Remember when you're hunting coat was the same coat you wore all winter? Strings for your bow were available at the sports store. 180 meant a buck's weight not inches of rack. Outdoor Life, Field and Stream and Sports Afield were worth reading. Aluminum was the big deal. Fred Bear was on TV if you could get the channel. At least the bows from then still shoot ;)
:campfire:
Yep...my jacket was an olive drab military jacket. It had a liner i could zip in when it got really cold.
What I miss the most is when posted signs just didn't exist. You asked to hunt a piece of property and they not only said yes, they told you where the best spots to set up could be found. They wanted to see what you killed not have it covered up when you were driving it to be checked in.
I remember the Outdoor Life of old and Field and Stream particularly. I would read of the adventures with the hand drawn renderings of the action. I miss those days and look for old magazines when antiquing.
I recall K-Mart used to be a Bear retailer and I would covet the green Bear Razorheads, and drooled when the stainless Bear Super Razorheads were new and on display. Bear arrows were in their cardboard boxes hanging on a steel rod hanger, or leaned back ever so perfectly to flip through for a teenager yearning to be Fred Bear and take game as he did.
My wife found an old Field and Stream and had it framed for me a few years ago.
(http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f94/Equismith/100_6778.jpg)
:biglaugh: Remember all to well......went in to the woods with an apple, and a PBJ stuffed in your shirt with a knife and a chunk of rope on your belt......stayed all day! LOL, some days froze your butt off if you got a bit wet!
Used to save the best Halloween candy for hunting Ron. The turkey sandwich after Thanksgiving always tasted best in the woods.
How about the smell of hardwood floors and Hoppe's #9 in the local sporting goods store. Racks of recurves along side of the rifles and shotguns, and a wood stove heating the place, with 'old' guys having a cup of java and telling hunting stories.
that's a great F&S cover plus its the year of my birth. I got a 1961 copy for Christmas from a friend!
Knock knock on a strangers door, " say can I bow hunt on your land? You want to hunt what? No I want to hunt on your land with a bow. With a bow? BE my guest!"
Those are the conversations I miss!
The first store bought bow I ever got was a Bear Red Fox on Christmas when I was seven. Before that it was maple saplings and bailing twine with willow branches for arrows LOL. Squirrel population took a dip after that Christmas.
Arrows were loose in a display box (69¢ each, no spine listed). Fiberglass hunting arrows cost something like $3.00 each, but the head (Bear Razorhead) was attached.
You learned archery in gym class and watched Ben Pearson hunting videos (16mm).
Curt Gowdy never whispered. He hunted and over-dubbed the narrative afterwards.
I still refer to bucks by dressed weight. Have no idea how to measure antlers (not that any I have taken require much recording).
I have my wool Fedora hat on my coat-tree at work; same hat I frequently hunt under.
I didin't know anything about tuning, just used Kentucky windage, come to think of It, I still don't know much about tuning :confused:
You're so old you had to tune a bow on AM stations. :laughing:
I remember those days well,you could hunt if you asked permission,we used to climb trees no stand and we were always excited.I truly wish they would return.
I have bunch of old hunting/shooting mags put togehter in hardbound. They emphasized, DIY for cheap, hunting hard. Also looking thru some the other night, and showed a gunhunter and a archer with a deer each, small basket rack 6 & 8point, and the mag called them "Dandy Bucks any hunter worth the name would be satisfied with". I though man does that sum it up. The wife and I both hunt hard, and are usually successful, to fill the freezers. It is a yearly ritual, and sickens me to see so many folks that think all old deer meat is good for is jerky. I remember if you had the old OD army surp. jacket with a liner, you had the good equipment, and your work boots were your hunting boots, you put on thick or 2 pairs of socks.l
God,Those were the good old days.I remember so vividly duck hunting with dad and the smell of the shotgun powder and spent shells,along with the thick warm body of a drake Mallard.Dad passed this year and all he taught me make it all so special.Dad was the only one on the block that had an actual subscription to Outdoor Life,the whole block read it.
Still a bunch of old skeletons in trees where I hunt Grinch of stands made with 2x4 technology. :)
Not many deer in our area back in the late 50's and no one even expected to see a deer, much less shoot at one. Finding a deer track was a biggie. Bowhunting was a novelty and the landowners would let you hunt anytime. Arrows were 35 cents for the cheap ones and 50 cents for the nice ones with crimped on field points. I finally got a real bow, a Pearson two piece all fiberglass 50# bow. That old thing is still in the family and shootable. Never had more than one jacket, wore two pairs of jeans for cold weather and leather boots. I wear more clothes to walk to the mail box now.
