Hunting at the Farm

Hunting at the Farm

This is my first blog post, so I won’t go political just yet. I’ll save that for tomorrow. Anyway, some of the best memories that I have of my childhood were when I was able to go Connie and Joe’s farm. I won’t use last names, but I will use first names in this story. Please let me know if you read this and wish to have your name removed.

Connie and Joe’s farm was about 90 minutes to the Northwest of our house and it is in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. It is beautiful country, especially in the fall. The farm is located in a valley between the ridge and the mountain. I think that the mountain is the Tuscarora Mountain, but I’m not sure. Joe farmed fields on both sides of the road that runs through the valley, but had more land on the ridge than the mountain. The farm was a dairy farm and Joe grew crops as well. I remember lots of corn and alfalfa growing in the fields. I knew this because they would describe what field they were seeing deer in and say they were in the corn or in the alfalfa.

The farm was always a busy place. The cows had to be milked every day at 5 am and 5 pm. When I was young, I remember there being pigs as well as the cows and occasionally some horses. This is where I first rode a horse. I was riding with someone, Joe I believe, but it’s where I learned the basics of horseback riding. I can’t remember if he ever had chickens, but I think he did at one point when I was young. I remember getting our dog from Joe as well. We got a beagle and named her Penny. She lived a long time. I believe that we got her when I was 6 or so and she passed away when I was 17 or 18 years old. That was the first dog that I had from the time she was a puppy until she passed away.

As the years went by, the animals at the farm changed. The pigs disappeared and if there were chickens, they disappeared as well. The dairy remained and there was a goat. I believe her name was Jenny and she would eat the gloves out of your back pocket as you were working. She would also ram you and she wasn’t gentle about it. When we were at the farm, we would help with the milking. You had to herd the cows into the barn and into their individual milking stalls. Joe would do the milking and we would feed them hay and grain. The hay was in the top of the barn and there was a hole in the roof to drop it through. I remember dropping the hay bales down so that the cows could be fed. I loved it. Working on the farm made me happy, but I was a kid and I didn’t understand the level of commitment that it took to be a dairy farmer. No days off. The cows had to be milked every day, twice a day. This was also where I first learned what a heifer is. You can’t milk a heifer because they’ve never had a calf and therefore, they don’t produce milk. I also remember bottle feeding calves. I really enjoyed that.

Eventually Joe got rid of the dairy cows and raised sheep. I believe he made that change after I left home and was in the Army, but I’m not sure on that timeline. My point is that I really enjoyed just being at the farm with all the animals and learning new things about them and how to take care of them. That was my first exposure to country living.

In Pennsylvania, you can start hunting at the age of 12. From the time I was 5 or so, I was counting down the years until I turned 12 so that I could hunt. My Dad took me squirrel hunting when I was 5 and it was my first exposure to how it’s done. My Dad would shoot a squirrel and then leave it there, making a mental note of where it fell. He probably shot 5 squirrels that day and when we were done, we went to the spot that each one fell and picked them up. I still don’t have the patients or trust in my memory to do that. If I shoot a squirrel, I go get it right away if I can’t see it from where I’m sitting. That first squirrel hunt may have been on the mountain close to home, but I remember squirrel hunting at the farm as well.

When I was 11, I received my first gun for Christmas. It was a 20 gauge. The manufacturer was New Haven by Mossberg. It had a poly choke at the end of the barrel. For those of you who don’t know what a poly choke is, there is a plastic end on the barrel that you can screw in or out to tighten or open the choke. Most guns have choke tubes in the barrel and now you can change most of them. Improved Cylinder spreads the most, then Modified is a little tighter and a Full choke is as tight as most guns get. I’ve seen some with Extra Full Chokes for really tight groups. Anyway, that was the best present that I received that year. I turned 12 in March and by September or October, I was qualified to hunt.

My first hunting trip was for squirrel. I missed everything. I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with my 20 gauge. I could shoot clay targets, but I just couldn’t hit a squirrel or rabbit or any other animal. Looking back, I believe that the gun was too long for me at the age of 12. Eventually I grew into it and then I was able to harvest some animals. My Dad wouldn’t let me use one of his rifles to hunt deer, so I used slugs in my 20 gauge for the first couple years. I missed with those too. I don’t remember how many deer or squirrel I missed in those first 2 years, but it was a bunch. The moral of the story is to keep trying and keep practicing. It pays off in the long run. I’ll bet my kids would have never guessed how hard it was for me to be a successful hunter in those first few years. That’s because they see the result of my maturing as a man and as a hunter. I rarely miss now, but it took me a long time to get where I am today as a hunter.

