My father introduced me to hunting at the age of 5. The first year was small game and some birds. I was the designated "game carrier and empty shell picker upper. My Grandfather gave both me and my brother Win Model 1984's in 30-30 the year before. So I had a deer rifle at the age of 4. I shot my first deer at 6 and my first elk at 7 with that 30-30. The deer was a fork horned mulie and the elk was a cow. I still have that little deer rack and I will never part with it.

Through the years, Dad and I hunted an awful lot. Mostly back west where I grew up. Dad was a really good mulie and elk hunter. He never hunted antelope until I was 16 and talked him into it. After that we hunted them as many times as we could since the tag had to be drawn. In 1998 I took Dad to South Africa on a Plains Game safari for his retirement present. He ended up hunting Africa a total of 3 times.

The last time I hunted deer with Dad was in Dec 2009. He came to FL and I got him into a decent FL buck. In Mar 2010 he fell and broke his right femur at the age of 70 and when that healed he came down with lung cancer. He fought it hard, but cancer took him last Sept.

This is Dad's last buck:



I'm gonna miss that old man!