Stories about your Pops!

chevy_dog · Jan 3, 2013

A guy on another thread posted this and I thought it would be good to post on here to share some memories of their fathers. My dad is a great guy and made me that man that I am today. I have so many stories of us hunting together, but here is just one:

We were making a stalk on a group of small mulies last year and we come up over a small rise and see them. They are in a small bowl uphill of us (we are at the bottom). The wind is howling at least 40 mph. The deer see us and are getting a little nervous, and we are discussing which one is the biggest, since it was our last day hunting, he was going to take something home. I told him the one on the left was bigger, but he disagreed and went with the one on the right. Evidently, there were three bucks and he did not see the small 4 pointer that I was looking at and he fired on a small fork and missed! Now, mind you, he shoots a Ruger #1 in .300 weatherby, so it is a single shot, and he has to reload. He managed to get two more shots off before they go over the top of the bowl. Frustrated, we follow them up to see if there was a hit, but did not find any blood. We track them over the top and come out to a clearing and see the Fork kind of just standing there. The wind was even worse on the top, so he took his time, and the buck bedded down! My dad sealed the deal with a neck shot. We go over to the deer and find blood all over it's legs! Oh no! you ass shot him! Nope. Turned it over and see that he shot his nuts off clean as he was going away up the bowl! and had another hole in his neck. found a puddle of blood where he was standing earlier. Glad that we tracked him down to put him down.

I have had a lot of good times with my dad. This is just one of the many stories and some of the pictures that I have of us hunting together.

oh, and don't worry, everyone gives him hell for wearing them "short bus" glasses. He don't care. lol.

elks96 · Jan 3, 2013

My dad shot this buck in the junk as well. I thought it hit lungs cause it flat knocked the wind out of this guy... I did not take a pick of the hit, but luckily he had a good follow up shot.

My dad has only ever taken one antlered bull back nearly 20 years ago. For the last 10 years he only hunts late season cow. Well this year he did not draw his late season tag at all so he got a bull tag and a cow tag for 4th season. Sneaking through the trees we come around this tree and in front of me I see a small bull at about 20 yards. I get my dad up next to me, he levels off and shoots. The bull just stands there, then turns and runs. I ask him what happened?

He said she was walking away so I hurried and shot. Well he never saw the bull at 20 yards instead he shot a cow 80 yards away that was running. Needless to say the cow ran straight down hill and died 100 yards from the road. he never saw the bull...

elkassassin · Jan 3, 2013

Well chevy_dog!

If I ever have to be shot,I don't want your Dad doing the shootin!

So?
You think you wanna take My Hi- Capacity Magazines & Assault Rifles Huh?
Just Try taking My American Pride/Rights!

It's been a long hard ride
And I won't lose hope
This is still the place
That we all call home

mntman · Jan 4, 2013

Thanks to my Dad and Mom I am now where I fit, the outdoors.
I can remember being as young as 5 years old hiking into a remote lake in Northern Minnesota with my Dad. I would be carrying a small tackle box, landing net, 3 fishing poles and wearing my life jacket. Dad would have his life jacket on and carrying the canoe with the paddles wedge into the braces/seats. Sometimes those hikes would be over a mile long through mosquitoe infested swamps in the dark. After daylight, the mosquitoes would leave but then horse and deer flies would show up. We were on the lake by ourself though catching, bass and northern pike, sometimes we'd bring some small tackle to catch sunnies and crappies with and the occaisional good fight with a dogfish.
We always brought two paddles but Dad always had me cast to the best spots while he kept the canoe straight. Sometimes looking back I wonder how he ever caught any fish at all between helping me and paddlinig the canoe into the wind. We'd do this nearly every weekend in the summer, in the winter we went ice-fishing. Dad even flipped his toyota truck out on the ice one day (another story), it is still one of the funnier things we have ever done

As I got older, hunting got more emphasis in the fall. When I turned 8, I was finally allowed to take the bolt-action .410 and our mutt Matt grouse hunting by myself. It was a one mile x four mile area I got to hunt in. After school and on weekend days when dad was busy that is where I was. Was rarely I came home with a bird, my parents always teased me saying I was spending so much time with those birds that I was naming them. Some of those grouse I patterned and knew where they would be every day

Our hunting/fishing trips continued on through my teenage years, Dad always putting me first hoping I was successful and mostly I was. He got me my first moose when I was 16 in Minnesota's OIL drawing. He had been applying since the begining (70's) but couldn't be happier when I applied with him for the first time I was eligible and then ended up shooting the one moose three of us could tag.

I eventually got into waterfowl hunting, Dad had did it when he was young but grown out of it. He enjoyed coming with me though jump shooting local streams. He didn't really like sitting in a blind with decoys, strange cause he loves sitting in a deer stand for 10 hours straight??? He would do the paddling though again and I got to do nearly all of the shooting. One day though, we spooked some wood ducks off a lake back into the swamp. We pulled the canoe up to the shore and I put the front of it just barely onto a clump of grass so it wouldn't drift away. Well dad stayed there and I walked back after the ducks. I jumped them and they flew past Dad, I heard him shoot and then a scream. I thought WTH? so I ran back to the lake to see dad flipping the canoe back over and then pouring the water out of his shotgun barrel lol! He shot perpendicular to the canoe with the front on the shore and the blast tipped him over, needless to say but we were done for the day

.

This wasn't from the "swimming" day but a pic of Dad, Mack (best dog EVER) and me. It was my first "hat trick" (3 shots, 3 birds, together)

Due to being in the Navy during my 20's, we didn't hunt/fish together much. Since then we have been making up for it though hunting across the West, Alaska and still back in Minnesota. Roles have reversed now though, I spend my time and effort trying to get him on animals. I know his time is limited and I just want to repay him for all of the time, effort, encouragement he gave me all those years.

In 2006, I was able to get him on a bull elk with his archery gear that I finally talked him into buying after 7 years of trying. It wasn't his first bull but by far his biggest, plus it was his first animal with archery equipment. When we walked up to him, my first words was..."Dad this bull is payback for the bull moose you put me on when I was 16, sorry it took so long

"
It was a GREAT Day!

Two years later, I was with him in Alaska when he achieved his 40+ year goal of shooting a bull moose.

Dad and Mom with one of the many Whitetails he has shot over the years, not his biggest but a nice one. Since he was 16 he has got a minimum of 1 buck per year except for one time about 5 years ago when he started passing up small bucks waiting for the big one. He has shot as many as 3 bucks per year, needless to say his house is full of memories.

Sometimes I wish I could find the fountain of youth for him so I could live out my years of hunting with him.

Sorry its so long, this is just a microscopic sampling of our memories in the outdoors. Some day I think I might write a book about all of our "FUN" adventures; like rolling his pickup on the ice, me being 8 years old and telling my dad's friend Jerry to assume the position. He was like WTF? So I told him that since Dad's pickup is only 2wd, we have to stand on the bumper and hold onto the canoe rack to give us traction while Dad broke trail going across the lake to fish the other side! Or maybe one of the countless times "you think so?" came out....

Mntman

"Hunting is where you prove yourself"

Let me guess, you drive a 1 ton with oak trees for smoke stacks, 12" lift kit and 40" tires to pull a single place lawn mower trailer?