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"I grew up deer hunting with no trail camera or cellphone. I climbed up in a wooden ladder stand or you sit on the ground with your back against the tree. You shot the first buck you seen , be it a spike or 8 point. There was no ”target buck”. No social media shaming. You drug it out by hand unless you were rich enough to afford a 3 wheeler. You took it usually to a country store and checked it in. Always some old hunters gathered around the tailgate congratulating you. Those were some of the best days I ever had hunting! I feel sorry for the people who will never experience this." That's how it was when I started in 1970. It was a magical time to be a deer hunter. You were lucky to get ANY buck, and a big one was a miracle. Yet we always looked forward to going deer hunting, even when we only got to go 2 days a year, the opener on Monday and the last day on Saturday. Our stands were all wood and only about 10 feet in the tree. Blaze orange was cool. We carried one knife and it was a fixed blade on your belt. We sat through some really cold and wet weather and never thought about quitting. I miss those days and the young, strong body of my youth.

Yes, that is what kept the deer moving all day long. Unlike today where everybody just sits in a tree like an owl all day, people without the assistance of space age hunting clothing and fabrics had to start moving. And with hunters everywhere moving, the day became a constant massive deer drive that kept the deer on their feet. We may have had fewer deer back then, but they were on their feet and making themselves more available. It was exciting.

My deer hunting started at age 16 in 1960, so I experienced the same things talked about above. Posted signs were something that the small family farms never wasted time putting up. The farmers back then were happy to see hunters thinning the crop-scavenging deer. Trespass was an unheard-of word. Begging for permission to hunt land was also unheard of. You could still hunt as far as your legs would carry you without ever seeing a sign. Opening day of deer season was a forgiven absence from school and pretty much expected. Hunter safety classes were held in the school bus garage on school property.....With actual guns .... Imagine that! There were no how-to-do-it videos, and only magazine articles if you happened to be a kid with enough cash to subscribe to them. How on earth did we ever get a deer? Tree-stands?.... Only 2 x 4's nailed into trees but more likely just some dead logs and brush dragged up into a ground blind. Fred Bear wrote about those in the archery magazines. Camouflage??? That was for use in wars, not deer hunting. Some old red and black checkered coat was what identified you as a hunter and not a deer. Bow hunting was done in blue jeans and whatever shirt or coat you had available. State parking lots were filled to overflowing. Cars and trucks lined the roads. Farmer's driveways were filled with cars. Antler scoring ..... I guess the systems might have been around back then, but I never heard of such nonsense until more recent years. Food plots to condition the deer to come to your gun or bow. Who the heck ever did that? Hunting was a whole lot different than today with all our new-fangled things that you HAVE to do and own to get a deer. And yet somehow we did actually get some deer. Yeah, there were a lot of times when we didn't. But hunting was more about the pursuing than the harvest. The kill was the bonus that came on top of the hunt. And you know what, with all these primitive deer-getting rules and gotta-haves, hunting was a lot more fun and there was no worrying about recruiting the next generation of hunters. That simply was the nature of humans back then, not something that you had to bribe kids with by creating special seasons. We all waited in anticipation for the proper age when we were allowed to hunt. Very different world back then. Oh, and by the way, something else we didn't have back then was locks on our doors.

I would always be sure to be on my stand from 1000 am to 2:oo pm for that very reason....Hunters got cold and had to move...Or they heard a shot in the direction of thier buddy Joe and decided to check on him..Or they went back to the truck for lunch, etc....They moved a lot of deer and I shot my share around mid day on high traffic days like upening day first Saturday, and Thanksgiving Day...

You have all winter to build a nice hickory long-bow, and then you'll have a 100% homemade traditional outfit to take a deer. What a thing that would be, to hand make your own traditional, historic hunting equipment from scratch and then take a deer with it all.

Night before the opener at the bar, Opening morning at the restaurant at 4am…If the night before was not to rough and opening night back at the bar celebrating all the days harvests. I think that would kill me today. lol. Party permits, boxes of slugs and waiting in line to be checked into Letchworth. Now it a free for all with anyone welcome. Times sure have changed.

Careful..........I am looking for a list of accomplishments and activities and finding none.

A tree stand was a 2x 4 nailed in a tree crotch.... A box of 5 pumpkin balls cost 2.25. Winter gear was a pair of "thermal" cotton long underwear under two pairs of tight jeans. A successful year we SAW a buck. Surplus rifles (Mausers, Enfields, Carcanos, Lee Enfields, Krag Jorgensons......and single barreld shotguns way outnumbered Remingtons, Winchesters , Marlins, etc. But...I do not miss...opening day southern tier :"barrages" at first light. tree to tree hunters on lots of public land. Idiots emptying thier guns at "tails".

60 years old now started at 16. Shot my very first deer on my very first deer hunt. Spike horn, it was the toast of the camp. Gutted it myself then along came an old timer and he gave me some pointers. He politely asked for the heart and liver and put them right in the back of his orange vest. I asked what he would do with them? He told me its the best tasting meat from the deer! After buying a bow we put 2x6's nailed into a tree as steps. Built a little platform and stood the whole hunt. I really do miss the guys that passed away along the years and their stories. That to me is the biggest loss. Sitting around shooting the shit with them was great.

I remember most of that . Sitting on the ground with your back against a ice cold tree . Does weren't legal to shoot unless you were wearing a Team arm band . 4 hunters could sign up to get a doe permit . Only the hunter wearing the arm band could shoot the doe . If you smoked , you had to put your cigarette down in order to shoot . Hand warmers ran on lighter fluid and smelled . When I started deer hunting in 1965 , I never heard of anyone hunting from a tree or a tree stand .