From my early years

[trap55555]

I ran across this while starting to clean up my parents home after the recent passing of my father (mom preceded him). This is from my early days of TN hunting. I always pause and take a look at something like when I run across it and the memories instantly come back. I thought some of you would find it interesting to see how things were and how much they have changed.

What change do see that has surprises you the most ... Or the least.
Obviously the prices have changed.
I forgot just how many eastern counties (or portions of) were closed to all deer hunting.

I hope these pages are readable.

 

[timberjack86]

Thank you for sharing! I would have loved to have seen the wma list and seasons then.

 

[Rancocas]

1978-79 Sheesh! I had been hunting for 20 years by then.
I was first allowed to go hunting in 1958. Try to imagine the changes since then. ;)

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

Very cool

 

[BSK]

Very cool! I noticed no muzzleloader season yet. When did they start that?

I didn't buy hunting property in TN until '87 but did hunt Franklin State Forest sometime around '84.

My first year deer hunting was '79, in KY (Logan County). At that time, gun season was two 3-day weekends (Sat-Mon)- first weekend of November and first weekend of December.

 

[Split Brow]

very neat!! thanks for sharing

 

[redblood]

Wow. No deer hunting allowed from nov 1- nov17!!!

 

[tn24]

That was my first year of deer hunting. I killed a spike. Thanks for posting it.

 

[DoubleRidge]

So cool!..thanks for sharing!

 

[Wrangler95]

Thank you!

 

[recurve60#]

Dude I wished so badly I'd saved the old three or four page fold out hunting guides!

 

[recurve60#]

Very cool! I noticed no muzzleloader season yet. When did they start that?

I didn't buy hunting property in TN until '87 but did hunt Franklin State Forest sometime around '84.

My first year deer hunting was '79, in KY (Logan County). At that time, gun season was two 3-day weekends (Sat-Mon)- first weekend of November and first weekend of December.

I do not remember when muzzleloader season was added, but we definitely had it here in 84.

 

[Wobblyshot1]

I do not remember when muzzleloader season was added, but we definitely had it here in 84.

I had moved to Rutherford County sometime around 82. I was already heavy into muzzle loading guns and knew several guys in the area with like interest. I remember it started a year or so after my move with opening day being the Monday after juvy weekend and it ran through the following Sunday. Hunted Percy Priest with a couple of friends that opening Monday.....Buckeye Bottoms area. There were no in lines that I saw. BTW, We didn't kill or see deer that day.... I think we've narrowed it down. :)

 

[Willysman]

I ran across this while starting to clean up my parents home after the recent passing of my father (mom preceded him). This is from my early days of TN hunting. I always pause and take a look at something like when I run across it and the memories instantly come back. I thought some of you would find it interesting to see how things were and how much they have changed.

What change do see that has surprises you the most ... Or the least.
Obviously the prices have changed.
I forgot just how many eastern counties (or portions of) were closed to all deer hunting.

I hope these pages are readable.

First big game hunt for me was in 1961. Tellico then was three 2 day quota hunt. Would go to Tellico High School for the drawing. There was no deer season in McMinn county back then. Still have all the big game booklets that had 4 tags and a post card you sent in if you killed anything. one deer a year was the limit. Boy that was the good old years. Would love to relive them.

 

[BSK]

I had moved to Rutherford County sometime around 82. I was already heavy into muzzle loading guns and knew several guys in the area with like interest. I remember it started a year or so after my move with opening day being the Monday after juvy weekend and it ran through the following Sunday. Hunted Percy Priest with a couple of friends that opening Monday.....Buckeye Bottoms area. There were no in lines that I saw. BTW, We didn't kill or see deer that day.... I think we've narrowed it down. :)

Thanks for that info. Definitely had MZ season when I started hunting full-time in TN in '87, and it was just as you described Wobblyshot1, seven days Monday to Sunday.

 

[redblood]

Id give anything to go back and hunt those days again (for me mid 80s to early 90s) i know the trophy potential was low, but it was a magical time. No foodplots, no shooting houses. I just take left over lumber from a farm building project, rattle can camo the boards and go to building. It was hunting in its purest form! Many a tree i swung from with a rooe around my waste, boards in both hands and a hammer in my mouth.

 

[TheLBLman]

My first year deer hunting was '79, in KY (Logan County). At that time, gun season was two 3-day weekends (Sat-Mon)- first weekend of November and first weekend of December.

