My dad didn' t hunt. My two uncles did. They got us shooting at a very early age. I grew up in the Adirondack foothills. I was hunting alone with a 22 at age 8. I bought my first shotgun with money my brother and I got from trapping muskrats when I was 12, a Mossberg bolt action 20 guage. That gun nearly killed me when I shot it. When I was 14 I had a great trapping year and bought a Browning Light 12. I hunted nearly every day. I' d jump off the school bus after an hour ride and be stripping off the school clothes as I ran to the house. I' d change in an instant, the gun was loaded when I hit the back porch and I could literally expect a partridge or rabbit or something the minute I stepped out. No it wasn' t legal for me to hunt at that age, we did it for food. Family of 7 and the most my dad ever made in a year was $5,500 dollars. We had a 3 acre garden, canned everything(no freezer), picked every berry for quarts upon quarts of jams etc. It was all about food. I quite often when hunting with one or two shells and was expected to bring something home for a meal. It was a GREAT life. I got caught by the DEC when I was 12 hunting without a license and under age. He took me home, told my folks I shouldn' t be allowed to hunt but if I did it would be better if I stuck to the woods away from the roads. The same warden and a bunch of others always harassed us in the spring when the walleyes were running. We ate them lunch, breakfast and dinner. It was all in good fun. SO, if the Indians have a right to heritage hunting I think I should too. I grew up with it more than most of the Indians of today. My mom always called me RIP after Ripvanwinkle(spelling?) On more than one occasion I lay down in the woods and fell asleep, only to wake and find it was dark. I' d come home, my mom would heat my dinner up like I had been off to work somewhere. My mothers voice would carry miles on the hills. The neighbors used to joke about Dave must be hunting again, Mary can' t find him. We had 100 acres with access to any land as far as I wanted to walk or ride my bicycle. I was never forbidden permission to hunt as a kid. If they had had drugs in those days I wouldn' t have had time for them. I didn' t start bowhunting until I was 27.

My hunting roots always served me well, whether it was learning to bowhunt or hunting in Southeast Asia. []