Next week I will be 68 years old and hunting has been a big part of it as long as I can remember.I remember going for my hunter safety test and getting my first small game Jr hunting. license, if my memory is correct it cost $2.15. My first gun was a 410 (3in) single shot Stevens. I use to deliver newpapers and one of my customers had it and him and I would talk about hunting ever time I would go to collect for the paper. One day he showed it to me and it was love at first sight.I asked if he wanted to sell it and he told that he would never part with it. Every week that summer when I would see him I would ask about the gun and if he wanted to sell it. The answer was always the same (NO). I had given up asking about the gun, when one day in Oct. while collecting for the paper he answered the door with the 410 in his hand. He asked me if I still wanted to buy it. The answer was (YES) . He sold it to me for $10.00 . He told me that I only had to pay him a dollar a week.He also told me to take it home right now before he changed his mind. I never missed a payment. Now I was a complete hunter, my small game license in my pocket and my very own gun. I hit every small game animal and bird that I pulled up on. i loved that little gun. I just didn't miss with it. I had that gun for 20 years and sold it to a friend for his son. I sold that gun for $10.00 dollars, the same as I paid for it. To this day I wished that I still had that gun.When I turned 16 I became a big game hunter (deer) . It toke me 3 years before I shot my first deer(6 point buck) and after at I started getting a deer every year mostly bucks and a few doe.
Today I can't remember the last doe that I got. I get one or two doe tags very year and never fill them. I hunt with bow ,gun and black powder I guess I am very lucky when it comes to hunting deer.because I take a buck every year with a bow , and have passed up many bucks with gun because I am looking for one that everyone is dreaming about. I have taken many nice bucks ,but not that one. I always hunt on the ground, not in a treestand. Every year I tell myself that I am saving the doe tags for black powder. and every year I pass up easy shots. When I get home my wife will ask if I had any luck and when I tell her no she thinks that I didn't have a good hunt. When I tell her I had a great hunt she looks at me like i am little crazy and tells me that I didn't get a deer so how can it be a great hunt. She just dosn't understand what makes a great hunt for me. I love being in the fall woods or spring turkey woods. To me hunting is not about killing something every time out and I am out more than most people. I love the sights, sounds, and the smell of the woods. I love watching all of gods creatures as they move about. I guess you could call me a loner when it comes to hunting. I like to hunt by myself alone. It's not that I dislike hunting with others, it that I hate hunting by their clock. When I go in the woods I don't know how long I will hunting that day. I hate it when my wife tells that I have to be home at this time or that. I hate when I am hunting with someone and he tells me that he need to be home or back to the truck by this time or that. I just hate hunting by the clock. The game that I hunting never carries a watch and that is how I am when hunting.I love the solitary of the woods. Some of my best thinking comes when sitting in the woods alone. I can make many problems disappear as I am sitting there and find many answers for many other things. I love the spring morning when The song brids are waking up and watching the day come alive and hearing the first gobble of the day. i love sitting in the fall woods in the fall with a chill in the air and with bow in hand while watching the leaves falling from the tree tops like snow and hearing the acorns dropping all around me. To see the first deer of the day coming up the trail. If I take a deer that day that is a bonus. I just love being in the woods and being a hunter.