This week as I pack to leave for my ShrewHaven deer camp in a couple days, I realize that this year is going to be special. It's my 60th anniversary hunting deer with a bow.
Even though it's been that long I still remember that first hunt in October of 1955. It was in the Jordan River Valley State Forest in northern Michigan. At that time the deer population was high and and so was my anticipation.
With my brand new 52# Bear Kodiak and cedar arrows I ventured into the woods. Back then there were no tree stands, no baiting, no instructional videos so I had zero knowledge on how to hunt deer with a bow. I found a comfortable looking log and sat down to wait for a deer to walk by.
As I recall it wasn't long before I saw a deer coming in my direction. My heart started to race, my mouth got dry and I started to tremble :scared: The closer the deer got the faster my heart raced and my tremble was turning into a shake.
Why the deer didn't hear my heart pounding or see the strange thing shaking on the log, I'll never know. :bigsmyl: There have been hundreds of encounters since that first one 60 years ago. It's impossible to remember them all but there are many that stand out and are fondly remembered.
I don't know how many more years I have to hunt but I know that I've become more appreciative of each each new season and each new encounter that I experience.
I'll be eighty next march and I've started to walk like an old man. I know it's noticeable because people are starting to hold doors for me....even women :D Every once in a while someone will ask, "Ron do you still hunt?" My stock answer is, "I'll hunt untill they throw dirt in my face"... :archer:
(http://mail2.wowway.net/service/home/~/?id=41770&part=3&auth=co&max_width=800)
Congratulations on your 60th year, that is quite the milestone. Hopefully you will have many more years in the woods, admittedly it is pretty impressive you are still hunting at almost 80. Thank you for sharing your story and have a great season.
:notworthy: :notworthy: Never met you but your one of my heroes .
Congrats on the milestone Ron !!! I sure hope I'm still hunting at 80.
Bill
Congratulations Ron, you are an inspiration to us young'uns. I'll turn 70 next month and feel the same way.
Congratulations on your 60th year, Ron!!!!!
I have to confess... I'm a "Door Holder" LMAO!!! Pretty Little Ladies... Little Old Ladies... and yes, "Old" Men! It's a respect thing, Ron... You've climbed the mountain, and you've rode the river! You have my utmost respect!!! It would truly be an honor, to hold the door for you!!!
Congratulations Again, and Good Luck this season!!!!! May the Great One watch over you, and keep you safe for another Winter.....
congrats ya old bugger :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
I hope you have many more years Ron. Like you will keep going as long as I can. Took a doe a couple of days ago and still a thrill. Denny Sturgis Sr
Congratulations...that is quite a milestone.
Good luck out there this year....
Congratulations Ron you should be proud!! It was very nice meeting and speaking with you at ETAR this year!!
Every season is a Blessing, may yours continue for many more.
:thumbsup:
Eighty and still at it. That's the kind of inspiration I need to keep at it. I'm 65 on Saturday and plan to continue until I get the shovelful in the face too.
Good luck this season and many more.
Congratulations on the milestone Ron. I can remember wanting to be a deer hunter more than anything. I also remember not know where any deer were or anyone who knew where any deer were.
They were pretty scarce in Missouri.
Maybe the fact that we are self taught makes it more special or more likely it's the years of using what we've learned that makes it all so memorable.
All I really know is I made it... and so did you! No more shaking like a dog passing peach seeds. Though I do remember that with a smile.
Like you there are far too many stories of deer and other critters long gone that are so deep in the memory bank that they most likely will never surface again. There's something a little wrong about that, but it is what it is.
Just keep putting arrows in the air my friend. You are tops.
Ya have me beat, Ron. I'm working on 50 years of bow hunting...
Ron,you are a hero of the sport,a mentor for me and many others. Stay on it I'm sure you'll have plenty of seasons ahead.
Maybe a book will be appropriate to your knowledge.
Ron, that's an inspiration for sure. Would love to share a campfire with you sometime. I'm sure the great memories will re-surface!
