Never too old to hunt
CHERRY TWP — No place like home?
When it comes to hunting, that’s the only place for Bob Simmons, 85, of Cherry Township.
“He’s been hunting deer all his life, but for the past 20 years or so, he’s only hunted on our property,” said Rosemarie Simmons, his wife.
Of course, he — and the deer — still have plenty of room to roam. The Simmons family owns a 130-acre farm in Cherry Township. Eighty of those acres are forest land.
Simmons bagged an 8-point buck at 11 a.m. Monday — the first day of gun season — while hunting with his son and daughter-in-law. It marked the first time he’s gotten a deer since turning 80.
“There’s a big rock about 10 feet high in the woods,” Simmons said. “My son built me an eight-feet high tree stand with sliding windows in it. That’s where I hunt from now.
“That’s where I got this buck from.”
Simmons has been a hunter for 73 years — his father took him rabbit hunting when Simmons was 12 — and he’s harvested plenty of deer. The biggest buck he ever shot was a 9-point.
“This one (Monday’s 8- point) almost got it,” he said.
Simmons still raises cattle on the farm. He and his wife used to raise white-tail deer, but have since sold them all off.
“It got to be a little too much for us,” Rosemarie said.
Simmons has an 18-point deer rack mounted in his home, courtesy of one of the bucks he raised.
“He just shed that thing. ... We gave the deer we raised feed. They ate much better than the ones living in the wild,” Simmons said.
Simmons ventured into the woods at approximately 6:30 a.m. and planned to hunt for a few hours each day during this first week of gun season.
That was his annual approach toward deer season for the past few years.
“Of course, that plan is done with now,” Simmons said.
“The past few years, Bob has gone out there and nothing ever happened for him,” his wife said. “This time, he was definitely on his game.”
