Fox Collectors

Decades ago when I was a young pup my Dad was in the Air Force Reserves and he had some business at the Rome NY SAC base - on of all days, a Saturday and the first day of PA small game season. He wanted a traveling partner and we drove up north, on I-81 through northern PA and NY. NY small game season had probably opened a week earlier. I distinctly remember all the red hats working fields on the sides of the Interstate in both states for rabbits, pheasants, etc. We must have seen hundreds of hunters while on the way north and then back home. Dad thanked me for going with him and it was a good day for both of us, but this kid surely missed opening day hunting with Uncle John and his hounds. Well yesterday my wife and I drove the same route for the baptism of our new grandson Teddy. Our daughter lives north near Syracuse NY - close to Rome. Another good day, and with the fall colors I was sweetly haunted by the old memories of that trip with Dad. By coincidence yesterday was the opening day of general small game season in PA and we took the same route north and south on I-81. NY small game hunting is open. Would you believe I didn't see a single fluorescent hat or vest in either state? Not one. Wow that really hit me! Too many modern diversions, easy life, fast foods, you name it ..... I feel sorry for the kids who are missing the outdoors.

There are other problems, no one wants you to hunt on their property anymore. So much good land is private and posted. Those members with so much hunting habitat close by are very lucky. All of my local hunting spots are gone and I travel farther and those spots are getting harder to find.

Frank, I know the feeling of recalling past times with Dad and Granddaddy, and how those times have changed. And abner, you are so right about being blessed with close hunting habitat. I recall as a boy wandering all over Grandaddy's farm, here where I now live and farm myself with my youngest son. He, too, wandered these fields and branches in search of small game at first, then deer, just as I did. I recall the days when absolutely no land was leased to hunters. Our neighboring landowners cared not a whit that a Hillis kid was wandering across the property lines in search of a squirrel, rabbit or covey of birds with his J.C. Higgins .410 double. There were no deer here, none at all. Now, you should fear being shot by somebody wielding a .300 Magnum, on neighboring lands, as they are almost all leased to hunters that drive here for the weekends.

I am blessed to have plenty places to shoot doves, quail (tho' limited in number), a woodcock or two from time to time, ducks, and those darned deer, which I quit hunting years ago. Now, I manage areas for my two grandsons to hunt deer with my son. Here's a pic of no. 1 grandson, Jackson, with his first buck ever. He's killed does, but he took this six pointer this very morning, early, less than 1/4 mile from my house, a neck shot with a .308. Jackson is eleven, and quite an avid hunter and marksman. I can't express my thankfulness in words. It has come full circle.



SRH

Yesterday was the pheasant opener in Nebraska. Between Lincoln and Grand Island, only one hunter seen working the fields visible from the interstate. Not seeing any pheasants in the suburbs these past several years either, was much different in the years leading up to Y2K. A friend in Iowa told me things are looking up; he saw ONE rooster in the spring.

There is no question things have changed in western NY. In the late 60's and early 70's pheasant numbers were very high in the lake plains. Opening day of Pheasants looked like invading armies moving across the landscape. As a young man in High School and college I could be pheasant hunting in 20 minutes and walk up a couple of birds in a day without a dog. It was big fun and I surely miss the good old days of wild pheasant hunting. The landscape change here after Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Big federal loans became available and the era of modern farming took hold. Small family dairy and fruit farms of 150 acres disappeared as did the typical 15 acre field. Today the rural landscape looks nothing like western NY in the 1960's, very few cow pastures and nothing but very large corn and soybeans fields. A modern combine can barely turn around in a 15 acre field! Hedge rows no longer exist and herbicides eliminate any weeds as potential food and cover.
When I was a kid it was hardly worth going deer hunting except in the southern tier and turkeys were unheard of. I can't ever remember seeing a deer while pheasant and rabbit hunting in the late 60's. Fox, feral cats and hawks were considered vermin, all were shot on sight. By the early 80's the bag on ducks had dropped to 3 and the season was 30 days, shooting a goose was like shooting a trophy---very rare.
So forward to today. The landscape has changed radically and the critters that inhabit the new surroundings have changed. Like most areas we are overrun with deer and turkeys are everywhere. Ducks and goose numbers are at all time highs and bag limits and seasons are long. In western NY we are blessed with a great deal of public hunting land for those willing to scout. The public's attitude about hunting and hunters has grown more positive thanks to more women entering the sport and the efforts of pro hunting organizations----hunter ethics are better today in my opinion. Youth hunts have taken hold and are well attended.
I am not saying things are great-------the hunting tradition is alive in rural areas and very much threatened by the millions living in the concrete jungles.
I miss the past but try to stay positive about the future of our sport-----
Take a kid shooting----even in this era of electronics they still find pulling the trigger big fun.

I miss the local pheasant hunting too (in Maryland) ...gone since the early 80s. Around here it's been suburb expansion and (I'm convinced) feral cats that cleaned out the broods of our ground nesting birds, first the quail and then the pheasants. The no-till and agribusiness farming practices I'm not so sure about. Southwestern North Dakota is farmed extensively for wheat and (some) corn; you can count the number of trees around you on both hands in most places. There's no real cover there - nothing but wheat stubble or grass usually and the birds survive in the millions year to year as a wild population.

