How did we ever do it? Hunting years back.

When I was a young teenager growing up in small town Manitoba, I had a mini trapline within walking distance of town. In addition to some traps set for mink, muskrats, etc. I shot squirrels (around $1.00 a pelt for good, headshot specimens) rabbits both for eating and for sale (frozen whole brought 50¢ from a local mink rancher) and partridge/grouse. I simply walked out the door, rifle slug over my shoulder, loaded up at the other side of the 20 acre field bordering our yard and hunted. I was never outside town limits.

For fun, sometimes we'd shoot rats at the town dump, also within town limits. Occasionally, the cops would show up and shoot with us.

I was able to extend my hunting area immensely when I turned 16 and got my driver's licence.!;)
 
When it was time to take the gun rack out of my pickup I knew times they were a changing. The gun rack then went into the back of my Suburban as a shovel and axe rack.
 
But I am disgusted by paintball and laser tag games making "fun" of shooting people. I must be a fudd.

Well then, I am a fudd too. Having been raised with guns in the house, and been taken hunting since I was a kid, I learned early to not point a "gun" at anyone. When we were kids, we pointed toy guns at each other, re-won WWII time and time again. Now, after having carried a loaded sidearm for 15 years, I simply could not bring myself to "play" games where I aim at people and pull the trigger. Sorry there paintballers, not for me. I will always remember a table about 20 some years ago at a big gun show in Regina where there was a paintball exhibit. 99% of the people steered around that table as if there dead skunks on it, myself included.
 
When I was a wee lad, and I mean young, I got a back hand from me pa for not being
careful with moving a rifle around in the house.
I was told only once not to point a barrel where it didn't belong.
Then the back hand.
Got it twice that I can remember and I'm talking younger than 10.
Phook those hurt.
 
I remember hunting in red and black checkered mackinaws with a reversible camo/orange hat from Crappy Tire. Everyone in hunt camp got their fair share of the meat and we drove the deer to the butcher's on the roof of my station wagon! My first moose kill resulted ln driving around town with the head tied to the bumper and horns honking, try that today and see what happens. Times were simpler, men went to the bush for a week with a 30/30 or such, a bottle of whiskey and some grub. When they came home they had some venison for the freezer and didn't have to worry about scoring the racks or pulling all of their trail cams. Hunting was more about spending time with family and friends, and less about gadgets. If you didn't know how to use a compass and topo map you got lost, like your dogs often did. Getting drawn for a doe tag was like winning a lottery, and shooting a big buck gave you braggin' rights for the year, not a gun at some big buck night. Still try to hunt with that spirit in mind. We hunt out of the cabin with family and friends and try to put some meat in the freezer. Every once in a while someone shoots a "boomer", and we celebrate. In the end we're all just thankful for another season and the memories we've made. Sometimes I think that modern technology has made deer hunting just way more complicated than it needs to be!
 
xeon said:
This thread really makes you think about all the BS gimmicks that are marketed towards new age hunters.
Click to expand...

don't forget about fishermen. back in the day they caught limits of fish on ghetto rods, 20lb mono and cheesy looking lures. "these days" it's "luck" if you're not using a $300 rod, $200 reel, 12lb spectra main line, 6 lb flurocarbon leader, and holographic lures cast from your $60,000 bass boat.

for hunters back in the day wearing your work clothes and an old rusty rifle was all you needed for deer. "these days" it has to be head to toe scent eliminating photo like camo that was stored in a special bag, 5 different kinds of descenting soap, descenting spray for your boots and gun, a gun and scope capable of beheading a fly at 200 yards, a gps to view topo maps and satellite images, $10,000 ATV to get from the truck to the hunting spot, and don't forget the cell phone to surf the net while waiting for bambi to pop out.

times have certainly changed.
 
I still have my reversable hat that goes from tan to red. Hangs in my reloading room as a memento of the early years. Also still have my old Woods down shirt, Greb Kodiak boots, and rubber bottom leather top felt lined boots that I bought in the Kormak company store after I got the Greb's soaked in a creek. Bought in 1970 for one of my first moose hunts. Greb Kodiak boots in those days were aboout as good as it got in foot wear, and most hunters had a pair. As "Big Game" states, they were simpler times, we had just as much, if not more fun with alot less unnecessary gadgetry and equipment.

Most of us now in the deer camp carry Garmin Rino GPS's for safety reasons only as many of us have medical issues and these devices will get us help and give the other guys our location. I wouldn't trust the dam thing to do much more however. There were only 4 calibres of rifles in existance for big game hunting that everything got shot with. 30-30, 303, .308, 30-06. The last two were considered by most to be overkill for everything except moose.
Everybody had a Cooey 22 bolt action and single shot 12 ga. For duck hunting Win. M-12's, Rem. M-31 or 870's,plus a wide selection Stevens and Ithica double barrels were most common in duck blinds. Semi auto's still were not fully dependable or trusted as of yet.

