OK let's go back in time just a tad. ;>)

Now you need to remember this is before trail cameras!

How many of you have ever used a string stretched across a deer trail to see if they were using it?

Now let's educate some of the younger hunters how some of us Old Timer's used back in the day.

They also might get a good laugh at some of our ingenious tricks!!!

Feel free to mention some of your special secrets you used back in the day. ;>))

Ole Thumper P.S.

Remember some of this never happened plus it was a long time ago! lol

Yes. I also raked away bare ground for several yards on trails looking for big tracks

Tried onions as a cover scent. I cut mine in half and rubbed em all over the bark of the tree I was in. 2. Used thread on trails and checked em twice a day to see what time deer were passing. 3. Used dirt or coal for face camo. Coal dont come off without a fight. 4. Tried tree knocking near corn fields to attract curious deer. (This works way better than you might think). Duck and goose calls too. 5. Used trash bags over boots for the walk into the stand. 6. We might see 1 deer between 2 hunters in 2 sits and thought we were all over em then.

Go out the day after hard rain and look for NEW sign in the soft ground. Basic stuff. One old trick that has worked for me, exactly ONCE, is what Fred called "the walk by". For deer that are somewhat more accustomed to people, you casually walk by with bow in hand, after you have passed and the deer relaxes you gingerly turn and shoot. Like I said, in 30 years of deer hunting, it has worked ONCE;-)

Yes..very light thread strung across the trails at about 3' up..

Also I still watch the spider webs across the trails..Helps me know IF I am the first critter bigger than a racoon to travers the trail heading into my hunting area..Spiders work a lot at night..:)

Years ago..in another life..we used all sorts of methods to tell IF our enemies were ahead of us recently..Jim

I didn't ever use a string but I do remember when it was an accepted technique. I still don't own a camera and scout looking for trails, rubs, scrapes and such. Regards

when I would buy green fatigus & smear river clay on them & make my own camo.

I have been know in the past to "chalk" the sides of a road to see if any critters went across road at that point or points. Aculatuly learned this from a game and fish person. Used to watch spider webs also, learned that trick in Vietnam.

I used burnt cork as face paint. I also used thread across trails. Hung my hunting clothes outside the night before hunting to remove human odor. Put baking soda in my boots for the same reason.

Kwiky Kwivers without broadhead covers. Owning one hunting bow and one target bow. 50# bows were rare. Ordering "world famous this or that" from Herters.

I tried explaining the thread trick to my boy who was nine at the time. He didn't even let me finish before he said" Why don't you just buy a trail camera". I just threw my hands up in the air. Funny looking back though.

I would tie my pull up sting a certain way so I would know if someone used my stand they left the rope untied or tied it wrong and I knew. You can use my stand if you ask is a club rule.

String accross trail to see if trail was being used.

wd40 sprayed someone screwing you up.

Decoy stands they think your hunting somewhere when your not.

Watch the way they enter the woods others coming in on you and set up so they push the animals to you. Learn how to hunt around others to use them to your advantage.

Block off trails to force them down a certain trail to you.

Old swetty tee shirt left out where you want an animal to not to go they will sweep around and your set up them when they do this.

Heres the biggest and the best of all boys! Fresh snow you need to be out even if its just observation or driving the roads. The fresh snow can tell you where they are coming and going in the late season. This way you find beding and feeding areas they are on at that time of the year.

Trail Cameras aren't all that they are made out to be though. I bought 4 this year and granted I saw deer that I normally would not have seen but they change with seasons and then you need to be savy enough to move with the cameras to find them.

They aren't a given I found. And not all animals will necessarily be seen on them either.LOL

All part of the learning curve.

Only a Buck,no Does.

Keeping hands warm with the metal JONEE (spelling?) hand warmer that you could also add buck lure.

Years ago, I bought a little kit for a dollar that had a retractable string attached to a small timer. I guess that was high tech 25 years ago. It was probably on sale for a buck because trail camera's were coming on the market.

I usually find the spider webs across my face in the dark.

Used to put Marigolds in with my clothing for cover scent when I was a kid. Blackened cork for face paint and yea string across trails to see if deer were using it over hard ground. Ranger Rick camo clothing for early season hunts.

My first set of camo clothes were Marine Corps issue.

I used the string timers quite a bit and still have two.

Had a guy that would make Bucks Rubs to get Bucks to follow them to his area where he was waiting for them!!!

For all I know his Skeleton might still be there waiting!

That was back in 1967. LOL

"Skunk Skreen"....bottle A and bottle B. You had to mix them in the field to make your cover scent. And boy it DID smell like skunk!

There was a period of time there for a few years where you'd of thought we had a population explosion of skunks because whenever you went into a fall woods that's all you'd smell!