I'm sure you have a treasure-trove of stories of the hunts of past.
Enjoy this season at Shrewhaven, and best of luck!
Keep on trucking, Ron. You are an inspiration to us all, but especially to those of us who have seen a lot of winters. Hope that Shrewhaven gives you an opportunity at a big one this year.
Congratulations Ron, I can still remember my first one 40 years ago, 1975, 15 yeas old, I was on that log shaking also but I had a dumb deer, I put 3 arrows in 3 different trees before I put my last one in the femur artery in her back leg. I hope you have many more years of bow hunting. My Father is 79 years old and still getting out with his sons.
Congrats to you! Kill a big one this year!
:clapper: :clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
I pray that I can still hunt when I am 80, or 90, or at least up till the day "they throw dirt in my face"!
Good luck, Ron!
Bisch
Happy hunting :archer2:
Way to go! :notworthy:
Good luck Ron
Thanks for the well wishes. :) I wrote this poem a while ago, the older I get the more it applies
"Memories of yesterday"
Yesterday, when I was young there were so many bows just waiting to be strung
so many feathered shafts to send upon the wind I never thought the time for that would ever end
A thousand hunts I planned, I dreamed they'd be so grand but some just slipped away like weak and shifting sand
I never seemed to have the time to make them all real, now late in life it seems I've lost some of my zeal.
Yesterday when I was young, the hills I climbed were steep but I crested them on the run
now it seems the valleys are where I prefer to be, my legs are old, no longer do they want to carry me.
Youth and strength it seemed could conquer anything, no challenge left untried, no bow I couldn't string
I gave no thought to what the future held for me, I only knew that arrows on the wind would set me free.
Now Yesterday has past me by, but I still like to watch my arrows as they fly,
the bows I shoot are not as heavy as before, and I don't shoot them quite as often anymore
Those hunts of years gone by, though they're in the past, I have such sweet memories, and those memories will last
So I can relive again those Golden times back when, those Golden times back when,... I was young
Dang, I just turned 66, so you have been bowhunting since I was a little bitty piss ant! Congratulation, sir!
:notworthy:
I'm just a couple years behind you in the number of years bowhunting my friend. Time goes by so fast! As I sat in my stand last evening I was reflecting on each year. At least you shot at your first deer! I stalked to within 20 yds. of mine and then it fed to within 5 of me and all I did was pull the bow back and let it up...I just couldn't let go! Happy birthday by the way.
Ron, you've had a great many experiences with more to come. You're opening story has been repeated many times. 39 years ago this fall, I had my first 'encounter' while bow hunting as a 15 year old. I was 'still hunting' on an island that was probably a mile long and half mile wide in West Bay off of the peninsula I grew up on in Northwest Lower MI. They were having a special hunt to reduce the overgrown deer population. My first opportunity of my bow hunting career came when a doe came along and at ten yards broadside my arrow hit the ground next to her front hooves! I shoot a little better than that now, however the thrill is still there for me. I hope the thrill still continues for 25 more years until I'm your age as well and I hope your grandson Jordan get's that thrill next week at Shrewhaven. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
You started in 1955 Ron, the year I was born. Many more to come my friend!
You started in 1955 Ron, the year I was born. Many more to come my friend!
I had a young lady hold the door and call me Sir at the coffee shop this morning :dunno: .......Keep at it Ron and I hope you have great time at Shrew Haven this year.
Congrats Sir !
Happy 60th ol boy. Keep em coming.
Congratulations Ron ... It's great to see the passion still burning after all those years.
I'm about ten years behind you on the date of my first shot at a deer and I still recall it like it was yesterday.
Good luck on your hunt this year !
You are truly an archery and bow hunting icon, Mr. LaClair...... and I thank you for all that you have done and continue to do. Thank You Sir!
:campfire:
Congratulations Ron, I hope you have many more seasons to look foreward to! Have a great hunt with the crew at Shrewhaven. Looking foreward to reading it. Watch out for that Ghost of Armstrong Creek.
