The Generation Gun

The Generation Gun, in my family, was the 30 caliber (.30 WCF) Lever action rifle which my father claimed was the rifle he used to kill his first deer .... when he was 5 years old.

That's the thing about Generation Guns; they are so bound up in Tall Tales and Bull-Stuff; after a while you can't tell the difference between truth and "there's no story which cannot be improved".

(And yes, I realize I've talked about this before; bear with me.)

My father (Vernon The Geek) and his brothers {Orville The Geek) and his other brother ("Shorty The Geek") ... AKA "Floyd") would get together on Thanksgiving day, and swap stories about all the deer they had killed at extreme ranges and in inclement weather. As I have mentioned before, the stories always got better with each telling.

I once saw my father, Vernon The Geek, shoot at a deer from mountain top to the other, across a hiway (which was 100 feet below us. Then he made me climb down "our" mountain, and trudge up the opposing mountain ... to find and tote down the mountain.

Yes, he had mad The Impossible Shot with a Thirty-Ought-Six rifle which was older than I was. I was astounded.

But that was only the first time. The Geek Boys love the challenge of long-distance Mule-Deer Murder, and (I think) would pass up easy shots because they were "Too Easy".




Two years later, I saw my father kill another deer on a mountainside, too far away. I was fortunate that I was only Fourteen. years old, and too small to the drag the deer up to the ridgeline where they could load it on to the truck; I only had to lug Pop's rifle, and Uncle Shorty's gun, while they dragged the carcass a couple of hundred yards up the hill to where there was a road we could drive the pick-em-up truck to tote it home.
Of course, this never happened;
I never saw my father shoot across a road, which would have been illegal.

But that fat buck tasted mighty fine!


I miss the taste of venison; it was years before I could learn to appreciate beef.