Longshot349

I love to Biggame hunt, but times, they are a-changing fo show. The unavailability of tags and the expense is through the roof these days. I feel sorry for a lot of younger folk trying to do this sport and at times it makes me sad for them. But it is what it is, so we might as well make the best of it and enjoy what we can while we can...

Anyway, I wrote a couple stories about the Good O'le Days of how it used to be in my early years. I'm sure some of you older folk will relate and remember a lot of this stuff from years gone by...

Hope you enjoy and hope some of ya'll will write a memory or two here too... So here we go...

Story #1 : I member the 1st year we ever went to Colorado huntin. I'm from Missouri and Dad was readin Outdoor Life and a Jack Oconner article. Jack said if'n you wanna hunt a bunch of deer go to Rifle Colorado and head west and you'd find a bunch of um.

Dad says to me, "Jack wouldn't lie to us, so let's go. We'll leave at daylight Wednesday." Dad always felt like he knew Jack Oconner even though he never met him. hehe.

So I show up at daylight, but Dad's O'le 64 Ford twin I beam pickup that we're gonna drive is stuck in the Hog pen. I hooked the Mules on it and finally got it out about noon. We loaded our stuff and headed west, but only made as far as Joplin MO. that 1st night cause we blowed a tire out.

The 2nd day we got us one of them folding travel maps from the Gas station and headed across Kansas at a top speed of 45 mph, cause if you went any faster than that, the old truck would get the high speed shimmy's and bout put you in the ditch.

Dad had built us pickup camper to sleep in out of plywood and used C-clamps to hold it on the truck. On day 2 we was cruising along and met an 18 wheeler and the gush of wind blowed the plywood camper plumb off the truck and in the ditch and all our stuff was scattered up and down the highway..

We got us some nails and nailed it all back together and made it to Dodge City Kansas that night...

On day 3 we finally seen that sign that said "Welcome to Colorado." Somebody had told Dad that if he was ever in Rocky Ford Colorado, to buy some of them Honey Doo Watermelons. Dad talked about them melons all the way out there and when we got to Rocky Ford, he just couldn't wait to git him some of them melons. He bought a whole big box of um and while I would drive, he'd eat them melons.

I member seeing them big piles of what looked like Taters to me, but come to find out, it was Sugar Beets piled up 50 yards high and a quarter mile long. We'd never seen nothing like it. Ya'll ever seen them piles?

Anyway, by evening of day 3 we made to where we was huntin. It took us 3 full days to git there and nowdays folks do it in a Quad Cab F350 Diesel at 80 mph in about 18 hours flat.

The next morning I was fired up and ready to shoot Deer, but Dad had the full blown shiiitts from eatin all them Honey Doo Melons. He couldn't even walk 30 yards without having a blowout. I'm talkin high speed projectile kind of blow outs.

So he didn't do much walkin that day, but I hunted hard.... and low and behold Jack Occoner hadn't lied to us. They was deer as far as the eyes could see. I never in all my life seen so many deer. We had a buck tag apiece and several doe tags and I was knockin um down right and left.

But Dad still hadn't left camp because of the melon shiiitts. He had an old Japanese Army rifle he'd traded for somewhere, but it had the rifling shot out of it and sometimes the bullets would hit the target sideways makin an oblong hole. He shot at several deer but I don't think he even hit the mountainside.

But there was so many deer that finally an old wide horned buck ran by him at 10 yards and he stuck that Jap rifle out and killed it. I still got it mounted on the wall to this day. It's a 32 inch 5x5.

Dad had sold a load of Hogs and seen to it that I had Winchester model 70 30:06.. It was a killing machine, but like most stupid kids I sold it and bought a motorcycle. I've kicked my azz a thousand times for that. Broke my dang leg on the cycle too.

I've thought about that huntin trip a lot since. I had that nice Model 70 and Dad had that old worthless Jap rifle... Aint that just like a Dad to see to it that his son has the good stuff?

Anyway, we loaded our deer and headed for home and Dad talked about how Jack Occonner was the greatest man alive all the way home.

Each year since then when I pass by Rocky Ford , I chuckle when I think of them Honey Doo Melons... hehe

Somewhere there about Gunnison there's a Café owner that I owe an apology too, cause Dad plumb totaled out his restroom...

Anybody else member when they was deer everywhere out there?