One deer for my grandfather

[New York Hillbilly]

I had posted in response to an earlier thread, I planned to hunt with my grandfather's Savage Model 99. The original plan was that I would take a deer with my grandfather's rifle and then clean it and put it away. I wanted to take a deer with his rifle as a tribute, and out of my love and respect for the man who looked out for me, and my brother and sister's. Because we grew up without a father things were hard growing up. If it were not for the milk, bread and peanut butter runs to our house that my grandparents frequently made, there would have been nothing in the house at all to eat at times. There would have been no birthday cakes, no Christmas presents, and nobody to look up to, or to respect and fear just enough, to keep us in line, and to learn the value of working hard and trying to do “the right thing”.

Well my plan changed somehow and as a result, me and this rifle have spent many hours in the woods together this season, and I have enjoyed every minute. Because I have not hunted with open sights for many, many years, I limited myself to only shooting 40 yards and under. Prior to opening day I put a group of three shots all in the heart of my paper deer target at 40 yards and was confident at that distance. Since opening day I have passed on no fewer than a dozen little bucks and countless does all well within my self imposed limitation. Each time a deer has presented an opportunity I have just sat and watched as they came and went. For what ever reason I just did not feel pressured to kill a deer, yet. I had even thought maybe at 53, I had just finally lost my edge.

Then, this morning after watching between 15 and 20 does walk up the hill about 60 yards away I had a thought. Maybe the reason I hadn’t shot a deer thus far was because I didn’t want to put my grandfather’s gun away. I was enjoying sitting in the woods with his rifle. It was like he was there with me, and it was a good feeling. I remember he spent so much time working at his business and taking care of family he never had time to go hunting himself. In fact I could not recall ever in my lifetime him going hunting at all. All he did was work until he sold his business and retired, and by then he was to old and tired, even though I frequently asked him to go with me.

I do remember however, him sitting and cleaning his rifle from time to time, and then putting it away in his room. He seemed really proud of his rifle and kept it nice. Maybe while sitting cleaning it, he thought back to his days hunting in the Adirondack’s, with his hunting buddies, in their old canvas wall tent, with the smell of a smoke fire and a deer or two hanging from the meat pole. I’ll never know because he never said and I never asked. I wish I had though. But, he was at least on the outside a gruff man, not the type to express his inner feelings or likely to admit he even had any. The feelings were obviously there however. I learned that he as a boy and young man, he had loved the outdoors and hunting in particular. In fact somewhere in the family there are even some stories written by him as a child about “how to trap a rabbit”, and “how to start a camp fire”. It amazes me, so much of who I am is who he was. And while he didn’t speak much, it was his actions that said the most about the things he felt inside, like quietly cleaning his gun, or driving my grandmother to our apartment to deliver something for us to keep us going. Again, quietly, without celebration, or any expectation of anything in return.

With my vacation winding down, the need to return to work, and my epiphany this morning, I decided that today, “we”, will kill a deer.

I positioned myself on side of my hill, in a head high golden rod/over grown brushy field. It is a field that separates their bedding area from a woodlot that then leads to the cut over corn fields where they feed at night. There is a five foot wide mowed swath that cuts through the middle of the fields from behind my house all the way to the top of the hill. With a small fold up stool shoved into a small thorn apple tree that has taken up residence in the field, next to the mowed trail, I sat in ambush. I was sucking on a Worther’s candy, trying to stay awake, and listening for a deer to come through the golden rod. A gray fox scampered across the trail about thirty yards from me and made me realize that any shot I would have was likely to be quick. A five foot window was not that much, a bit like jump shooting rabbits. I repositioned my self slightly, because I knew with very little doubt which way the deer would be traveling, based on my years of hunting this same hill.

With the Savage rifle at the ready, my heart began to quicken it’s pace as I heard a buck grunting, and crashing coming towards me. I had the very real fear a deer might run headlong into me because they were coming so fast and I was so well hidden. As the crashing and grunting got closer a doe jumped into the air only feet from me and cleared the trail entirely. More grunting and crashing and then a great big doe leaps out onto the trail and readies herself to leap again. Before she can jump I was already on her, and with the bark of my grandfather’s rifle she is laying dead in the middle of the trail. I was totally impressed with effectiveness of the rifle, and a wave of emotion swept over me. I stepped off 18 yards to where she was laying in the trail. I then took a long quiet moment to reflect, give thanks and pay my respects.

Once back at the house, I called my uncle who had given my grandfather’s rifle. I told him about how the deer hunt went and he said “I’m happy you killed a deer with grampa’s rifle”. I asked when he thought the last deer was killed with it prior to today and he said, “Back in the 1940’s”

Well, it’s been a lot of years, but me, my grandfather, and his rifle got one today. Now I’m going to clean the rifle and put it away for the season.

[blackradio]

Nice story. I wish I had something like that of my grandfathers. Nice big doe too.

[wooly]

Nice doe and great story! Gramps would be proud!

[fishuntrapper]

enjoyed the story, my grandfather was a big hunter with a lot of guns. wish i had one but, they all came up "missing". congrats to you and your gramps.

[bubba]

nothing like an inherited gun and especially a 300 model 99

[sampotter]

Great story. Don't let that be its last hunt!

[Cabin Fever]

Great story! Bet Gramps is smiling and the Savage is happy to be back at work again, providing food for the table!

[ants]

Glad you got one with your grandfathers old 99. It would be cool enough to take a deer with any old classic rifle but the fact that it was your grandfathers makes for an even better day......Congrats

[adkbuck]

Great story, I'm sure you grandfather's spirit was with you. Thanks for passing it along!

[growalot]

Very very nice...He'd be proud!

[New York Hillbilly]

Thanks for the kind words folks. I'm glad I was able to share it with you.

[Backyard]

Great story. My Uncle has all of my Grandfathers guns and maybe someday I will do the same thing as you I did hunt with him when I was young and I do remember his favorite was a nice Remington 1100 12 gauge. I might be inclined to use that old rifle to take a few more deer!

[MikeP]

Wow, I'm not a real emotional kind of guy but your story brought tears to my eyes. Brought back some great memories of hunts with Grandad. Thanks for sharing, and most of all congratulations.

And the writing of your story was very impressive. I could see that being in any hunting magazine. The details painted a great picture. Almost felt like I was there.