How many of you guys...

[Blizzard Ridge]

Blizzard, thanks for sharing the story with grandpa. Brought tears to my eyes. That my friend is what hunting is all about!

Todd

Thank you. I am not much of a story teller but one of the posts just brought to mind all of the fun I used to have with grandpa showing off his deer and how special of a time that was. It is something that I have tried to instill back into my kids but life takes over and I have a son/grandson in North Dakota working and one in college so the days of having somewhat of a deer camp are over. Our hunts are shared over the phone with pictures now a days. Hopefully one day that will change back to the days of old.

 

[OkieKubota]

As my wife has mentioned we are lucky to at least be able to share the "Deer Camp" experience with our grand kids. We have the around the firepit chat, Hot Dog roast, dutch oven cooking, pre dawn 4-wheeler rides to our hunt parking areas, and some pretty cool critters to chase. Our newest Lease Member has been there since 2007 so we all know everyone's quirks and whatnot so all is good. We usually take our grandson there the night before youth rifle season which always starts on a Friday just so he can enjoy deer camp and then we go hunt the big woods the next morning in a double set tree stand. He hasn't gotten a deer there yet but I want him to experience "deer camp". After the morning hunt, since he has soccer and other obligations on the weekend, I take him over to our "Home 10" for an evening hunt and it is there that he has gotten all of his deer. Really looking forward to that again this year. He is now 10 yrs old coming up on 11 in late October and has been deer hunting since he was 7...

Since Oklahoma did away with "check stations" our grand kids are missing out on that very important part of history which shaped me into the guy I am today...I would love to be able to take Eli and his deer to the Check Station so some of the older fellows could ruffle his hair and congratulate him just as they did me almost 40 years ago...

 

[W33kender]

We don't intentionally show our deer, but we don't cover them up either as they ride on the hitch haul from the Wrangler on our way home or to the processor.

My wife's first 8 point got us more thumbs up from guys on the highway than I can describe. It may be where I live, however. Deer hunting is ingrained in the culture. Blacks and white folks alike. It's a Southern thing I guess.

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

Okie, the camp experience is great. Those young ones will learn so much valuable information from the older folks at camp as we did at the check stations or standing around a circle of old guys listening intently to every word that comes out of their mouth. I was primarily a self taught hunter but I learned so many valuable lessons through my grandpa and his hunting buddies. Hunting was different for them. They hunted out of necessity just as much as for the pleasure. My grandpa was trapper, small game hunter and then the special days of deer gun season of course he fished all summer long as well. He hunted/fished to stock the freezer for the winter. My grandparents when alive had Sunday dinner, every Sunday and every family member better be there or feel the wrath of grandma. She did this for our family up until the day that she died. She wouldn't allow us to be too busy for family.

 

[OkieKubota]

Okie, the camp experience is great. Those young ones will learn so much valuable information from the older folks at camp as we did at the check stations or standing around a circle of old guys listening intently to every word that comes out of their mouth. I was primarily a self taught hunter but I learned so many valuable lessons through my grandpa and his hunting buddies. Hunting was different for them. They hunted out of necessity just as much as for the pleasure. My grandpa was trapper, small game hunter and then the special days of deer gun season of course he fished all summer long as well. He hunted/fished to stock the freezer for the winter. My grandparents when alive had Sunday dinner, every Sunday and every family member better be there or feel the wrath of grandma. She did this for our family up until the day that she died. She wouldn't allow us to be too busy for family.

I miss those days as well...I remember my grandfather used to hunt, trap, and fish year around and my other grandfather used to fish and hunt at every opportunity. They weren't deer hunters but they loved to hunt small game. My grandmothers on both sides would feed us everytime we came over until we were as full as a tick...I miss my grandparents dearly...

 

[OkieKubota]

Not to banter on.....but it isn't "shame". I understand where you are coming from, I do. I have an uncle that used to tie his deer to his Jeep back in the 80's like you talk about. It wasn't a big deal then. I agree that society today is not as open to that anymore. However I have seen the other extreme where folks don't respect the animal and though it is "legal" it isn't "right". They put hats on it, sun glasses, give it a smoke and the like. Sometimes the hunter intentionally walks around with his front covered in blood and the like - as some sort of demonstration. All of this is "legal", but not "right". I see that more now than I care for and that activity only adds fuel to the fire against hunters. Putting a deer in the back of a truck covered or not I have no issue with......I have simply seen things done in VERY poor taste in the past. I refuse to promote that activity by my own actions and as such hope to NEVER see my kids act like that either. I see nothing wrong with gathering at the local check station and swapping stories and checking out what gets brought to town. I do have an issue when it becomes some sort of circus act. We also have to realize the social dynamic has changed since the 70's as well. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it's a fact. Hunters are a minority now more than ever before and our actions are under more scrutiny now than ever before. For the many of us that treat the animal with respect and the like it takes the one jack-wagon like I described that gets remembered by the non-hunters in society. I have no shame in my harvested deer, I simply don't need to make a spectacle out of it either.

