Found Pictures of my Dad's San Gabriel Bighorn from 1967

Islander

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Mom sent me a zip lock filled with old photos. Found these absolute gems among them.

Dad shot this old bruiser in 1967 in the San Gabriel mountains, less than an hour from our house in Los Angeles. Shot him through the eye with his trusty 22, a Marlin Glenfield Model 60. Note the 18 round magazine and magazine tube band place way out near the end of the barrel. First gun I ever shot!

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We kids devoured that meat like it was chocolate pudding!

My grandfather worked at Los Alamos labs in New Mexico when dad was a child, so my dad was raised hunting those high desert hills. I think he was a bit out of his element in Los Angeles, so he spent a lot of time hunting the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.
 
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Nice! could you get tags over the counter back then?

Doubtful. The story I've heard since I can remember is that the rangers warned my dad that there was an old ram where he was heading that was being aggressive to people, and to shoot him if he got aggressive with him. Self-defense? Poaching? We'll never know. Dad died at age 55 and we never talked about it. But that was always the story. It was a different time. If you fed your family with whatever you shot, there wasn't much concern from the general public.
 
Looks like he got him on the way home from church. My dad pulled that trick more than once when we lived outside Fairbanks.
He got home way after dark and just put him on the dining room floor till morning. Those are unbuttoned pajamas and slippers. His bare chest looks like a tie in the photo till you zoom in. Mom never left their room without a dress on. It was like Christmas for us kids. :)
 
There were many critters and trees in those mtns. back then. Bighorns were a common sight on the Crest Hwy.
I took my 1st buck there.
Overhunted then poached and burned to rock now.
 
Mom sent me a zip lock filled with old photos. Found these absolute gems among them.

Dad shot this old bruiser in 1967 in the San Gabriel mountains, less than an hour from our house in Los Angeles. Shot him through the eye with his trusty 22, a Marlin Glenfield Model 60. Note the 18 round magazine and magazine tube band place way out near the end of the barrel. First gun I ever shot!

View attachment 374152

We kids devoured that meat like it was chocolate pudding!

My grandfather worked at Los Alamos labs in New Mexico when dad was a child, so my dad was raised hunting those high desert hills. I think he was a bit out of his element in Los Angeles, so he spent a lot of time hunting the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.
Photos that cool you should have someone digitally rejuvenate them so can hang them on the wall!
 
I like your mom already.

Smiling in a photo with her kids with a dead bighorn in her living room.
That's a keeper.
Mom helped him butcher the ram right there in the dining room. She was raised on a farm.

Years later she and my step dad lived on a gold mining claim for 18 months. They drove to the end of the road and then walked their two mules about 5 miles up trail to the river.
 
That’s really cool. My grandfather had a euro mount of the bighorn he shot near LA in the early 60s. My grandmother threw all his horns in a dumpster after he died. I got a couple of his guns, but am still sad I didn’t get the horns.
 

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