The Good Ol Days

[Nicodemus]

One cold, frosty morning, take up your old single barrel shotgun, sling your shot sack with 6`s, couple of 8 shot, #1 buckshot, and your dinner, over your shoulder, and just go hunting. Be prepared to spend the day, and don`t have any schedule. Just relax, hunt, and enjoy the the day. Don`t worry about anything.
Chances are you`ll have the best hunt of the season. If not, the fault lies within you.

 

[specialk]

yep, i had an old slide action savage that i toted, belonged to my great uncle.....usually 8's was all i had....mostly just rabbits and squirrels but occasionally a quail or dove....deer were scarce as hen's teeth back then....i'd leave the house and make a ''round'' threw the woods......always stopped by the little spring and get a sip of water.....then i'd stomp on every trash pile on my other great uncles farm for a rabbit....he had old cars, tractors and other broke down equipment scattered over his farm that held a rabbit or two....then i'd cut across the creek to a great aunts place that was full of huge old hardwoods....loaded with squirrels....after that i'd head home to clean what i killed if anything and call it a day.....i sure do miss those days.....i'm going back there xmas, i might just take a stroll thru those woods again!!

 

[Worlldbeater]

Sure sounds like a good plan for sometime next week or maybe this Saturday. A few ducks and squirrels and maybe a meat deer.

 

[NCMTNHunter]

Yes sir. I used to love to get home from school and hit the woods with my dad’s savage 22 over 20ga. Buckshot, #4’s, and CCI Stingers in my vest. Every year when I smell fall in the air for the first time I think about that gun and slipping through the woods in a pair of thick wool socks.

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

I used to hunt bout like that. Single shot was all I had. Carried #6’s for squirrels and #7’s for jumping a grouse and a “ringed shell” or 2 in case I ran into a ill bear. I still tote a single barrel ( we call em mater stakes) when I take other people squirrel hunting with my dog. They usually show up with a super duper late model Benelli or Etay. Man they sure go thru the shells with them things. . I heard somewhere a long time back, “beware of a man that owns only one rifle….. he most likely knows how to use it”. My Winchester 37 has been around the hill a time or 2.

 

[Railroader]

My 8th Christmas I got my Stevens 94 20 gauge single barrel.

We had also moved to a new house and it was paradise.

Take a left out the driveway and it was a mile to the Satilla River thru some woods owned by a guy out of state. Probably about 500 acres of freedom...

Take a right, and it was a half mile to a big pecan orchard, and a good sized fish pond...

I made a couple new friends, and we roamed the whole area as if we owned it. We had a campsite at each location, where we ran our operations from.

My Dad got a new lawn mower, and we were given the old one, with the mower deck removed. We towed our gear in a small utility trailer many a mile...

 

[bany]

How’d ya know about my good ol days? Thanks for the yearning.

 

[Stob]

My 8th Christmas I got my Stevens 94 20 gauge single barrel.

We had also moved to a new house and it was paradise.

Take a left out the driveway and it was a mile to the Satilla River thru some woods owned by a guy out of state. Probably about 500 acres of freedom...

Take a right, and it was a half mile to a big pecan orchard, and a good sized fish pond...

I made a couple new friends, and we roamed the whole area as if we owned it. We had a campsite at each location, where we ran our operations from.

My Dad got a new lawn mower, and we were given the old one, with the mower deck removed. We towed our gear in a small utility trailer many a mile...

Grew up with pretty much the same. I also learned that I could breakdown my Stevens 20 where it would fit into a backpack. Just walked home from school and hunted along the way.

Can you imagine kids these days doing this?

 

[Railroader]

Grew up with pretty much the same. I also learned that I could breakdown my Stevens 20 where it would fit into a backpack. Just walked home from school and hunted along the way.

Can you imagine kids these days doing this?

Back in the day, if me and you was buddies and I was gonna spend the night at your house, it went like this...

I'd get on the school bus with my 20 gauge, and the driver would put it beside her seat with the broom.

At school, I'd leave it at the principal's office and reverse the process going to your house after school.

All the while with a vest full of shells in my book bag...

We all did it, and nobody thought nothing of it.

 

[ugajay]

Back in the day, if me and you was buddies and I was gonna spend the night at your house, it went like this...

I'd get on the school bus with my 20 gauge, and the driver would put it beside her seat with the broom.

At school, I'd leave it at the principal's office and reverse the process going to your house after school.

All the while with a vest full of shells in my book bag...

We all did it, and nobody thought nothing of it.

I graduated high school 20 years ago, and one of my teachers gave me a smith and Wesson 9mm for graduation. He'd probably be in prison for that now.

 

[transfixer]

when I was a youngster I'd go spend the holidays at my Grandmother's place in Hall county, it was a 95 acre farm with probably 75 acres of it just woods, all natural growth, mostly hardwoods with a few pines mixed in, plenty of squirrels, rabbits, and a good population of quail, I was 13 or 14 and would take my grandfathers single shot 410, or old Remington 22 auto and wander off into the woods with the farm dog Buster, he loved to wander the woods with me, truth be known he probably spooked off more squirrels and rabbits than I ever saw, as he would take off running and I'd only catch a glimpse of whatever it was he was chasing.

