Hunting Hero's?

[shaman]

I got done reading Meshack Browning's autobiography recently-- loved it.  He's not my hunting hero, but his story is easily the most exciting deer hunting book I've ever found.

Jim Corbett's books on tigers probably are the most exciting hunting books I've read overall.  Zowie!

Heroes?  No.  I can't say either one are folks I would want to emulate.

I have a great uncle Ernst.  He died long before I was born. He was head warden for a district in the Black Forest. He was Hermann Göring's favorite;  Hermann and the boys used to come down from Berlin to hunt with him on a regular basis.   My Dad hunted with Ernst once-- said his command of the game was astounding.  My Grandfather's living room in Miami Beach was filled with excess trophies shipped to him by his Brother in Law,  along with a collection of cuckoo clocks and assorted Black Forest bric-a-brac.  This odd mix of Black Forest Jagende Besitzhaus meets beach house kitch seemed perfect normal to me. I guess that's why I'm a bit eccentric.  Anyhow, if I had to aspire to anyone's example, it would be Ernst Koeppe. He was a great hunter and a respected member of the community.  He was fully immersed in the troubles of the age, but managed to stay above and apart from it.  He knew his game. He knew how to manage and protect his game, and yet he also knew how to show a hunter a good time.  Most of all, he knew how to take a natural resource like the wild game and turn it to profit for all involved. If I could figure out a way to do that in my life, I'd feel I'd done something great.

The other heroes I have are a pair of guys-- Mom's Dad, Whitey and  her Mom's Dad, Claude.  Whitey and Claude were a real match.  Whitey was a farm boy from Brecksville who'd been born the last child and only son of aging Welsh parents.  Claude was an accountant who'd gotten tired of the rat race and become a carpenter-- head carpenter for May & Company in Cleveland.  Claude was the younger father that could still do stuff with the young Whitey.  Whitey was the son Claude never had.  The two of them chased birds all over the farm fields south of Cleveland, and fished everywhere they could . Grandad Claude had an old door filled with muskie heads taken from the Cuyahoga River-- big enough to put your head in.  Whitey knew how to train dogs for the field. Mom grew up dressing his hunting dogs in doll clothes.  When Claude finally gave out and took to his rocker, the party ended. Things were never the same again.  I used to fish with Grandpa Whitey, but he always seemed a bit impatient and peeved.  We never did the big trips together.  The bird guns always stayed in the closet, and the big pike lures stayed in the tackle box.

As a result, I've tried to keep myself available to my boys.  After years of trying, I finally got a week with my #2 son, and went straight up to Canada and fished Lake Nipissing for a week--the way Whitey and Claude used to hit Houghton Lake every year.  In some instances we were using the same tactics. In some instances we were using the same lures.  I was sure to bring the stout pike rod that Whitey bought me, the year before he died.

My sons have a dad that drags them out every weekend to scout and hunt. We fish whenever we can. They don't know it. I'm sure they're taking it for granted. I remember Whitey and Claude. I know how short and how precious the show really is, and how you have to grab as much of it as you can before it's over.

[bckklr]

welp i recon i'd have to say pops for takin' me when i was a youngster
 
as far as a tv personality,it would have to be jim neighbors,alan altizer,& steve webber i haven't ever seen any of the 3 on tv but i have watched countless hours of videos that they have put together & these cats have always kept it real every deer they shoot ain't 170"

[Squirrelhawker]

When I think of this topic I think of a guy named Skip. I was a young lad of 14 or 15, Skip was in his thirties. It wasn't deer that day it was geese. Those days not many were around. The farmers son had a stamp and wanted to go with us on the sneak.
 
I waited with the farmers son where we thought they would fly once all heck broke loose. "All heck" was Skip. Who we watched crawl on his belly 50 yards through the mud to get within range of the flock that had set down in the middle of the field. Nowadays we'd just come back the next morning with dekes and shoot some other geese that would sooner or later show up. Back then it was primarily just migrants and when you had an opportunity you often had to capitilize on it.
 
