When Deer Season Was Truly King

You suppose whitetail searching is large now? Effectively, there was nothing extra essential within the lives of those rural of us 80 years in the past.

It’s with heavy hearts that we relay the information of the passing of our good friend and contributor Jerry Apps. Jerry handed away simply earlier than Christmas after a quick sickness. He was 91. Right here is without doubt one of the memorable articles he wrote for Deer & Deer Searching over time. We referred to as it “75 Years & Counting” when it was revealed, because it had celebrated his seventy fifth deer season right here at house.

By Jerry Apps

I’ll all the time bear in mind the autumn of 1946. I used to be 12 years previous, and I might go deer searching with my dad for the primary time. Dad mentioned I might use his previous, 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun, with a barrel almost so long as I used to be tall, and so heavy I needed to maintain shifting it from one arm to the opposite after I carried it.

This previous yr, 2021, was my seventy fifth yr of deer searching, with out lacking a yr. Even after I was within the military, I used to be nonetheless in a position to be house for deer searching season. In my household, nothing was extra essential. No weddings had been scheduled throughout deer searching season. No birthday events had been held. Deer searching, much more essential than the opening of fishing season, was on the calendar and stood above all different happenings so as of significance.

In 1946 there have been few deer in Waushara County, Wisconsin the place our house farm was situated, so after the barn chores had been completed on opening day that yr, my dad, our neighbor, Invoice Miller, and I traveled to the wilds of Adams County a number of miles to the west. My dad was born not removed from the Roche a Cri River. They dumped me out on a bridge that spanned the river with directions to stroll alongside the river to the west, driving out any deer could also be hiding on this principally wooded space. They might wait a half mile away in slightly open discipline, with their deer rifles on the prepared, they advised me.

I walked not more than a dozen yards, after I seen one thing swimming within the river. It was a beaver, and it together with different beavers was busy constructing a dam throughout the Roche a Cri. I had by no means seen something like this, so I leaned the previous double-barrel towards a giant white pine tree and sat down and watched the busy beavers work. After a half-hour or so of watching, I noticed I’d finest get at what I used to be speculated to do. I continued my half mile stroll alongside the attractive Roche a Cri River, seeing nary a deer however having a superb time nonetheless. Lastly reaching the open discipline I noticed each Invoice and my dad. Upon seeing me, Pa mentioned, “You get misplaced? You see any deer?”

“Nope,” I mentioned. “I didn’t get misplaced, and I didn’t see any deer.” I didn’t fess up that I’d spent a half hour sitting on the river financial institution watching beavers construct a dam.

Over the 75 years I’ve hunted, I bagged a superb many deer—there have been years when my revenue was small and my younger household was hungry, so I made positive I received a deer. My spouse, Ruth, had a handful of tasty venison recipes, which all of us loved.

After three or 4 years of toting that monster of a double-barrel shotgun, I used to be in a position to purchase a used Winchester Mannequin 1894, 30-30, lever motion deer rifle. It’s the rifle I take advantage of to today. The one modification, I added a scope to it.

Over time I watched deer searching change. By the Sixties deer had arrived in Waushara County in substantial numbers, so we might hunt deer as shut because the woodlot simply north of our farm home. We additionally hunted on the neighbor’s farms—there have been no large crimson indicators shouting “No Searching.”

In these days, nobody used a deer stand. We organized deer drives—not dissimilar to what I used to be speculated to do on my first hunt in Adams County. The youthful guys did the driving, the older guys did the standing—and the capturing. We walked for miles, typically crossing three or 4 farms.

After which the “No Searching” and “No Trespassing” indicators started showing. And the large, relatively enjoyable, organized deer drives disappeared. Deer hunters hunted on public lands, on leased lands, or on land they owned. And so they hunted from deer stands, usually caught excessive up in a tree. Deer searching turned watching and ready—and hoping a ten-pointer may stroll beneath your stand. Generally they did. Extra usually, in my expertise they didn’t.

 In 1966, my two brothers and I acquired an previous, deserted farm some two miles from the farm the place we grew up. It’s the place I’ve hunted yearly since that point. However by no means from a tree stand—my son, Steve has good success together with his tree stand. As have my nephews. My brother, Don has slightly elevated, and heated deer searching stand.

I’ve resisted. I sit out within the open, normally in a unique place yearly. For me there’s something particular in being outside, on a cool, November morning. One yr I wrote in my journal following opening day of deer season, “As I sat with my rifle watching and listening, there was an explosion of silence.” There’s something particular about silence within the out-of-doors, particularly for these us who spend most of our lives in a metropolis.

For me, there has all the time been extra to deer searching than bagging deer—though I’m definitely not against venison within the freezer. For years, three generations of my household hunted—my dad, who hunted into his 90s, my son and me. At the moment, my brother, his son, and  his grandson hunt deer on our farm.

It’s only throughout deer searching season that I get to see a few of my family—a nephew in Phoenix returns every year for the hunt. All of us collect for a giant meal on the finish of opening day and the deer searching tales of earlier years are advised again and again. I’m proud to say, that for 75 years, with out lacking a yr, I’ve loved the “large hunt” as one among my family described deer season.

— Jerry Apps was a retired faculty professor, rural sociologist and award-winning writer from Wisconsin. His “A Farm Story” video collection is without doubt one of the hottest PBS documentaries of all time.