On Hunting

If you hunted back in the 50s, you most likely remember how difficult it was to stay warm. At that time, dressing warm by many standards was wearing 2 pairs of jeans, multiple shirts, and a red hat. For the feet, it was almost the same. Many of the hunters wore work boots and 2 pairs of socks. As I can remember those days, about the only thing that is still around today is that wool was one of the better products. I remember arriving before daylight on a stand and praying for 8 am and the sun to come up and warm things up because I was SO cold. Now we have insulated underwear, thermal clothing and boots, thinsulate gloves and hats, and have realized that wearing a scarf isn't really bad either.

For a knife, the most popular pocket knives were either a Case, Buck, or Kabar. If you had one of these, you were with the in crowd.

In the part of the country where I hunted white tail deer, many people used either a Marlin or Winchester carbine. If you saw a scope, you knew the person was either well to do or had really saved to buy such an accessory. Some people even used the shotgun with slugs. There was also a group of outlaws that hunted in this area that hunted illegally with dogs and shotguns with buckshot. Blackpowder and archery were at that time nonresistant.

As for wilderness camping, many of the hunters would begin using a tarp to build a lean-to and sleep and sometimes cook there also. Others would use a tent of some sort that varied from a small boy scout tent to the elaborate large tent that you could park you car in. The sleeping arrangements also varied, but many times began with the campers sleeping on the ground. Tents became more affordable and of better quality, so many hunters would use one tent for sleeping and another for cooking. As far back as I can remember, the Coleman gasoline lantern and cook stove were part of the required hunting equipment. Today, many of the camps have evolved into fancy travel trailers or if not, rather elaborate tent cities with generators and even live TV for entertainment.

Most of the old time hunters don't really desire to return to the "good ole Days".

If you have ever hunted deer, you most likely have experienced the feeling called buck fever. If you haven't and are an experienced hunter, you are either a very cool individual or a great liar.

On this VERY cold winter morning, a friend and I were driving north about 50 miles from where my family lived to hunt with this friend's uncle. Just about daylight, we came along side the river that ran parallel with the highway. We glanced down at the river and saw what appeared to be a "V" in the water. Looking more closely, it was a deer that was crossing the river. As soon as we determined that it was a deer, we stopped the car and proceeded to run down to the edge of the river. I told the friend to wait until the deer reached the river's edge if he wanted to take a shot. About that time, buck fever took over and he aimed and fired. The deer stopped swimming. The problem was how to get the deer out of the river. After some thought and deliberation, my friend took off his out wear and jumped in to get the deer. He very quickly got it back to the shore. When he pulled off his underwear, they froze before we could get the deer field dressed and back to the car. It was only 8 degrees this morning and buck fever had prevailed!!!!

On this cold morning hunt, I was paired with a young minister. We had decided for him to take the east side of a clear cut and that I would circle it and come in from west to watch it. After I had been walking for about 90 minutes or so, I heard a shot. It sounded like it had made contact since after the shot, there was a whomp sound. After just a couple of seconds, I heard another shot and again another whomping sound. I knew the friend was an experienced hunter so I wasn't worried about whether he had made a kill or if he needed help. After sometime and seeing nothing, I proceeded to return back to the vehicle that we had driven in. When I arrived there, he was no where to be found, so I started walking in the direction where I thought he had shot. As I approached, he was slowly moving in my directions. I guessed what had happened as soon as I saw his demeanor. He had shot and killed a deer that wasn't legal for this hunting period. His head was down and he was shaking it side to side as to say, no, no, no. My first comment was "so you shot the wrong one", and he looked up sheepishly and replied, "Yes". At that time, he looked down again, and muttered, "It's worse than that". "I did it twice". Buck fever had ruled AGAIN!

On another hunting adventure, I heard of a similar thing happening to another minister. The event as told in the story was that again, it was a very experienced hunter who was on his first elk hunt to Colorado. During the hunt, he had walked up on a calf elk that was laying down and had shot and killed it. Again, buck fever ruled.

Rather than talk about buck fever and those that got away, maybe it would be good to share something about those that didn't.

Some how, I managed to hunt with several guys who had been in the marines and served time in Viet Nam. One of my friends was a special agent with the FBI and was on their sniper squad. On this day, we were hunting on the western border of Virginia close to the West Virginia border on the opening day of white tail season. On this day, he was hunting with a Rem 700 in the 22-250 caliber. I had thought that the 22-250 was a little light for white tails, but also realized that if the shot placement was right, that it would be adequate. [I had seen deer killed with a 22 caliber using long rifle cartridges.] It was a overcast, foggy day and started very slow. About 9 am, I thought I heard him shoot once. Then in just a few seconds, I heard him shoot the 2nd time. I was very surprised that he would shoot twice. After some time and not seeing anything else, the group reconvened at our meeting point. The friend has a nice buck that he had taken. When asked what had happened, he told us that he had seen the buck up the hill above him, and had taken the first shot. When he shot, the deer didn't move. He assumed that he somehow had missed, and quickly took a second shot. That time the deer went down. When he approached the deer, he made an interesting discovery. There were 2 bullet holes in the deer. The second bullet had entered the deer in almost the same place as the first shot.

On this day, I was hunting with another of the Marine Viet Nam veterans. We were in the middle of Virginia where hunting with shotguns was allowed with buckshot. We had hunted almost all day without any success. We had decided to do some still hunting and were going to hunt a ridge and meet at the end of the ridge if we hadn't had any success. The wind was blowing and it was a rather warm day for hunting. About 3:30 in the afternoon, we met at the end of the ridge and was chatting about how slow the hunting had been. While standing there, something spooked a little buck out of a thicket just behind us. My friend swung around and in a single motion pulled the trigger at the deer in full stride. The deer crumpled as if hit with a tank. I had never seen anyone shoot with the reflects this guy had that day. After seeing this exhibition, I came to the conclusion that some of the Marine vets can surely shoot under pressure!

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