48 Years ago Nov 15th 1961 I was able to hunt deer on my own with a fire arm. I had buged my dad about needing a gun nearly all summer. When mom and dad came home from a Friday evening shopping trip to town dad was acting real sneeky. Saturday morning after the cows had been milked and put out to pasture dad had me go with him to the house. He had this ratty old Ivers Johnson 410 ga. shot gun setting in a corner. Not a bit of blueing on the thing a crack in the forearm and a hole in the barrel where the bead went, 10 slugs came with it.
Dad said to bring it out to the work shop where he slid a wood dowel rod in the end of the barrel heated some soder which made a bead in that hole. After it cooled we went out and sat some cans on a fence post. I was allowed to shoot it 5 times.
Opening day was frosty cold and being farm folks we had just red sweat shirts over our normal out door work clothes.
Being work clothes they kept you warm when working but didn't do much for when you were sitting hunting or even still hunting.
Round about noon I was cold and hungery so was taking the logging road thru dads woods and A doe came thrashing out of some cover with a big buck following.
I pulled up and shot at that buck that just stood there even after the shot. I loaded again and shot and he started running off so I finished the 3 shots I had left.
I got back to the house and dad didn't believe I had shot at a buck and was mad I had used up all the shells in one morning. No hunting till the next day when dad could get me some more shells after the stern talking to I got about wasting shells.
When My brother (He was 12) came home from school I talked him into going to the woods with me and looking for that deer.
We found the spot where he had been standing and some blood just a few feet away, about 75 more yard and there was this really nice 6 point buck dead. I had shot it in the neck and in the front shoulder. My dad was happy when we came back to the house with the heart and liver. We took the tractor and wood trailer to get it.
I never shot another buck till 1965. Missed 1966 since I was in the service and missed most of 1967 cause I got scared to death opening morning and would not go to the woods again that year.
I have 68 racks from spikes to 8 points in my collection. I shot my last buck a 6 point with my dads deer rifle in 2003 and wrote a story about it that was published in Michigan Out of Doors December 2004 6 months after my dad died. He never got to read that story so if you have an elderly parent don't wait to tell them you love them and let them read any story you may have wrote about them.
Just remembering this morning how much I love deer hunting and How I miss my dad my first hunting partner, and my partner who died this spring.
Thanksgiving day after dinner was a day for family friends and neighbours getting to gather and driving large small pot holes away from the main woods.
Yes dad visited me and asked if I remembered
Al
