Do You Miss It??

[dogghr]

Somewhat plagiarized from a post on FB but I thought I was only one thinking this way. I love technology, and online check in is so convenient, but I miss going to ck in a deer kill and the chance to see others and spend time talking chit for a while with the other hunters and owners of sporting shop or eatery where you ck it. Again, as is often said, much of the loss of the attraction of hunting is no more the typical group hunt for most, no interaction except on social media of deer taken, and half that is derogatory, no fun harassing of other hunters and their misses or sometimes jokingly kidding of the bambi they shot. I guess it allows us all to be more politically correct but I do miss that trip to the station. I've used the same processor for 30 years. Have taken in deer late at night to drop off while their newborn lay in a crib in the shop, and watched that same baby girl grow up and take over the establishment. These late night rendezvous weren't quick, but time spent catching up on the past year of family life, and how the butcher business was going, and maybe a look at the cooler full of decent bucks.
Maybe, just maybe its not the long seasons, or the crossbow, or the high dollar hunting sheds that allow us to take a 4 yo to take their first deer that is the savior of hunting among the masses. Maybe bringing back that interaction with each other in a non condescending way of social media comments that just might be our saving grace? Or perhaps.... we are too late??

 

[Laker]

Food for thought. Thanks.

 

[j-bird]

I saw a similar/maybe same post as well.....and yes I do miss it. I take my deer to a local locker so it sort of happens there as you wait in line, but there isn't near as much socializing. I understand the advantages of the on-line systems...but they did kill some of the check station traditions. I also miss the lack of an actual tag as well. IN issued a metal band type tag once you had your deer officially checked in and that tag could serve as a record/memento so to speak. I have every one of mine, up until they went to the on-line system. The best part about the on-line system is that IN DNR posts the live numbers on their website....so you can see the harvest number progress if you so desire. I hunt the property I live on and I am fairly in touch with my hunting neighbors and the advent of social media also helps stay in touch as well. But sometimes.....it's just nice to shoot the bull while leaning on the bed rail of a pick-up with a deer or two in the back. The best part is seeing the kids with their first deer or their first buck....the smiles and their excitement are great!

 

[OkieKubota]

As a child my favorite thing to do in the fall even before I ever hunted deer was to go with my dad to the check station at our local store and watch the trucks come in with the deer. Back then most of the deer were small but to a boy like me it was the most glorious thing ever and sometimes I would even get in the Polaroid picture they would take. There would be 20-30 men standing about and all would be congratulating the hunters as they came in. Big buck contest we’re common at that time and heaviest buck as well. It was a great time and my dad would buy me a Dr. Pepper in a glass bottle with a pry off lid and a bag of peanuts to poor in it...awe the memories...

Nowadays you get a picture on a forum or Facebook that is usually with someone sitting well behind the deer with arms stretched out to the fullest and leaning back while the photographer lays on the ground using the wide angle...sometimes they don’t even hold the deer they are so far back... I always look at the size of the deers “face/head” as opposed to how big the hunters head is in the photo...with people only getting this interaction with dead deer the normal non hunting and sometimes even hunting person gets the impression that most all bucks are monsters...the check station was a great “reality” setting and back then the hunter just stood next to his deer on the tailgate while a simple Polaroid was snapped...

Something else we would see was deer in the back of pickups with no tailgates or on flatbed trucks being taken to the check station. Nowadays I never, ever see a dead deer in person unless it is 1. Roadkill 2. Killed by me or mine 3. Happens to be in view at the processors when we drop one off. We used to drive our deer over to friends and family to show it to them...now we get a staged photo and that is it...

I really feel like this among other things is why hunter recruitment is on the downward spiral...being in that atmosphere made every boy want to go hunting back then and we had to prove ourselves worthy of hunting deer by taking lots of small game on our own and showing we had woodsmanship skills in order to be able to even get around in the woods without getting lost. Nowadays a lot of kids taken hunting are starting right away on deer and have never even killed a squirrel. I didn’t deer hunt till I was 13 with a single barrel “Long Tom” 16 gauge shotgun that didn’t even have a bead on the barrel because it was worn off even though I grew up in deer country but I was a terror on rabbits and squirrels from the age of 10 on and I trapped by myself for coon, possum, beaver, skunk, and fox from the age of 12. I purchased my own deer rifle, Marlin 30/30, in January while I was still 13 from money from pelts I took that December. My first year to be able to hunt with it was the next fall when I was 14...

I wish we could go back to a simpler time...great thread!

 

[tlh2865]

I'll throw in a couple cents on my end and say that there are a lot of people who would and still do hang out at check stations that I do not want to know what I killed or where I killed it. Keeps my deer herd a whole lot safer that way

 

[catscratch]

Kids used to get bored at home, meet at the local park, and then do stuff together (mischief). Now kids never get bored at home and instead socialize on social media. Boredom does not lead to bird and rabbit hunting with a bb-gun anymore. Parents don't yell at their kids to get out of the house anymore, they are happy that they are sitting quietly and not in trouble or in danger. Face to face interactions with people is being phased out. Face to face interactions with blood, guts, gore, and death are being phased out (not the bad stuff, but stuff like butchering and hunting). It does affect hunting. For many, the future of hunting will be done on a video game. Face to face interactions are really uncomfortable for many young people, it's not something to look forward to but something to stress about and avoid.

 

[OkieKubota]

I'll throw in a couple cents on my end and say that there are a lot of people who would and still do hang out at check stations that I do not want to know what I killed or where I killed it. Keeps my deer herd a whole lot safer that way

“my deer herd”?

 

[SwampCat]

I think the online ck makes it a whole lot easier to accidentally forget to check one.

 

[OkieKubota]

I think the online ck makes it a whole lot easier to accidentally forget to check one.

