Post by 340wby on Jul 28, 2008 16:53:26 GMT -5
Take the time to pass on your skills
I just got a phone call, and it brought out a point in my life to crystal clarity,
the LAST of the 5 old geezers that I started hunting ELK with in the 1970s has just passed on!
GRAY, was 86, and had not hunted since 1999, but he always tried to make it to the B.S. sessions and the range with the rest of us “NEW GUYS”(some of them started in the group in the 80s) I was still considered, only one of the regulars as I started in the early 70s and IM only 60 years old....not a founding member.......but Im now the oldest in the group.
Now when I started hunting these guys had been a click for years and getting invited into the group was quite an honor, in that they didn’t just let any one into the group, you had to have hunted locally with at least two of the members more than a few times for deer and hogs and impressed them with your willingness to learn and share the work around camp.
Most of the old geezers were in their 50s -70s back in the 1970 time frame and had been seriously hunting elk FOR AT LEAST 15-20 YEARS TOGETHER BEFORE I MET THEM.
they were a friendly, bunch but looked down on anyone who didn’t take their advice as a "BIT SLOW"
they all hunted with 30/06 slide action Remington with one exception who had a 1917 Enfield bolt gun (he was always meaning to get a Remington but just never did..
ONE reason was so they all could use the same ammo and buy in BULK, and all the ammo in camp was interchangeable.
They taught me a great deal, much of it only soaked in slowly, and like any young guy I thought they were DEAD WRONG about a few things.......but as time passed I saw that they were almost always 100% on target with their advice and choices, wisdom gained not so much from books but from many years of hunting hard and finding out exactly what did...and didn’t work, what equipment, to use and the best way to handle the LOOOOONG list of crap, that happens on out of state hunting trips, example, busted tire chains, flat tires, going for supplies, how to keep warm and dry, how to pack light, remain highly mobile and how not to get attached to a place but to concentrate solely on getting into the ELK herds repeatedly and effectively and let that one factor determine much of the other things that were done around camp.
Well, I’ve tried for most of my hunting trips to pass on all that I’ve learned and I hope the older guys reading this do the same, because there’s going to be a time when you’ve, made your last trip, and all those skills will be wasted if you done pass them on as best as you can to the younger
members of your group to hopefully allow them to bye-pass the stupid mistakes and be far more efficient hunters.
with him and that generation went A LOT of woodsmen skills and hunting savvy
I just got a phone call, and it brought out a point in my life to crystal clarity,
the LAST of the 5 old geezers that I started hunting ELK with in the 1970s has just passed on!
GRAY, was 86, and had not hunted since 1999, but he always tried to make it to the B.S. sessions and the range with the rest of us “NEW GUYS”(some of them started in the group in the 80s) I was still considered, only one of the regulars as I started in the early 70s and IM only 60 years old....not a founding member.......but Im now the oldest in the group.
Now when I started hunting these guys had been a click for years and getting invited into the group was quite an honor, in that they didn’t just let any one into the group, you had to have hunted locally with at least two of the members more than a few times for deer and hogs and impressed them with your willingness to learn and share the work around camp.
Most of the old geezers were in their 50s -70s back in the 1970 time frame and had been seriously hunting elk FOR AT LEAST 15-20 YEARS TOGETHER BEFORE I MET THEM.
they were a friendly, bunch but looked down on anyone who didn’t take their advice as a "BIT SLOW"
they all hunted with 30/06 slide action Remington with one exception who had a 1917 Enfield bolt gun (he was always meaning to get a Remington but just never did..
ONE reason was so they all could use the same ammo and buy in BULK, and all the ammo in camp was interchangeable.
They taught me a great deal, much of it only soaked in slowly, and like any young guy I thought they were DEAD WRONG about a few things.......but as time passed I saw that they were almost always 100% on target with their advice and choices, wisdom gained not so much from books but from many years of hunting hard and finding out exactly what did...and didn’t work, what equipment, to use and the best way to handle the LOOOOONG list of crap, that happens on out of state hunting trips, example, busted tire chains, flat tires, going for supplies, how to keep warm and dry, how to pack light, remain highly mobile and how not to get attached to a place but to concentrate solely on getting into the ELK herds repeatedly and effectively and let that one factor determine much of the other things that were done around camp.
Well, I’ve tried for most of my hunting trips to pass on all that I’ve learned and I hope the older guys reading this do the same, because there’s going to be a time when you’ve, made your last trip, and all those skills will be wasted if you done pass them on as best as you can to the younger
members of your group to hopefully allow them to bye-pass the stupid mistakes and be far more efficient hunters.
with him and that generation went A LOT of woodsmen skills and hunting savvy
