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108 members (BigA47, Jwoods32, Marengo hunter, paintrock, BullMountain, jake5050, CNC, 3bailey3, riflejunkie, gwstang, woodduck, JB71, Engine5, JHL, geeb1, 3006bullet, sawdust, Madmax0818, BCLC, Holcomb, outdoorguy88, Calvin, GATA87, jmj120, 163dm, mathews prostaff, AU338MAG, Chaser357, fish_blackbass, Morris, Fedex 1, Geeb, Turkey, slanddeerhunter, Chiller, Young20, shootnmiss, Chickenrig, dirtwrk, BigEd, twaldrop4, XVIII, Cactus_buck, turkeychaser, Bake, MikeP, coach2, Joe4majors, KSRabbit, WhoMe, gman, ridgestalker, Floorman1, deadeye48, donia, Jwbfx4, eskimo270, jawbone, Gobble4me757, jprice, SurveyinAL, slippinlipjr, hoggin, Buckkiller77, Catbird, desertdog, Hornhntr, howl, jaredhunts, roosterbob, Turkeyneck78, scrape, antlerhunter, Reaper, Huntn2feed5, JA, Fish2Hunt, El_Matador, trlrdrdave, brianr, brett.smith, Bsivley1978, Longtine, limabean, !shiloh!, Fattyfireplug, Standbanger, Johnal3, Frankie, 7PTSPREAD, Koba, lthrstkg1, NotsoBright, blade, TEM, 13 invisible),
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Key:
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Global Mod,
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 49
spike
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spike
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 49 |
Just thinking how much it's changed
I remember you could hunt all of Gillman land for 10$.
Hunt Alabama threw Florida up in Georgia for a 10$ sticker.
We ran hounds mostly and there was very few Clubs. We respected there line's but always we're welcomed to run with them.
There was very little bitching about who hunted where and how.
We just hunted hard and had fun killed a lot of good bucks too.
I was into the Hogs and bear myself I was young And loved them porkers.
We still hunted private farms to help the farmer out not pay for his New truck every year.
Bow hunting was New and I was hooked instantly.
The biggest taboo was Shooting a doe. Seen lots of fist fights over it.
There were not as many deer then but we always took home meat and had fun.
And over the years it's turned to this.
I kinda feel bad for some of these younger guys they will never know what it's like to hunt 3 states in a weekend and never come out of the woods but to cross a river or creek. To hunt for days and never see anyone else.
To have to know how to use a compass and a map. Not a GPS or cell phone.
It was lots of fun.
Now those places are. Quota WMAs or High dollar leases or golf courses and subdivisions.
Everyone says how now's better because the management but I don't know we did also we fed We burnt the woods off for the feed. If a area didn't have a lot game we rested it a year or two. The difference was we did it as hunters together.
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Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 3,521 Likes: 1
10 point
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10 point
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 3,521 Likes: 1 |
been hunting for 50 years and it was fun back then. Folks were honest and farmers didn't have a problem with letting you hunt their land. Hunters took care of the land and not throw garbage all over it. You shot no does and there were some good bucks around. No posted signs as hunters respected others. This new generation of hunters with their silly slogans such as Brown is Down really suck. They want to kill everything so their children won't have anything to hunt.
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 22,083
Freak of Nature
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Freak of Nature
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 22,083 |
I don't think most folks realize how many more people there are now. Everybody's grandparents I know have 12-20 grandchildren. You do the math on that and realize what has changed.
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 20,017
Freak of Nature
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Freak of Nature
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 20,017 |
Some of my earliest hunting was around Saco, Al. Mr Jeff Sorrell owned a sawmill and several thousand acres of land. He was one of the first in the area to stock deer and turkeys. One of his rules was that a game warden had to be on hand, and there was no charge. That was around 1968.
Great Southern Paper Company had thousands of acres of land in Pike County and Mr. Wakefield, the senior forester, gave me a pad of free permits and I wrote them to anybody that want one.
Then I started hunting with the old Clayton Hunting Club in Barbour County. A few of the old members knew a lot of the landowners and most of them just wanted you to kill the deer as they ate their gardens and crops up, most of them had no charge. One of our best tracts we called the whiskey land. The old black man that owned it wanted and occasional bottle of whiskey for the hunting rights. Then around 1984 people from all over started leasing the land we were hunting basically for free and it was over.
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 49
spike
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spike
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 49 |
Do you remember Mr Larry Howard and his Son Scott?
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 2,978
10 point
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10 point
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 2,978 |
I remember when you could drive across the entire state of Alabama and would be lucky to see one shooting house in a field.