Yep...here you have 24 hours after the kill to check it in. I hate online check in and wish we would just take them down to the store...

 

[catscratch]

Check in? Wouldn't that imply a management plan based on data and the use of corrective measures? Sounds costly and time consuming. Our state's plan is simply make sure that everyone who WANTS a tag gets a tag. Sometimes I get a survey after season asking if I shot anything. Does that count?

 

[OkieKubota]

Check in? Wouldn't that imply a management plan based on data and the use of corrective measures? Sounds costly and time consuming. Our state's plan is simply make sure that everyone who WANTS a tag gets a tag. Sometimes I get a survey after season asking if I shot anything. Does that count?

our check in shows total legal harvest taken, age structure, etc..and can also be used as a law enforcement measure if you are suspected of poaching, they check and see that you have not checked any deer, they come and do a search and find fresh deer meat, fresh racks, etc...

 

[Mennoniteman]

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has a reputation for being backwards, but mailing in a harvest report card seems like a good system.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[catscratch]

our check in shows total legal harvest taken, age structure, etc..and can also be used as a law enforcement measure if you are suspected of poaching, they check and see that you have not checked any deer, they come and do a search and find fresh deer meat, fresh racks, etc...

There was a lot of sarcasm in my post Okie. When I first started hunting you sent teeth in to the state of your harvested deer and there was a draw to allocate tags. Everything was very data based and structured in a way to make informed decisions for herd management. I'm very bitter that my state has moved away from that model and went with the "meet demand" model.

 

[tlh2865]

“my deer herd”?

Spotlighting is a big problem here, and so is trespassing to a lesser degree. The most effective preventative measure against that here is not to talk about what I kill or where I do it. If I can keep my deer hunting business out of site and out of mind, the more likely that my little slice of heaven stays that way.

 

[Native Hunter]

My inlaws used to run a gas station that was a check in station, so yes I do miss all of that fellowship. But, I miss a lot of things from those olden days.

 

[Baker]

Interesting post Dogghr. I have never hunted where there was a check station so that interaction has never been a part of my experience.All the interactions I was a part of as a kid growing up are still largely in place. Drawing for stands at the deer shack or discussing where everyone is going to hunt on the farm is still a big part of the social fabric. Meeting at the barn after a hunt especially to celebrate if someone successful is a ritual. Friends and family will drive over to be a part of it. And of course all the preseason chatter about how the herd looks, what ole so and so buck looks like or how the plots did along with reviewing countless trail cams is as strong as ever. And it appears to me young hunter recruitment at least here in La. is as strong as ever.

What I have noticed more is how social media can be so negative, condescending, judgmental and segregating . Heck I remember the first time I ever posted a deer on social media back on the old QDMA forum it created a firestorm of negativity, with some even checking state laws convinced I was breaking the law somehow. I was stunned at how 'our' hunting community could be so viscous and judgmental . Just seems to me there is an awful lot of judgement within our own ranks where " if you don't do it the way I believe then let me belittle you" is common. We segregate ourselves then judge harshly. I find that disappointing.

So the dichotomy for me is in the world of hunters I hang around with personally there is great friendship, comraderie , excitement and celebration. Yet on social media there is as apt to be attack , condescension, or judgement amongst the hunting community as support and consideration. Seems a shame and easy to understand why that could create disinterest in hunting if even our own community is so critical of each other. .

 

[Jeff H]

I do miss the days of checking in at the gas station. My boys will never know this and that's a shame. I also miss actual trout stamps on an actual fishing license. I wish I would have kept some of those. Last year I spent opening day not in the woods but sitting on the tailgate of my truck along the county road my property is on. I slept in and arrived about the time the first neighbor was coming out with a deer on his 4 wheeler. Three neighbors later I had what I had come for. The social event that deer hunting can be. It was enjoyable and I saw folks that in a normal season I would not except through their social media posts. Now who remembers losing shirt tails ?

 

[Baker]

Now who remembers losing shirt tails ?

Ha, yep . My first deer hunt ever when I was maybe 10 or 12? was in the swamp where they ran dogs. They warned me to only shoot something with antlers with my .410 single shot slug. A doe came running by me dogs not far behind and it scared me half to death. I shot in the general direction missing probably by 100 yards or so. Back at camp everyone gathered around and I learned about shirt tail cutting. Squirmed like a monkey.

Shirt tail cutting has passed on but we still bloody the face on a first deer.

 

[OkieKubota]

Spotlighting is a big problem here, and so is trespassing to a lesser degree. The most effective preventative measure against that here is not to talk about what I kill or where I do it. If I can keep my deer hunting business out of site and out of mind, the more likely that my little slice of heaven stays that way.

I see what you are saying but the deer belong to the state ie/the people of the state...Once I get a deer on the ground it is mine here in Oklahoma but until then it is anybodies game. I am assuming you aren’t high fenced which in effect makes the deer yours if they don’t get out...some states for some reason will let folks fence in the people’s deer immediately taking them out of the possibility of being taken by your neighbor and others like Oklahoma will not...if you high fence here all native deer have to be removed and only purchased deer can be stocked...

We are getting off topic here though...

Having said that I do not know what my neighbors kill and I do not tell my neighbors what I kill. I just hunt our 90 and whatever comes by, comes by and whatever never shows back up I assume was shot...disappointing for me sometimes but I am sure the hunter that took it will be super happy as it should be and I do not want to take that from them. If my neighbors knew what I take I really don’t see what would change as they already hunt the property line. They don’t cross my low fence though because they are all aware of the fact that is a no-no and they know they could see me anywhere out there at any time day or night.

 

[George]

This is about as deep as I tend to tread in social media you guys don't seem so bad.

G