Deer camp in 1958. Face darkened with burnt cork, unprotected broad heads in a National bow quiver. Camo pattern of the day including a Jones style cap. Old 9X9 Umbrella tent.

No tree stands in those days. The most popular hunting method was to build ground/brush blinds near game trails. Pit blinds where the ground was soft enough to dig one was also very successful. Success ratio back then was 1 in 20 bow hunters killed a deer.

The coon skins on the poles were from two coons that I shot with my bow when they came into a wild apple tree one evening. We cooked and ate both of them

Before you could readily purchase game cams, I built my own with 35mm cameras. But there wasn't a time stamp... so I mounted a wall clock on a tree in the photo area. When the picture was taken you had the clock in the pic too and knew the time! (Never got the date figured out though! lol)

Seeing a wall clock on a tree out in the middle of the woods definitely looked odd! haha

CD

Remember shooting natural barr feathers because I could not afford solid colored ones.

Use to spread flour on a deer trail to see if n. when it was being used

Hunting license $2.00 and deer tag $5.00. My son saved urine from first buck, put in hair spray bottle. Good cover scent but hard to ride in pickup with him. He killed a lot of deer though.

Thumper thanks for a great thread.used the string the skunk juice the lighter fluid and the burning sticks .used to use a garden rake to erase tracks and recheck.i ounce got busted by a good buck while huntting off a crotch board in a hedge tree put a stuffed dummy i my nam camo in the stand and set up on the other side of the trail just in front of the dummy ,i got the shot but i missed the deer.to this day i still get more fun out of fooling a deer and figuring them out than i do killing one.

KC I still use the back tag case and only lately dumped the "Pocket Heater". I've also have used all your items except the "Hot Seat."

Checking spider webs, burnt cork for face camo, BDU's, Marbles hunting knife, are some of my old memories. I'm sure there are more if I think hard enough. Frank

Hunting license tag holder for back of yer coat..( Maryland years ago) JonE hand warmer.. Pin on compass

Brass kitchen match case.. Last one I never saw..but DO have heated seats in my car..:)Jim

K Cummings, I used all that stuff!

Used a tarsal gland to drag to the stand sometimes.

kpc, I remember all of those. thanks for sharing.

how 'bout baker tree stands?

I just quit using my back tag holder last year. I still have some around the house.

The first Baker tree stands were called "Profane Tree Stand", and that was for good reason. They were exciting...we sold them at our archery shop when we first opened in 76.

I remember seeing an ad in one of Dad's hunting magazines in 1956 that showed a brand new broadhead called the Bear Razorhead. Found out shortly after that Mr. Bear's dad lived in Carlisle, Pa., just six miles from our home. Harry Bear died long before I had a chance to get to meet him though.

I remember buying my first real bow in 1964 at Beegles Sporting Goods in Bedford. Bear Grizzly for $29.95.

Bowhunt anywhere you wanted,just a knot on the door and a hello. Small game hunters couldn't believe you were deer hunting with that stick.Picture in the paper if you got a buck.Hunt all week and see couple tracks in Ohio.

Had a Baker climbing stand, no climber I hugged the tree. No way of securing the stand to the tree, no safety harness or belt.

Fanny packs carried clippers, a few candy bars, a couple of band aids and some rope.

SEEING a deer let alone killing one with a bow was a big deal.

Hunting clothes were washed in backing soda and hung out side for at least two weeks before opening day.

Fixed tree stands were made of plywood and 2x4s

Special secrets and tricks, aye?

I used to use fox urine or coon urine sprayed on my boots for cover scents.

I used deer tarsal gland and deer urine scent drags on occasion. But I had just as many deer track me with the coon and fox urine :^)

I've put branches across trails at Y's to try to direct them my way a time or two.

I've taken pebbles in my pocket to throw into the leaves to mimic falling acorns.

I've used waders, canoes, and boats on lakes, rivers, and in swamps to reach more remote locations... as much to get away from hunters as to find animals. I've also used culverts of various sizes under major roadways for access in and out without disturbing nearby feeding or bedded deer.

Hooked...still have my baker...guess we were both treehuggers...lol. K Cummings...still have all those goodies.. I believe our bear license was included with our deer tags a long while back..

Remember when all of the big catalog stores sold all brown hunting suits for duck and small game hunters? They also worked in archery season before camo became popular.

Still use back tag and 'hot seat'.

Camp doe permit..

Remember Montgomery Wards? And when they had a sporting goods, sold guns, bows boats etc?

How about J C Higgins,think that was Sears & Roebuck where you could put your dreams on "layaway" not exactly like modern day creit card because layaway meant you stll had to save & pay off before you got to use it.

