The Hunting Life

The Hunting Life
           I was cleaning out a drawer in my old shop desk and ran across an old coffee can full of memories. Memories can be of many things but a lot of my memories are of my life of hunting and the outdoors. The can contained quite a few of my old hunting licenses from my very first one up to the more recent ones. I don’t know why I even started saving these old treasures in the beginning but for whatever the reason I am so glad I did now.
            My very first issue was my 1958 Michigan small game license. I wasn’t eligible for a deer license for two more years but small game kept me busy as I learned to hunt and by the 1960 deer season I was ready. I have already written about my first buck so that is another story but I did fill my tag. From that point on until I joined the USCG in November of 1965 I had a deer tag filled including the very morning of the 15th November 1965 when I reported for swearing in that afternoon.

Small Game 1958 & 1959

Small Game on Left-Deer on Right
            Upon my discharge I immediately renewed my hunting life and my old licenses indicate I didn’t miss a year since, with the exception of one fall in California when I had to miss a season in the 1980’s. After that I continued my accumulation of licenses and never looked back. I hunted in California for small game and deer with a lone wild pig hunt to boot. In New Mexico both small game and elk along with deer and a onetime ibex hunt in the mountains near Silver City and White Sands.
            My latest hunts have all been for deer and small game right back where I started sixty some odd years ago, Upper Michigan. My license collection includes racks of bucks on the wall and old license tags from most of the years I have hunted.  A lifetime of memories in a coffee can. How blessed can a hunter be!
Chris