Quite a feat....but must have hurt.

I started tagging a long with my pop, uncle and grand pap when I was seven or eight back in the 60's in the mountains of SW Virginia. I got my first Win Model 94 30-30 when I was twelve. So many great memories of those early hunts and my first deer. Simpler times for sure. My first deer was a butt chewing from my uncle. I was twelve at the time. I was hunting a small draw below the cemetery next to his farm. I couldn't see well, so I climbed up on the cemetery wall and put my back against a tombstone. I could really see well into the draw. That morning I was told to shoot the biggest deer I saw...or something like that. There was a deer drive and I had a dozen or so deer come into the draw about forty yards away. I whistled to stop them. I thought my dad was kidding when he said whistle if they were running, so I did. Yep they all stopped. I found the biggest deer in the group and shot. It ran thirty yards or so and went down. To say I was excited was an understatement.

When everyone started to show up to see if I got one, they yelled if I got one, I yelled it's down! They kept asking me how many points. I said I don't know. I picked out the biggest deer which happened to be a doe and dropped her. It was opening day of buck season! My uncle was pissed, he chewed my butt good. My pop wasn't too happy either. A few hours later she was butchered, in the cooler and we were headed home. My pop said nice shot but next time look for horns.

Last year I was talking to my cousin. She said she came across a photo of me, my pop and uncle standing next to a deer hanging from a branch. She said I was smiling and her dad looked pissed. I told her the story and she laughed. I asked her for the photo, I'll reach out again. Great memories for sure!

My pop had an old Savage 24V .222 Rem /20 ga he hunted turkeys with. He gave it to me when I was around 14. I wish I still had that old gun.

I remember one of the first feeders we ever had. My grandad bought it for us to use. It was a 5 gallon bucket made out of tin with a timing device on the bottom. The cupful of corn would dump and the centrifugal force would sling the little container around to fill up again. Feeder fed every 8 hours. We thought we were cutting a fat hog in the a_ _.