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 2,978
10 point
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10 point
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 2,978 |
I purchased the very first Baker climbing stand in the South Alabama, North West Florida area and was laughed at by most of my hunting buddies. You had to hug the tree to climb and it was very dangerous. I still have it as a keepsake. Still hunting for deer was almost unheard of. I had the opportunity to hunt Hit and Miss hunting club, north of Camden way back then, and that was my first experience with hunting out of stands. I had a hard time convincing my grandfather that you could hunt a deer using other methods besides dog hunting.
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 11,774
Booner
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Booner
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 11,774 |
Isnt there still hundreds of thousands of acres you can hunt for cheaper than a $10 pass in AL,GA,FL, and Miss? It's just not owned by timber companies or old black men. It's in the form of National Forests, and WMA's. And I understand from what I've read from the old timers on here there weren't many deer at all in AL 40 years ago. I would have to assume that the populations on public land currently are atleast as good as they were before restocking. You can also still run hounds on some of these public lands. To me it doesn't sound a whole lot different than what the OP described
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Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 733
4 point
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4 point
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 733 |
No doubt about it, deer hunting was a lot more fun, and a lot less competitive in those days. Deer drives were pretty much a social event where folks got together, listened to the hounds in the mornings and early afternoon, and were back home before dark. Of course, those days are gone and hunting has pretty much become a rich mans sport. I tell my grandsons what it was like to actually hunt instead of sit on a food plot, and they will never get the opportunity to understand.
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Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 6,095
ishootatbux
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ishootatbux
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 6,095 |
I'm 41, been hunting since I was very little (maybe 5 or 6?), and my experience is that deer hunting is better today, but turkey hunting just flat out sucks compared to yesteryear.
In the 80's / 90's we could hear 12/15+ birds gobble every day, and it was almost easy to kill your limit. Heck, we Fall turkey hunted and killed lots of birds.
I see 5x more deer today than back then, but (for me) deer hunting peaked about 5-7 years ago and has actually declined somewhat.
I do agree though that our modern-day hunting club mentality has commoditized hunting, it has caused the price of a good experience to be so high that most guys can't do it. The average guy just can't get in a $3,500 Dallas County club with low members and high deer anymore. He's relegated to WMA's (none of which are as good as they were years ago), or lousy clubs with low deer and high hunters. With a few exceptions, the guys I know who still have a high-level hunting experience are very wealthy. I have an uncle who purchased 180ac, and leases 1,055 acres surrounding it BY HIMSELF. That lease alone costs him $10/ac, and he literally hunts it by himself. He'll see 40/50/60 deer a day, and cherry-picks which buck he wants to shoot. 15 years ago there was 10 of us who leased all that land as a club, and we never saw deer like that. (just an example)
On a similar note, the same fate that turkey hunting met has also happened to fishing. Just 10 years ago I don't think there were 50% as many fishing as there are today. And as you would expect, the fishing isn't as good.
Last edited by ikillbux; 02/15/16 05:44 AM.
We were on the edge of Eternia, when the power of Greyskull began to take hold.
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 22,083
Freak of Nature
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Freak of Nature
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 22,083 |
Back when a hoe was a hoe, a Coke was a Coke, and crack's what you were doing.... 
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 49
spike
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spike
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 49 |
Isnt there still hundreds of thousands of acres you can hunt for cheaper than a $10 pass in AL,GA,FL, and Miss? It's just not owned by timber companies or old black men. It's in the form of National Forests, and WMA's. And I understand from what I've read from the old timers on here there weren't many deer at all in AL 40 years ago. I would have to assume that the populations on public land currently are atleast as good as they were before restocking. You can also still run hounds on some of these public lands. To me it doesn't sound a whole lot different than what the OP described It was good in places just like now deer deer are not on 100% of land. And we are talking about a time when everyone had millions of acres to hunt not crowd 500 hunters in 50,000 acres. And we still and stand hunted also. I killed deer every year some better than others. The differences were folks let you hunt theirs and a everyone was happy for who ever it was that killed the big buck. Its a lot different now. Lot more jealous folks seen grown men get mad because someone killed "Their" Buck. Or someone poured out some feed and pulled all their deer off their 100 acres. You got Still hunters hating Dog hunters, Dog hunters hating still hunters ,Bow hunters hating Gun hunters and Trophy hunters hating meat hunters. And if someone don't agree with someone they act like a smartass punk because they see things different. If We seen a buck on the side of a farmers house we asked to hunt if he said No we said ok sir thanks. Now they just shoot it and call you a jerk if you say anything to them. Its a lot different now.
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,275
10 point
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10 point
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,275 |
Back in the 70's we used to dog hunt on Container corporation and Union Camp land. You could go all the way from Letohatchee to Mt Willing and Bragg's and never get off of land open to public hunting. Tens of thousands of acres. Lots of deer and turkeys
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 2,978
10 point
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10 point
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 2,978 |
Back in the 70's we used to dog hunt on Container corporation and Union Camp land. You could go all the way from Letohatchee to Mt Willing and Bragg's and never get off of land open to public hunting. Tens of thousands of acres. Lots of deer and turkeys Ditto this!