My first camo was a pair of green Dickies work pants and a brown, long-sleeved Dickies shirt that I blotched up with black spray paint. Killed quite a few wearing that outfit. The camo business of today is way out of whack as far as I'm concerned. Great marketing using the "must have" philosophy. Saw a show last year (can't remember where) where a bow hunter shot a deer from a tree stand wearing a red Santo Claus suit. What does that tell you about camo?

Dire, spiders webs! Yessir! Used to hunt around a lot of tansy and the spiders were everywhere. Monte, Jon E warmers, still have 2 with a stick and half! They're the fuzzy-covered ones, they were my oldest brothers who past in '74. Used to, and still do look and listen to chipmonks/squirrels. Gibby, JC Higgens, you bet! Had a JC Higgens .22 'til '95, rough times had sell it and my ol saddle. That's when I knew I weren't a cowboy anymore! Wow, this thread could go on forever, so many old and still useful tricks. OH! Anybody ever melt paraffin wax on warmed pants, using the stove, to make home made rain pants!

A few days before the deer opener I would stop at the local Western Auto hardware store for 3-4 cedar arrows with the Pearson Deadhead attached. I'd attach them to my used Ben Pearson recurve On the "suicide" Kwikee Kwiver.

As a Tennessee teenager, I couldn't afford practice shots with those arrows, but I did get a couple warning shots off at deer every year.

I remember waiting for daylight as squirrels (or some other critter) rustled the dry leaves near by. The excitement almost gave me a heart attack.

I have a shotgun that I recently retired that my grand dad bought from Montgomery Wards cat in 1900 for 9.95

Sewing thread tied across trail one low one high if high one got broke probably nice buck. Used the bags over boots lots of wood ladder stands built tree gaffes to climb made my first hang on tree stand about killed me

And here's what you'd spend for your bows back then (1967)...

did the fox pee as a cover walking in and at the base of the tree.

Doe pee on cotton balls in a 35 MM film canister. They're hard to find!

Freshening up the surface of a scrape so that you could get a clear track in it, to gauge a buck's size...checking antler rubs for bark damage on shoots behind the front one; if you found it, you knew he had long tines... ditto for antler rubs where the buck had snapped a branch in mid-air; only the long-tined ones could do that. And in the pure fun category: orange jacket left in your stand to play head games with other hunters and wardens. Strong, often overwhelming urge to urinate, upon discovering another hunter's newly-erected stand in YOUR woods... ah, the good old days.

this is 2 years later after compounds were coming out, notice the lower prices.

Sorry, guess they weren't cheaper, I posted the wrong second pic. Can't find the one I wanted .

Button bruises on my chest from hugging trees using a Baker without climbing aid.

One of the things I remember as a kid was walking in the local hardware store in the early 70's. They carried everything from hardware, clothing, appliances and hunting equipment. I can see see the boxes of bear arrows lined up. Some were opened because you didn't have to buy the whole box you could buy them individually.

I grew up hunting with a JC Higgins pump 12 that I got from my great grandfather.

I still use charcoal as face paint and no trail cams.

I don't spend much on cammo. This morning (if the rain holds off) I'm hunting in an old cammo style military field jacket and a pair matching pants. My wife picked it all up at a garage sale or something.

Some of my cold weather hunting clothes are wool sweater from the good will or made from them. For example I have a heavy pair of leggings that my wife made from the arms of a very large sweater.

Obviously none of that wool is cammo.

Nice thread I have really enjoyed this one.

I remember back in 1967 when I found my first Buck Rub and everyone that hunted that area, because that was the only place that had any deer! ha ha

Well let's get to that FIRST BUCK RUB found in my new deerhuntng career, now that I had finally found the Holy Grail of deerhunting, I promptly came up with this brilliant plan! I very quickly pulled out my deerhunting knive which of course had never been used before and cut down the Holy Grail of rub and drugged it out of my secret area so no one would know about this sure bet of getting this Super Buck that would be surely be hanging on my wall in no time!!!

Now I can tell you that I never I never got that monster buck,I know, I know, you already guessed that this Greenhorn so called bowhunter never had a chance of succeeding!

Now I need to tell you this never happened plus it was a longtime ago! ;>)))

Ole Thumper

When you saw one of your buddies with a bad "road rash" on the side of their face and inside of their forearms, you knew they had taken a "ride" down the tree in a Baker. I used to spend hours 18 feet high in a Baker Mighty Might with about an 18" square platform and no seat or safety belt. Several years later I spent a fortune for one of the new, safer TSS climbing tree stands with a chain on seat. I managed to survive falls with both stands.

Those heated seats with the belt clip were without a doubt the loudest thing you could ever imagine in the woods, but, surprisingly they did work.