But I enjoyed those days more than many of my hunting trips, just me and Buster, a pocket full of shells, and not a care in the world, every now and then I'd shoot a couple quail or a rabbit and bring it to my Grandmother and she'd cook em up . I still have that .410 shotgun, a Stevens, one of my cousins got the Remington 22

 

[Lilly001]

We have a rule that there is no wandering through the hunting property during October or November.
So I look forward to December so I can take a morning and roam.
Following creek bottoms reveals a lot of surprises.
I carry a shotgun just in case, but I’m not really hunting for game.

 

[Ruger#3]

Grew up around fiest and beagle hunting dogs. By the time I could drive myself to the woods Dad had us up in Ohio. I’d load up our beagle Queen and head to the farm country the hunting club had under lease. The dog and I would bounce rabbits, flush pheasants and quail. It was a rare occasion I went home without something in my game bag. Those hunts are the most memorable of my life. Just Queen and I exploring the woodlots and fields of corn country. Sitting down under a tree in the fence line for a break, Queen’s head in my lap, warm sunshine melting a fresh snow. A 20 gauge, a good beagle, country with plenty of game, all a young hunter could want. Some mornings now I sip my coffee and hold that old 20 gauge, the memories flood in and I swear I can hear Queen‘s cry on the jump far away.

 

[Lindseys Grandpa]

Never took lunch but left house many a time with a shotgun shells and sometimes a dog and hunted all day for whatever we were willing to eat . Met up with a buddy who lived behind our land sometimes .
If land wasn't posted and almost none was it pretty much meant you were welcome to hunt .

 

[sprewett]

I was just thinking about this today. We had a bunch of land to roam around on. I had an old single shot Stevens 20 gauge
The thing I was thinking about would be a foreign concept to most youngsters but how many had swimming holes. We didn't have a pool or such so we would just drive around find a good looking creek. We would check for submerged dangers when it was all clear it was on like donkey Kong. We had to leave a few times because of a bunch of cotton mouths guess they wanted to swim too.

 

[au7126]

I used to hunt bout like that. Single shot was all I had. Carried #6’s for squirrels and #7’s for jumping a grouse and a “ringed shell” or 2 in case I ran into a ill bear. I still tote a single barrel ( we call em mater stakes) when I take other people squirrel hunting with my dog. They usually show up with a super duper late model Benelli or Etay. Man they sure go thru the shells with them things. . I heard somewhere a long time back, “beware of a man that owns only one rifle….. he most likely knows how to use it”. My Winchester 37 has been around the hill a time or 2.

Still have my first Mod 37 purchased with grass cutting money in 1954. When I paid the $20 for the gun did not have money for ammo. The store did sell ammo by the single shell. I was his best customer.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Grew up like that, too. I got a cheap .410 single shot for my 8th birthday, and graduated up to a 20 gauge H&R Topper a couple years later. When I got home from school and got the chores and feeding done, I was out the door, hunting for anything I saw-squirrels, rabbits, grouse, groundhogs, quail, whatever. Always carried a punkinball for a big-game emergency.

 

[Nicodemus]

I was just thinking about this today. We had a bunch of land to roam around on. I had an old single shot Stevens 20 gauge
The thing I was thinking about would be a foreign concept to most youngsters but how many had swimming holes. We didn't have a pool or such so we would just drive around find a good looking creek. We would check for submerged dangers when it was all clear it was on like donkey Kong. We had to leave a few times because of a bunch of cotton mouths guess they wanted to swim too.

This was our swimming hole on Lott`s Creek where it flowed through our place and dropped off into the swamp. This is the hole where I learned how to swim in either 1959 or 1960, when Daddy throwed me in. It`s also where I caught my first redfin pike, warmouth, black cat, and jack.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I was just thinking about this today. We had a bunch of land to roam around on. I had an old single shot Stevens 20 gauge
The thing I was thinking about would be a foreign concept to most youngsters but how many had swimming holes. We didn't have a pool or such so we would just drive around find a good looking creek. We would check for submerged dangers when it was all clear it was on like donkey Kong. We had to leave a few times because of a bunch of cotton mouths guess they wanted to swim too.

We would get a bunch of us together and dam the creek up to make a swimming hole.

 

[Railroader]

Grew up like that, too. I got a cheap .410 single shot for my 8th birthday, and graduated up to a 20 gauge H&R Topper a couple years later. When I got home from school and got the chores and feeding done, I was out the door, hunting for anything I saw-squirrels, rabbits, grouse, groundhogs, quail, whatever. Always carried a punkinball for a big-game emergency.

I had two emergency slugs in the top pocket of my vest. I carried them religiously, just in case.

For three or four years...