From The Rack Room …. By ~ George
While sitting here on the cusp of a new beginning for our organization I can ’ t help but to think about how my journey to here began ….
As much as I would love to tell you of some romantic stories about hiking the hills and crawling through brush in search of that monster buck , sorry to say , I can ’ t . I didn ’ t grow up hunting . I guess it just wasn ’ t my Dad ’ s thing . Oh , he liked guns and had many . However , when we took them to the hills , it was aluminum cans and paper targets that were in danger-nothing else .
Looking back I believe I was about 21 when I went on my 1st real hunting trip . Oh , my friends and I shot at rabbits with our 22 ’ s from time to time . I grew up in the city of San Diego , so it wasn ’ t like we would drive a couple of miles out of town and go shooting or hunting . Anyway a friend of mine called one evening to ask if I would like too go dove hunting with him the next weekend . I didn ’ t even know you could hunt dove or that dove was a hunted bird . I did have a shotgun , so I got a license and away we went . We never shot one on that trip , but fun was had , and I was taking the bait soon to be hooked on hunting . Within a few days I had studied the regulations and found out from the local Fish & Game office , I just needed to come by and pay for a deer tag . Now I had no idea what to do to shoot a deer but I was getting my tag . So here I come with a deer tag and every hunting , shooting magazine I could find telling me : How to hunt in the Southwest . After talking to my Dad and some of his friends my hopes were falling fast . However , I had a tag and the weekend off . So , I went hunting or camping with my
Winchester , whichever you want to call it . I knew of a canyon in the forest where I had seen deer tracks so we ( Dad & I ) went there first .. And guess what , I jumped my First deer . I ’ m still not sure if that deer or we were more surprised !
After not filling my tag on that first weekend I was back up by myself the next weekend . Of course mother nature decided the Earth needed to be cleaned up and it rained for most of that weekend . I did manage to do some hiking in between a few storms though . I didn ’ t see any deer that weekend but I did find tracks and quickly learned some of their routines and patterns so that it would help me on my next trip out .
Weekend number three , No rain and the wife came along this time . We hunted hard that Saturday , but no deer . Sunday we headed to a different area , using what I had learned between reading magazines and studying the hills we headed into a canyon next to one that appeared to have other hunters being there . It wasn ’ t long until we spotted a buck , and this is where I get taught one of many lessons . While stalking that buck I thought I was going to shoot , up pops another larger and smarter buck-BUSTED , over the hill they all went ! About another 1 / 4 mile of hiking we found another and this time the stalking was working .
As I squeezed the trigger a whole new world began for me . Approximately 4000 tags were sold in Zone D16 in 1989 , less than 350 were filled and I had one ! Over the years there have been many firsts in my hunting adventures . It wasn ’ t long before I shot my first quail , duck , goose and dove . I have been with friends and family when they had their ‘ firsts ’. So how did all
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