Now vs Then

Austin Laughlin said:
Same here, amen. My circle gets smaller and smaller, let me tell you.

Im the type, that if someone really has the want to get into hunt but has no help or no one giving direction, Im happy to take them.

Last spring, I was able to take my first veteran turkey hunting. He was able to harvest his first turkey, and just being apart of that was a big moment for me. I don’t talk about it much because I’m not looking for a “atta boy”. I just really felt good as a person and a hunter, getting to see someone like that kill their first bird. After all he went through, that was the least I could do. It really opened my eyes.
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Thank you for doing that! Outside of my dad and my uncle who I have taken hunting a thousand times, I haven’t taken a veteran hunting. I would in a heartbeat! I have shot in a few sporting clay events for Wounded Warriors and got to talk with some of them. Most are so humble and thankful just to be there and converse with others. Like yourself, they don’t talk about it much and they aren’t looking for an atta boy either. They just did what they did because they were honorable and just did what they thought was right!
 
hunt0168 said:
Thank you for doing that! Outside of my dad and my uncle who I have taken hunting a thousand times, I haven’t taken a veteran hunting. I would in a heartbeat! I have shot in a few sporting clay events for Wounded Warriors and got to talk with some of them. Most are so humble and thankful just to be there and converse with others. Like yourself, they don’t talk about it much and they aren’t looking for an atta boy either. They just did what they did because they were honorable and just did what they thought was right!
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They sure deserve it.

We as humans take things for granted, it’s just human nature. You wouldn’t believe what killing that turkey, did for that guy. It just blew my mind really. Something as simple as killing a turkey for me, was his entire year. It sure changed my mindset.
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Fur boom like 50s 60s 70s when trappers and callers were selling fur. I knew a guy that bought new pickup every year or every other year back in the day from furs. Ended like 79 or 80 they say.
 
LONEHOWL said:
Fur boom like 50s 60s 70s when trappers and callers were selling fur. I knew a guy that bought new pickup every year or every other year back in the day from furs. Ended like 79 or 80 they say.
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Wow that’s crazy! I never heard of something like that before, that sure is wild. What a time that would’ve been huh?
 
1974 I bought a brand new Ford bronco custom ordered from the factory $2900 the jeep was a couple hundred less but you had to add the top, passengers.seat, back seat and it ended up .ore than the bronco. Beaver were a buck an inch and fox could go up to $100. Mink 30 to 50, raccoon 40 and rats 6, you could make a fair living. I made as much trapping in the winter as I made as a union carpenter the rest of the year.

Calling was kind of a hobby after checking the traplines.

In the sixties we hunted fox for bounty in southern WI.

The only way we knew about calling was a few stories in FF&G and the Herters catalogue
 
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Ah FF&G… That’s where I started getting into Coyote Howling. Read an article back in about 1989 from Bill Austin, that really got me excited to try it. Then heard about Ed Sceery talking about the same thing. Bought one of his original howlers and have been hooked ever since.
 
AWS said:
1974 I bought a brand new Ford bronco custom ordered from the factory $2900 the jeep was a couple hundred less but you had to add the top, passengers.seat, back seat and it ended up .ore than the bronco. Beaver were a buck an inch and fox could go up to $100. Mink 30 to 50, raccoon 40 and rats 6, you could make a fair living. I made as much trapping in the winter as I made as a union carpenter the rest of the year.

Calling was kind of a hobby after checking the traplines.

In the sixties we hunted fox for bounty in southern WI.

The only way we knew about calling was a few stories in FF&G and the Herters catalogue
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That’s so neat. It definitely seems like trapping was the main source and provider for anyone that was looking to make money or put up fur for a living.

I’m sure it was everything but easy but those sure do sound like cool times. How neat that would’ve been.
 
Utahcaller said:
Ah FF&G… That’s where I started getting into Coyote Howling. Read an article back in about 1989 from Bill Austin, that really got me excited to try it. Then heard about Ed Sceery talking about the same thing. Bought one of his original howlers and have been hooked ever since.
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I’ve got one of those howlers from Sceery. I’ve also got a OD type colored hand call made by Sceery, it’s got a mouthpiece that twists, Has 3 different settings. (Close, Medium, Long)

I’ve still got what seems like hundreds of the FF&G magazines. My dad always had them and I’ve kept them.
 
Never called much in the 70's -90's. WAY more productive spotting and stalking during the day. 3-4 fox on average day, a great day 7-9. Bonus raccoon/coyote. Bought a new Toyota 4x4 pickup with vacation time off muskrat money one fall. Would catch a few rats, occasional mink/coon on the way to work. Sit and wonder all day why I was there instead of setting traps.
 
spotstalkshoot said:
Never called much in the 70's -90's. WAY more productive spotting and stalking during the day. 3-4 fox on average day, a great day 7-9. Bonus raccoon/coyote. Bought a new Toyota 4x4 pickup with vacation time off muskrat money one fall. Would catch a few rats, occasional mink/coon on the way to work. Sit and wonder all day why I was there instead of setting traps.
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That’s awesome. I really wish and hope, I’ll get to see a fur market that would let me do something of that sort. 100 coyotes wouldn’t even pay for my gas here
 
It was an interesting life. I lived three years in a tent in northern Wisconsin, had a shack up in the Beltrami Island state forest, had winter lines and ran spring beaver lines , fall/winter lines were from my home before the diviorce, spring beaver was a tent line living a few weeks in the bush up near Orr MN. When things got tough we worked the beet harvest in NW MN to put together a grubstake for the trapping season. My trapping partner was a huge man 6'7" and over 300lbs and didn't do well in a canoe. So I ran the water line and him the land line. He'd drop me and the canoe off on the river in the morning and pick me up at a bridge at night and the we skinned until we went to bed. When things slowed on the river I'd move the line downstream to the next section of river. When the river froze we both worked muskrat huts, mink trails and fox.

Like the old mountain men said it was "High times" then the bottom dropped out of the fur market, interest rates went to 20.percent and construction went in the dumper. I went back to work to put together a decent grubstake for when I turned 62 that was 15 yrs ago and have been hunting and fishing since.
 
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