My little farm in MD has more cover than the 5 Section farm/ranch I hunted in ND for several years; it's not lack of cover. I truly believe predators per acre is the difference. So I've been deer hunting on our place, the turkeys haven't gotten here yet and I try to hunt mourning doves a few times a year but I sure miss the old pheasants hunts. We had loads of people coming to our County for pheasants through the 1970s, just like you describe previously in PA and NY. I miss that too and the big pheasant drives... I'm a little bored with deer hunting and don't even know if I'll go this year; it's just not as much fun.

Here in Northern California all the sporting goods stores that sell guns and ammunition are going out of busines. The legilature has banned ALL lead ammunition for hunting and they want to make it illegal to buy ammunition thru the internet and catalogs. All private land is posted NO TRESPASSING. The only places left to hunt waterfowl and wild pheasants is on a few state and federal wildlife areas. Jim

Wow, I didn't know CA had banned lead altogether. Is that the only State to do so? It must be. That legislature of yours just can't seem to find enough things to be activist about. Of course they won't be able to find enough money to enforce most of their laws but apparently they rely primarily on the addage that 'its the thought that counts'.

Silvers,

You hit it right on the head!! Living only a few miles from Rome, NY your thread brought up old memories. I remember the line of cars heading out in the pitch dark on opening day of deer season....it was the wee hours of the morning and there was a solid line of traffic on a couple of local highways! Like I said, line of cars.... Impalas, LTDs, you know, the big sedans of the 70's!! ( I was in my early teens in the '70s) That was before everybody and their brother had SUVs & 4x4 trucks!! I was just a kid and will always remember the excitement of those mornings......everybody clad in red & black plaid and/or some orange.... orange just coming onto the scene. Yeah, and those big rear wheel drive cars were sliding around those snow covered roads, some guys never got to where they were going to that morning, ending up in a culvert instead. These days there are just a very few vehicles on those same roads at that same time...very few.

Dad & I used to go up to Wilson Hill Game Management area on the St Lawrence River for the duck season opener during those same years.... there were only a certain amount of vehicles allowed into the area on any given morning so vehicles would be lining up for a spot at 2:am on ........there would be 40-50 vehicles in line, most of them running with the heaters going to keep the excited huntsmen warm as we waited to get in pre-dawn. Dad & I went back up last year for the first time in years and it was quite a change indeed. We got there early and there was no line!!!.....just another two trucks....and by the time we went in I don't think there was a dozen. Needless to say, there were a lot less ducks and geese too.

....... yes, how times have changed. Now I'm 50 yrs old and I still think of myself as "the kid" as most of the people I hunt around are still much older than me. I am blessed to have caught the end of that era.

tjw

I am relatively young at 33 and have 2 kids under 2. I am nervous for their future hunting. I pray they can at least experience the outdoors like I do now but it seems weekly there is another story of CRP loss and gun/ammo bans. I know I am too young to have experienced some of the epic grouse hunting in Minnesota but there is still some very good hunting. I know regardless they will be in the outdoors with my wife and I carrying on the tradition but it is sad to see the direction things are going.

I take mine out as much as I possibly can, which still isn't as much as I want. My boys are 5 and 7.

Twentyfive years ago I was as they say "eat up with bird hunting" . The Blue Ridge in Virginia found me their atleast two times each week from October until the end of grouse season each year !
And during dove season I was out almost every day provided it wasn't raining .

Now I "may" dove hunt 1-3 times a year .
I have not shot at a grouse in perhaps 18 years . Haven't killed a quail pen raised or wild in 20 years as well .

Just about all of my hunting now is deer and bear from a stand be it elevated or on the ground . But then again I hunt the deer and bear from mid july until early january . Damage Control Permits keep me busy in july august and september .

Starting in 1999 I hunted around Newfoundland PA with some friends from the Doylestown PA area . We bear hunted and deer hunted . Hunted up there maybe 5 years and then the family I hunted with all moved to the state of Wyoming .

That wasn't about killing the deer but rather hanging out with friends for a week after Thanksgiving each year . Before I started going to the Poconos I had hunted out of a Sika camp in Dorchester County Maryland for about 4 years until we lost our lease .

If I wanted to have fun and a good time I hunted these places with my friends and we sometimes killed a couple deer , If I wanted to kill deer only I stayed home hunted my property here in Virginia and shot as many as the law allowed or I wanted .

Yeah, I hear ya Frank. I grew up outside Macungie, PA next to my Pappy's farm. We could walk out anytime and limit roosters, rabbits and squirrels. That's all the hunting I knew until I was 24 and started hunting deer. The loss of suitable habitat is the biggest factor in lack of small game. That's why we manage our property for all species, not just deer. The PGC also does a very nice job on gamelands # 219, 140 and 35. Great habitat and nice numbers of small game.