By Mike Leggett

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, November 27, 2008

DEER CAMP — Six days, two hunts, three generations, one minor miracle and a circle unbroken.

It’s easy to be sappy and saccharine with Thanksgiving columns. I am thankful, for lots of things, but I’m not sure what sharing that with readers does other than take up space.

This year I got to be part of two different events, with totally different feels and objectives, that leave me with the feeling that hunting is bigger than all of us, that it’s going to continue despite misguided attempts to end it and that actually it’s in pretty good hands.

I started last week by traveling south of Yoakum to meet old friends from the Houston area for what we wound up calling “The Last Campfire Hunt,” and I ended the week with the best compliment an old guy can get from a very special kid.

Maurice Estlinbaum had called me several weeks ago to say that our old friend Sonny Elzner wanted to go deer hunting again — he hadn’t been in three years — and that we could meet at his place in Lavaca County for an old-timers’ get together. Sonny is 77, walks with a cane and is moving pretty slow these days. That hasn’t affected his basic personality, which is Bohemian hard head mixed with old-age stubbor Click link below for full story!

From first doe to final trip, special moments happen while hunting.