Early interest

[MD]

As soon as I was old enough to understand my dad went hunting for deer I wanted to do it too.

 

[Royzo]

Hats off to your dad for getting you involved in hunting.

 

[track]

Awesome! Congrats to you're father for raising you in the outdoors. The barrel of you're dad's rifle appears quite long.

 

[FLHTCUI]

Very Cool MD.
Rob

 

[45ACPKING]

Wish I had hunting memories with my dad but he did instill in me my love for the outdoors.
It's so cool to see those pictures MD, can't wait to see more.
I have the pictures from my first deer but i was in my late 20's at the time.

 

[MD]

Wish I had hunting memories with my dad but he did instill in me my love for the outdoors.
It's so cool to see those pictures MD, can't wait to see more.
I have the pictures from my first deer but I was in my late 20's at the time.

I was without a camera 53 years ago almost to the day one October morning when I got my first deer on a hunt with my dad in the meadows off the Holberg road between Port Hardy and Holberg on northern Vancouver Island. I was 17. it was a 4x5 blacktail and I have no pictures and the lost the antlers years ago.

 

[MD]

This is my dad in me in the fall of 1970 at the ruins of a homesteader's cabin up off the Holberg road where we used to hunt. It had been intact with a solid roof and everything for about 40 years after it had been abandoned in 1930, but in the winter of 1969/70 the snow was so thick and heavy it collapsed the roof. I had seen it when it was still standing and again, a huge regret is that I never photographed it or spent a night there. My dad did. In fact he hiked up there in the 1950s when the trail was still distinct and the logging road that eventually passed nearby had not been built.

I hiked in and tried to find it three years ago but didn't locate it to see what's left.

 

[MD]

Awesome! Congrats to you're father for raising you in the outdoors. The barrel of you're dad's rifle appears quite long.

That is some kind of Lee Enfield. I remember him having one later when I was 10 or so but I sure don't remember the barrel being that long. The one I remember had a heavy reddish brown stock and pretty high quality sporter rear and front sights. I have a feeling it might have been a factory sporter. After my father got a Winchester Model 43 in .22 Hornet he hunted the Island deer with that, loaned the 303 to a drinking buddy and we never saw it again.

In fact, it might even have been a Lee Speed rifle.

https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/this-old-gun-lee-speed-sporting-rifle/

 

[crazy_davey]

That barrel is crazy long! Great pics for sure!

 

[LittleBoyLefty]

Those are some great, nostalgic photos. Thank you for sharing them, MD!

 

[conor_90]

Looks like you were a pretty groovy dude in 1970 MD

Thanks for sharing

 

[Pete G]

Was hoping to see dates on the early ones.......Guessing mid 50 's ? We are close to being of the same vintage !!

 

[MD]

Was hoping to see dates on the early ones.......Guessing mid 50 's ? We are close to being of the same vintage !!

That would be 1954 in which I'm wearing the little bonnet at 18 months, 1955 when I'm a squirmy 2 1/2 year old and 1956 where I'm 3 1/2 and wanting to participate holding the deer head up.

 

[MD]

Looks like you were a pretty groovy dude in 1970 MD

Thanks for sharing

The look wasn't unusual for the time, but I admit that I had a bit of a head start on some of my friends.

 

[Wolfofwinters]

Awesome photos! Thanks for sharing.

 

[MD]

The first photo in this thread appears in my upcoming book "Past the end of the Road -- Port Hardy in the mid-century" currently in the design and final editing phase to be published and officially released March 6, 2024 by Harbour Publishing.

 

[marty06]

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

 

[irishdannyo]

Brilliant photographs! Thanks for posting