After reading these peccadilloes, misdemeanors and felonies I am significantly impacted mentally and provoked into confessing. Throwing myself on the mercy of my peers. Thus I ask you to help me seek redemption and cleanse my soul before I expire ! In witness of the great maker.

#1. My first sin was when I was around 8-12 years old. Can't remember. My brother was 2 years old. At Christmas time we visited our Grandpa, Will Snider, in Chariton County Missouri. We two alone, unaccompanied by any adult, hunted rabbits and quail, out of season, without a license, both on his property and on adjacent lands owners who were unknown to us.

#2. My second sin was when I booked a moose hunt in Ontario, Canada. At that time I as a young Guy, Single, working in the drilling industry in Venezuela. I has two weeks vacation each two years. My Canadian selection was a dismal mistake. My guide and I boated up to a very remote cabin and spent 8 days. I saw one moose on the third day in the water and shot. My guide said I was foolish to shoot because of the extreme distance. At the expiration of my 8 days I opted to stay a second session which the lodge owner agrees to. On the 16 th day he said I had to clear out as the cabin was booked.

He came up to get me in a boat. On the way back we saw, fortuitously a bull moose running on the shore line. He headed to shore AND SHOUTED shoot.

Mind you it was illegal to shoot moose in Ontario from a boat. So I obeyed. Combined with the bouncing of the boat up and down and the moose running I connected on the 5th shoot. To put some impetus to this factual event my rifle was a 25-05 Neidner which the guide told me was pitifully in adequate.

I took the carcass home spread it around among family members and rented a frozen food locker for the remaining.

I have some more confession but for the time being I throw myself on the judgment of my fellow hunters. Please don't judge me too harshly. I have sinned and I seek redemption.

You got me beat. Now I don't feel so guilty for shooting a doe (many years ago) in a Texas county where only bucks 3 point or better were legal. Oh, this was in company with another guy hunting on a place where I "thought" we had permission. It was good, though. GW

On my first deer hunt, age 16, I shot a mulie doe from the hip when she exploded from about two feet in front of me. It was pure reflex. I never told a soul until many years later. I'd guess the statute of limitations has run out. Today is my 72nd birthday.

More:

But I'm holding back on the Good stuff. It's too private. Shocking. Guides completely off the rails.

When I was around 5 - 6 years old my Mom sent my brother and I to visit my Aunt Josie and Uncle Bob in Marceline. Mo, for the summer. I stayed with Josie and my brother was sent to my Grandpas farm.

Josie made me take a nap every afternoon. I slept in their bed on Uncle Bobs side. It was a poster bed. He had a .45 Colt revolver fully loaded in a holster with belt hanging on the post. He only admonished me to not touch the gun and I never did.

When my brother and I got together on Grandpas farm hunting, my Uncle Bob loaned my brother his Browning A-5 semi auto 12 gauge shotgun and my Grandpa loaned me his New Aubrey 12 gauge with cocking and Damascus steel barrels.

NO-ONE ever taught either of us anything. NO instructions. We figured it out ourselves. I'll have to say that both of us understood the dangers and never did anything stupid.

How times have changed from the old days and the old timers. I'm sure that all know what I am implying now with the new safety aspects of guns and minors.

As a young teen I spent summers on a ranch we hunted elk at in season for many yrs. The rancher had me as a tag along for five summers, then back for elk season later.
He/we shot at least one elk every summer, sometimes two. We went out cutting dead tree's for firewood and saw LOT'S of pine squirrels one day. He said we should get a bunch and have a feast. So the next day while he fixed mowing machines, I took my .22 and went up to fill a gunny sack with bushy tails. I had 30 some. This was Aug about 1960. I'd just shot two or three and was picking the last one up when I saw a flicker beside a tree trunk about 50' away.

Leaned against the nearest tree to make another shot and I'll be damned if it wasn't a bull elk peaking around to see what was going on. Since we'd been out for 'meat' a couple times and didn't see any and I had been the beef killer for several years, (a beef a week for 7wks for 4yrs by then). I took aim with the scope and when the bull turned his head just right I put one under his ear.

You should have seen the ranchers reaction when I dumped the bushy tails out and the back straps fell on the table too. We went back the next morning and trimmed off the rest of the meat.

Old guys teaching gullible young boys such bad nasty illegal habits should be against the law! I got caught with a deer one day by a warden while in the middle of dressing it out. He'd grown up with my Dad and recognized me. Chewed me out and helped load the buck on the horse and told me to NEVER EVER poach game again.

George