ChanceMcCall
Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2026
- Messages
- 12
Given my advance age and broken body this is all from a time long ago...
I started hunting when I was about 7 or 8. Most likely in violation of the law, I hunted pigeons with a BB gun and rabbits with a .22 (in the winter) to sell to older ladies who wanted them to cook for their families. I shot rats for my father. I shot coons for the fur. As I got older, I would set up during lambing season to kill the wild dogs that attacked the flock. I also hunted deer, quail and pheasant for my mother's table. ( My father's brother had been killed in a hunting accident when my father was a small boy and he disliked guns. Despite that we had over 40 guns in the farm house left there since that accident. My mother, however, was the oldest in her farm family and was a crack shot and avid hunter. She taught me to shoot.)
I hunted with friends and cousins all through high school, and helped my step brother kill a bear we weren't planning on during a feral hog hunt in Arkansas.
As a young adult, I was lucky enough to safari in Africa and to land the "big 7" when it was still legal. Since the safari was mostly paid for by a clothing store owner and since I was still in college, my trophies ended up in his men's clothing stores in Central Illinois along with his own.
I was also lucky enough to hunt polar bears with Jim Jumer the last year it was legal for Americans to shoot and mount the bears. My bear ended up in Peoria, Illinois dyed black to sit outside of the Black Bear Lounge in Jumer's Castle Lounge.
I have hunted mountain lions off horseback in the West, black bears in Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as, my favorite, the wild Russian boars in the Appalachian Mountains. I did have the first head mounted, but my wife will only let me keep in in my tool room in the garage.
After a major accident and age catching up to me. I no longer hunt, but I have the memories.
I started hunting when I was about 7 or 8. Most likely in violation of the law, I hunted pigeons with a BB gun and rabbits with a .22 (in the winter) to sell to older ladies who wanted them to cook for their families. I shot rats for my father. I shot coons for the fur. As I got older, I would set up during lambing season to kill the wild dogs that attacked the flock. I also hunted deer, quail and pheasant for my mother's table. ( My father's brother had been killed in a hunting accident when my father was a small boy and he disliked guns. Despite that we had over 40 guns in the farm house left there since that accident. My mother, however, was the oldest in her farm family and was a crack shot and avid hunter. She taught me to shoot.)
I hunted with friends and cousins all through high school, and helped my step brother kill a bear we weren't planning on during a feral hog hunt in Arkansas.
As a young adult, I was lucky enough to safari in Africa and to land the "big 7" when it was still legal. Since the safari was mostly paid for by a clothing store owner and since I was still in college, my trophies ended up in his men's clothing stores in Central Illinois along with his own.
I was also lucky enough to hunt polar bears with Jim Jumer the last year it was legal for Americans to shoot and mount the bears. My bear ended up in Peoria, Illinois dyed black to sit outside of the Black Bear Lounge in Jumer's Castle Lounge.
I have hunted mountain lions off horseback in the West, black bears in Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as, my favorite, the wild Russian boars in the Appalachian Mountains. I did have the first head mounted, but my wife will only let me keep in in my tool room in the garage.
After a major accident and age catching up to me. I no longer hunt, but I have the memories.
