One I kilt on dog drive last year

Now that I think about it, it could have been the year before. Or maybe 1965.

I had forgotten that this picture existed until my wife found a box of old pictures last week. This one fell to a Winchester model 37 20 gauge using #4 buckshot. There were a lot of grown men who had never killed a deer at that time, so I was something of a celebrity for a while. At least I thought I was. . I still have the rack out in the shed.

How old you think ....looks like its spine has deterated .

Whoa PCP nice buck !!! I bet you was a celebrity after shooting that one... That was back when there wasn't very many deer around too, I bet it chapped some of the older guys butts after you knocked that one down, lol....Cool pic....

Nice pic

I miss the old dog drives - always got excited when I heard the dogs coming

Thanks for sharing - lifetime
Memory

That’s a fine buck Mr. Steve. I love them old pictures. My mom sent me one of my grandad in the 50s with a gobbler. He was wearing a white t shirt and blue jeans lol

Nice pic!

I could only guess that he was at least 3, but everyone said he was over 200 lbs. But we said that about a lot of deer until I bought some scales.

There were probably 50 people on that drive and we killed 2. The guy who killed a deer got the head, the hide, and the left hind quarter. Everyone else could get a small piece of meat. The picture was made after we got home with the head and hide.

And you killed him without Sitka camo or a Hecs suit! lol. Nice buck!

That’s got to be a great memory. Thanks for sharing!

Awesome pic PCP 👍

Awesome pic!

PCP you have been sharing some great ole pic. Great deer, What does the S on the hat stand for?

Fantastic old picture. Brings back a lot of old memories from my childhood dog hunting with my cousin in the tombigbee swamps and get so lost that I would be worried and asking my cousin if he knew where we are and his reply was always hell no but Blue does we will just follow him and someone will pick us up.

That would be for Suttle high. The high school closed in 1971, but the building is still standing

I’d definitely move that rack inside my living room 🙂

Skinny

Awesome

My dad would talk about dog hunting in the 50s thru the mid sixties where they wouldn’t even jump a deer some days. And the meat would be divided out similar to this when they did kill one. By the time I started hunting (still with dogs) in the mid 70’s so many were being killed , everyone got all they wanted. By the time i stopped dog hunting for the most part in the late 80’s, you couldn’t hardly give the meat away even if it was already dressed and cut up.

Good description of the way it happened. It became too easy; was a lot more fun when it was difficult to kill one.

Enjoyed your “ back in the day” pics and stories, keep’em coming.

Great times running dogs back in the day. That was a really good buck!
Btw...how long did it take for your head to grow into those ears?

Skinny, the answer to that question is never.

Cmon man you cant do that... They're barely even noticeable...

I was going to mention that spread myself, but didn’t want to offend. 😆 Great post PCP. Got my start on dog drives at Elrod Hunting Club in Tuscaloosa County back in the early 80’s. Nothing like hearing a good pack of Walker’s or blue ticks burning ones’s tail up.

That is a great buck! Cool story - thanks for sharing.

Only solution I ever found to that problem was to let my hair grow long and cover them. I was really happy with the 70s hair styles, and by the time long hair went out of style I was too old for it to make any difference.

Killing that deer was one of my best childhood memories. I was 10 in that picture. The next year I called up a gobbler and killed him. That ruined my life.

Just looking at those pants make me cold 😂

Awesome!

Back when hunting was less about “me” and more about community and having a good time.

Great picture.

Nice buck and cool old pic! I remember the cut shirt tails if you missed.

That's awesome!!

I guess we were to poor to cut shirttails, but first deer always got a bloody face.

Some of us still enjoy a good buck race now and then. It doesn't have to be a distant memory.

Dang nice buck. I bet it looked like he had a rocking chair on his head. Even the smaller ones look big in front of a pack of hounds.

Thanks for sharing!

What county? I figure many counties had zero deer in 1965

It was in Perry county, and I was hunting with a community group called Cahaba/Okmulgee something or other. They didn't call it a hunting club, but it sort of functioned like one. Anyone in the community who wanted to go could be a member, and I don't think it cost anything. Various landowners took turns organizing the hunts, and we all met at the local store early Saturday morning to draw stands. People would be scattered out over several miles and multiple packs of dogs would be set loose in different directions. You stayed on your stand all morning. Even at age 10, I was put on a stand by myself and knew dang well that I had better not leave the stand until they picked me up.