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 12,788
Booner
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Booner
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 12,788 |
Here in Clarke County we had Headmill (Soterra), Scotch, Marathon/American Can, and several others, along with very generous landowners also. This provided free Permits for well over 100,000 acres of Public land to hunt at will. Deer were very plentiful in our area! But, they just did not hold the Trophy status/allure of later. It was mostly small game, turkeys and deer drives as a child in the 70's. Then, as time passed, Companies began to charge fees for Permits. People began still hunting and hunting slowly became more about ME than US. By the late 80's, the land was all leased up, food plots and shooting houses all over the landscape and the deer were not near as numerous as before. This trend held constant through the 90's with the biggest change being the land lease prices slowly creeping up and doe harvest increasing. The 2000's held ample opportunities, just at a higher costs as lease prices climbed and people wanted more acreage per hunter to 'manage'. Does were hammered in the quest for trophy bucks for all! This brings us to the current financial plight and diminished deer herds of today....we pay WAY more for LOTS less. As I sit here and think about all the bucks I have killed and seen killed, along with the huge shift in the overall deer population from seeing literal herds of deer to struggling to see deer on 'average' land......and sacrificing huge amounts of money and sacrifice to build up herds on certain properties to usually getting outbid once improved........to my current situation of being extremely fortunate to have family access to prime property......while others scream for Governmental Help to control 'others' in a dire effort to allow them to kill a Trophy Buck.......
I can assure you that while I have enjoyed the Ride......the Good Times are past!
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 4,329
10 point
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10 point
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 4,329 |
Here in Clarke County we had Headmill (Soterra), Scotch, Marathon/American Can, and several others, along with very generous landowners also. This provided free Permits for well over 100,000 acres of Public land to hunt at will. Deer were very plentiful in our area! But, they just did not hold the Trophy status/allure of later. It was mostly small game, turkeys and deer drives as a child in the 70's. Then, as time passed, Companies began to charge fees for Permits. People began still hunting and hunting slowly became more about ME than US. By the late 80's, the land was all leased up, food plots and shooting houses all over the landscape and the deer were not near as numerous as before. This trend held constant through the 90's with the biggest change being the land lease prices slowly creeping up and doe harvest increasing. The 2000's held ample opportunities, just at a higher costs as lease prices climbed and people wanted more acreage per hunter to 'manage'. Does were hammered in the quest for trophy bucks for all! This brings us to the current financial plight and diminished deer herds of today....we pay WAY more for LOTS less. As I sit here and think about all the bucks I have killed and seen killed, along with the huge shift in the overall deer population from seeing literal herds of deer to struggling to see deer on 'average' land......and sacrificing huge amounts of money and sacrifice to build up herds on certain properties to usually getting outbid once improved........to my current situation of being extremely fortunate to have family access to prime property......while others scream for Governmental Help to control 'others' in a dire effort to allow them to kill a Trophy Buck.......
I can assure you that while I have enjoyed the Ride......the Good Times are past!
^^^THIS^^^
I came, I saw, so I killed them all......Vern
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Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 43
spike
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spike
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 43 |
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 3,910
10 point
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10 point
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 3,910 |
I remember when a $600 per membership club was high dollar and in the prime locations. The first hunting club I joined was in henry co and the dues were $200, the 2nd club we had 2500 acres in pike co, 500 in Barbour and a pile in ga and the dues were $400.
Super Predator
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 11,774
Booner
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Booner
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 11,774 |
So what time frame was there not any deer in Alabama that caused the restocking program? I'm sure those times weren't the good ole days. I feel like I've heard stories on here of folks saying they never even saw deer growing up.
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 13
spike
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spike
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 13 |
I am 55 and grew up in NE Alabama when there were no deer in our portion of the state. Just seeing a deer was a big deal to us. We hunted squirrels mostly and many times got scared to death when a covey of quail flushed as we walked by on an old logging road. How often does that happen now that you see a wild covey of birds? We crappie fished on Neely Henry Lake on spring break and my dad took the whole week off to fish with my brother and I. We would clean fish til our hands were raw and love every minute. Those memories are the ones I cherish even now. It does not matter what we harvest as long as we are good stewards of what God has given us and obey our game laws. The fellowship of friends and family are what makes the outdoors a joy. Deer hunting now where I grew up is as good as anywhere in the state. My dad even sees an occasional deer in his neighborhood where only birds and squirrels used to be . Even as wildlife mgt. changes We still have it pretty good in AL. I may never take a Boone and Crockett buck but that's ok, I would not trade with anyone.
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