Although I was taken deer hunting in earlier years, it was 1971 when I killed my first deer. The next year, I killed my first one with a bow. There was no muzzleloader season segment, around half TN's counties had no deer season at all, and we had a 1-buck limit in TN in the counties allowing deer hunting. There was also no "juvenile" season segment.

I think it was at about this time (1971) we went to a 2-buck limit, for a while, then it was crazily jacked up to as many as 11 bucks annually if you did archery, muzzleloader, and rifle. The muzzleloader season segment began sometime around the early 1980's. I didn't start participating until 1985.

Also, the archery season segment flat ended on October 31st, and deer season was simply "closed" in between archery & muzzleloader. We also had no deer season during much of December, until what was then called the "2nd segment" gun season became an option the week of Christmas, with the season then closing for good on January 1st. Kinda made Christmas week a more magical time. For me, each day began with deer hunting, then the middle of the day was for quail hunting over some really good "bird" dogs. Fun times.

In 1998, the 11-buck limit ended, and we went back to a 2-buck limit.
Later 3, and now back to 2, which seems a reasonable compromise between quantity & quality.

One thing I do miss about my younger days of hunting:

More people were HUNTERS, who enjoyed more hunting of a variety of game.
THIS is what I believe contributed more people becoming lifetime hunters.
Expanding deer seasons, with the unintended consequence of reducing small-game hunting,
may have done more harm than good to the future of hunting.

 

[tickweed]

I killed my first buck on nov 19, 1978 in madison county. A small basket rack 8, looked like a bull elk. That was back when opening day of gun, was opening day. Then muzzleloader came along a few yrs later. Those where the days. Turkeys where still scare for the most part. LBL didnt have any quotes hunts back then, it just had it's own season spring hunt. Open to anyone for like 3 weeks. You would hear 10 to 12 birds a morning. It was like being in turkey heaven. Gene Crutcher's store. Some great memories

 

[trout]

I understand how hard it can be when the flood of hunting memories take you back to your dad. I lost my father on Veterans Days and I think of him every time I am adventuring in the woods.

 

[TheLBLman]

LBL didnt have any quotes hunts back then, it just had it's own season spring hunt. Open to anyone for like 3 weeks. You would hear 10 to 12 birds a morning. It was like being in turkey heaven. Gene Crutcher's store. Some great memories

Yep.
Hearing so many birds gobbling wasn't limited to just LBL, as it was just about any where in TN there was a turkey season.
What happened?

Whatever happened was greatly camouflaged by the expansion of huntable turkey populations into new counties and parts of counties previously void of turkey, as the more established flocks dwindled, and began gobbling less. The statewide hunter "harvest" was rising, as the longer established flocks were dwindling.

 

[Willysman]

Yep.
Hearing so many birds gobbling wasn't limited to just LBL, as it was just about any where in TN there was a turkey season.
What happened?

Whatever happened was greatly camouflaged by the expansion of huntable turkey populations into new counties and parts of counties previously void of turkey, as the more established flocks dwindled, and began gobbling less. The statewide hunter "harvest" was rising, as the longer established flocks were dwindling.

You nailed it.

 

[BSK]

One thing I do miss about my younger days of hunting:

More people were HUNTERS, who enjoyed more hunting of a variety of game.
THIS is what I believe contributed more people becoming lifetime hunters.

Couldn't agree more. Although I no longer hunt all sorts of species, I used to, and enjoyed it.

 

[tickweed]

Yep.
Hearing so many birds gobbling wasn't limited to just LBL, as it was just about any where in TN there was a turkey season.
What happened?

Whatever happened was greatly camouflaged by the expansion of huntable turkey populations into new counties and parts of counties previously void of turkey, as the more established flocks dwindled, and began gobbling less. The statewide hunter "harvest" was rising, as the longer established flocks were dwindling.

Well, back in the early to mid seventies, it was heaven, compared to anywhere in west Tn. we didnt have birds here back then. Very, very few only in a few locations.

 

[TheLBLman]

Well, back in the early to mid seventies, it was heaven, compared to anywhere in west Tn. we didnt have birds here back then. Very, very few only in a few locations.

"Part" of what contributed to a lot more gobbling then, was the ratio of adult hens to adult males. Since there had previously been no hunting, it was much closer to 50-50, causing more "competition" among the males. As hunters knocked down the adult male population relative to the adult females (talking about 2-yr-old & older birds here), there became progressively less gobbling.

Over the last few years in most areas of TN, I believe we've been progressively killing a higher percentage of the living males 2 yrs & older, this being a significant reason for less gobbling. We can turn this around, but it may take at least 2 years. Some of this has been camouflaged by the flocks expanding into areas of previously little or no turkey hunting.

