First-time Seattle hunter comes to Spokane for successful mentorship

All Cole Mcilvaine wanted was to learn to hunt.

The Seattle resident had bird hunted before, but hunting for deer or elk presented a logistical challenge. This year, he looked in the back of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s big game regulation booklet – the section where sponsors of the regulation pamphlet are listed – and started calling asking if someone would teach him to hunt.

“There are so many youth hunters, everything is for youths, and it’s great for them, but as an adult I know no more than they do,” the 27-year-old said.

At first he had no luck

“They just told me to go get a guide,” he said.

He didn’t want a guided hunting experience. He wanted to learn to hunt. So he kept calling.

“Then I came across the (Spokane-based) Inland Northwest Wildlife Council,” Mcilvaine said. “Wanda Clifford (the executive director) said, ‘Oh perfect, you should call Leonard,’ and I said, ‘Oh it worked.’ ”

That’s how Mcilvaine found himself driving to Spokane after work on Oct. 5.

He camped at KOA and early the next morning met his soon-to-be hunting mentor, Leonard Wolf.

Wolf is in charge of INWC’s mentorship program. An avid and life-long hunter, Wolf said he often gets more pleasure out of helping a new hunter get his first animal than he does out of taking an animal himself.

“You can only shoot your first turkey, deer, elk, whatever once,” he said. “It’s at times more rewarding to watch someone get their first one than get your own.”

Although Wolf has been mentoring people for years, he said Mcilvaine is unusual. Normally, Wolf works with women and children. Both demographics have been aggressively recruited by the hunting community in the past decades. Female hunters are one of fastest-growing hunting demographics.

As for children, Wolf said he loves taking them out, but sometimes he wonders how effective it is.

“How many of these kids come back and hunt again? Very, very few,” he said.

That’s why he was thrilled to hear that Mcilvaine was interested.

“I’m not trying to give a one-time experience. I’m trying to build a hunter,” he said. “I think it’s pretty admirable how he found us.”

Mcilvaine and Wolf went turkey hunting on Oct. 6 near Wolf’s home in the shadow of Mount Spokane. In the evening, Mcilvaine struck out on his own, but this time with a crossbow.

After a few hours sitting in a blind, he got two turkeys.

Living in Seattle, Mcilvaine said it’s hard to find people interested in hunting, much less interested in mentoring a new hunters. Although he couldn’t make it back to the Spokane area for general deer season, he hopes to be back for the late deer season.

“That’s my goal, to learn how to do it correctly,” he said. “It’s a tough sport to sell when the people who are doing it wrong get all the credit.”