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.