Way back in time

[Grouse]

"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.

[fasteddie]

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 .

[airedale]

I pretty much hunt the same way today, no cameras no phone with me when hunting, never was one for a tree stand "too boring for me", I like being on the ground so I can move and reposition. Still hunting, tracking, spot and stalk, that is what hunting is for me. I will almost always kill the first legal deer I can draw down on.

Al

Edited February 15 by airedale

[GreeneHunter]

Same Same here .. Opened on a Monday ( when I had No Seniority at work ) and closed on a Tuesday . Built in Tree Stand and screw in steps ( private property ) carried the Deer out over my shoulder ( quite a long time ago ) !

[steve863]

33 minutes ago, fasteddie said:

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 .

Yes, even into the mid 70's when I started hunting tree stands were barely ever seen or mentioned.  Sitting with your back to a tree or still hunting was how it was typically done.  Hunted a good amount from treestands through the 90's to up to a few years ago.  Now I hunt from pop up blinds or occasionally still hunt.  Don't care to risk breaking my neck falling from a tree at my age.  No deer in the world is worth that.  Seems like these days shooting accidents are way down compared to the old days yet a good number of hunters get seriously hurt or die falling from trees.  So don't know which is better or which is worse.

 

 

 

[catskillkid]

I guess I am the same age as both of you. I started hunting from the ground and still hunted with my Outers compound bow.

I shot my first deer, a doe, my second year hunting. Now I pass more deer in one day than I used to see all season when I was just starting out.

I also hunt Jersey and some mid-west states now. Most young hunters don't know how to read game sign in the woods. My younger and a couple older buddies only know how to sit in a tree and watch over a bait pile. They will use game cameras to see what time deer visit the bait. They then only hunt those couple of hours in the day.

They don't understand how I can walk through the woods, set up in an area that I find, then see deer or kill a buck almost every time I hunt with them.

I guess there are different styles of hunting, I'll keep to the old ways that I know. 

 

 

 

[First-light]

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. 

[Daveboone]

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". 

[Doc]

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.

[Four Seasons]

10 hours ago, Grouse said:

"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.

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. 

[airedale]

16 hours ago, Daveboone said:

But...I do not miss...opening day southern tier :"barrages" at first light.

Actually I do miss the old opening days of the southern zone, no boredom and on high alert at all times, shots and deer everywhere, it was exciting. At the end of the day back at the truck the hunter's stories were big and tall.

Al

[Doc]

41 minutes ago, airedale said:

Actually I do miss the old opening days of the southern zone, no boredom and on high alert at all times, shots and deer everywhere, it was exciting. At the end of the day back at the truck the hunter's stories were big and tall.

Al

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.

[fasteddie]

Back then , the best time to shoot a deer was around 9:30 - 10 am . Hunters would get up off their butts and head back to their vehicles to get some coffee or sandwich . That would get the deer moving . Lots of hunters in the woods . Also I don't recall ever seeing anyone with a backpack back in the 60's . 

[Pygmy]

7 hours ago, fasteddie said:

Back then , the best time to shoot a deer was around 9:30 - 10 am . Hunters would get up off their butts and head back to their vehicles to get some coffee or sandwich . That would get the deer moving . Lots of hunters in the woods . Also I don't recall ever seeing anyone with a backpack back in the 60's . 

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...

[Nytracker]

Never used tree stands until I was in my 20s. Bow hunting 10 feet in the air on 2x4 platform. I had a cousin who use to climb up in trees. Gramps  use to say tree stand hunting was for cheats and stupid hunters that can't hunt. First commercial stand I ever seen was a climber a friend used one trip. He went up about 15 feet and sat down. I  hunted until dark and waited for him at the truck for an hour. Walked back up and found him at the bottom of the tree. It let loose when he stood to shoot at a buck and he slid down the tree to the ground and broke an ankle. 

