McVay’s Way

He was born Hollister Pat McVay 100 years ago.

“I was in the third grade before I could spell (Hollister),” McVay joked during a recent interview. “So I always went by Pat.”

If a life is judged by the number of people a person has a positive influence on, then McVay’s life is rich indeed.

McVay got his first .22 rifle at age 6 and shot his first deer at age 10. He shot a trophy elk in the Missouri Breaks at age 88, when most people are eyeing retirement home living or worse.

Over the years, he’s taught thousands of youths the proper way to hunt ethically and how to properly handle firearms. He started the 4-H shooting program decades ago and pioneered hunter education in the state.

In the fall of 1956 he heard of a hunter safety program being taught in the East. He wrote to the National Rifle Association and they sent him the material and he taught his 4-H small bore shooting group the program.

There was a bill in the state Legislature that would codify the hunter safety program, but it didn’t pass until January of 1957. Hungry Horse News editor Mel Ruder called McVay from Helena to tell him it had passed.

For 62 years McVay taught hunter education, retiring in 2014 at the age of 92.

McVay was born outside of Great Falls and moved to Eastern Washington in his youth. He worked on dairy farms as a teenager.

“I put myself through high school pulling teats,” he laughed.

He had to work to help support the family. His father died when he was 12. One farmer he worked for wouldn’t even let him in the living room and they eventually fired him.

“He eats too much,” McVay laughed, recalling what the farmer said of him.

McVay also ran mule teams pulling a combine. Twenty-two mules. Six-6-4-4-2 was the setup.

“It’s easy to remember when you look at them every day,” he said.

During World War II McVay was a machinist in the Air Force.

He served three years, five months and 29 days, he said, remembering it like it was yesterday.

After the war he found work at the Grand Coulee Dam, which led to a job as a dam operator at the Hungry Horse Dam.

He transferred to Hungry Horse in 1952 and retired in 1975.

“I started the first generator at Hungry Horse,” he said.

When he wasn’t working, he was in the woods.

In 1938 he bought a .300 H&H Magnum Model 70 for $64. It took awhile to save the money. He was working at a lumber company making 35 cents an hour.

“Old Maggie. I hunted with it every year,” he said. “It was a good gun, a killing gun.”

He shot a deer with it last year, at the age of 99.

There is a lesson in every hunt.

“The beauty of the hunt is hunting. Enjoying the country and beauty and wild and everything that goes with it,” he said he taught youths over the years. “Pull the trigger and the work starts.”

He recalled that aforementioned Missouri Breaks elk. He was with his grandson Cody. They put the sneak on two bulls out in the sagebrush, but they spooked and ran away. Some other hunters came by and said they saw the bulls cross a road and go down into a canyon.

McVay and Cody snuck as a close as they could, but the bulls were still 425 yards away.

They glassed them over and McVay gave the shot some elevation adjustment and pulled the trigger. He hit the bigger bull in the shoulder, but it didn’t go down. He shot again, saw the dirt puff up from where the bullet hit and made a quick fix.

“I punched a hole in him and he dropped right there,” he said.

Cody dressed out the bull but McVay said the kindness of strangers helped him get out of the canyon. A couple of hunters gave him a ride on a four-wheeler as he tried to get up the slope.

“I was 88 years old and had a little trouble walking,” he said.

In the summers, McVay often took pack strings into the Bob Marshall with the Sullivan family. Over the years he traveled thousands of miles in the Bob and wildlands in Idaho. He once found a crashed airplane that had gone missing deep in the woods near Little Salmon. He just happened to see something red shining down the hillside. The remains of the occupants were gone, save for a few teeth. The full story is chronicled in author John Fraley’s book, “Rangers, Trappers and Trailblazers.”

But his favorite part of the Bob Marshall was the North Fork of the Sun, with its wide fields of wild timothy and herds of big game.

McVay rarely hunted in the Bob, however. Those were pleasure trips.

“Just to see the country and do a little fishing,” he said.

McVay built his own house on 40 acres, where he still lives today. His secret to longevity? He east two cloves of garlic every morning and a shot of whiskey and water at night.

“Four p.m. everyday,” he said with a smile.

A birthday party for McVay is noon to 4 p.m. March 14 at the Flathead County Fairgrounds Country Kitchen. Write down your favorite memory of McVay and bring it with you, family members ask. No gifts, please.