There was no such thing as lotteries for deer or moose in Ontario. When you bought a deer or moose licience you could shoot what ever presented itself. You automatically got a bear tag when you bought a moose licience as bear were considered a nuisnace animal. All bear shot in those days were taken while hunting moose or deer, as they just happened by. The only folks that seriously hunted specifically for bear where Americans. We all thought they were nuts for driving all the way up here just to shoot a bear.
 
My dad had a 1949 Fargo truck he bought from the airport in DOT colours. Still had an orange cherry on top that you could turn on.

He had a 22 Hornet and I had (still have) a roughly sporterized Model 1910 Ross 303. Caulk boots and our logging rain gear and we were good to go.

He'd drive up the Holberg road and we'd walk into the bush and go across a log across the river and hunt the meadows that stretched along there.

He had a skiff hidden in the bush and sometimes we'd row across the lake and hunt the top end of the meadows. Got my first deer there in 1970 with the Ross, a 4x5 blacktail.

And yup, the store had 6.5x54 and 43 Mauser ammunition and even some 455 Colt.

I've modernized now. I sleep in the canopy of my 1995 Nissan and carry a 1953 Husqvarna 270.
 
its hard to not change slowly over time. i am a newer hunter and camo is wats on the shelf. i hunt with oldtimers and what they ware is tryed and true. can i find it any ware? heck no its all camo no. so thats what i have for the most part.

i think every new hunter should find a extreame old school hunter and go hunting. that way they can pass down their traditions.
 
:D
This thread has been therapy for me. I'm leaving for deer camp in 36 hours and I've been driving my wife nuts for the last 36 days! Thank-you.:D
 
The good old days are right now. Back then they bought and used the best they could get. Today it's even better. We have better trucks, better guns, better scopes, better boots, etc. People have more money today than back in the old days. In the old days we'd strap moose quarters to our backs and stagger from tree to tree trying not to have a hernia or heart attack. Today we can use an ATV. We might have all kinds of fancy gear today but many of us only get to hunt for 5 or 6 days out of the whole year. The good old days might have been great but I think the best is yet to come.
 
I'm not that old.
When I was in Grade 8 my Grandmother had an old Bubba'd 303 in her storage trailer. She gave it to me but it had no sights.
So I talked with the bus driver and the principle at the High school ( Big school but still grades 7 thru 12) and did the following.
Took the bolt out and took it to school with me on the schoolbus.
Walked into the school with it and into the principles office and leaned it behind a door ( secretary looking at me funny).
At lunch walked downtown with it; maybe 10-12 blocks and dropped it off at Carnelli's Sporting Goods for drilling, tapping and mounting a scope.
Reverse the order to get it home.
Don't try that now...bad
But I digress.
1 in 4 guys had a 4 X 4.
A few had snowmobiles
But 303's were the norm for us kids.
Dad had a 30-30 and a Marlin Goose gun for coyotes. Coyotes were a big deal in the 70's. 100 $ a 'yote and a new truck was 4 K $, pretty simple math there. 40 'yotes = new truck
I got a pistol for 2 weeks summer wages when I was in Grade 9. A police officer hooked me up with it for driving tractor for him. Legal, of course; dad registered it, but shoot gophers with it? Duh! Of course! The same LE stopped by to shoot them with me. If he was in a good mood he'd let me have a crack with his 38 special.
Good times
 
The clothing has improved dramatically particularly the undergarments. Foot wear no longer weighs a ton when wet and so on. These are good things on a cold wet morning. The gadgets are fun if not completely necessary. Bottom line is you still have to know a bit to hunt consistently well no matter what you are wearing or shooting. Luck is always a good thing as well. To each his own.
 
Yes the good times are now. Especially when you are young because you have no previous times to compare it to. You are making your own history in everything you do. Do not wait for the golden years to anything, for two big reasons. 1. you may not be here. 2. the golden years are not that golden. By the time you get old enough to have gained wisdom through experince you no longer have the youthful healthy body to take advantage of the knowledge.

For new hunters partnering with older experienced ones to learn. It is a very good idea, I did it and learned a ton of knowledge, epsecially about duck hunting. But alas in this day and age Very, very few are willing to listen and learn to us more mature fella's. Most think we are all full of sheet and don't know what were talking about. So personally unless someone specifically ask's for my opinion I say nothing as your wasting your time and breath. Most of the young fella's in our camp are to busy during the day texting and emailing there girl friends and buddies, whipping around on there atv's and trying to figure out which way is up, never mind north, with there GPS's. In the evenings they want to play video games and watch movies, which is hard when the TV and related equipment mysteriouly won't work!!
If you gave one a standard compass and told him to dog basically east by NE through the bush, and throw in a little extra east when he hit the beaver pond and to take his time a zig zag around a little and well will see you on the old ski doo trial in a about 1 1/2 hrs. I can guarantee you at least two of them would get totally disorientated and lost and the other one would refuse to go as he knows he could can lost on the way to sheet house without a map. On many occasions I have had to go in and fetch young fella's out of the bush before it got to dark. But if you try and teach them a little something about a map and compass they don't want to hear it as it is not an electronic device, that they can play with.

