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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Three kids, three first deer

For young people in the North Country it’s a rite of passage

David Colburn
Posted 11/19/20

REGIONAL- Three youths participating in their first deer openers earlier this month fared better than some of their more experienced hunting partners, bringing down two bucks and a doe and generating …

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Three kids, three first deer

For young people in the North Country it’s a rite of passage

Posted

REGIONAL- Three youths participating in their first deer openers earlier this month fared better than some of their more experienced hunting partners, bringing down two bucks and a doe and generating big smiles all around.
Sixteen-year-old Bridget Schelde, of Angora, didn’t have to go far to bag a little buck on Sunday, according to her mother, Julie. She made the score in the woods behind the Schelde home.
“She was grinning from ear to ear,” Julie said.
While Bridget loves outdoor activities, hunting wasn’t something she pursued until her brother asked her to hunt with him this year. So, she took a firearms safety course, had just a little practice shooting, and came up a winner in her very first deer hunt.
And did her brother match her feat?
“No, not yet,” Julie laughed.
Twelve-year-old Jamison Cornelius hails from Superior, Wis., but he’s no stranger to the area. His mother, Cassie Severin, graduated from Orr High School and has many relatives in the area. The family was visiting relatives in Chisholm for the weekend and Jamison went hunting with his father, Josh, and grandfather, Brian, in an area southwest of Cook. And Jamison was toting a beloved heirloom with him.
“He received his rifle from his grandma who passed away two years ago,” Cassie said. “It was her gun.”
Perhaps his grandma was smiling down on him with luck. Jamison filled his tag by 7:30 a.m. on opening day with a six-point buck.
“His dad saw the deer first and alerted Jamison to it,” Cassie said. “Jamison didn’t see it right away. And then it came around the corner and he got it.”
Jamison bagged the group’s only deer for the weekend, and he’s planning to remember the feat like the adolescent he is.
“He kept his shell and he wants to make it into a necklace,” Cassie chuckled. She suggested they frame it, “And he said no, I want to wear it around my neck.”
Eleven-year-old Gage Aune, of Britt, comes from a family of avid outdoorsmen, and the North Woods fifth-grader is already an accomplished fisherman. On the morning of opening day he added accomplished hunter to his list by shooting a doe in the woods north of Cook.
“He called me at 8:22 to tell me he got it,” his mother, Ashley Skorseth, said. “He’s sat in the stands before, but this is the first time he got to bring a gun. I cried when I got the picture.”
Ashley said that Gage told her he planned to be patient and he stayed true to his word.
“He told me he wasn’t going to shoot the first deer he saw and that was the fourth one,” Ashley said.