TN Deer Hunting in the 50's

[348Winchester]

Is there anyone here that hunted deer in Tennessee in the 1950's? If so, where did you hunt, what did you hunt with, and were you successful?

My Dad hunted in Tellico/Citico from the early 50's until he moved to California in 1958. He moved back in 1961 and hunted there again until 1969. Then he did not hunt again until taking me to Morgan County in 1983.

He died in Sept. of 2023. I am going to hunt with his 1949 manufactured Winchester 94 in 30-30. I have hunted with it a few times over the years. He bought me a 1979 manufactured one and gave it to me for Christmas of 1980.

It is my most treasured rifle and it has taken many deer, hogs, coyotes, and one bear.

 

[Deer Assassin]

Hope you kill one with it...

 

[DoubleRidge]

Good luck on your hunt! Hope you connect! My Dad has my Grandfather's old Winchester 94 in 30-30...killing a deer with that rifle is on my bucket list!

 

[348Winchester]

Good luck on your hunt! Hope you connect! My Dad has my Grandfather's old Winchester 94 in 30-30...killing a deer with that rifle is on my bucket list!

I've killed a lot with mine but never one with Dad's. I also have his brother's 94 in 32 Winchester Special. I've killed one with it.

 

[BSK]

Killed my best buck with my great-grandfather's Model 14 Remington pump in .32 rimless. He bought it from the Montgomery Ward's catalog in 1914.

 

[Lost Lake]

My favorite rifle ever. Hope you get the best deer of your life with it.

 

[Ski]

I wana see pictures or else you're just making stuff up

really I just like old rifles

 

[KTS]

Really hope you kill one with it. I didn't hunt in the 50's but started in 1962.
My first deer rifle was a Marlin 336 Texan in 30-30, killed my first deer with it.
Man, I wish I still had that rifle. Good luck!

 

[lol]

I've never hunted citico but I got a doe years ago up by Indian boundary. There's got to be some giants up citico. I've always wanted to check out the old homeplace up by Farr gap. Hope you get a hoss with that 30-30.

 

[bhud84]

Is there anyone here that hunted deer in Tennessee in the 1950's? If so, where did you hunt, what did you hunt with, and were you successful?

My Dad hunted in Tellico/Citico from the early 50's until he moved to California in 1958. He moved back in 1961 and hunted there again until 1969. Then he did not hunt again until taking me to Morgan County in 1983.

He died in Sept. of 2023. I am going to hunt with his 1949 manufactured Winchester 94 in 30-30. I have hunted with it a few times over the years. He bought me a 1979 manufactured one and gave it to me for Christmas of 1980.

It is my most treasured rifle and it has taken many deer, hogs, coyotes, and one bear.

Good luck.. Hope you get it done!

 

[Outdoor Enthusiast]

I have my grandfathers 30-30 and I am hoping to kill a deer with it this year. I inherited it after he passed in 2021, but I haven't tried hunting with it.

 

[Biggun4214]

I wana see pictures or else you're just making stuff up

really I just like old rifles

 

[backyardtndeer]

Good luck. The 50's were just a little before my time.

 

[Iglow]

My dad didn't in the 50's that I remember but he did in the 60's. He bought a featherweight model 70 Winchester 3006 in 1959. He hunted in the west for mule deer every year in the 60's but my first memory of Tennessee deer for him was along the Tn River counties in the west part, Big Sandy and around there but that was like 1970 or so but I guess he did before that.

 

[BSK]

My dad didn't in the 50's that I remember but he did in the 60's. He bought a featherweight model 70 Winchester 3006 in 1959. He hunted in the west for mule deer every year in the 60's but my first memory of Tennessee deer for him was along the Tn River counties in the west part, Big Sandy and around there but that was like 1970 or so but I guess he did before that.

Where were the first huntable deer populations in West TN?

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

My family didn't know what a deer was in the 50s. There wasn't any here

 

[peytoncreekhunter]

Think about back then as compared to today..... I've talked with guys that hunted back when the first seasons were opened, and they said if you saw a deer track you got excited, now pretty much in most places, if just sit still for a bit a deer will walk by.

 

[Mr.Bro]

Where were the first huntable deer populations in West TN?

If my memory serves me right I think maybe Upper and lower Anderson Tulley. Maybe Shelby Bottoms.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

My grandpa was hunting them here in the 50's. Running with hounds was just how was it done. Way before my time but he knew very crossing or gap there was from all those races.

 

[Tnshooter15]

Where were the first huntable deer populations in West TN?

I can't answer for the whole state but in East Tennessee I believe it was catoosa and Chuck Swann which used to be called the peninsula. That information came from one of my great uncles.

 

[348Winchester]

View attachment 248319View attachment 248320View attachment 248322

Tell me about your 1895 Winchester. Is it a carbine?

