November 30, 2011

A simple youth hunt turned into a very dramatic story for a young hunter and those close to him on a recent hunt in Idaho.

Click here to watch the video of Tyler's story.

The Best of the West sent field host Brandon Davis in November to Brandon’s old stomping grounds in Idaho – his best friend’s in-laws have a ranch near Lewiston, Idaho, and offered to host a hunt on their property for two young people for their first hunts. One of the kids, Griffin Reggear, was the ranch owners’ twelve year old grandson; the other was to be a young person chosen from the community who was deserving, both economically and personally, of the gift of an on-camera hunt with The Best of the West.

Brandon says that when it came to choosing the youth, the ranch owners surveyed local teachers, churches and the hunter safety instructor to volunteer names of deserving kids, and one name came up repeatedly – Tyler Kitchen. Tyler’s life has not been an easy one, according to Brandon, due to his situation at home. He was constantly bullied and abused by his peers, because his mother was in a relationship with another woman, and that translated to anger on Tyler’s part toward his two “mothers”. His mother Heidi says that it came to a point that Tyler insisted on going to live with his father, who had not been part of Tyler’s life since he was six. But just five weeks later, he called his mother and asked to come home. He was a different person after his return – he brought his grades up, and absolutely turned his life around. And Heidi says that despite the fact that other kids still tease him about his living situation at home, Tyler now stands up to them, saying that he has two parents at home who love him, no matter what.

To add to the family’s hardship, they have no extra money to spend on hunting clothing or equipment. Tyler took hunter safety as a twelve year old, but was never able to afford to go hunting. However, for his 16th birthday, he told his mothers that all he wanted was hunting gear, so they gave him a camouflage pack, hat and shirt, and when he was chosen to go on the Best of the West hunt, they scraped up enough money to buy him a camouflage jacket that they presented to him just before the hunting party headed out. Tyler was a darned good shot, too – Brandon says that when they took him to the ranch Friday to do some shooting before they headed out on the hunt the next day, he shot a nice 2 inch group at 415 yards with a 6.5x284 Best of the West signature series rifle system.

On Saturday morning, Brandon and his close friend Scotty picked up Tyler and his mother’s partner, Crystal, to go hunting. Crystal was an experienced hunter, and was Tyler’s hunting mentor on his youth tag. She had experience with processing meat, as well, and was planning to teach Tyler.

Although the hunting party had numerous opportunities that day to take a shot, they came back empty handed – and Brandon was scheduled to leave the next day to head back to Wyoming. However, a massive snow storm moved into the region Saturday night and closed the road the next morning, so Brandon and Scotty were able to take Tyler out on Sunday afternoon. This time, everything worked – Tyler shot a nice 4x4 whitetail at 425 yards. As they parted ways at the end of the day, Tyler told Brandon and Scotty that it was the best day of his life. As Crystal was saying her good-byes, she cautioned Brandon to drive safe because the roads were still dangerous from the storm.

Brandon left town the next morning at 6 a.m. About two hours later, as Crystal was driving the same road Brandon had just left on, her van crossed the center line around a dangerous turn and she ran headlong into another vehicle. Crystal was killed instantly. She was one of five residents of that rural area that were killed in the aftermath of the snowstorm.

Our thoughts here at the Best of the West are with Tyler and his family. The tragedy that came on the heels of Tyler’s triumphant hunt reminds us that life is short, and we must appreciate the moments that we are given. A fund has been set up at Lewis Clark Credit Union in Orofino and Lewiston, Idaho ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - mailing address is 234 Johnson Ave, Orofino, ID 83544, or call 208-476-5112). We encourage anyone who can to please join the Best of the West in helping Tyler’s family offset current and future expenses by donating to the family’s fund. If you would like to donate items other than money, such as food, clothing, or hunting supplies for Tyler, please send it to us here at The Best of the West, P.O. Box 1150 or 115 W. Yellowstone Avenue, Cody, WY 82414, Attn: Tyler Kitchen. We will ship any donations we receive to Tyler and his family.