Like Father, Like Son

Born To Hunt…

 

Bowhunting For Deer. By H. R. Dutch Wambold, The Stackpole Company, 1964. Jacket endorsement blurb by Howard Hill; Preface by Fred Bear. A Classic Book On Hunting The White-tailed Deer. From The Collection of Michael Patrick McCarty, Publisher of Through a Hunter's Eyes
Bring On the Deer

 

Veteran’s Day, Any Year

 

It has been said that hunter’s are born, not made, and perhaps this is true. Far be it for me, to disagree.

Hunter’s eyes are born of blood, and I, like my father, and his father before him, would seem to prove that out. Well-worn deer trails, mist-filled bogs, and oceans of pitch pines and blackjack oaks were always a large part of our daily landscapes. I cannot help but think that we were all so much better off for our youthful visions.

Just below is a long forgotten photo of my Dad’s first white-tailed deer, taken with a hand-me-down shotgun in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. As you can see, it was a good one too. He was sixteen years old.

I never did hear the story of that first buck, but I have no doubt that it was a big adventure of some kind. Or at least I would like to think so, knowing my father’s penchant for getting the job done. South Jersey was still a wild place in the 1930’s, and a boy could really stretch out and do some roaming. I surely would have loved to have explored it all back then.

Below that is a photograph of my first big game kill with a bow & arrow, taken not very far away from where my father stood for his photo.  I was also sixteen at the time, and I could not have been more excited, and proud.

The doe may have been small, and the picture is now tattered, and faded, but the memory is not. I remember everything about that hunt as if it was yesterday, and it remains a thrill that has not nearly begun to wear off after all of these many years.

There are far worse things in life, than to be born a hunter…

Good Memories!

 

A vintage hunting photograph of a Teen-Aged Boy Carrying a Buck White-tailed Deer Over His Shoulder Which He Harvested With a Shotgun in the Late 1930's in Southern New Jersey. The deer hunter is Mark A. McCarty Sr. From The Collection of Michael Patrick McCarty
Mark A. McCarty Sr. With His First Whitetail Buck. Circa 1939

 

A Teen-Aged Boy and a White-tailed Doe, Taken with a Bow & Arrow in the Mid-1970's in Southern New Jersey. From The Collection of Michael Patrick McCarty
Michael Patrick McCarty With His First Bow Kill Whitetail. Circa 1974

 

*My father became an avid bowhunter in the 1950’s, and I am sure that he would have hunted his first deer with archery tackle, if he could have. New Jersey did not hold its first special bow & arrow deer season until 1948, only ten years before I was born.

 

See Some of the History Of The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife Here

 

By Michael Patrick McCarty

 

You Might Also Like The Gift

 

 

A Vintage Hunting Photograph of Mark A. McCarty Sr. With a Harvest of Several white-tailed deer Bucks, Taken During Shotgun Season in Southern New Jersey in the 1930's. From the Collection of Michael Patrick McCarty, Publisher of Through A Hunter's Eyes

 

“A Bowhunter is a Hunter Reborn – Forever…” – Michael Patrick McCarty

“There is much mystic nonsense written about hunting but it is something that is much older than religion. Some are hunters and some are not.” Ernest Hemingway, An African Journal, 1972

 

Bowhunting For Deer by H. R. “Dutch” Wambold, Stackpole, 1964,  remains a timeless classic on the subject of hunting for white-tailed deer, and I have always thoroughly enjoyed the read. So did Howard Hill, apparently, judging by the jacket endorsement blurb, and by Fred Bear, who wrote the preface. If it was good enough for them, than it is certainly good enough for me, you might say.

We generally have a copy in our used and rare book inventory, if so interested. Please email us at huntbook1@gmail.com for details.

 

 

A vintage hunting photograph of Mark A. McCarty Sr. from southern New Jersey, circa 1953, holding shotgun. Location unknown

In Memoriam

For Mark A. McCarty Sr.,

United States Army Airborne Ranger

Who Fought and Bled, for Us, in World War II

May You Find Good Trails to Follow

 

 

A Silk Commemorative Scarf, Cut From My Father's Parachute and Custom Sewn in Europe After His Last Jump in World War II. It Includes Patches of The 504th and 507th Parachute Infantry Divisions. Photograph By Michael Patrick McCarty
A Silk Commemorative Scarf, Cut From My Father’s Parachute and Custom Sewn in Europe After His Last Battle Jump in World War II.

 

A Custom Sewn Silk Commemorative Scarf, Cut From a Parachute, Showing The Parachutist’s Badge and Paratrooper Glider Patch
The Parachutist’s Badge and Airborne Paratrooper Glider Patch

 

"Thunder From Heaven" - The Airborne and Special Operations Patch of the 17th Airborne Division, Which Was Over the 507th Parachute Regiment During World War II
“Thunder From Heaven” – The Airborne and Special Operations Patch of The 17th Airborne Division

 

The "All-American" 82nd Airborne Division Patch, Earned While Serving With the 504th Parachute Infantry During World War II
An Airborne and Special Operations Patch From The “All-American” 82nd Airborne Division

 

5 thoughts on “Like Father, Like Son”

  1. OMG, where did you get that awesome pic of our dad? Your articles are wonderful. So detailed. I can feel myself in your boots sometimes. Keep them coming.

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