The good ole days are here now.
Dave there are alot of two by four technology,floating around our woods,when I see one I start looking for a place to set up a ground blind now.
The Hardware store sold Hunting and fishing equipment. You could buy shells at the Feed store.If some of You young guys don't know what a feed store is ask Your Grandparents. LOL
My first bow came from Perkin's Hardware. A Bear fiberglass recurve and 3 wooden arrows with crimped on field points.
I've still got the bow but the arrows are long gone.
bretto
"the arrows are long gone."
At least some things don't change...
QuoteOriginally posted by GRINCH:
Dave there are alot of two by four technology,floating around our woods,when I see one I start looking for a place to set up a ground blind now.
Exactly what I do now......Got my first bow, a Browning Nomad Stalker for $37, didn't have the $47.50 the Bear Grizzly......matched arrows??? LOL! :saywhat:
As a kid I remember True Value hardware store sold wooden arrows and Ben Pearson Jet bows(red fiberglass kids bows) we used to save our allowance to buy arrows for frog shooting.
Fred on American Sportsman. The "outdoor" shows of today are pathetic by comparison. That theme song still plays nonstop in my head!
Marty Stoufer's Wild America
I have most of my Outdoor Life and Sports Afield magazines from my teens. They cared about the health of wild places and wilderness, real pollution and encroachment, not this phony climate change crap that we are getting fed today. Outdoorsmen used to be environmentalists. The environmentalists of today are liberal wimps that don't have a clue what real pollution is.
Yeah I remember. Red Ball Jets; "a little dab'l do ya"; hula hoops; juke boxes; 5 cent popsicles; plaid hunting clothes; product quality; haircuts (not 'hairstyles"); respect for others; belief in tradition; getting Dad's last sip of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Sweet Lord, take us back! Funny thing is, sites like this one are one of the very few 'pseudo time machines' that can take us back, at least just a little bit, to how it used to be. If only we could each bottle what our memories remember as the best things in life, the world would be a much happier place!
'it's nights like this that i think about..a pure and simple time..'
as a young'un i love hearing about this stuff. will do what i can to keep the spirit alive!
Yep , I sure do remember those days!
You guys are lucky, all I knew and did was shoot, I hardly knew anything about archery including Mr.Bear and all the other guys, I didn't really get to hunt until 1996, that's right, 1996 ( this is excluding rats and pigeons ) and I ended up spining my first doe with my Ben Pearson, made the mistake of going out and buying a wheelie bow to avoid this happening again, and that worked very well but really got boring, so I switched back to Trad. and have never looked back, but I have missed so much that now I am trying to make up for lost time, and having a blast.
Go ahead Charlie, rub it in why don't ya. :laughing:
I can remember before they had a special archery season. There weren't any (or hardly any) deer in the lower peninsula. Everybody headed up to the U.P. School didn't close for opening day, but it was an automatically excused absence.
Cars were lined up for miles at Sault Ste Marie for the ferry boat (these were pre-Macinac bridge days), with guys walking back and forth from car to car swapping lies about last year and trying to stay awake.
Good memories :)
The old hardware store just had a certain smell to it that I'll never forget. And like mentioned earlier the Pearson glass bows were what we learned to shoot rabbits and Robins with!
Grew up NJ started shooitng in 1969 - and started hunting in 1972. I rememnber hunting archery season in NJ and only seeing 1 or 2 guys on public land! I thoguht I was in heaven - no tree stands so I learned to hunt on the ground and still do. I do miss still hunitng now becasue the woods get crowded.
When I started out it was quail hunting. Riding in the back seat with the bird dogs to my grandmothers farm. Corn cribs, hay lofts, cold trips to the out house, no running water, milking cows and the whole family sitting in front of the fire place staring at the flames for night time entertainment.
Cold lanolin floors in the winter and every bedroom had a fire place. Lights on the ceiling had a string tied to the pull chain.
When we moved to a part of the state that had deer, I got my first big game bow at a White's Hardware. Stood in the crotch of a limb for about 4hrs.
