Amanda Lynn Mayhew and her deer. (Submitted Photo/Amanda Lynn Mayhew)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Hunters

‘A way of life’: next generation of hunters learn the tradition

Mar 8, 2025 | 8:00 AM

There’s a moment hunters face in the anticipation of their shot.

For some, they feel their breathing change rapidly, others tremble and their limbs become unsteady as the adrenaline rushes in.

For 13-year-old Telayna Coyle, her first experience with buck fever came after sitting in a blind for eight hours.

“I’ve really never experienced that, like at all in my life,” she said, noting it was her legs that were aflutter, but her arms remained calm.

“It was just kind of a shock, even after I can remember, I’m like ‘Why was I shaking?’”

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She and her dad Jeff, who hosts a hunting show called Descendents of the North, came out from Calgary to shoot the crossover episodes last November in the Battlefords with Outdoorswoman Amanda Lynn Mayhew, host of That Hunting Girl and focused on teaching the next generation of hunters.

Jeff and his daughter had left in the early morning hours and when they first came into the blind, all of the windows were iced over.

“You couldn’t see a thing,” he said.

Jeff and Telayna Coyle, 13, on the film shoot last fall. (Submitted Photo/Amanda Lynn Mayhew)

“So it was trying to find a balance. We spent the morning light – you could see the sun was starting to come up and it was starting to get a bit light out – we were trying to figure out how to get our windows cleared.”

Working together, father and daughter had the heater running and eventually were able to clear the windows enough to prop one open and get fresh air flowing through.

“It’d be great to be out in the blind and a deer sitting in your bait, but if you can’t see anything, there’s not a lot you can do.”

Eight hours later, the moment they had been waiting for arrived.

“It’s a long day – especially for a 13-year-old and keeping in mind that this was our sixth day of doing this,” he said.

When the deer stepped out of the brush, the young girl was relaxing and watching a show on her iPad. After a gentle prodding by her dad to calmly get back into her seat, Telayna looked up and asked, “Is there a buck?”

The show was set up with Battle River Outfitters for a controlled environment and the teen, who said this was her second year with them, gave her key memories of being out in nature with her dad.

“It’s just so much fun and a really good experience for a first time for kids,” she said.

Reflecting back on the experience, Jeff said they weren’t prepared, but sometimes that’s the way it goes.

“That’s the fun part of being out there is you can go from complete boredom and thinking about life to zero to 60.”

“I thought it went really well,” added Telayna of this year’s hunt.

According to Mayhew, the production of the two shows that merged into one for the Sportsmen Channel, was challenging as they couldn’t be in the same place at the same time, but it went well.

Amanda Lynn Mayhew points and shoots her camera out of her stand. (Submitted Photo/Amanda Lynn Mayhew)

Ricky Albert, owner and operator of Battle River Outfitters said the week the production was taking place, the deer weren’t showing up for their cues.

“As hunting goes, sometimes it’s good and sometimes not so good – that’s why they call it hunting,” the guide said.

Albert explained that overall, it was a good week, but it was challenging.

“Everybody put their time in with the day-to-day hunting strategies. In this case…at this time we’re hunting over baited areas and stands and stuff so, they put long hours in these stands.”

As someone who has grown up in the tradition, Mayhew addressed the perception by critics that hunters are just out to kill whatever crosses their path.

“I will stand up for what I believe in, I will stand up for what I know and when it comes to putting meat in the freezer, I do it in an ethical way,” she said.

“It’s sustainability, conservation, and full-on ethics and morals – all stuff that was handed down to me from my parents.”

Thus, the effort from both Mayhew and Jeff’s work to educate both the public and the next generation of hunters.

As production got underway, learning had already begun as the teen practiced with her rifle while two different cameras caught the action. It was a way to show that a 13-year-old young girl can take part in this kind of activity.

“That’s kind of the inspiration behind these two episodes,” Mayhew said of the show which will air this summer.

“Showcasing children getting out in the field and learning from us who are seasoned hunters, who grew up that way, so that she is able to have the mentorship and the ability to harvest her own deer.”

Jeff has been hunting with Battle River Outfitters for five years. This time, he and Mayhew wanted to flip the perception of who can hunt on its head.

“We wanted to spin it this year to include dads and sons or moms and daughters or dads and daughters or just get the younger generation out,” she said.

The huntress grew up in northern Ontario and, like most kids from the north, grew up in the outdoors.

The view from the other side of the lens. (Submitted Photo/Amanda Lynn Mayhew)

“I’ve been hunting since I was just young, I actually thought that’s how people got their meat,” she said.

Her grandfather and father were both hunters and her mother was an angler.

“She liked to go fishing, my dad liked to go hunting and that’s what we did, and it just blossomed from there,” she said.

The inspiration to continue passing on the lessons and tradition to the younger generation came as Mayhew was raising her sons. Once they were old enough, they joined their mom on the hunt.

“I love the outdoors, I love getting out there, it is refreshing in every single way mentally and physically,” added Mayhew.

For Boyd Stuart, it’s a way of life.

“I just liked exploring and challenging myself and being alone and enjoying nature,” he said.

Like Mayhew, he too learned the tradition from his dad. Boyd and his family have a ranch just outside of Medstead and in the last few years made the switch from driving vehicles into the bush to hunting on horseback.