We waited impatiently watching Skip crawl practically with plain sight of the geese, hoping when they flushed we would also get some shooting.
 
Finally the Canadas had had enough and when they got up off the ground, we heard Skips 58 bark twice. 2 birds fell. The landowners kidan I never got to pull the trigger as the flock decided to slip across the wind.
 
If you've gambled the time to read this you're maybe wondering what the deal is.
 
After crawling across the field in the mud, making a brilliant sneak and dumping two fat Canadas which at the time was way more huge than today, he turned and offered them both to the landowners son.
I was 15. I was speechless. The farmers son would only accept one.
I never forgot that moment. I will turn 51 this winter.
Skips gone now. But what he did in front of two impressionable teenagers lives on. At least with one. The irony is, most heroes never know they're being one at the time.

[oneshot 1]

I don't know if I would call it Hero or Buddy,but I can not think of anyone I'd rather spend time in the Woods or Camp my wife.
 
I met Fred Bear back in the '60's.Learned alot from him.I shared Camp with Hank Willams Jr. one time in Idaho.Met Ted Nugent couple times.I agree with him as far as Hunting and Guns.I don't agree with what he did to get out of the Draft.
 
oneshot

[buckhunter21]

Even though I'm mainly self-taught as far as hunting goes, I would have to say my Pops since he took the time to go out with me when I was younger.  He doesn't bowhunt anymore, but he still gun hunts the first weekend for sure and maybe a day or two after that.  It's an annual tradition for us, and I wouldn't have it any other way!
 
As far as professional heroes, I'm a big fan of the Drury brothers and also Lee and Tiffany Lakosky.  They both have very educational shows...More so the Drury brothers but the Lakosky's do as well.  Plus, it's 100% fair chase....Can't go wrong with that!

[Robert Rowland]

I have no hunting heros. I am a self-taught hunter. My dad just wasn't into it.
If I had to pick one person that I admire for the things he accomplished concerning hunting and conservation, it would be Teddy Roosevelt.

[EatDeer]

Chuck Adams, and Jim Shockey are my hero's. Chuck has completed the slam with a bow, and Jim has done the slam with a muzzel loader.

[jacannon63]

My old friend Charlie, the best hunter I have ever known.

[ScootD]

I would have to say my major hero is my father. Although I didn't get to go hunting with him but one time he tought me how to shoot and how to quit being a momma's boy and go up north with him to go hunting. Now my father passed away when I was 14 so I didn't get to do all the things most teenage boys get to do with their father and I regret not hanging on to hunting after he passed. After the passing of my father I would have to say I have to hunting heroes, the first one being my mother. I pick my mother out of everyone because she took me to the store to buy my first bow and also for me to get my shotgun. Not only did she do all this she also kept the land that my father owned so I now have 20 acres to hunt on instead of hunting on public land.
 
 
My second hero would have to be my uncle Ron. He has not always been there but since I was 21 he has been trying to get me to go hunting with them on opening day of gun season. He has been my go to guy whenever I need to just talk about hunting. Although he has been hunting for about 30 years without getting a single deer I still take what he has learned and taught me and apply it to what I have taught myself.
 
 
As far as professionals I would have to say Larry Weishun. On his show World Of Whitetail he uses a pistol to hunt and always does it in the fair chase style. Now granted he hunts on privately owned hunting land, he always gets in there with the deer and makes clean ethical shots every time. As far as the Nuge I have never seen him hunt, but being a fellow michigander I like his music and respect everything he does for the sport of hunting.
 
 
Good luck and safe hunting to all!!!!

[JPH]

God bless your Dad Scoot. You are making him proud.
 
Ahhh...and I hate to be this way, but you may want to look a little deeper into Larry Weishun. His definition of "fair chase" may not be yours. You did not mention high fences, but you seemed to imply that they are something you would not approve of. Larry is a big high fence guy. So is Nugent.

I am not judging them one way or another, but I thought you should know that.