I miss the hunting back in the 80s. Use to hunt huge tracks of land go in at dark and out at dark. Pocket of shells ,a Case knife, a rope  a PBJ sandwich and a bottle of Pepsi for the day.

Hunted in tennis shoes because those damn green rubber hunting boots were heavy and loud. Think they were called great northern.

Actually did a few pot and pan drives when I was to young to carry a gun.

Probably really not as great as I remember  but I would give anything to go back and hunt with my gramps and uncles like that one more time .

 

 

[First-light]

LOCK ON STANDS WRE THE FIRST WE USDED!

[Daveboone]

23 hours ago, airedale said:

Actually I do miss the old opening days of the southern zone, no boredom and on high alert at all times, shots and deer everywhere, it was exciting. At the end of the day back at the truck the hunter's stories were big and tall.

Al

You never ducked any slugs from the barrages then....I did. 

 

[Daveboone]

8 hours ago, First-light said:

LOCK ON STANDS WRE THE FIRST WE USDED!

49        bucks at Dicks.  In the woods by 5:30, we screwed our pegs in the tree as high as we dared, then wrapped the "climbing sling" around the tree to hang from as we pulled the Lock On up and strapped it in place. I can remember a couple times ...rather than risk the damn pegs getting down, I just hung from the platform and dropped!.

[steve863]

Another vivid memory from yesteryear was seeing hunters transporting their deer outside their vehicles.  Don't see that very often anymore.  People went hunting with their everyday cars or stationwagons in those days.  These days most have a truck or large SUV of some sort so most deer are getting put inside the vehicle.  The only thing hauled on the outside these days might be the $10K 4 wheeler used to take the hunter the 300 yards or less to their treestands and then hopefully help haul the deer back out if they get one.  Seems like all you needed in the old days to drag one out was a rope that only cost a couple of dollars.  LOL   Things were much simpler then and the hunters a hell of a lot tougher. 

[fasteddie]

Here's a couple from the 90's .

[DirtTime]

Even when I started hunting deer in the mid 80's tree stands weren't common. For most of us a tree stand was sitting in the crotch of a tree limb 6-7' off the ground. The bow hunters were about the only guys using them. Woodland military was the camo of choice, if you used camo, and 90% of NY was shotgun only. Opening day sounded like a war, and red plaid was far more dominant then camo. Hunter orange vests speckled the woods of public land as well as that red plaid. Diners packed from 3AM forward, and no one cared about scent control and smoked cigarettes while pumping gas in their hunting clothes.

Those Monday openers were the most skilled days from work and school.

 

Times have changed a lot. Cell cams tell people where the deer are at any given time, instead of wearing out boots hunters wear out ATV tires, a compass is now a cell phone, and guys have more camo choices then women have hair color options. Yessir, things sure aren't the way they used to be.

[Doc]

I don't know how many will agree with me, but It seems to me that hunting was a lot more fun back then. Most of the strategies came from one's own reasoning instead as from a video or seminar from some supposed "expert". The hunt was all about me vs. the deer, without any concern for who I was going to beat out in some nonsensical scoring system.

It used to be that the conversations at the Monday morning gatherings at work among all the hunters (and there were a bunch of us) centered on that 4-point buck that somebody flung an arrow at, or the huge tracks that someone found on the trail that they were watching. Getting a deer with the bow was a super accomplishment......Any deer, buck or doe.

Now the workplace gatherings to discuss hunting activities don't even happen. Nobody wants to hear about any of it. And if you do talk about a deer that you get the first thing asked is, "What did it score?" If it happens to be a doe, everyone goes back to work without comment or the conversation switches immediately to the new tractor that somebody bought to work their food-plot, or the new lease that they managed to lock up for their own hunting.

It's a whole different activity with hunters now being pressured to compete against each other. We even have rules and regulations for keeping score in our inter-hunter competitions. Altogether different attitudes now. I have to wonder how much effect these new attitudes of hunter to hunter competitions have on the declining hunter participation.