I was a year or two away from my first deer hunt that year but watched Dad leave home with his M99 .300 Savage. When my first morning on the deer stand would arrive, I would be carrying my new M37 Winchester single shot in 16 gauge loaded with a single slug. I can still remember following behind Dad that first morning as we headed for a ground blind we had revamped on the edge of a swamp earlier in the year. Dad had sat there for several years before, but we needed to enlarge his blind to make room for me. Naturally I got cold and we started a fire that was the highlight of that first morning. Several members of Dad's hunting party were Minnesota Gophers football fans and after noon would end up at one members stand to listen to the start of the game and catch up on who had shot deer and who had missed. Then it was back to the stands for the afternoon sit. Other members of the party carried Remington autos and pumps, Marlin and Winchester lever actions and only one bolt action, a Springfield .30-06.
Last edited by mmgravy; 12/24/08.
