Bad Hunting Mentor but Good Hunting Buddy.

norman1wv

FNG
Joined
Jul 27, 2018
Messages
22
Location
Wv
I have had a long experience with a bad hunting mentor. If you are interested in reading a long story, continue reading.

This person was my uncle. I was 16 and for the first time ever, Hunter Safety classes were mandatory for all new hunting licence's in my state. I always went hunting with my other uncle, who actually had good hunter ethics and was somewhat knowledgeable about hunting in general. He taught me how to be safe with a gun and how to shoot. We hunted squirrel and rabbit. One x-mas a long box was under the tree. It was later discovered to be a .243 .. I thought that next season it was time to deer hunt.

This uncle didn't deer hunt much. His idea of hunting was to step out of the truck, walk 50 yards or so... and sit there. This worked for him, but wasn't my cup of tea.

Roy. Roy was the uncle this post is about. Roy is the half brother to the uncle mentioned above. He hunted with a marlin 30-30 lever action with Tasco 3x9. He hunted for 10 years and never bagged a deer. He brought home many "give a aways" or fresh road killed deer. He was the only person local that I could hunt with so I was kinda stuck with him. He smoked while he hunted which I don't like to do. I never saw him sight in his gun. He always knew where the deer would be but most of the time I saw more action far away on my own. I started to wonder about my hunting buddy.

I'm a very curious person like most people are. Even as a teenager I liked to research the things I'm most interested in. This time in my life it was hunting. I started to ask him questions that I knew the answer to already. Here are some examples.

Roy, you just missed that deer and it was only 40 yards away, are you sure that gun is sighted in? --- Yea, the guy at the store where I bought it 4 years ago said that it was set from the factory. I don't want to change it, because its set where its supposed to be. ----- OK... I sighted in my .243.. I know it wasn't where it needed to be.

Roy to me: So do you know why its bucks only season right now? (um.. no why?).. because all the does have babies in November and if you kill a doe, that means 1 or 2 babies are going to starve. OK... at least ole Roy got 1 or 2 correct. Never in November though, and doe season is right next to buck season, sometimes running concurrent in some counties so these deer must raise them fawns pretty quick eye?

Roy bought a muzzle loader kit one year. He put it together. There was a defect in the nipple where the cap fits. I spotted it right off after the first "no fire", but he insisted it was ok. The hole leading through the nipple wasn't drilled all the way through. This gun would not fire. All it needed was a new nipple. He removed the bullet with a puller several times along with soaking it in water to try and neutralize the charge. (This is no lie) Roy took this "non firing" gun hunting during muzzle-loader season.

Sometimes I wonder why he would do this. I wouldn't leave the house with a non firing gun. Why?

This past season I decided to visit Roy. The last time we hunted together was 1990. He will turn 76 this spring hopefully. He still had that old Marlin 30-30. Hardly a scratch, same old Tasco 3x9. My .243 has been gone for years. I asked to borrow it which he gladly said for me to take it. I took it home and zeroed the scope. It wouldn't hit paper at 50 yards. I hunted all season with that gun. I went out a few times but was "lazy" and didn't feel like walking much. (just like first uncle mentioned lol)

It made me think back about how Roy pointed out to me for the first time what a rub and a scrape was, how he would go anywhere I wanted to go hunting whether or not his gun would even fire or not. Roy wasn't the best mentor, but he was a pretty darn good hunting buddy.
 
Joined
Sep 29, 2019
Messages
33
Great story reminds me of one of my hunting buddies from college


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clperry

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 5, 2019
Messages
217
Good story. Nice to have a Roy from time to time.


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jkdrgn

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 27, 2019
Messages
133
Good story. Yes, my father in law is a "Roy". He had five girls, then two son-in-laws who don't hunt, so when I joined the family, he was thrilled to have a son who hunts!

However, our styles are very different, and he always has to be the one teaching me, regardless of actual experience. So I have been learning how to humor him on his hunts, but I still do my hunts my way.
 
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