The newer clothing. I have played alot over the years with Goretex. It's a hell of lot better than wearing blue jeans. But it is not all what it's cracked up to be. Water can be pushed through goretex at 70 Ib's per square inch. (Goretex themselves finally admitted this to me on the phone several years back) So if you have a nice new pair of say Cabela's hunting pants and you sit yourself down on a rain soaked wet stump for a half hour or so and you get up and your ass feel's damp/wet, that's because it is. The best test for seeing if your pants and boots are waterproof besides sitting on a wet stump, is walking through tall wet grass. The toes of your boots and your knees are breaking trail through the grass and I have never, never had a pair of goretex pants or boots pass this test. Each time my underwear was wet at the knees and my socks wet at the toes, and Iam only walking a couple 100 yds into the edge of a duck pond. Not anything like the soaking you'd get if you were wear blue jeans and sneakers. But when your paying big bucks for goretex hunting gear and they tell you it's 100% waterproof, I expect it to be just that "waterproof".

For about 15+ years I wore a LLBean goretex hunting coat. Good tough coat finally wore it out and it just plan leaked to much in it final years. For pants I went back to heavy mackinaw wool pants with heavy rubber pants if it was raining. At present I wear "Riverswest" brand stuff coat and pants. With this heart issue I have now my days of dogging through the bush all day in wet and rain are over anyways. I sit in my stand now for the most part, shoot at the deer when they come by, actually hit a few too, and take a little walk to go fetch the young fella's when there GPS's get them lost.
 
Mrgoat, I would sure like to sit and have coffee with you. So many similar experiences and your gortex experiences are a mirror image of mine.
I get a kick out of these people telling us what shoddy clothes and footwear we had, when they don't have a clue of what we wore, or the quality of it. The Salish Indians from Vancouver Island made (don't know if they still do, or not) a terrific sweater, for the roughest of winter weather. They carded and spun the virgin wool, making a very coarse yarn, thus a thick, but not overly heavy, garmet. Before they were washed too many times, they were almost waterproof.
I bought one in the 1950s, just before going on a tough hunting trip by open river boat. We were most of the day on the boat and for most of the day it snowed, a very wet and moist snow. It built up on a person, but just on the verge of turning to water. At trips end at supper time I took off the sweater and my shirt was dry under it, only a little damp around the shoulders!
Over the years I fell for the hype of "thermal" underwear, but soon discovered that for really cold weather, it was far inferrior to a good suit of Stanfields pure wool underwear, which we all wore in the cold weather of those bad old years of us in our inferrior clothes.
A way back in the depression years of the 1930s, when men hunted 12 months of the year for survival food, the standard footwear for cold and severe cold weather, was the old fashioned, ankle high buckskin moccasins made by the Indians. I suppose the vast majority of the readers of this thread won't have a clue of what I am talking about, but these moccasins were made from Indian tanned buckskin, complete with the finishing smoke cure. Each had large flaps that wrapped around your ankle, then the two long laces integrated into the moccasin, was wrapped around the ankle, over the flaps, to make a snow proof fitting over your socks. This was tremendous footwear for cold weather. They were as pliable as cloth, but tough. Your feet never got cold in them, even in the most severe cold weather. If you were sitting on a sleigh say, ones feet might start to get cold. So just walk or run a very little bit and the feet warmed right up. Warm feet all day, but the feet never sweated in them.
They were so quiet that a careful hunter, with his outer wool pants and jacket, could move noislessly through the bush. No finer footwear for cold weather hunting ever existed.
By the way, no one had to tell me these things. I got my first pair of genuine Indian smoke cure, buckskin mocassins when I was eight years old. They were my cold weather footear until I was an adult. I was able to buy my last ones in the 1950s, which I still have. The Indians used to make them and sell them to the little country store, where we all got them. It made a beautiful smokey buckskin aroma to the store, so noticeable as soon as one walked inside.
For warmer winter wear someone mentioned the terrible, heavy boots we had. Well I can tell you that from the late 1940s for about twenty years, we had a very neat boot of rubber bottoms and leather tops. They were neat, light and quite pliable. Warm enough for quite cold weather and dry enough for wet snow conditions. Far supperior to anything I can find today that would take their place.
 
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