strothershwacker
Senior Member
We all got 'em. How bout a thread to pay honor to those that have taught, encouraged or challenged us in our hunting. Post pics!
This man, my Maternal Grandfather. He wasn`t a deer hunter because for the first 50 years of his life there weren`t any in his section of south-central Georgia. He was a turkey hunter, and the best one I`ve ever come in contact with. I killed my first one setting at his knee when I was 5 years old. I still have the call he used. One that he made that is now over 100 years old. He was a self sufficient, subsistence farmer-hunter-fisherman, a stern old man, and a strict taskmaster and teacher. He taught me most of what I know as a hunter and woodsman.
This picture was taken on his 88th birthday. He died the next year on the day before what would have been his 89th.
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That was the Ivey Kirby I never got to know. By the time I came along, he had slowed down considerably except for working the farm and I was always closer to Mama Dell anyway.
Despite that, I've actually got a couple that taught me more than any others. My father, Walt Stanley, and my brother Nick Baker. Dad would take me deer hunting back in the 70's when I was little and I would sit between his knees in the stand. He taught me a lot about wildlife and woodsmanship and everything I know about Turkeys. Nick picked up where Walt left off. Nick took me to my first Dove shoot and how to make a lot of my own hunting equipment. I was lucky!