Never will forget the first shot I took at a deer. Big old doe stepped out in a firebreak at Ft. Stewart, Ga. I drew my old 48lbs Cheetah Supreme back and sent a Bear Broadhead on it's way. When it hit the dirt about half way to her..I still remember the sinking feeling..like.."This ain't goin to be as easy as I thought." She was probably was a good 45 to 50yds..but sure did look big. I don't even think she knew I shot at her..just walked on off.
Every bowhunter in my neck of the woods was a "Two season hunter", bow season started the first Sat in Oct and everybody was out. As the season progressed hunter numbers dwindled, (and not because they were tagged out). Rut. What rut? Whole less lot knowledge that's for sure.
I remember what a big deal it was when they allowed does to be hunted.
Grew up in NJ back in the fifties we could hunt non stop from property to property never had anyone say we were trespassing,a simple way of life that everyone accepted and if you were lucky and killed a pheasant,rabbit,or squirrel you offered the land owner some to thank him for letting you hunt.I remember my first hunting bow a York lemonwood long bow always marveled at the flight of the arrow because the bow was soooo slow the arrow always had a graceful arch.The fever really hit when I saw Howard Hill put a demonstration on in Bambergers department store in Newark NJ haven't been the same since and I'm 72 Great times in our history and my life My dad was a master machinist by profession and he made his own fletching gigs and tapering tools etc we made our own equipment and one of my jobs was to go to local butcher shop when they were killing holiday turkeys and pick the wing feathers when they were hand plucking,these were the old bronze turkeys and were as good as our wild turkey feathers.Whoa what memories come flooding back, miss those good old days, life was fun and easier technology stinks.
White tube socks from kmart with the elastic worn out that always worked down to my toes in 5 minutes of walking. Mossberg shotgun from the local hardware store bought for $90 earned by selling my beagle pups. (i thought we were just going for pipe fittings) First bow was my dad's old 56lb Pearson recurve, all types of arrows and no two the same! no shooting glove or arm guard, no instruction, hay bale target, wore the finish off the aluminum shafts, only 2 broadheads for hunting season sharpened into odd shapes, rubber boots with no insulation for hunting in the snow or trout fishing with water pouring in the tops, CCI stinger 22 ammo (just for looking at in the store because "thats stuff isn't accurate")
I can remember the first time i saw a tree stand, I was in awe. [I think it was a baker?] Back then we would just climb a tree like a kid and stand on a limb. Now some days it's a chore to climb the stairs. American Sportsman was the best.
4 men in the front of a single cab pickup, pump it to get it started and keep pumping! No seat belts, a new set of bias ply tires on the back of the truck for winter, putting wet gloves under the truck heater to dry them, cars that needed the new unleaded gas, Penn state football on AM radio, My first open face spinning reel, unkle mikes salmon eggs, hearing the term "Ultra light" spinning rod. Seeing and hearing pheasants everywhere! Making horrible noises with a turkey mouth call, Sneaking after rabbits, but making sure the rabbit had a backstop in case of a miss to save the arrow. Doing battle with groundhogs that seemed to soak up arrows like a cape buffalo. Shooting pigeons off the barn roof with the bow and never hitting the tin, Knowing there would be no replacement when the 56lb Ben Pearson recurve limb let go the day before the deer season opened. Being the first to go to our camp in the early fall to hunt deer with a bow!!!!! "you don't go to the mountains and scare up deer before rifle season, thats just dumb!"
Hoppes #9, listening to outrageous claims of performance of the 7mm Rem mag,
I'm not legal to participate in these threads for another 33 days.
Zebco 33 reels,single shot shotguns and bows could be bought at the hardware store. Deer were rare to see but small game was plentiful. We catfished almost every night in the summer and made coffee from the creek water; boiled in a coffee can and the grounds strained thru any cloth we could find.
We could walk out our backdoor and hunt all day and never see a posted sign.
There was a café in town and the cook was an old African American lady. We would bring her squirrels or rabbits and she would make us a big ole cheeseburger in exchange. If we got a possum she would throw in a milkshake. Cokes were 5 cents. The barter was done out the back of the café..
We got 3 pair of bluejeans and 1 pair of boots (called brogans) once a year at Sears and Roebuck. These were our hunting clothes and school clothes. They had better last cause that was all we would get for the year. If we got holes in them momma would sew on patches to cover the holes. We had one nice "outfit" for church and church only.
Them were the good ole days for me.
