the sky. The boys hardly reacted. Or, they halfheartedly shouldered their guns but never touched off a shot.
As the group continued up the draw, no one fired a shot. It started to look as though the simulation was not working as planned. Puettman had the hunters unload their guns and made sure they were all on safety. They huddled and discussed what was next.
“Now listen guys, you have to get on the birds early. Don’t be afraid to fire a shot,” he said.
He told them they were doing great, they just needed to take that first shot. He reminded them to communicate as they moved forward. The hunters lined up again and began the slow progress through the brush.
“Rooster!” Puettman shouted.
This time, when the bright orange clay wobbled upward, one of the boys fired his pump shotgun. He missed. Shortly after, others also missed clays as they cut through the air.
At the end of the draw, Puettman had the boys unload their guns and kneel. Like a football coach, he went back over the scenario. The boys listened as Puettman explained that often, not taking a shot is more important than taking a shot. He mentioned the safety of other hunters, and also that there would be dogs in the field. You must be aware of everything around you when bird hunting, he told them.
Later, Puettman explained that this foray into hunting was a long time in the making. He said he wanted to reward some of his best students from the fly-fishing program with a chance to learn hunting skills. First, he required them all to enroll in Hunter Safety. After the boys completed that course, Puettman, Tommy Stypula and other mentors began meeting with them on autumn weekends and doing exercises like the one in the draw.
“I remember my uncles and father teaching me gun safety,” Stypula said. “I remember sitting out by a barn in the cold South Dakota winter, going over loading and unloading my gun in the snow and sleet. These guys — I’m so proud of them — are making progress at becoming hunters. It’s all part of the bigger picture where we increase their self-esteem by giving them more and more responsibility.”
After the exercise with the clays, the group moved to some fields to hunt actual pheasants. This was the next step in teaching the boys how to hunt responsibly.
Ian Gale, who went pheasant hunting for the first time this fall, said the wind that picked up didn’t deter the hunters.
“While walking in that field, I felt cold but my adrenaline quickly warmed me up,” Gale said, adding that he was able to use all of the skills the mentors had taught him.
Gale ended up bagging two pheasants.
“I had many laughs, strengthened friendships, tons of fun and lastly some pheasants for dinner,” Gale said. “I’ll definitely be back next year.”
Without someone to show the path, many struggle to find their way in the outdoors. Puettnam, Stypula and the other mentors hope to change that for the youth they serve by teaching life skills that translate not only into the outdoors, but also to relationships, school, careers and family.
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