[Dean Romig]

Today, Christmas morning, I received a very special gift gun from a very special young man who is mature in his thinking beyond his 13 1/2 years.

When Cameron Leeds, my grandson, was about 5 or 6 years old he started showing a deep interest in my shooting and hunting and asked me all the time to take him shooting and hunting with me. He would pick up a stick and pretend it was a gun and pretend to shoot things, including me, his parents and his kid sister with his stick gun.

I guess he was about 7 when I thought about all the times I asked my Dad to take me to deer camp with him - always being told "Maybe in a few years Dean..." and those few years were so long to come and I had to wait until I was about 13. So, when Cam was 7 I told his parents in October I was taking him to Vermont with me to indoctrinate him in the ways of men, woods, animals and guns. That first year he carried a stick and I began his gun safety training, pretending his stick actually was a gun. I was very strict in where he was pointing the stick and warned him "Hey - watch where you're pointing that gun, that thing might go off and you'll kill your own Grampy!" And so went his first hunting season...

The following spring I made him a "gun" from an old .22 bolt action stock and a piece of 1/2" copper tubing painted black and attached it to the stock. The finishing touches were some international orange tape applied in strategic locations for safety's sake when he pretended to hunt back home in his yard.
It was about 3 1/2 lbs and easy to carry all day long and this new "gun" was a much better training tool. He learned to mount the gun at flushed birds and I was still very strict about where that muzzle was pointing and I told him when he could "load" it and when he needed to break it open. He had a great few years with that pretend gun and he really did learn a lot from how I demanded he handle it.

You may remember my article in the Spring 2017 Issue of Parker Pages "Cameron Leeds' Heirloom Parker" where he was bequeathed with the family Parker 20 gauge VH... and so he graduated from his pretend gun to the real deal - a Parker of his own.

Today Cam may be the youngest PGCA Life Member and his whole family is very proud of him and for several reasons.

Back to my opening sentence...

The special gift gun I received from my grandson, Cam, was his original "pretend Gun" that I had made him a few short years back... but re-purposed as a hat rack / coat rack that he wants me to mount on the wall of turkey/grouse/woodcock/deer camp there in the Vermont hills. I'll put it there and there it will stay for as long as that stone camp stands... it means that much to both Cam and me and to the rest of the family and folks who know of our special relationship.

Today he repaid my efforts of helping to ensure his future as a true sportsman. His gift filled me above the 'full line'.


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