Denny :campfire:
:notworthy: Go get 'em, Sir
Hope you bowhunt another twenty years...! I'm at 28 years this season and can only pray I make 50.
Congratulations on an awesome accomplishment. This is my 33rd season bow hunting, I hope I'm still going as strong as you are when I reach your age. And there's nothing wrong with a pretty girl holding the door for you in my book. Good luck to you and all your fellow Shrew Haven camp mates.
Congrats Ron!
Guessing I'm getting close to about 40 years of bow hunting. Had some years where I succumbed to the compound, but glad I'm back to stick and string. Hope to do it until the good Lord won't let me anymore.
I shot my first game when i was four so i guess that puts me there as well. I don't mind the door holding so much, but it is alarming when girls half my age get lip stick on my bald head, give me hugs and call me sweetie because they think i am a harmless old man that adores his wife.
Unbelievable and fortunate that you've logged 60 years of enjoyment and experience. I've enjoyed the Shrewhaven posts with envy and yet thankful that I've come to know the thrill of traditional and primitive hunting. I'm 55 and started trad hunting 3 years ago, and look forward to at least another 20 years. Would have loved to meet fellas such as yourself in my youth. Cheers to you and the season.
Ron, as an aside ,your poem reminded me to ask you. Do you have or ever considered a compilation of your poems? I know I would love to have one and I bet most of the other guys would too. You probably don't remember me, but the summer before last I stopped by your shop on the way North to meet you and you gave my wife and I a personal rendition of " The Ghost of Armstrong Creek". That was a highlight of our trip. Since then I have watched it on YouTube but that afternoon was special.
Many thanks.
Frank
Congratulations and good luck,I thought starting in 1966 was a long time to be at it.
Congrats Young Man
Good luck this season
Awesome achievement my friend!
Congrats Ron. Youth slips away, steals away, when you're working, counting the years. I'm only 61, but have some major health issues which will prevent me from ever enjoying the north country I dreamed of all my life. I guess I got too busy raising a family and working to provide for them and never ever considered taking away from the family for my dream hunts. I'm happy with the back forty whitetails, but even that terrain is getting tough for me. My 22 year old son hauled out my most recent buck two days ago. I'm so happy he answered the phone! :)
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the "Shrew Heaven" thread again this fall. Please include many photos for guys like me who probably won't ever make it to the north country. If I had one pick of a place to hunt, it would be Shrew Heaven with a taste of bourbon. :) Best wishes...Ed Carneal in Va.
Congrats Ron! Wishing you many more.
Yes Frank, I remember you and your wife.
Here's a poem I wrote that tells the story of my life with a bow. The problem is every year as I age I have to update the last verse.
"A BOY'S DREAM, A MAN'S LIFE"
The bow and arrow spoke to me when I was five years old, It said, come play with me young lad if you should be so bold.
The singing string and whispering shaft was music to my soul, I knew it was a part of me when I was twelve years old.
The bow was small for a lad so tall as I grew so long and lean. A new bow I sought, and finely bought, when I turned sixteen.
The years they flew and at twenty two a bow for the bride I took. Together we hunted for whitetail deer from our camp by a babbling brook.
Soon a little bow hung along side the bows of mom and dad. Then another,.. and still another,.. three little bowmen we finely had.
As time went by the children grew, then Grand children came along. Once again, the longbow sang it's captivating song.
This new generation was soon to learn the wonders of the stick and string. They watched as Grandpa showed them the joy the bow could bring.
No one can count the arrows that this old man has sent to flight. Someday I'll shoot my very last shaft into the murky night.
But now there's great grand children to teach while there still is time. This old man, still loves his bow at the age of seventy nine.
TO BE CONTINUED
I salute you sir.
congrats Ron! You do your own thing in your own time. You should be proud!
:thumbsup:
Ron, you truly have a talent with verse as well as with a bow. I hope you have many more updates.
I am honored to share the same passion with someone of your caliber..... with your experience.
God bless,Mudd