TN Deer Hunting in the 50's

[Hawk]

The counties bordering the Tenn. river had the first public huntable populations. The first deer hunt I ever went on was @ the state refuge at Reelfoot Lake. This was 1960/61. No draw just show up. This was before hunter orange was required but they make you pin on some red material. This was when you got a booklet with all the hunting tags. I was 15/16 old.
Fast forward to Fall of 1965 the first deer season opened in Weakly county. Some student rode around campus with what was thought to be big buck on opening weekend.
This was also the time frame where the Big Sandy Peninsula hunt was. No draw just show up and line up at the entrance until they let you in. The line of cars stretched also back to Big Sandy. I never did kill a deer on those early hunts and the first deer I killed in West Tenn. was in Miss. River bottoms if memory serves November 1972.

Where were the first huntable deer populations in West TN?

 

[Rockhound]

My grandmother seen some deer and didn't know what they were in my great grandpa's cornfield in southern Lawrence county in the 30s but didn't know what they were. As she got older and people knew what deer were she said it was a buck and 2 does. Deer were released on our place (before it was ours) in the 60s. The deer restoration signs hung on the trees up until the 80s. My dad wishes he had of got a couple of them but didn't because it wasn't our land at the time.