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Deer hunting in the " Old Days "

I didn't start deer hunting till 1986. But I do remember a story that my grandfather told me. I don't know the year, but he said several of his buddies got to hunt the Cheatham WMA the very first year it opened. He said there was one old store where you had to check in your harvest. He said a few hunters were inside chewing the fat about there hunts and only one or two even saw a deer. Then this guy comes in and said he shot an albino deer, a big spike. My grandfather said he looked more like a city slicker by the way he was dressed. But he was super excited! All the other hunters rush out to see his buck and turns out it was someone's white billy goat that had wandered away from home. My grandfather said he was so excited about it that none of the other hunters had the heart to tell him it was a goat. He didn't even know how to field dress it!😂
 
My first deer hunt was in 1960. I was 12 years old and had been hunting small game with the adults since I was 10. I wasn't allowed on a deer hunt until I turned 12.
It was in southern New Jersey, where I was born and raised. Pine forest, blueberry fields, and cranberry marshes covered much of the land of south Jersey back in those days. Deer were awful scarce, though.

My Dad posted me at a spot where I could watch a short section of open bog between two thickly wooded islands in the large, spreading commercial cranberry farm. The only legal firearm for deer in that place and time was a shotgun and buckshot. No slugs. I carried my Ithaca double barrel 12 gauge that I had just received for my birthday back in July. Both barrels were loaded with paper hulled OO buck shot.

Dad and my uncles went on to push through one of those wooded islands, hopefully to drive a buck into crossing that open ground that I was posted to watch.

They did! I heard a stick crack, and some thumping noises, then a doe broke out of the underbrush and dashed across the shallow cranberry bog, splashing water as she ran. She was followed by another doe, and then - there he was! I saw the antlers high above his head. A buck!

The buck galloped through the marsh, splashing water, as it ran full speed following the does. My eyes were big as saucers and my mouth hung open in awl. But, I quickly raised my shotgun and fired. And, fired again.

A clean miss. I had shot behind the running deer.

I didn't get my first deer until sometime in the late 1960's. I was hunting in Pennsylvania then with my uncle Frank.
 
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We didnt even have a season in some counties here in East TN when I started hunting in 1980, Knox county was last to open in the sate in 1989!! I traveled every wknd to mid/west TN for decades
 
Winchester said:
We didnt even have a season in some counties here in East TN when I started hunting in 1980, Knox county was last to open in the sate in 1989!! I traveled every wknd to mid/west TN for decades
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I remember when you had to make reservations a year in advance to get a spot in the local KOA Campground or any of the motels at my freeway exit (143 on I-40). And all of the truck plates in the motels were East TN. Every tree around the Days Inn would have deer hanging in them. Now, you can hardly tell it's deer season at the local motels. Maybe a dozen trucks at the Days Inn that are obviously hunters.
 
In the early and mid 60's I was too young legally to hunt where I lived at the time. But I was always allowed to tag along with the group getting up before daylight the whole deal. I killed my first buck at the age of 17 in 1969. A 5 pointer. I shot him with my military surplus 03-A3 Springfield. I managed to kill a few deer through the 70s. I started hunting public land in Northwest Georgia around 79 or 80 I guess. Man was it tough. Several seasons I never pulled the trigger. It was really something to see a deer. I knew they were there because I saw tracks and droppings and rubs. Just seeing a deer in those days made it worth being in the woods! Times have changed. My wife and I eat two deer every year and I have no problem killing two. This may sound weird to younger Hunters but I believe the climbing tree stand revolutionized hunting for many people. It caused us to stay in one spot for a longer period of time and it also allowed us to see a whole lot more real estate. I know my success rate went up tremendously when I began using one around the end of the 90s. Looking back I think I wouldn't want to go back to tough hunting like it used to be. The good thing in my memory was getting together with the other Hunters, who saw something,? who thought they saw something,? who thought they heard something,? was that you that shot,? Etc.
 
rifle02 said:
In the early and mid 60's I was too young legally to hunt where I lived at the time. But I was always allowed to tag along with the group getting up before daylight the whole deal. I killed my first buck at the age of 17 in 1969. A 5 pointer. I shot him with my military surplus 03-A3 Springfield. I managed to kill a few deer through the 70s. I started hunting public land in Northwest Georgia around 79 or 80 I guess. Man was it tough. Several seasons I never pulled the trigger. It was really something to see a deer. I knew they were there because I saw tracks and droppings and rubs. Just seeing a deer in those days made it worth being in the woods! Times have changed. My wife and I eat two deer every year and I have no problem killing two. This may sound weird to younger Hunters but I believe the climbing tree stand revolutionized hunting for many people. It caused us to stay in one spot for a longer period of time and it also allowed us to see a whole lot more real estate. I know my success rate went up tremendously when I began using one around the end of the 90s. Looking back I think I wouldn't want to go back to tough hunting like it used to be. The good thing in my memory was getting together with the other Hunters, who saw something,? who thought they saw something,? who thought they heard something,? was that you that shot,? Etc.
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Good post. I started hunting in KY in '79 when just a few locations in the state held huntable numbers of deer. Competition for hunting land in those areas was fierce. I remember years when seeing a single spike buck was the highlight of the entire season.
 
My first deer hunt was in 1972 in East Tennessee in Bradley County. I was with my Dad and didn't see any deer. I saw a lot of hunters. I can recall seeing my first deer track on that hunt. Probably around 1974 my Dad bought 58 acres in Meigs County and I saw my first doe and fawn in the wild. It was a red letter day for me. A man could literally hunt for weeks and never see a deer back then in Bradley county. First kill came in 1984 and it was a small racked 6 point.
 

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jetwrnch said:
I wonder if CWD will reverse this statement. The good Ole days in the 20s when deer were plentiful. Maybe it's a cycle guided by nature and management.
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I'm afraid it is.
10 years ago it wasn't unusual to see 40- 50 deer a day. I haven't seen 10 in the last 10days
 
Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors said:
This is true, but man they just aint much better than daybreak in the deer woods. Whether they movin or not. I think its one of those Heavenly places I was taught about in sunday school. Can I get an amen?
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I think the songs title is "Pass It On" but the words in the song are "Nothing like the sound when the day breaks" is so true.

It's like witnessing creation sometimes, when all the sounds start.
 
I started to deer hunt in PA in 1976. I remember seeing little sign, very few deer, and fewer taken. A running joke in our large hunting family was "I almost heard one!" I very clearly remember my grandfather telling a story of him and his brother as pre-teens finding their first deer tracks ever and then proceeding to track two deer over the top of the mountain and down the other side before killing a spike buck with 12 gauge that became major news more than 50 years earlier!
 

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