By Jeff Kurrus
Ninety-six-year-old Dwayne “Shorty” Hahn sat on a couch in the family’s hunting lodge in Hordville, his eyes closed as I approached. Then he turned his head and smiled. “I was napping,” he said, urging me to sit beside him so we could talk about his life of hunting.
“Shorty, how are you today?” I asked.
“Pretty good … considering my age.” He grinned as he said it, both matter-of-fact while also getting the joke.
Shorty started hunting in 1962 when he was in his early 30s, a reminder that it’s never too late to start a lifetime passion, which he has continued for a simple reason. “I like to watch the sun come up and the sun go down,” he said.
When asked about what else thrills him, or if he even gets nervous anymore when he sees a nice buck, he shook his head. “No.” Even when he shot his biggest buck — a 13-pointer — a couple of years ago? “Noooo. After 60 years … I don’t think so. Noooo.”
We discussed the nuances of hunting, from his ability to still field dress his own deer — “You get used to it” — to the knife he uses when skinning. “I use one from the ’50s. We got a lot of knives, but I use that old one. Got good steel.”
With his hand now resting on my arm, like we were old friends, Shorty and I hopped from topic to topic — from Nebraskaland Magazine and fishing to how he’s never seen a bobcat while hunting. He then asked about my family.
“How old is your dad?”
“76,” I answered.
“76,” he repeated. “Oh. Just a kid.”
He then told me his thoughts about deer hunting. “I got a little propane burner. I don’t have any fancy clothes. Just work clothes. Old pair of pants. I’ll hunt morning and night. I see most of my deer in the morning. Animals move about the same [as they always have]. You don’t have to be there when it’s dark. You can’t see when it’s dark anyhow. I park my pick-up about half a block from the stand. Deer here follow the same path every year … most between 7:30 and 9 o’clock. I don’t worry about the time.”
When asked if he’s ever taken a shot he wanted back, his answer was quick and self-assured. “No. No. I got to have a clean shot, or I won’t shoot.”
He hunts every day of the firearm season unless it gets too cold. “I get a little bit fussy when it gets cold. I don’t stay really long. If I haven’t seen anything by 9, I’ll go home.”
Last season, at the age of 95, Shorty saw four or five bucks early in the week that were all “keepers.”
“But I waited, see. I don’t want to spoil my fun right away.”
“You have time,” I said.
“All I have is time,” he said with a smile.