Another reason for less gobbling is one we probably cannot turn around, meaning we may never again experience the amount of gobbling we did in TN a few decades ago. This reason for less gobbling is evolution, and greater survival of those males genetically programmed to gobble less.

There has also been an evolution in predators such as bobcats, coyotes, and the largest hawks & eagles. They have "evolved" to go to the sound of a gobbling bird. Those individual males which gobble more, they're more likely to get eaten by a predator, including human predators.

Experienced turkey hunters often observe that really old Toms often don't gobble on the ground, and come in to a call "silent", and often taking hours to move a few hundred yards to your calling. I'm now seeing many 3-yr-old birds being almost totally silent after they hit the ground, whereas over 20 years ago, most would have been very vocal. Part of this is evolution, part of it is just older Toms are wiser.

 

[Wobblyshot1]

Thanks for that info. Definitely had MZ season when I started hunting full-time in TN in '87, and it was just as you described Wobblyshot1, seven days Monday to Sunday.

Another thing I happen to recall was that the season dates for muzzle loader were different in the other units than for A. The reason I know is that one of the friends I had hunted with on that historic ML opening had some family land near Buffalo Valley close to Center Hill which I believe was in unit B. It must have been the next year we decided to hunt both units and get a bigger bang for the buck from our ML license. I'm not sure of the exact dates for B but it was sometime in the latter half of October.....didn't see or kill a deer there either.

 

[Willysman]

"Part" of what contributed to a lot more gobbling then, was the ratio of adult hens to adult males. Since there had previously been no hunting, it was much closer to 50-50, causing more "competition" among the males. As hunters knocked down the adult male population relative to the adult females (talking about 2-yr-old & older birds here), there became progressively less gobbling.

Over the last few years in most areas of TN, I believe we've been progressively killing a higher percentage of the living males 2 yrs & older, this being a significant reason for less gobbling. We can turn this around, but it may take at least 2 years. Some of this has been camouflaged by the flocks expanding into areas of previously little or no turkey hunting.

Another reason for less gobbling is one we probably cannot turn around, meaning we may never again experience the amount of gobbling we did in TN a few decades ago. This reason for less gobbling is evolution, and greater survival of those males genetically programmed to gobble less.

There has also been an evolution in predators such as bobcats, coyotes, and the largest hawks & eagles. They have "evolved" to go to the sound of a gobbling bird. Those individual males which gobble more, they're more likely to get eaten by a predator, including human predators.

Experienced turkey hunters often observe that really old Toms often don't gobble on the ground, and come in to a call "silent", and often taking hours to move a few hundred yards to your calling. I'm now seeing many 3-yr-old birds being almost totally silent after they hit the ground, whereas over 20 years ago, most would have been very vocal. Part of this is evolution, part of it is just older Toms are wiser.

You, my friend, are exactly right. Been turkey hunting for 46 years and I've seen all the changes you have said.

 

[BSK]

The "evolution" comments are probably dead on the money TheLBLman. It's simple Natural Selection. Gobble and get killed. Don't gobble and survive at a higher rate, passing on any genetics you might have for not gobbling on to your descendants.

Same goes for nocturnal movement of deer. Be a deer that naturally moves more at night and your survival probabilities go up dramatically. Move more in daylight and you won't live long enough to pass on much of your genetics.

 

[utvolsfan77]

I ran across this while starting to clean up my parents home after the recent passing of my father (mom preceded him). This is from my early days of TN hunting. I always pause and take a look at something like when I run across it and the memories instantly come back. I thought some of you would find it interesting to see how things were and how much they have changed.

What change do see that has surprises you the most ... Or the least.
Obviously the prices have changed.
I forgot just how many eastern counties (or portions of) were closed to all deer hunting.

I hope these pages are readable.

Wow, does this ever bring back a ton of memories!!! This was the year after I graduated from high school (1977) and my last hunting season at home before enlisting in the U.S. Army. And just like I remembered, deer hunting in Greene County was only open south of the Nolichucky River. Funny thing was I grew up on a farm, lived in a brick home built in 1804, both located on the north side of the Nolichucky River.

Thanks for posting this!

 

[Harold Money jr]

SCN, and rsimms present on that list!

 

[7mmWSM]

Back in the early 90's in West Tn. I remember the buck limits were bow-4, gun-4, and muzzleloader was 3. It was a split gun season then as well. You rarely even saw a 2-1/2yr old buck.