“That’s been a really cool experience to do with Islie,” he said of his daughter, who just had her first hunt this year.

“It’s just a lot more peaceful, a lot slower.”

A trail ride into the bush. (Submitted Photo/Boyd Stuart)

While tracking on foot can be a relaxing experience, nature has a way of pulling people in. Boyd explained they heard rustling in the bush, and he thought it was an elk but what emerged surprised them all.

A bear came charging out instead.

“I pushed my cousin in front of it so, I wouldn’t die,” said Islie laughing.

As a parent raising three daughters, Jon Martens, one of the directors with a local branch of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation along with leading an outdoor living group with 4H, said getting his girls involved in outdoor life has been his primary focus.

“Just with my own kids, I’m just involving them and letting them see the full picture of it – there’s so much more to hunting than just going out and shooting something,” he said.

“It basically consumes my life, ’cause I’m kind of obsessed with it,” he said.

Martens explained the lessons he teaches his children last all year to help them understand the animals in their natural habitat and as they watch them over the course of the year, the girls see where they live at different times and how they behave.

“…just the whole picture I guess and trying to team them to do things properly, ethically,” he said.

Jon Martens takes his girls on a walk during a hunt. (Submitted Photo/Jon Martens)

“At the end of the day, we’re responsible for conserving these resources and making sure they’re protected and we’re not abusing any of that.”

For Boyd and his family, it’s about getting back to the basics and making memories.

“It’s about challenging yourself and trying harder and being part of nature and just interacting,” he said.

“When you get a bull elk to answer back and you’re trying to figure out what he’s saying and you’re trying to respond to him with something that’s going to tick him off, it’s unbelievable,” he said, referring to elk calling.

According to the government, hunters have been made aware that the antlerless elk season has been extended to the end of the month in areas around Stanley and Leask due to “wildlife damage and to obtain samples for bovine tuberculosis testing.”

Hunters are expressing concern, however, as the cows are in calving season and as the bulls have lost their antlers, it’s difficult to distinguish between the two.

Last fall, Boyd’s son Hayes got to experience seeing a spike elk up-close – though it gave the six-year-old a wee bit of a fright.

Islie, too, finds nature to be peaceful and at times exciting.

“I like the adrenaline rush of chasing elk everywhere and try to find something, hearing something in the bush – hoping it’s not a bear.”

Outdoor living is the Stuart family’s passion. Some days, the clan will head out in the morning, Islie will go to school for the day then they’ll do an hour in the evening. Other times, they’ll get on horseback and take off on an adventure.

“We ride and ride and ride and try to learn stuff all day and you know, maybe stop and have lunch in the bush,” said Boyd.

“My favourite thing to do is to bring a steak to the bush and potatoes and stuff and cook it in the middle of nowhere.”

Jeff has been a lifelong outdoorsman and like the others, family played a huge role in shaping his experience.

“That’s part of why I do what I do,” he said.

Outdoors at Twilight. (Submitted Photo/Boyd Stuart)

“My father was really in getting outside and doing stuff whether it was camping or fishing – he had a big love for game birds.”

As he got older, Jeff got into big game and traded in his shot gun for a rifle and as his father watched him grow and his interests change, he joined his son.

“We spent a far jag of years hunting deer together and learning,” he said, adding the ultimate competitor was the elk.

“I spent a lot of years with my dad hunting elk and him teaching everything that he knew and me just being a sponge and trying to learn as much as I can.”

Now, that love of the outdoors and the hunt has been passed down to his daughter, though it did not come without its own test. During the film shoot, the two spent days waiting for a buck to make an appearance and when it did, it wasn’t a clear shot. That forced patience focused their thoughts and for the 13-year-old girl, it meant facing the existential question: when the time came to make a decision, would she be able to pull the trigger?

“We were probably 10 minutes in, and she turned, and she looked at me and she took her one hand off the gun, and she said ‘Dad, I don’t know if I can do this,’” he said.

Thinking it was due to her buck fever, he asked what she meant.

“She said, ‘I don’t know if I can kill it.’”

After nearly a week sitting in a stand during a cold snap, Jeff said it became a chance to turn the situation into a teachable moment. Then he asked her to tell him about what she was feeling.

After walking her through her thoughts, she stopped.

“All of a sudden, she just looked at it and she said, ‘You know what, no, I’m good’ and she turned back, and it really wasn’t much longer after that he gave her a shot opportunity and she pulled the trigger.”

Mayhew said Telayna had an “incredible week,” and the ending couldn’t have gone better for her.

“She has put in the time probably more than I have seen some adults,” she said.

“Some adults will be like ‘Are you kidding me – it’s –40 out, no thank you,’ so, yeah, to see her get up and be like ‘let’s get this done,’ it’s awesome.”

A beauty shot. (Submitted Photo/Amanda Lynn Mayhew)

For these hunters, their time in the outdoors is more than just harvesting food. There’s a spiritual aspect to communing with nature. As such, they each carry traditions that allow them to connect with the animals who gave their lives so the hunters’ families may eat.

When giving acknowledgement, Jeff said everyone has their own way to mark the life lived. He chooses to touch a drop of blood to his rifle. Boyd, however, stands quietly and takes a moment.

“You take more into nature than you…bring out,” said Boyd.

—

julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social