I just got done watching a doc about the winters of 76/77- 77/78. Just ridiculous snow/wind/cold. Were you there then? How did the deer herd survive that stuff? Seems it would have decimated them?
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Lt. Dan - Western NY 77/78
- Thread starter Iglow
- Start date
Not Lt Dan but I was 4 back in 78. We lived in an old farm house out in the sticks and got snowed in. Crazy cold too. But even in 80s and 90s I remember being excited to see a deer.
Here in middle Tennessee we missed several weeks of school during those years. I was 7-8 years old. More snow than I can remember in a long time.
I was just getting interested in deer at that time, and there weren't many around here then anyway. I'm sure it was rough on the ones that were here.
I was just getting interested in deer at that time, and there weren't many around here then anyway. I'm sure it was rough on the ones that were here.
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mike243
Well-Known Member
Many times in the late 60's and early 70's they had to feed deer that had yarded up and couldn't get out to find food, this was in Michigan, I would watch it on the evening news several nights a week. lot of the deer starved to death in places. there were snowmobiles back then but they were pretty $$ and not sure who paid for the hay and feed they gave them. Will go back some day and have a look around. I am sure I won't recognize much as 53 years has went by.
BigCityBubba
Well-Known Member
If you were in public school, you were out for over 2 months. I went to catholic school and I think we were out 7 or 8 weeks one year. Public schools got off even more because of the buses.
The winter of 78 was catastrophic in Ohio. Not sure how it affected deer as there weren't barely any there yet. The deer bounce back was in the 80s and seemed to be peak in early to mid 90s.
Smo
Well-Known Member
I lived just North of Indianapolis the Winter of 76….& most of 77.
-65 windchill and was snowed in at my Sisters place in the country for over a week…
After the corn gets cut, those snow drifts basically shut down travel out in the countryside..
The main roads are mostly well maintained, once the snow stops falling.
My Sister convinced me that the blizzards " were an unusual event " , so I stayed for the Winter of 77…
But I only made it until Christmas time…
The weather was just as horrible as it was the previous Winter, so I packed up and headed back South!
Returning too Indiana after Thanksgiving break in 77 (iirc) when I reached Nashville on I 65 it was solid ice all the way too Indianapolis….13 hours from Nashville to Indianapolis..
6 month long Winters are not my definition of fun..not even when I was in my 20's.
-65 windchill and was snowed in at my Sisters place in the country for over a week…
After the corn gets cut, those snow drifts basically shut down travel out in the countryside..
The main roads are mostly well maintained, once the snow stops falling.
My Sister convinced me that the blizzards " were an unusual event " , so I stayed for the Winter of 77…
But I only made it until Christmas time…
The weather was just as horrible as it was the previous Winter, so I packed up and headed back South!
Returning too Indiana after Thanksgiving break in 77 (iirc) when I reached Nashville on I 65 it was solid ice all the way too Indianapolis….13 hours from Nashville to Indianapolis..
6 month long Winters are not my definition of fun..not even when I was in my 20's.
I was there. I was 15 years old at the time. The deer are hardy but I'm sure some lost their lives to winter kill. I wasn't old enough to deer hunt then. But being a kid we sure enjoyed the snow.
I think we got a couple days off. They would hardly ever give us snow day back then. There had to be at least 6" on the roads for them to cancel school.
They don't let a 15 year old hunt in New York?
We got outta school for a month in 76/77 cause there wasnt any gas to heat the schools and everything else, they were saving every bit just to keep enough pressure to heat folks houses. I loved every minute of it and went squirrel hunting every day!
Not big game. You had to be 14 for small game and 16 years old for deer. It may have changed. Heck it might have been my dad's rule. Back then you could only shoot 1 buck. They had party permits for doe. You had to have 3 people on the permit and the permit holder was the only one allowed to shoot. Dad did not want his hunt messed up by some snot nosed kid making noise. We needed the meat because we were poor
My Dad told me in the early 80's that I couldn't deer hunt until I was 10, later I found out he was wrong and I was mad!
I think he knew better but didn't want to have to take me and my older brother both. Now he loved squirrel hunting and I went squirrel all the time with him before I was 10. There wasn't near as many deer then as there is now. When he grew up we didn't have deer, so all he knew was small game hunting.
