I didn't listen to everything My Grandpa said because sometimes it was in Portuguese and other times he was more talking to himself anyway but when he said "Tuffy Basso" that long ago afternoon, i came to attention and opened up my ears, i was about 10 and about to hear something that stuck with me all these years.
"i'll tell you what", he said, "that Tuffy Basso is a charmer to getting good places to hunt to which none of my Sons can hold a candle to except Maybe your Uncle George with women folk."
We was coming in off the hill 8 miles to town and could be for any of a few reasons but ended up most every day after Grampa's fresh plug of Masterpiece chewing tobacco and a pint of Christian Brothers brandy. That's how it was on Our place in those days, get up at break of dawn early, work what needs doing until maybe 2 or so, then we got to do pretty much what we wanted, grandpa included.
"Tuffy Basso", he went on, "is the only man i ever knew who could get caught red blood handed with a poached deer on his shoulder and end up all said and done with a written permission slip in his pocket"
I had the fortunate occasion to rent out my front house to Tuffy and his just getting out of high school daughter, maybe some over 25 years after Grandpa said what he had said. He was of my Dad's generation, kinda short by some but broad and solid, Huge smile liked by most everyone, and he knew everyone both sides of my family very well. Didn't take long but between his and my, and my regular pards connections, we had someplace pretty good to hunt every night of the whole month and a half season, ducks and game birds after that giving each place a nice rest up in between.
The point of this note is that Tuffy didn't really have a place of his own to hunt but he always brought in big bucks, some years the biggest, and he did it by knowing where the Big Bucks lived and charming the folks that owned that land. Instead of wondering if he could use a road, he'd pull in every driveway on the path and being himself, asked how they were doing and what they thought of his intentions.
There's some here in these pages that know that i do pretty good myself when it comes to knocking on doors looking to hunt. Yeah, it maybe ain't like the old days but Folks is Folks and if your just regular nice and don't piss them off by being ready to defend, fight or call the law, you just might end up hunting that State ground you were hoping to as well as a lot of the private, with a slip in your pocket, that butts right up to it. Good luck!
Joey
"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
