Our Early Years

This blog has brought back a lot of good memories. In the comment section of Tom's introduction I talked about how Tom, Dick, Bob, and I started our hunting experience. Speakng for myself, I did not realize, when we were young, how lucky we were. As I stated in my comment, we were taught by professionals and taught to love the sport (although we didn't look at hunting as a sport at the time). Rather, it was a way of life. We hunted all year, whether it was for deer, pheasants, grouse, snowshoe rabbits, squirrel, pike and pickrel (shot with a shotgun and netted) or woodchucks (ground hogs as they call them in the south).

Because my uncle, Deb handloaded, we had access to all the ammo we could shoot. Like the game of pool and other sports, the more you practice, the better you get. All of us were good shots. While we were good, Dick was outstanding. I remember as a kid, I would throw pieces of wood into the air and Dick could hit them with his .308. The best shot that I remember, though, was made by Tom in Southern Tier. He killed a running deer 100 or 150 yards away with a .35 Renington with open sights. Was it luck or skill? Probably the latter with a little luck thrown in.  At least for me, I felt the expectations on us were so high, I dreaded to miss a deer.

Back then, there were not many deer in the Adirondacks. Deer drives were the most common way of mountain hunting. Even driving deer, I can remember seasons when I saw only one or two deer.
Consequently, we did not trophy hunt, we meat hunted and we were quite successful. So much so that beef tasted weak, without much flavor. There is so much "flavor" in the meat of an old mountain buck during the rut, that it will curl your hair.

After high school, Bob and I worked for International Paper in the Ti mill. We worked shift work and would trade around with others so we could work 3-11 or 11-7 and hunt during the day. We hunted every day,rain, snow or shine. Deer hunting for us became work and I can remember Bob and I talking about how we began to look forward to the season ending. We wore ourselves out  working nights and hunting days.It was a sin for us to take a day off and rest.

When we were young, hunting parties were an exclusive club. Since our party was made up of blood relations and very close friends, we almost never invited outsiders to hunt with us. The reason being that we did not want outsiders to know how we hunted a particular area. Because we hunted the same areas since before we could legally carry guns in the woods, we knew the Gooseneck, Paradox, and Pyramid country like the backs of our hands. When we killed a deer, it was not uncommon for us to drag it so far that the hair was worn off both sides of the deer. It was nothing to have to drag one 3 or 4 or more miles up hill and down, to get them to the car. We called all of that fun.

Much has changed since then, but in all honesty I can say that some of the best times of my hunting life was with Dick, Tom, Bob, Deb, Danny Ives, Dick Dion, and Bill Drinkwine. I saddens me and makes me feel old to think that half of our old, original crew are no longer here. God bless them and thank you for the good times we had together. Thanks Tom, for starting the blog.