Urban-rural Pheasants Forever partnership connects city and country to build tomorrow’s hunters

When Dave Scherf took over as president of Minnesota’s Metro Area Chapter of Pheasants Forever in 2010, he and the board started planning what they thought was the best way to raise money and activate members: a banquet.

They got gun manufacturers to donate firearms, they invited veterinarians to have booths in the exhibit space, they rented the Horse and Hunt Club’s Prior Lake banquet room, and they booked Ron Schara to emcee.

Then only 100 people showed up.

“We lost our shirts,” Scherf said.

Two guys quit the board as a result of the failed banquet, and the remaining members knew they had to change course. They shifted the focus of the chapter to sporting clay events, and shortly thereafter to learn-to-shoot events.

“From there we grew,” Scherf said.

A few years after that, they evolved again. They’d taught kids to shoot, and now they wanted to show them how to hunt. That’s when they partnered with the Lyon County Chapter of PF. “Other chapters have land,” Scherf said. “We’re Hennepin County – we have no land.”

Ron Prorok has been the Lyon County chapter treasurer for as long as Scherf has been the president of the Metro Area chapter. He admitted that it’s sometimes been a struggle to get local kids out, meaning that the novice hunters from the Twin Cities are welcome out west.

“It’s been a great partnership with the Metro chapter,” Prorok said.

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One shot, one rooster

This year’s learn-to-hunt event took place on Saturday, Oct. 26. Mentors from both chapters arrived at the Redwood River Sportsmen’s Club outside of Marshall, around 7 a.m., greeted by coffee and donuts. The novice hunters arrived shortly thereafter.

In addition to the five youth hunters were four first-time adult hunters, a new aspect of the program. Each had completed a learn-to-shoot course with the Metro chapter in 2023.

Around 8 a.m., the local DNR conservation officer, Matt Loftness, gave a safety talk to all the hunters. He instructed the new hunters to always ask, “Where are the dogs at? Where are the other hunters at?” Then he concluded with optimism: “There are a lot of birds around.”

Prorok was assigned as the mentor for Ethan Powell, a freshman at Armstrong who lives in Robbinsdale. Ethan’s dad, Mike, also tagged along, although only Ethan carried a gun. Assisting with the hunt were Prorok’s yellow Lab, Poppy, and mine, Crosby.

Powell’s hunt, like that of every group, was on private land, offered by local residents for the event. Prorok explained the layout of the parcel, and then we started working our way through the field. Ethan Powell walked in the lead, flanked by the dog handlers, with the dogs out front. Mike Powell followed along.

After about 15 minutes of walking, a rooster took flight. Ethan mounted his gun and dropped the ringneck in one shot. Poppy tracked it down and retrieved it to Prorok’s hand.

Over the course of another hour, more birds were flushed, but none ended up in Ethan’s vest.

Time to clean

Back at the clubhouse, Ethan explained that he’d been told about the program from a friend at school who thought he’d like it. He’d done some deer hunting with his dad, but he’d never shot a bird until last year at the Horse and Hunt Club during the conclusion of a learn-to-shoot course.

“The birds are quick,” Ethan said of his first wild rooster. “Trap shooting with my high school has helped a lot.”

After lunch, Prorok used Ethan’s rooster to teach the new hunters how to clean a bird, while others practiced their shooting at the club’s trap range.

For a decade now, this urban-rural partnership has succeeded in teaching youth – and now adults, too – to shoot and to hunt. And, if Ethan Powell is an indication, it’s working.

“I enjoyed it,” Ethan said before climbing into his dad’s vehicle and heading off to hockey practice. “It’s something I’d really like to keep doing.”

Find Tony Jones’s new book, “The God of Wild Places,” at www.godofwildplaces.com