At 93, Stumpf is still on the hunt

John Stumpf grew up in a time when a kid didn't have to attend a hunter education class in order to shoot a deer.

"I started hunting when you didn't need to be taught. When you were old enough to go, you went," he said, calculating that he was probably around 8 years old the first time he went hunting.

That means the Cloquet resident has been hunting for close to 85 years.

At age 90, Stumpf was still heading out to his deer stand to sit for hours on his own, waiting for the next big buck to wander into range of his rifle.

Now, at 93, he is still hunting, although now it's from a blind on the ground rather than a stand up in a tree. For the first time, he's got heat and an easy chair. He also has company, but he isn't letting that stop him either.

This year Stumpf shot a spike buck on opening weekend, using a borrowed gun for the firearms season in November.

"He gave all his guns away to the grandkids, then he had to borrow one from my grandson to go hunting this year," said Stumpf's daughter, Meredith "Bunny" Stumpf.

John said he sat in the blind for 11 hours the first day, then went out at 6 a.m. the second day and got himself a deer.

His grandson, Steven Michael Stumpf Jr., came down from Alaska to go hunting with his grandfather.

Grandpa Stumpf recalled the days when he would get Steven out of school to go hunting.

"I'd take him out when he was 6 or 7 years old," said the elder Stumpf, who was head of maintenance at Cloquet High School for 28 years. "His mom said she wouldn't write him a note, so I said I will. 'Please excuse my grandson Steve from school because I took him hunting,' I wrote, and it was fine."

He would fix up a pack sack filled with fruit, crackers and fixings for s'mores.

"One day I was up in the blind and I told him that

grampa's gonna take a nap, tell me if a deer comes," Stumpf said. "A little bit later he woke me up, 'Grandpa, I hear hoofprints coming,' he told me."

Now Steven Jr. owns a fishing lodge - Silver Sea Adventures on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. Steven Jr., his dad Steve, and his grandfather have fished and hunted for caribou on the Alaskan tundra, pheasant in North Dakota, moose in Canada plus lots of deer in Minnesota on the land near Cromwell where they've hunted for decades.

Stumpf said he's happy staying closer to home for his hunting trips these days.

"I like being out in the woods and out in the open," Stumpf said during a visit to the Pine Knot News office last week.

"And I like being with my kids and grandkids. They're good company."