Wayne in BC
New member
Because the only trees in that country were scattered clumps of Poplar miles apart, that was where one had to go to hunt them. Some of the Deer would lay up in them during the day, while others would bed down in the numerous acre sized patches of Silver Willow, a thick tangled mess about 5 ft in height and very tough to walk through. I could not hunt them with a .22 there as i could not stalk close enough and a running shot was out of the question.
The plan usually was to circle at least a half mile downwind of a patch of trees to avoid being seen or smelled by the Deer. Those clumps of trees were seldom more than 100 feet across and a bedded Deer could see out of them easily so it meant literally crawling slowly on my belly through the ever present wild rose bushes, sagebrush, and other assorted horrors that kept a kids elbows, knees, and other more sensitive parts of our anatomy full of thorns! It was the price you paid for the relative silence of a .22 rifle compared to the rolling BOOOOMMMM of a 30-06 or 45-70 across the miles. The Deer may see you but only a bit of you and assumming you were a Coyote would be wary but not flee as Coyotes seldom bothered with Deer unless they were starving and in a pack.
Us boys were actually the "sacrificial lambs" when it came to poaching. If caught it could be written off as youthful hijinks, where as an adult would be heavily fined and more clearly marked as an actual criminal. That would seriously compromise family pride and community standing also, not that one would be considered a criminal in the community, but shamed for being caught!
This day i tried all the usual tricks and by an hour before dark had covered maybe 10 miles of ground with only one group of 5 Deer sighted. They busted out of a patch of brush when i should have been paying attention rather than daydreaming, and bounded off with impunity! I watched them for 10 minutes as they travelled a couple miles toward one of the very few travelled roads in a direction which was unsafe for me to go and i hoped they would not be seen by anyone cause a bunch of Deer running across the prairie in daylight hours was a sure sign that people were involved in their panic!
Now i was kinda worried and upset because i had been quite cocky earlier and bragging some about how good i would do this day. My pride was at stake as i entered a more promising area with more trees, humps and hollows where the drought, wind, and dust storms so many years earlier (1930's) had turned productive land into a harsh place fit only for a few native animals and cetainly not humans and cattle. That was further out than i usually hunted, some 6 miles from home, but in those days if a kid was not home by dark nobody started worrying much, they knew our penchant for roaming and we usually had till late at night before we were worried about. Besides, if the folks felt we needed to be found they would just untie the dog, who had to be so as not to ruin the hunting, and follow him! I got found in short order that way a couple times, to my embarassment A stark contrast to the poor kids of today, we had near total freedom and needed nothing that they now consider necessities of life.......ooops i was hunting and best get back to it......maybe later
continued........
The plan usually was to circle at least a half mile downwind of a patch of trees to avoid being seen or smelled by the Deer. Those clumps of trees were seldom more than 100 feet across and a bedded Deer could see out of them easily so it meant literally crawling slowly on my belly through the ever present wild rose bushes, sagebrush, and other assorted horrors that kept a kids elbows, knees, and other more sensitive parts of our anatomy full of thorns! It was the price you paid for the relative silence of a .22 rifle compared to the rolling BOOOOMMMM of a 30-06 or 45-70 across the miles. The Deer may see you but only a bit of you and assumming you were a Coyote would be wary but not flee as Coyotes seldom bothered with Deer unless they were starving and in a pack.
Us boys were actually the "sacrificial lambs" when it came to poaching. If caught it could be written off as youthful hijinks, where as an adult would be heavily fined and more clearly marked as an actual criminal. That would seriously compromise family pride and community standing also, not that one would be considered a criminal in the community, but shamed for being caught!
This day i tried all the usual tricks and by an hour before dark had covered maybe 10 miles of ground with only one group of 5 Deer sighted. They busted out of a patch of brush when i should have been paying attention rather than daydreaming, and bounded off with impunity! I watched them for 10 minutes as they travelled a couple miles toward one of the very few travelled roads in a direction which was unsafe for me to go and i hoped they would not be seen by anyone cause a bunch of Deer running across the prairie in daylight hours was a sure sign that people were involved in their panic!
Now i was kinda worried and upset because i had been quite cocky earlier and bragging some about how good i would do this day. My pride was at stake as i entered a more promising area with more trees, humps and hollows where the drought, wind, and dust storms so many years earlier (1930's) had turned productive land into a harsh place fit only for a few native animals and cetainly not humans and cattle. That was further out than i usually hunted, some 6 miles from home, but in those days if a kid was not home by dark nobody started worrying much, they knew our penchant for roaming and we usually had till late at night before we were worried about. Besides, if the folks felt we needed to be found they would just untie the dog, who had to be so as not to ruin the hunting, and follow him! I got found in short order that way a couple times, to my embarassment
A stark contrast to the poor kids of today, we had near total freedom and needed nothing that they now consider necessities of life.......ooops i was hunting and best get back to it......maybe latercontinued........
Were ready for the next edition.