When I was 9 or 10, I got a fiberglass bow (Indian, as I remember) and some wood arrows. I kind of learned to shoot with that bow, although I doubt that I had any clue about anchor point, picking a spot, or any other keys to decent shooting. We lived on the edge of the desert at Ft. Bliss, Texas, and that vast open country was my playground. Scared the crap out of lots of lizards and rabbits with that bow. Where I used to play is now just part of El Paso, but when I was a pup, you could go for miles into the desert that was across the street from my house.
My uncle had a farm outside of Willcox, Arizona, and that is where my hunting started getting a bit more sophisticated. Rabbits caught hell with me and my single shot 22.
I finally got serious about bows right after getting out of the Army in 1970. Bought one of Fred Bear's creations, and ever since, I have had a love affair with stick and string.
My first bow tag as a 14 yr old in Wisconsin cost $1.50. The Holiday gas station in town is where I got my first real hunting bow for $24. It was a 43# Ben Pearson Gamester.
The Vance hardware store was a Bear dealer and had bunches of them in stock. My first little Red Bear bow and Johnson Century fishing reel came from there. They also sold Evinrude outboards and kept surplus rifles in barrels. That was a cool store!
This years hunting coat was always last years winter coat, the color didn't matter.
Dad's Plymouth station wagon hauled us hunting, camping, fishing, and even hauled wood to heat the house. We did everything in that car.
I can remember my first bow. It was a no-name fiberglass recurve, dual shelf (meaning a molded plastic grip). If you guys have seen A Christmas Story, where Ralplhie has come nearly unglued waiting for Christmas morning to open presents, that was me. Ralphie wanted a "genuine Daisy Red Rider many-shot BB gun and I had picked out my bow from some magazine ad. Presents all get opened and no BB gun; no bow. Then, Dad sees a long package over in the corner behind the chair. The custom bows I drool over now that top a ton in dollars aren't quite as beautiful as that bow was.
My buddy and I set up hay bales and put an old moth-eaten hide from a deer mount that my mom made me throw out on the bales and shot from ridiculous distances. As mentioned previously, none of the arrows matched, we knew nothing about tuning, but we nailed the neck of that deer pretty regularly. Shot 10 X better than I do now. Maybe because we shot every afternoon after school? Never shot a deer with it, but there were a large number of carp and alligator gar that died from that bow and a monstrously heavy fiberglass fish arrow.
I sold that bow 2 years ago with a new string on it and it still shot well. A little bit of hand shock and not quite as fast as my newer bows, but what the heck, it was getting a bit long in the tooth too.
All that still applies to me, except I don't get the magazines you mentioned, and wood arrows are my "big deal". I hunt with my coats I wear normally.
Great post, too bad for many those days are just memories.
I remember dad teaching me how to "hunt" with a .22 single shot and skwerls were the quarry . I was 9 years old . The rules were simple. I could NEVER touch that rifle unless he was present, breaking that rule meant no more rifle EVER . Only head shots were to be taken . I had to make the shot with no help from him .
99% of the hunting skills and woodsmanship required to bowhunt deer can be learned from skwerls.
Today many modern deer hunting dads take junior out to a heated blind set up with a tripod gun rest and help junior hold the gun while junior pulls the trigger . Then the proud papa brags to everyone how little johnny killed his first deer at the age of 7.The problem is little johnny has learned absolutely nothing about deer hunting from this "hunt"
times have changed :dunno: , I'm not sure its for the better
Dad teaching me to fly cast when I really just wanted to fish with worm and bobber. Man, have those lessons paid off. Don't even own a spin cast setup.
You guys are bringing back a lot of memories for me.Almost brings a tear to ones eye wishing it were still that way.Grew up hunting and fishing on about 600 acres and cannot even go for a walk there anymore .
I remember me and a buddy doing some serious squirrel hunting with our recurves in the Girl Scout Park (Juliette Low Park..founder of the Girl Scouts)in Savannah, Ga. back in the 50's. Our hunting always spread out into the neighborhood of Gordonston also.
I can imagine how a nice stay at home mom would reaction to some kids killing squirrels with their bows in her front yard today. We did kill some too..those city squirrels let you get real close.
Man you guys are old! HA! Even though I'm only 34 things were even simpler when I started. Back then leasing had not taken hold in illinois. You could knock on a door and get permission to hunt. I used to go to a place in Fulton county every now and then and enjoy great hunting. These days that 400 acre farm is now leased for over $20,000 per season! There may be more deer today than in the old days. But a lot of people just cannot access them. Bummer.