Most of my children have never hunted anywhere but Colorado, so I have to explain how deer hunting is done back east. Prior to my first hunting season, my Dad and I went to the ridge and my Dad knew where an old tree stand was that was directly down the ridge from his. The tree stands we hunted out of back then were made of wood and were nailed into the trees. They were on private property, so it was legal to do that. Anyway, the tree stand that became mine was built off of two trees that were next to each other. It was nice because the steps were nailed across the trees and I could get straight into the stand from the steps without having to negotiate around a tree. I believe that the stand was in fairly good shape. I know we put a roof over it in case of rain and there was a piece of rubber for a door, so the animals couldn’t see your body movement when in the stand. There were wooden walls around the stand that were about chest high when I was seated on an overturned 5 gallon bucket that I used for a seat. Whitetail deer hunting is all about the wait. You sit in a stand and wait for the animals to come to you. Western elk and mule deer hunting is all spot and stalk for the most part, so this is a different concept than many western hunters are used to. My Dad’s stand was half was up the ridge. I could see his hunter orange through the trees from my stand. My stand was on a slight hill top and between us was the bottom where a stream flowed. To one side, about a hundred yards away, was an open field that usually had corn in it. To the other side, there were woods for probably 200 yards before you got to the far field. The entrance to my stand was on the side facing the bottom and that’s the direction I usually faced. In the other direction was the road to the far field that went through the woods. It was more of a path for the tractor and trucks to go through. If you followed that road out, you had it end in the far field and the entrance to the road was from the field below Connie and Joe’s house. The way the terrain worked was below Connie and Joe’s house was a field that ran up to the wood line for the ridge. There was a neck of woods that ran along the side of the field and that’s where my stand was. That neck of woods separated the field below the house from the far field. The far field was surrounded on three sides by forest. Deer would run from the pressure being put on them by hunters on the mountain and they would usually run across the far field up and over the ridge. Sometimes they came through the neck of woods that I sat in and I would see them go between me and the far field. I took a few shots at deer traveling that way, but was never able to harvest one from my tree stand. They would continue up the ridge and travel between my Dad’s stand and Pat’s stand. I remember missing deer there with my 20 gauge, but I don’t believe I ever took a shot there with my 30-30.

After sitting on opening day, we would sometimes conduct deer drives later in the week or on the following weekend. A deer drive is when you line two sets of guys up. One group will stay still and watch for deer as the drivers walk through the woods trying to spook the deer to the watchers. The deer would usually spook far enough ahead of the drivers so that they were only walking when they got to the watchers. This was my favorite way to hunt because we were moving instead of freezing and we were part of a group. I enjoy the camaraderie and fellowship of hunting more than anything else, so when we were able to hunt in a group, I always enjoyed it more. I also enjoyed it because we usually saw more deer that way and some of the watchers usually were able to fill their tags, especially in doe season.

This requires another explanation. When I was young, Pennsylvania had a statewide hunting license. With that license, you could hunt all small game, turkey and buck. The only additional licenses that you had to purchase were for archery, muzzleloader and a waterfowl stamp to hunt ducks and geese. The doe licenses were issued by drawing and the number of licenses issued was up to each county. I don’t remember ever not drawing a doe tag, but the seasons were separate. Buck season always started on the Monday after Thanksgiving and ran for 2 weeks. When I first started hunting, doe season was only 2 days at the conclusion of buck season. In Pennsylvania, you can’t hunt on Sunday, so buck season would end on Saturday and doe season would begin on the following Monday. When I first started hunting, doe season was on Monday and Tuesday. A few years after I started hunting, they extended it to 3 days and it would run through Wednesday.

Hunting in a group was when I was able to see my Dad, Joe and Pat in action. It seemed like they never missed. I remember my Dad shooting a doe who was running through the woods and jumping over obstacles. My Dad was my hero, but Joe and Pat weren’t far behind when it came to hunting.

My favorite thing that we did when we were at Connie and Joe’s was when we went spotlighting for deer. We would pile into an old vehicle and drive out into the fields. We would shine the spotlight through the field and see how many deer were around. This was when I saw the most bucks. We could see if there were big bucks in the area or if there were just small bucks. There were plenty of does, but we were always looking for bucks. Most bucks harvested during hunting season were small as the bigger ones were more elusive, but we knew they were there because we saw them at night.

