#3039195 - 11/18/12 05:23 PM
Question hunting in the past
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Doskil
6 Point
Registered: 09/23/07
Posts: 511
Loc: NC USA
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What did meat hunters do in the 1940s and 1950s when you could not take does?
Did people just shoot bucks for the freezer?
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#3039201 - 11/18/12 05:32 PM
Re: Question hunting in the past
[Re: Doskil]
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scn
12 Point
Registered: 02/05/03
Posts: 6979
Loc: Brentwood, TN US
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What did meat hunters do in the 1940s and 1950s when you could not take does?
Did people just shoot bucks for the freezer?
Deer were a rarity in TN during that period. They were not even considered as part of your normal annual food but were an occassional bonus. When I first started hunting in 1968, I think Tn's annual statewide harvest was around 12-15,000. The season limit was one buck, and there were very few open counties or WMA that had legal seasons.
When I started with TWRA in 1977, Larry Marcum was the Deer Project Coordinator. He gave us a talk about the new computer modeling that TWRA had just started. He told my group of new officers that their best estimate of the eventual top-out deer kill in TN was 75,000 deer. Since we were killing somewhere around 25,000 at the time, the first thought that crossed my mind was what was he thinking.
We have come a long way in the past 35 years.
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#3039253 - 11/18/12 06:22 PM
Re: Question hunting in the past
[Re: scn]
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Diehard Hunter
12 Point
Registered: 08/01/08
Posts: 5239
Loc: East Tennessee
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There were a lot more people hunting small game back then, and up into probably the 1970s. I will never forget the man that showed me how to clean a dove. He plucked the entire bird, singed off the pin feathers, and even kept some of the internal organs to eat. He wasted nothing on that bird.
I can remember people having rabbit gums out all winter, and one of the neighbors filled his freezer with squirrels every year.
Of course the very sight of a deer was something to talk about back then, at least here in East Tennessee.
_________________________
One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Aldo Leopold
Don't argue with an idiot He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
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#3039331 - 11/18/12 07:23 PM
Re: Question hunting in the past
[Re: Diehard Hunter]
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scn
12 Point
Registered: 02/05/03
Posts: 6979
Loc: Brentwood, TN US
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Another difference in today and the past is the current emphasis on antler size. Many years ago, when somebody said they had killed a big deer, more than likely they were talking body size rather than rack. The arms race on antlers is a fairly recent occurence.
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#3039380 - 11/18/12 07:52 PM
Re: Question hunting in the past
[Re: scn]
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AlabamaSwamper
12 Point
Registered: 06/03/04
Posts: 5024
Loc: Southern Wayne CO and NW Alaba...
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From talking to older guys, a lot of deer killed around here when they showed up were killed with.22 and buckshot while small game hunting. Just a different time back then. My uncle once told me their rabbit hunts usually ended up being dog deer hunts. Of course that was before e collars and such.
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#3039647 - 11/18/12 10:05 PM
Re: Question hunting in the past
[Re: Crosshairy]
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parkerxbowhunter
4 Point
Registered: 09/24/11
Posts: 284
Loc: middle tn
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awesome post
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#3039866 - 11/19/12 06:50 AM
Re: Question hunting in the past
[Re: parkerxbowhunter]
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bowriter
Non-Typical
Registered: 08/31/02
Posts: 40303
Loc: Lebanon,TN USA
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When I wrote "Tenneessee Whitetails From Decimation to Restoration" in 1986, the deer herd was estmated by Marcum at 450,000. That is up fromless then 1,000 in the early 1900's. In 1920, only a small remnant population remained in secluded pockets of the Smoky Mountains.
The restocking began in 1931. In 1940, deer from three main areas were stocked: WI and MI provided a northern strain,MD and NC provided a coastal strain and Ft. Campbell provided a Texas strain.
And that is how it all started. Now, we just trust BGG to keep from messing it all up with a one buck limit. When I first started hunting here in 1972, just to see a buck was considered a good season. Sometimes I have to smile when some hunter bitches about seeing just small bucks.
_________________________
Constipation has ruined many a good day. Not as many as stupidity, though.
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#3040837 - 11/19/12 05:26 PM
Re: Question hunting in the past
[Re: bowriter]
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Doskil
6 Point
Registered: 09/23/07
Posts: 511
Loc: NC USA
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Interesting.
Thanks for the replies
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#3040849 - 11/19/12 05:36 PM
Re: Question hunting in the past
[Re: Doskil]
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smstone22
16 Point
Registered: 01/11/04
Posts: 16266
Loc: Allardt, TN
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Ive talked to alot of older gentlemen that deer hunted here in the 1950's. They only shot bucks, of any size. They didnt hunt like we do today, because deer werent plentiful enough to be able to sit and see one. They ran dogs and that was just the accepted way to hunt deer here then, you went into the roughest of the rough areas because that was where deer could escape humans and survive. I got to see a 200 inch plus nontypical from here that was killed in 1957 so there were huge deer just not common at all.
_________________________
-QDM=Better Deer, Better Deer Hunting
- Fentress Roots 200 years and growing
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