The importance of not leaving your stand was so drilled into me that I dared not take a step away from my stand. On one hunt I drew a stand on the bank of the Cahaba river, and there was only one other stander below me and he was 400 yds away. The dogs on the other side of the river ran a nice 7 pt into the river right across from me, but the current carried him downstream maybe 75 yds before he climbed out on my side. I could have easily ran down the bank and been right at him when he climbed out, but I was afraid to move. The stander below me didn't even see the deer, but he saw the dogs when they swam the river after him. Another stander eventually killed the deer over a mile away.

Then when I told the story, everybody gave me a hard time for not running down the bank and shooting him. It all left me confused as to the rules, and made me develop a dislike for organized hunts with a bunch of rules.

Those community hunts existed for only a few years. As deer became more plentiful, the landowners started leasing their lands and if you wanted to hunt you had to pay. Those first years were a unique time that we will never see again.

I had a matching coat that was a lot colder than the pants.

Back in the good Ole days. Wish there was more dog hunting than trophy hunting these days.

All these years and I had never scored the rack; said he was a 120 deer when I told the story. I just got it down and put a tape to it - 109 & 1/8. However, he lost about 5" on his right main beam and over 3" off the right G1, so he would have been in the 117 to 118 range before he got shot. My first shot put him down, but he raised his head up and looked right at me, so I quickly reloaded the model 37 and aimed for his head from 20 yds away. One buckshot hit him square in the eye, but others damaged the rack and even put a couple of holes in his ears. My dad used that as an excuse to not have to pay to mount him.



EDIT: I just compared this picture to the original and I can see the G1 was shot off, but the main beam wasn't. Something has broken it off in the past 57 years of hanging in various sheds. I'm gonna add that 5 points back and call him 114 & 1/8. He still wouldn't have made 120.

My Daddy and his folks grew up/lived in Lee County, Ala. I remember in the late 50's through about 1964....He and a Buddy here would leave on a Thursday and go "Somewhere" on the Tombigbee over in Mississippi and go on Dog Drives. The Dog Men road Horses on the hunt. They were told to "Kill any and all Deer....Bucks/Does/Yearlings"....as they were overpopulated and harming the Crops!! He killed a Big Doe in 1961. Nobody knew much about a Deers' habits back then.....Nor that they wouldn't Spread out and expand there range much if Plenty of Food was Available. Later on in 1967.....And I got Old Enough to Really Hunt..(Age 10)....he was asked by Miller Lumber in Selma if he might be interested in Leasing some of there land for Deer/Turkey....( He bought a LOT of Poplar and Cottonwood from Miller). Elm Bluff Hunting Club was Born.....Leased 10,000 Acres on the Alabama River for 50 Cents an Acre. I remember the first couple years were Lean...Go and Go and Go......FREEZE.....Go.....FREEZE on Dog Drives. Killed maybe 5 or 6 the first couple years then.......it got Better and Better. Went on about 6 hunts before I saw my first Deer....A Doe. The Bucks that were killed were BIG. I still remember a 9 Point Buck one of the members' Son Killed in 1969-----We ALL witnessed the weighing on a Cotton Scale just north on hwy 41----317 Pounds. Deer was Abnormally LONG.....and Had a BEER BELLY from Feeding on all the Soybeans Grown back then.....and th' wealth of White Oak Acorns..

Nice pic the good ole days of deer hunting to me

Any shot you guys were meeting up at Coleman's or Crow's or the G and H?

If so, you probably hunted with my Grandfather back then

No, that was the store that also functioned as the Suttle post office. They had most everything in the store, but all of the buildings are gone now. I'm not familiar with the stores you mentioned; must be an entirely different area.

Yeah suttle wouldve been just south of the area i am referring too. This woulda been Northeast perry county almost in Chilton county

This has brought back some fond memories of my Dad taking me when I was a little boy. I lost him to Leukemia when I was only 19 but those hunts burned deep into my memory. I can still remember the excitement of riding in the truck as they put out the standers before the drive.

PCP - THANK YOU!!!!!

Brings back so many great and wonderful memories of when I was young!!!!!

Killed my 1st deer in 72 when I was 8-yrs old - certainly not near as good as the one you killed (mine was an exceptionally small spike - barely breaking through the skin), but you would have thought I killed the world record deer the way my dad and grandpa acted. I remember every moment.

Man am this sounds fun…I’ve always wanted to go on a dog hunt and never have. I’ve been on a man drive and it was pretty fun but would love to hear the dogs coming.