You never thought about going into the woods with out some of Pete Richards deer lure in your pocket.

I made my first camo shirt in the mid 70's. We didn't have much money and I took one of my dad's old tan military uniform shirts, cut out irregular shaped blobs from an old pair of green work pants and STAPLED them to the shirt! I remember my first set of real camo clothes I saved for weeks and then sent a check to the Camo Clan. I hunted out of that single set of camouflage for the next 1/2 dozen years.

I've seen, used or thought about using every thing posted here. Great thread, brought back many memories! Wonder what most( I said MOST) of todays hunters would do without trail cameras, food plots, tree stands, manufactured ground blinds, private land to grow deer, outfitters, etc. and the fact that there are 10, 20 times more deer (in most states,. Completely different game than in late 50s 60's 70's. Plus technical advances of equipment .

Loved the old days, much harder and more rewarding to be successful .

Posted Land was rare, and All it took was a polite asking, Not any more. I believe all the tv shows and "rack fever" has totally ruined access. Its all coming down to own your own land or pay to hunt.

This is a good thread. I'm 30 yrs old, and this thread makes me wonder where we'll be in another 30 yrs. I can remember my Poppa, and his hunting buddies, doing a lot of these things mentioned at their deer camp.

KPC you bring back a lot of memories, and all were good in those days!

When I first started hunting bigger game..whitetail deer..It was on the Potomac river bottoms in Maryland..

My uncle Jack was my mentor9 I was about 12)

We scouted the woods and we built treestands using green cut ash limbs and baling wire and used a rope to get up and down from them...

We killed deer every year with stickbows and wood arrows..

My uncle Jack actually lassooed a buck from his stand one morning.. Had the lasso tied off which was fortunate as the buck didn't like having that lassoo sround his neck..:(

The buck couln't get away..but Jack couldn't get close enuf to let it loose..so he arrowed it lassooed..and that was that..

In those days..I had one of those rubber 'NO-Glove' critters on my bowstring..:) Worked ok but added some weight to the recovering bowstring.. I was shooting a 50#@28" draw Bear-Grayling Kodiak Magnum recurve..at 12-13 years..and doing fine with it as I was a stout farm kid..:)Jim

Great thread! Carried or tried all of those gadgets! Two more: 1) Board with "V" notches cut in each end as an instant tree stand, wedged between trunks of a multi-trunk tree. That was before tree stands were legal, and leaving the board behind was not a major loss. 2) St. Hubert medal taped on the sight window.

KPC, The reason that large hole was in the center of your Jonee hand warmer was so you could light your cigarette. Stick your cigarette in the hole and start puffin'. The hot element inside would light it. Great selling point back "in the day".

Using Pete Rickards Original Indian Buck lure...along with urinating in any scrape we found.

My Jon-ee warmer would NEVER stay lit from day one! Surprisingly I still have it... and would continue to use it if it would work! Tried new wicks and everything else I could think of.

http://store.scottsbt.com/Outdoor/HandwarmersInfo.aspx...

Here ya go SB.... Check the troubleshooting part..

Remember when K- meer deer was a plastic reed deer call? Still got two! But one is sorta melted from being in the same pocket as the Jon-ee warmer when it WAS lit! I'll check out the info Stan... Thanks ! Can't copy paste on this phone so I'll have to try the labor intensive way! Do they still make lighter fluid?

Going to the local gas station to buy 22 shells. You could get one bullet at a time. Shooting 22 shorts for squirrels. Also, would shoot arrows straight up in the air and run like Hell!!! Rory

strings across trails, paying attention to spider webs, late season scouting in snow, hanging sweaty clothes to manipulate deer movement. charcoal for face paint, saving the tarsal glands from a deer. sitting by game trails and watching in the off season.

I must be way behind the times.

I STILL do all those things, i'm not sure if its because i'm too cheap, or just haven't seen the need yet for trail cams ect...but i still don't own any. (i do like looking at the pictures though)

remember the days before ATV'S ?...

i basically still hunt the same, still walk in.

i gave up those baker tree stand a long time ago though.

Using Kwikee Kwivers without a broad head protection shield. Staghorn recurves sold for $69.95...One dz Bear Cedar hunting arrows, fully dipped in Yellow WITH Bear Razorheads for $12.95 per dz.

Stealth, I also used the 'Deluxe Kwickee Quiver' on one of my earliest recurve bows..One clamped on the tip limb and the other clamped on the bottom limb..No broadhead cover at all..

Never hurt myself while carrying or using it..:)

But then as a kid..I rode in the back of Dad's pickup truck with my brothers..:) Jim

The properly attired gopher hunter. Woodland camo pants, Howatt hunter bow, slide on foam kwikee type quiver with no hood, and of course Jones hat.

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