William Tapply F&S Article

[ssramage]

Ran across a quote by William Tapply today that I had never heard so I "Googled" it and found it to be pretty good. It came from a F&S article in Dec 2000.

The below quote really stuck out to me as a father of 3 young children (2 sons and a daughter). I look back on all the times my dad let me tag along and am so thankful for those times. We don't get to hunt together as much anymore, but I can't explain how much I miss it and remember it fondly.

"I hunt because my Father hunted, and he took me with him, and so we built a bond that I still cherish. I hunt because it links me with the boy I used to be, and the young man my Father was then."

https://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/2011/03/fs-classic-why-i-hunt/

 

[Silver Britches]

I was blessed to have an outdoorsman as a father, who took me hunting and fishing from a very young age. We still fish and hunt together today, and looking forward to the upcoming season. I love my father dearly. Couldn't ask for a better father and friend.

North American Whitetail magazine had a great article I read many years ago, that is similar to this one.

 

[kc65]

That quote hangs proudly in my fish n game room and on the wall of my sons den...Come July it will hang in the bedroom of my first grandson....

 

[Jim Boyd]

My old man was reprehensible (at best) but he did instill a love of outdoors.

If there was something great I could say about him was that he did not limit the 7 kids. If you thought you should do something, he would tell you have at it.

Over 20 years dead, I work to not be like him but the genetic ties are strong.

Great, great post by @ssramage.

 

[alwayslookin]

Great article!

 

[EAGLE EYE 444]

The above referenced article was kind of like living my life as well. Thank you so much for sharing this link about.

**************

I was always very fortunate while growing up because I had a Father that took the time to teach all of us 6 kids the proper respect for others and to always do our best to help others in need. I remember hunting together several times with him and my other two brothers.

He was the ultimate outdoorsman in every respect and everyone always loved and admired him. He surely grew up "old school" and he shared so much of this information especially with me being the youngest. He taught me so many life skills that I still frequently use in my daily life and the majority of these things turned out to be so simple if people would take the time to think things through first before trying something 3-4 times the wrong way and then realize that it doesn't work yet.

He was also the ultimate hunter as he grew up in an era that you couldn't afford to waste any ammunition and he certainly made every shot count. His passion was quail hunting and he always had some of the finest bird dogs in the State season after season after season. His fantastic eyesight along with his unmatched skills on hunting and shooting quail made him a legend of sorts in Lincoln County and several surrounding counties as well.

My Father hated it when the state began to import more deer and turkeys into Georgia because he always felt that was when the quail hunting started to decline. He really knew the woods really well and within a few years of seeing more deer and turkeys, he proved that the quail had lots more lice and ticks on them as a result. One afternoon, he came in from hunting and laid about 6 quail onto the white porcelain top of the drying rack area of the double sink in the kitchen. After about 5 minutes when he was going to take them back outside to clean them, he showed us all of the crawling lice and ticks that had just came off of these quail. I would have never believed it if he hadn't shown us. You could easily see them on thet bright white surface. That was a valuable lesson that day for sure. He always hated deer and turkeys because of that fact and he only killed about 3-4 deer and maybe 6 turkeys during his lifetime. Of course back in those days, it wasn't many deer in our area and the first ones that I remember seeing in our neighborhood was around 1965-1967.

I did convince him a few times for us to go deer hunting together but he surely hated the idea of freezing his rear-end off in doing so but he went just to satisfy me. Several years later, my Father-in-law convinced him to go deer hunting as well. My Father went but he was more killing time than anything else because he didn't want my FIL to go by himself. After about an hour, he saw a squirrel that was "barking" up in a tree as it was looking straight downward. I remember my Father saying that he knew that it was barking at a deer most likely. A couple of minutes later, out stepped a nice buck and my Father shot it right in the top of its head right between the antlers and the buck was dead immediately. I remember he and my FIL talking about it later and he told my Father that he just about missed the deer completely and then my Father said, I just didn't want to waste any meat from it. (Who would ever think to shoot right between the antlers as such BUT that was my Father's way.) This was with a 12 gauge Browning with a rifled slug too. My Father knew that at that 50 yard distance, the slug would rise about 6-8" in that shotgun. I have never forgotten so many conversations with my Father and my FIL from back then. The sad thing is that the rest of my family was preparing ourselves for my Father to die from progressive lung cancer when my FIL died very unexpectedly at 55 years old from his 5th heart attack. My Father died just 3 1/2 months later on his 68th birthday.

I would not trade the fact of growing up like I did for all of the money that has ever been printed. I know that without any doubt, I am one of the most fortunate people on this earth.

Thank you for allowing me to share some wonderful memories about my Father.

The memories of my Father have given me so many smiles, laughs, and of course, lots of tears since July 6, 1980. MOST OF ALL IT MADE ME A FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS OF TAKING CARE OF FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS AND BEING A MAN OF MY WORD AND CONTINUING TO DO MY BEST TO HELP OTHERS IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE DURING MY DAILY LIFE.

 

[oldguy]

That quote hangs proudly in my fish n game room and on the wall of my sons den...Come July it will hang in the bedroom of my first grandson....

COOL!