When I was 14, I mowed my neighbor’s yard for money. I saved up until I had enough to buy a rifle for myself. I believe that I had $200, but I don’t remember the exact amount that I had or how much the gun I bought cost. I was still small for my age. I didn’t hit my teenage growth spurt as early as the other kids. Anyway, I wanted to buy a gun that would fit me and one where I could handle the kick. I went to the range with my Dad and we shot my Uncle’s 30-30 Winchester. I probably shot my Dad’s 30-06 carbine as well, but I don’t remember. After shooting a gun or two so that we could determine how large a caliber I could handle at that age, we decided that I should purchase a 30-30 Winchester. Most 30-30’s are lever action and at that time, there were two major manufacturers of lever action rifles in 30-30 Caliber, Winchester and Marlin. The Winchester model 94 is a classic. The Marlin model 336 has also stood the test of time. The Winchester was a top eject and the only safety built into the rifle was a half cock safety. The lever actions have an exposed hammer like a revolver. You can cock it half way back and it won’t fire. Once you cock it all the way back, it will fire when you pull the trigger. When you run the lever action, the bolt casing slides back far enough to cock the hammer for the next shot. That means that in order to put the gun back to half cock, you had to pull the trigger with your thumb on the hammer to move it back to half cock. If the hammer slipped from your thumb, it would hit the firing pin and fire a round. Not the safest gun around. Also, since the Winchester was a top eject, if you wanted to mount a scope to the rifle, it had to be offset to the side so that the action was free to eject the spent cartridge. The Marlin was a side eject, so you could mount a scope on the top of the gun without the offset. Marlin had also just come out with the model 336 CS. The new model had a hammer block safety. It was a button on the side of the receiver that you could push. When the safety was on, there was a bar under the hammer that wouldn’t allow the hammer to hit the firing pin, so the gun wouldn’t fire. The gun also had the half cock safety, but if your thumb slipped when trying to move the hammer forward to half cock from full cock, the hammer block safety was there to prevent an accidental discharge. The only negative to this gun was that if you cocked the hammer, but forgot to take off the hammer block safety, all you heard was a click and the deer heard it too. The Marlin was by far the safer gun, so I took my $200 and I bought The Marlin model 336 CS. I bought my first rifle at age 14. My Dad got his first buck when he was 16 years old. My goal was to get one while I was younger than when he did. I was sure that I would be able to get a deer now and meet that goal. Boy was I in for a rude awakening.

I was able to afford the gun and a box of shells. I couldn’t afford a scope, so I used open sights for a few years. I remember buying the gun at Shelley’s Sporting Goods in New Cumberland. I’m sure they’ve long since closed their doors, but that was the first sporting goods store I believe that I ever went to. Now that I had my gun, I’m sure we went to the range and made sure the sights were on. The gun was dialed in and I was ready to hunt.

There is only 1 time from when I was younger that I specifically remember shooting at a deer with my 30-30. I believe that I had a scope on my rifle by this time, but I’m not sure. My Dad and I were hunting on the mountain and I was in a stand that I believe belonged to Joe. It was doe season and it wasn’t the last day. We were hunting in the evening and I had my 30-30. This means that I was somewhere between the ages of 14 and 17. I heard a group of deer moving toward me coming down the mountain. My Dad was above me, so I was surprised that he hadn’t shot. They were coming down and going to pass right by me. The lead doe is usually the biggest one, so when the lead doe was in range and stopped, I took aim and fired. I hit her and I was so happy. I thought I had my first deer. My Dad had taught me that you allow the deer to go lay down and die once you shoot them. You give them at least 30 minutes before you start looking for them. I took a mental note of where I shot and where the deer headed. It was getting dark, so my Dad came down to my stand prior to the 30 minutes passing. We decided to look for her before it got dark. We looked where she was when I shot and we found blood. We followed the blood trail and then we ended up jumping her. She ran away and we weren’t able to get off a shot. My Dad said that she was probably hit pretty well if she had gone such a short distance and laid down. We decided that we would come back in the morning and look for her. We came back in the morning and found where she had been laying. We looked for blood in the direction that she ran off, but couldn’t find any. We looked for a long time because the worst thing you can do as a hunter is wound an animal and leave it to suffer. When we couldn’t find any sign that the deer had died, we gave up. Looking back, I know what happened. I was taught that the deer’s heart is behind the front shoulder where the leg meets the body. As I later learned, that doesn’t mean where the body is behind the leg. I was shooting low and probably shot right through her leg. The good news is that she probably recovered. She was heading down the mountain and I was shooting at a downward angle. As a young hunter, I didn’t even think about angles and stuff. I just aimed at the point where I could no longer see the leg because the body was behind it. I’ve learned from that and I’ve taught my kids to hold a bit higher on the body and shoot for the lungs.

I know that this story is long for a blog, but this is my story and it’s a story that I look back on with fond memories. I believe that I killed my first deer when I was 19 years old. I shot the deer with my .280 Remington that I received from my parents as my graduation present. I left for Basic Combat Training after graduation and I was in Advanced Individual Training (AIT) during deer season the year I was 18, so I was unable to hunt that year. For the first few years that I was in the Army, I took leave over Thanksgiving so that I could go home to hunt at Connie and Joe’s farm. In 1993, I got married and I haven’t been able to hunt there since. Much has changed at the farm. Much of the land we used to hunt has changed ownership and the new owners don’t allow other hunters on their property. I know that if I went back tomorrow and hunted, it wouldn’t be the same, but at least I’ll always have the memories. Those memories and lessons learned have helped to mold me into the man that I am today, so I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that I had to hunt on that land. I can still see everything in my mind just as clear as day.

In closing, I want to say thank you to Connie and Joe for allowing me to hunt on their farm for all those years. Those are some of the best memories that I have as a youngster. Spending time alone in the woods with my hero, my Dad. I was also able to spend some time with my Grandpa. He’s been gone for 15 years now, so I’m thankful for the time I was able to spend with him as well.