Lived in a dry county in KY. We would trade groundhogs or rabbits for beer. There were no deer to speak of or turkeys and if someone saw a deer, everybody knew. We took shotguns to school, in our lockers, for first day of dove season.
A day of fishing was never questioned by our psrents, we were gone from rise to set. Remmber warming up a TV with a small round screen in a huge wooden case.
Orange fiberglass shafts, a requirement to have yourname on the shafts.
We still have some simplicity, lucky us.....
I read a quote the other day that was insightful, but, also very sad. I think it applies here to everyone with these excellent memories. To be very candid, I dont have very good memories from childhood, but, I envy those who do. I think this applies:
"you are only old when your memories outweight your dreams"
Amen and Amen
I remember packing my 65 chevey with a rod or two shot gun and rifle and a bow get five dollors worth of gas head up into the hills to see what I could bring home.
I just remembered when I bought my first shotgun from my shop teacher....he came to school with it and I took it home on the school bus......with a box of #6 shells that was part of the deal.....lol and this was in New York.......A Mossberg 500 and a Browning Nomad Stalker on the rack in my room.....I was hot stuff in 1968!! :biglaugh:
Not knowing or caring about arrow speed or e.f.o.c.,standing and cooking around the campfire without worrying about the scent.Trophys were the hunt not what you hunted for.Ron i can remember taking my shotgun to school on the bus on fridays so i could spend the night with a friend and go squirrel hunting the next morning.Come to think of it I still dont worry much about the speed,efoc,scent,or the trophys.
how about going in to the local sporting goods store and finding good solid cut on contact two blade broad heads not row after row of :scared: mechanical heads! oh ya, that was only 7 or 8 years ago.
And Howard Hill at the movies in those short films prior to the main feature.. way cool
Going to the general store and buying two or three shotgun shells to go squirrel hunting.
Remember one time buying 50 cents worth of gas..2 gallons and the gas station attendant ask me if I wanted a road map.
QuoteOriginally posted by vermonster13:
The first store bought bow I ever got was a Bear Red Fox on Christmas when I was seven. Before that it was maple saplings and bailing twine with willow branches for arrows LOL. Squirrel population took a dip after that Christmas.
I still have a Bear Red Fox that all my kids have started on. my grand daughter was shooting it friday night while I was shooting.
We were given pocket knives as prizes for selling FFA fruit. Mr Cox the ag teacher handed them out in school.
I'm 22 so not as old as some of you guys :biglaugh: but these stories are the type that I grew up with and still listen to today. I love going down to grandpas house back in the sticks even if it is just to listen to him talk about hunts from days long ago. Like when he hunted with an old recurve or even when he bought his jennings model T hunter which still hangs in my room. Grandpa and I also never get tired of talking about Fred Bear and we are always adding or trying to add Bear's to our collections. I got a box full of old Outdoor life magazines from the 60's that grandpa gave me that I can look through for hours and not get bored. When one of the "newer" outdoor lifes comes in the mail it's usually thrown out pretty quick cuz its loaded with bs articles/adds. Looking at pictures from those days makes me jealous because hunting is so much different now. It has even changed a great deal from when I was young in the early 90's when hunter's specialties were coming out with their first videos with Tom Miranda and Paul Voz, I still get those vhs tapes out and watch them before hunts. Back then washing your stuff in Fresh earth detergent so you could smell like dirt was a big deal, now that stuff is old news. Dad and I still wash our clothes with the fresh earth, I love the smell it makes me ready to hunt! I really hope some of these old trends swing back. But with all the technology available today that makes things so easy I doubt it will, and this makes me sad as well.
I remember going upland game hunting with my dad in our 61 Chevy Bel Air. (no 4x4s then) tagging along with him in our plaid hunting coats,(his red plaid mine green plaid.) I wasn't old enough to carry a gun being 10yrs. old. Getting up early and my dad would cook bacon, eggs and toast and even let me drink coffee. Pheasants, ruffs, cottontails and squirrels and the occasional mallard. Wow, great times, great memories. (nut) :goldtooth:
...and we thrived for more. Well we got it!
Now I keep my string and bow stats on my phone I keep in my pocket. I don't need the paper for news, magazine for enjoyment or TV or radio for weather.
It's all in my pocket. My times have changed in our generation. I suppose my great grandfather felt this way when he no longer had to fool with horses for transportation.