There is no spectacle involved in transporting a deer from home to a check station to a processor unless you are like the guys you have seen. Luckily here in Oklahoma that stuff just doesn't happen, have never seen any behavior like that from anyone...I have seen non-hunters do that to deer mounts but have never seen the guy who actually took the animal do that.

In our area schools have "Fall Break" during youth rifle season in mid October and then they shut schools down again for the first week of general rifle season for both deer season and Thanksgiving Holiday. You can still find a few big buck contest around but not like they were before we went to online check in which is also about the time our deer harvest numbers started dropping...draw your own conclusions on that...

 

[Beechnut]

The only people that know or see are maybe 3 family members. I remember growing up in NY State we'd hang our deer in trees in the front yard to preserve. I'd forgotten all about that. We'd see some big bucks hanging in a tree in someone's front yard. That was very common in early 80's. I even had fellow students bring in antlers into high school to show 'em off.

 

[Mrs. Kubota]

Well said Mrs. K

Thank you!

 

[Rickey]

We have a skinning pole on our lease. Mine goes straight in the cooler. If for some reason I need to get to the house and do it there I just leave it in the back of the truck tailgate up. I'm not trying to hide anything. Sometimes there is some blood on the tailgate and I'll wash it off when I get home. I have also had blood on my clothes when I go home. If I need gas I stop. Other than that I'm trying to get home to get everything unloaded and cleaned so I can go to work the next day. I only get Sundays to hunt most weekends since we work 6-12s most weeks. I remember the good old days of seeing deer everywhere. Now it's as though you rarely see one. Occasionally I see one on a rack behind a SUV or on a 4 wheeler on a trailer simply because they don't have a truck. That's not normal though you won't get much griping around here about it. Most people around here accept hunting and don't see it as a negative. The only other place I hunt is my land. I only have 22 acres so I don't hunt it very often. It would be easy to over hunt so I limit my time in the woods here. I spend more time planting and checking cams than hunting by far. I bet I won't get more than 7-8 sits this year and most of them will be short afternoon hunts.

The story above about grandpas 8 point was awesome. I miss the old days of us sharing stories. Other than the guys at the lease, I may send a pic to my brother if he isn't there or a buddy I was in the Army with because we like to share stories. He sent me a pic of a hog he caught this past week. I had a smile time I opened the text. I was proud of him wishing I had been there with him.

 

[Buckly]

6 - 12's That's tough on a person.

 

[Bowhunter]

In my younger days I used to ride around town slow with the tailgate down showing off my basket rack I just got, but not anymore. I thought everyone's done that at least once.

 

[Rickey]

6 - 12's That's tough on a person.

That's the life of nuclear construction. No choice for sure. If I could get paid as good working shorter hours somewhere else I would roll.

 

[Brushpile]

When I was in the Marine Corps, deer were required to be brought to a check-in station to even be field dressed, and skinning a deer in base housing was a violation of Base Orders!

I was raised in a time when all hunters proudly displayed their bucks and drove them all over town. Big bucks made the paper, and everyone celebrated the harvest. Bucks were often hung in a barn or a garage for days to be..... admired by all!

My grandfather was the best outdoorsman I've ever known from trapping to Muskie fishing to hunting deer, he did it all better than anyone in our area of WI. One year he made the Eau Claire Paper for harvesting the biggest buck on opening day, and he was very proud of that buck. This year I hope to harvest a buck with Grandpa's Winchester Model 94 .32 Special to carry on the tradition. Grandpa was not a member of the "One Shot Club", but he advocated being sure and trusting your shot.

If I shoot a nice buck I'll share pics with family, friends, and this forum, but I won't tell a soul in the local area, or the orange army will converge, jealousy and greed will run rampant, the hunting world that I've established will be devastated, and a deer war could erupt!!! Heck, we already have a deer war, with neighbors attempting to contain deer to their property as if they own the deer. It's just nuts the way some people behave where deer are concerned, and it didn't used to be that way!

 

[Tra_cline]

unless you help load it or cape it you probably won't see it. I may post it here later, but no one local will know of it

 

[JFK52]

I get the local Madison WI TV stations as I live 25 miles North of Fantasy Island. In the past every year the day before the opening of the gun deer season the local PETA group would tie up a fake deer to the front of a vehicle and drive around the Capitol square to show their attitude towards deer hunting. If you are not familiar with Madison, that is the area of surface streets that forms a square and surrounds the State Capitol building right in downtown Madison. Of course, the local TV stations would cover this CRAP a put a two minute story on air. It always made me laugh!!
Somehow I thought this story might just fit this thread in a weird sort of way.

 

[CTM1]

No, I make them come to me, and then I make them help me drag it out.