 

[peytoncreekhunter]

From Google

The oldest known deer harvest records in Tennessee are from 1949, when 113 deer were harvested in the Cherokee National Forest's Ocoee and Tellico Units. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), then known as the Tennessee Game and Fish Commission, had been stocking deer for 12 years at the time.

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TN.gov

 

[348Winchester]

Dad hunted on land owned by the Cockrum Lumber Company. He was 16 or 17 when they started going so that would have been 1952-53. He never killed anything but did see deer and bear.
He did not kill anything in the 60's either. That's probably why he quit in 69.

When I expressed interest in the early 80's, he took me to a friend of his that had a cabin in Morgan County. We did not kill anything for the first four seasons we hunted there. In 1988, when I was 18 he quit going with me. I killed my first deer on Grassy Mountain the day after Thanksgiving that year and another about a week later.

After a lot of coaxing, Dad started hunting with me again in 2006. He killed a beautiful 9 point with his 30-30 very close to the house I lived in at the time. He was 70 years old. He was hooked! He hunted every season until he died. He killed a lot of deer over those last 16 years of his life. Most were with that Winchester but some were with a muzzleloader and one with his Champion single shot 16 gauge and another with my Smith model 57 41 magnum.

The kill with the 16 gauge is an interesting story. In the last few years of his life he became a bit quirky. He got it in his craw to kill a deer with that shotgun since he had owned it since th 50's. He even had some true Pumpkin Ball loads in cardboard hulls that were probably made in the 30's or 40's. On opening day of muzzleloader he went to the food plot by my house. Dad was the luckiest hunter there was. He would sit in a reclining lawn chair just off the plot. He would not even go out until 8 or 9 o'clock. His routine was to sit and swill Cokes, eat those orange crackers he called Nabs, and gorge on Debbie Cakes. I think he had the deer conditioned to come to the crack of opening a coke can and the rattle of celophane wrappers. Anyhoo, he plugged a nice little six point with the ol' punkin' ball after sitting for only a short while. When I came home during mid-day he had dragged the deer into my back yard. I noticed his shotgun leaned by the back door. After being informed that it was muzzlloader season he just grinned and said "Don't tell your mother'. That's what he always said when he did things on the sly.

 

[Iglow]

Where were the first huntable deer populations in West TN?

From what I remember, original non stocked populations were around Tellico and along the Mississippi River. Stocked reintroductions were at military bases like Ft. Campbell and AEDC. Chuck Swan and Cheatham had reintroduced deer in the 60's plus along some of the Tennessee River counties.

 

[BSK]

When I first became interested in hunting in TN (I was living in KY at the time). it was the mid 80s, and if I remember correctly, Hickman County was the #1 county in the state for deer kill - somewhere around 4,600.

 

[BSK]

Looked through my collection of printed annual reports, and found I have a report from the 1988-89 season. In it is a historic list of deer kill totals by county by year. In 1962, Cumberland County lead the state in deer kills with 128. Although if you go all the way back to 1952, hunters killed 122 deer from Chuck Swan, 115 from Tellico, and 77 from Ocoee.

 

[Biggun4214]

Tell me about your 1895 Winchester. Is it a carbine?

Actually I saw those on a welfare check in 2019. Those were just part of the old gentleman's collection. When he died his nephew sold the collection for $10K.
When I walked in and saw the guns I felt like a teenager in a strip club.
He had Spencers, Winchesters, Sharps, Colts, there were probably 40-50 rifles.

 

[Lost Lake]

I was told by son of the first commissioned GW for Tellico that his area had the original herd for our State, and maybe another place or two near there. Meaning that region held what was left after they were almost wiped out.

 

[BSK]

I was told by son of the first commissioned GW for Tellico that his area had the original herd for our State, and maybe another place or two near there. Meaning that region held what was left after they were almost wiped out.

Market hunting wiped out the white-tailed deer anywhere they could easily be hunted. The only remaining populations were in very difficult situations, such as very rugged mountainous country or the worst, most extensive swamps.

 

[buckbstr_1]

One of my hunting mentors was one of the first to be drawn for Natchez Trace in Benton County. If my memory serves me correctly, I think he drew a permit in 1961 or 1963. He of course killed a massive nine pointer and to my knowledge was the first buck to come off Natchez Trace. He told me the first whitetail deer released in Benton County was at Grannys Branch Refuge. He knew these deer came from West Virginia. The biologist released 25 deer on the reserve. He told me Grannys Branch became overpopulated in the 70s and the National Guard came in and wiped them out. The deer finally repopulated by mid nineties and Grannys Branch opened up a bow only season. I used to hunt the bow season and there were some really nice bucks on the reserve. The last two weeks of bow season were magical. Did not stay a secret very long and those days have passed.