# Thinking of the Good Old Days



## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

After reading the threads and responses about the good old days it got me to thinking. How many of you can remember:

Metal deer tags
Goose tags and you only got 8 of them for the season
Having to wait 5 years between elk hunts and only having a few units to hunt elk in.
Red sweatshirts for the rifle hunts. 

Go ahead and add what you can remember.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

I remember my dad driving really slowly down the road with a beer between his legs while looking for deer to shoot off the side of the road... I also remember the rattle of beer cans behind his seat.

I know those arent "good" things, but it sure reminds me of the good ol days of hunting with my dad. I just wish that I would have learned the right ways to hunt so that I could be a more effective hunter now.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Did he have a church key hanging from a string on one of the radio knobs or rear view mirror? Or was it from the days of the pull tabs and the chains that were made out of the tabs?


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Critter said:


> Did he have a church key hanging from a string on one of the radio knobs or rear view mirror? Or was it from the days of the pull tabs and the chains that were made out of the tabs?


I think my dad would catch fire if he set foot in a church :lol: jk

This was in the 80s and he had a mid 70's Ford pickup with the good ol bench seat that he would crush his empties in and throw them behind the seat. Before you knew it, he'd hae a couple hundred empties that he would go recycle and get more beer money.


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## Cooky (Apr 25, 2011)

In one early memory I’m riding on Dad’s back while he hikes down off the mountain. My feet were small enough that he was able to tuck the toes of my boots in his back pockets and have me hang on around his neck so he could still carry his rifle at the ready. I remember being so darn tired I could hardly hang on.
In another we are easing up a fairly open draw surrounded by oak brush. We hear several shots not too far up the hill. My dad tells me to be quiet and listen because he can tell by the sound that the shooters missed and the deer is headed our way. Almost immediately the deer comes running down the draw. My dad pulls up his Model 94 25-35 and rolls the little buck not 20 yards in front of us.
I remember being carefully schooled on how to tell a dry doe from a wet doe. You wanted to shoot a big ‘ol dry doe (no skinny yearlings). If you shot a wet doe the fawns might die and she would be skinny. Bucks tasted bad.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Ice fishing with a hand line and the line was black dacron. We cut the holes with a spud.


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

In the good old days there were actually deer where we hunted.

Pluto was a planet...

I skipped school without worrying so much about catching up, dad brought home a limit of 8 trout instead of four, plenty of leftover trout, and good times exploring new places. Sometimes we would even arrive at our favorite late season spot and there would be fewer than ten hunters' vehicles there. Not anymore.

My dad's good old days, on the other hand, consisted of putting on his cowboy boots and carrying a leaky canteen and his lunch three miles up into the hills, driving the hillsides, almost getting shot while driving the hillsides, using 00 buckshot to shoot the geese at 100 yards, following his neighbor to their secret duck spot, camping trips, rabbit hunting, and dragging deer out all by himself.

Grandpa's good old days consisted of checking the trapline with his dad, camping at Strawberry, hiking all over the Uintas, camping for free, easily getting permission to hunt, packing out elk with horses, shooting jackrabbits clear out in the desert, and chasing lions and bears with the hounds.

Times sure do change.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Bax* said:


> Critter said:
> 
> 
> > Did he have a church key hanging from a string on one of the radio knobs or rear view mirror? Or was it from the days of the pull tabs and the chains that were made out of the tabs?
> ...


This was the type of "church key" that I was talking about, it is a slang term for a can or bottle opener back before twist off tops and pull tabs.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Good old days for me:
Hunting lunch included snack pack pudding in the pull top cans.
Less than half the people I hunted with had a scope on their rifle.
In a random group of 10 hunters, you'd find 2-3 30-06 Springfields - WW2 Surplus rifles, 2-3 30-30 model 94s, a couple remington 700s and winchester 70s. And that was about it.
A red sweatshirt counted as hunter orange.
Any other hunting equipment was forest fire surplus - green fire pants, the yellow fire resistant shirt, canvas canteen holder, green canvas backpack, etc....
Hunting before and after school, parking the truck at school with a rifle and shotgun in the gun rack, and the only question you'd get from a teacher or principal would be "have any luck?"
The truck had an AM radio. Which never got used because I lived where there were no radio stations.
Floating the Salmon River in a rubber raft to fish for steelhead, shoot ducks, and find deer - on the same float. 
Getting a deer and a Christmas tree on the same trip.

It is little trips down memory lane like this that have me wondering why the heck I have raised my kids in the suburbs. Heavy sigh.


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## JuddCT (Sep 7, 2007)

I remember when I was really young and tagged along on the deer hunt there was a particular great Uncle who had a special ability. Every time he would go take a leak, within 30 mins someone would shoot a deer. Worked every year until he died. Sometimes I think hunters are as supersticious as baseball players.

Unfortunately the trait was not passed down to me. :lol:


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## riptheirlips (Jun 30, 2008)

I remember my dad backing the Willey's jeep pickup truck up to a tree, then my dad tying a rope to the front bumper running the rope up over the cab and tying it off at the back of the pickup to the tree. Then he would string a piece of canvas over the rope and the bed of the jeep and that is where we slept. That was a cold SOB, Hardly anyone had trailers, a few had tents.

I remember we would shoot the head off a couple grouse and that was dinner that night.


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## elkfromabove (Apr 20, 2008)

Red plaid shirts and jackets, over the counter hunting licenses with metal deer tags included, Elk? Who hunts elk?, party hunting was accepted and even expected even if it was illegal (or was it?), large family (males only) deer hunting parties, taking turns with KP duty, bucks tied to fenders, no school on Friday or Monday of deer season opener, hunting pheasants in the fields along 3500 S. Salt Lake and on the dry farms between Magna and the old Bingham Highway clear over to Redwood Road, hunting ducks and swimming in Decker Lake, hunting deer on both sides of the Oquirrhs above Magna and Lake Point without having to go through gates (no fences). Those days (50's and 60's) are gone, for sure.


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Rifles in gun racks in High School parking lots, no worries about others getting shot or trucks getting broken into and guns taken.

Long lines of trucks and trailers with California and Nevada license plates. Long lines at the gun stores 3 days prior to the hunt.


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

Going up to the cabin above Alpena Michigan- only real food was 5 gallons of Dad's chili- had to heat it on a coal stove which also heated the rocks that we put in the bottom of our sleeping bags to keep warm- 
On the back of the land there was an 1800 log bear trap that was broken down- my brothers would put me in there to wait for a deer- then they would tell me that the pioneers used to coat the logs in bacon grease to get the bears to come in and the smell never ever leaves . Spent most of the time looking over my shoulder rather than looking for deer.


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