Not at all related to flyfishing but I just had to share this with you guys the weekend I just experienced with my father.
What a fantastic weekend it was! I spent 3 days in the woods of middle Georgia with my 76 year old father. He taught me to hunt when I was a boy over 50 years ago. He called me and ask me if I minded if he went with me hunting one time this year. As if he had to ask. I was thrilled because it had been about 8 years since he had last done so and we all thought his deer hunting days were long past. He has recently been in bad health and the family was quite concerned about him being out. He said he wanted to take the old 30-30 out at least one more time. So off we went with the 30-30 and me with my 54 cal flintlock. The rest is now captured in my mind forever. On Friday afternoon I had an opportunity at a doe at 40 yards. Even though I have been successful on many deer hunts with my Father I had yet to connect with my flintlock. I had missed a few but the the Good Lord smiled on me Friday and my shot was true. The doe dropped in her tracks. In almost 50 years of hunting it was by far the most rewarding (at least I thought so until Saturday).
Saturday morning was the opening day of the Georgia regular firearms season and my Father wanted to hunt from a stand. After sucessfully getting him up there and nicely secured I ask him to please remain there until I came back to get him. I went about 2000 yards away to watch a food plot. At 10 minutes after 6 last night I heard a single shot from the old 30-30. I quickly started the trek over to my Father's stand. When I got within about 100 yards of him he shouted " Well, come on boy. Time's wasting. We got a deer to haul out here!" He was as excited as any kid ever was on Christmas morning. It was a young deer with very small antlers but it was a trophy to him. With tears in both our eyes we hugged before we loaded the deer in the back of the old pickup. He told me that now that his itch was scratched he was "not going to shoot any of them little deer no more." When I asked him hadn't he enjoyed it he said " Yeah, but the next time I'm gonna kill me one of the bigun's". I think the old guy just might do it too. Yep, memorable hunt.
What a fantastic weekend it was! I spent 3 days in the woods of middle Georgia with my 76 year old father. He taught me to hunt when I was a boy over 50 years ago. He called me and ask me if I minded if he went with me hunting one time this year. As if he had to ask. I was thrilled because it had been about 8 years since he had last done so and we all thought his deer hunting days were long past. He has recently been in bad health and the family was quite concerned about him being out. He said he wanted to take the old 30-30 out at least one more time. So off we went with the 30-30 and me with my 54 cal flintlock. The rest is now captured in my mind forever. On Friday afternoon I had an opportunity at a doe at 40 yards. Even though I have been successful on many deer hunts with my Father I had yet to connect with my flintlock. I had missed a few but the the Good Lord smiled on me Friday and my shot was true. The doe dropped in her tracks. In almost 50 years of hunting it was by far the most rewarding (at least I thought so until Saturday).
Saturday morning was the opening day of the Georgia regular firearms season and my Father wanted to hunt from a stand. After sucessfully getting him up there and nicely secured I ask him to please remain there until I came back to get him. I went about 2000 yards away to watch a food plot. At 10 minutes after 6 last night I heard a single shot from the old 30-30. I quickly started the trek over to my Father's stand. When I got within about 100 yards of him he shouted " Well, come on boy. Time's wasting. We got a deer to haul out here!" He was as excited as any kid ever was on Christmas morning. It was a young deer with very small antlers but it was a trophy to him. With tears in both our eyes we hugged before we loaded the deer in the back of the old pickup. He told me that now that his itch was scratched he was "not going to shoot any of them little deer no more." When I asked him hadn't he enjoyed it he said " Yeah, but the next time I'm gonna kill me one of the bigun's". I think the old guy just might do it too. Yep, memorable hunt.
