mounting man

I was born and rasied in SW Pa. Where i came from is all high hills and steep valleys. When i started hunting and was taught how to,you could go where you wanted and no one posted any ground! My clan where and are Rednecks. They were very tough folks from the coal mines and the steel mills.
After a few hours of opening day they would meet and start putting on drives. Up and down those ridges and thru the valleys. Some times as many as 20 hunters pushing and standing? It use to be we always had snow on the first day! This was in the late 1950's! That seems to have changed? They would do this all day!
At the end of the day,they would meet and tell stories [ mostly baloney],on the big one they jumped and missed. There was some beer drank and some stuff in clear jars. I could not hang with them for long and would go home and fall asleep. I was so tired [ 12 years old].
Now days,the mills are gone,the coal mines are prety well gone and my Redneck famialy are are 99% gone.
You can't go hunt where you would like to,its posted. No one puts on drives and for the most part,good sized groups of folks are no more.
I would see deer,some time 20 of them together,running from the drivers! Mostly does,but they were deer and got me all woked up hopeing for buck to come by!
I am in my late 60's now,but these hunts run in my head like old movies and i wish i could show them to my sons and gransons.
Do You Recall these days??????

gjersy

Yes I recall them good days also mounting man, in the late 70's / 80's in Wisconsin we used to meet at grandpa's house for pancakes real early, with the neighbors & a bunch of relatives. On drives we always had deer running around. The deer herd is down here we have buck only in lots of the state this season hope the herd rebounds.

c-rad

Where I hunt in west cental PA we still push during rifle season with usually 10 guys in rifle season but during flintlock is when the bigger group gets together. There is usually 20 to 30 of us that get together and push. There is some land that we lost access to but there is alot more we can still hunt.

Mojotex

Nice recollection "Mounting Man". I cut my teeth hunting ducks and small game in the swampy woodlands of south Lousiana in the late 1950's. I left La. in 1971. To give you an idea of the scarcity, my dad hunted deer with a group of 10-12 guys who used hounds. In the 20+ years that he hunted with them, he never had one single shot. Taking 4-5 bucks a season for the whole club was a big year. I arrowed a cow horn spike in the winter of my 15 th. year and for a time was a local legend of sorts. I never saw another deer.

I moved to Alabama in 1974. I started hunting deer again with a group of guys .... using hounds .... hunting on vast holdings of 3 pulp/paper companies. A permit to do so was under $10.00. Within 3 years, though I enjoyed the sound of hounds on a hot trrail .... and killed a couple of young bucks, I gave up the "dog world" and switched to "permission hunting" private land. That lasted only about 2-3 more years, then the tidal wave of leasing hunting rights swept across the state. In my view both the "slob hunter" and the enticement of "no work" income played the major roles in this transition. Now this is the rule rather than the exception. I have heard rumor that some of the hunting rightrs go for $20-$25/acre. The landowner where I hunt charges $8.50/acre for a group of us to hunt his 3000 +/- acres.

So .... like you, I have memories of a very different time. In some ways maybe better. In some ways maybe not. For me the fun has always been the "camp", the BS, the serenity of a day in the woods .... and the slowed pace away from the work-a-day world ... and yep, from time to time a bit of "shine" has shown up.

Oh ... and I also like a grilled 2" thick chunk of mairinated back-strap on my plate (rare), with a pile of wild rice and 2-3 slices of fried green tomatoes ... followed by a thick piece of my wife's home made sweet 'tater pie ... a strong cup of Community coffee.

Life is good. God is great !

Oldtimr

C-rad the limit on a driving group in PA is 25 hunters. You don't want to get caught with more because everyone in the party can be fined. Just saying.

flags

The problem is, deer hunting became big business. So you can't just hunt every where like you used to. I grew up hunting deer and elk in CO. Back then you could drive up to just about any ranch and ask to hunt and I don't remember ever being told NO. Now every decent ranch is leased so the outfitters and paying hunters can hunt them exclusively.

Some call it progress. I respectfully disagree.

Oldtimr

PA was late to the party when it comes to leasing. In the states around us leasing was common for decades. Now leasing large tracts of property for hunting is becoming common. That said, PA has millions of acres open to public hunting between the state game lands and the PGCs hunter access programs with landowners and state forests and parks.

redgreen

I remember the days when a hunter was welcomed with open arms. The rancher would invite you in for dinner or supper, and help you load whatever you managed to get. There was no posted land and things were good. Now, to get access to a lot of places, you have to be married to the farmers ugliest daughter, and even then, it is iffy. Many places where I use to hunt are all new homes and sub divisions of people cluttering up the landscape. In my "older" eyes, progress really sucks.

Sheridan

My parents called it the "good ole' days".

I didn't know what they meant ??

Now I do...........................

mounting man

Do you remember those so called insulated boots? The green rubber ones. How cold my feet use to get!
You were'nt a hunter either unless you had a Red Plaid Woolrich coat!
Only guys with money had scopes on their guns,a straight 2 1/2 or 4 power on a 30-06! We had 30-30's or a 32 special lever action! No scopes, but those guys sure could shoot! When they fired their guns the buck was down!
It was nothing to see 1 or 2 of them with black eyes,on Monday,the first day of Buck,from going to a dance on Satuday night! In those days,men were men and only used a gun for hunting!
When i got older,i started to work in the deep mines. As luck would have it my boss use to own a bar where my clan had gone to years back. He ask if i were one of them and i said yes. Man,he says,one New Years Eve,that crew was there and some one touched one of the ladies and out side they went!!!! There was snow in the parking lot,my boss goes on,like 10 people in the lot going at it!!!! The next morning,he says,it looked like some one butcherd a pig there!!!!! But,they all came back in,sort of buggered up,but were back to haveing fun,all of them?
They all got older,before i was old enough to go with them,thank god for that!
Yep,we stayed at Granpaps sunday night and got up to go meet the clan. As you may know,the first day of deer season is a Pa. holiday from school.
Wow,if you could just take some of these kids back amd show them what a good time and a good hunt was!