Ol' hunter

[coontail]

Does anyone remember anyone that never drove a vehicle. Just drove a team. For hunting or anything. I would like to hear stories about people like that. Thanks

[Mike Leonard]

coontail,

I can tell you about one fella like that that i broke out hunting with close to 50 years ago.This old boy named Leo was pretty old when i first met him but he was still running dogs for coon and cat. He had been a rancher all of his early life and after he left the ranch he made most of his money trapping and hunting. He was born in the late 1800's back in some really rugged country in southeast Montana. They used horses for everything, very few autos there in those days and most of the roads or trails were not suitable for them old cars and trucks.
He would hitch up a light team usually not real heavy draft stock mostly half draft and saddle horse cross. He would pack his camp in a bed wagon throw his saddle in with a few hounds. he never hunted a big pack mostly 2 or 3 dogs was plenty for him. He would head out to some good country usually along one of the bigger creeks, and set up his camp. He had a big fly that he could hang over the wagon bed and he slept in there but cooked on the ground. He would set out several lines of traps for coon and beaver and he would alternate checking those lines on different days. One of his team was also a good saddle horse so he would picket the extra horse on grass and saddle up with the dogs and hunt between trap lines. I saw some really old photos of him coming back into the ranch with big stacks of fur cuz he didn't just camp out awhile he would stay months. His brother would come by with his team and bring provisions from town or the commissary. he lived off the land pretty much for meat and usually had a young deer or antelope hung up, but that was in the days when that wasn't frowned on too much.

He would tell me a kinds of stories of those days and he loved it but it got pretty rough a few times. he caught pneumonia a couple times from spending so much time wading in those cold creeks and sleeping outside.

In later years he came down with emphysema, and he attributed that to that.

He also said that one time he was leading his team down to the creek for water, and a storm had blew in and lightning struck and killed one of the horses he was leading. he said that electricity even knocked him down but he was leading with old grass ropes and it never hurt him. Believe me he was scared to death of lightning till the day he died. We would be out coonhunting of an evening and he would throw his nose into the wind just like and old hound winded something and he would say, can you smell that? I couldn't smella thing but he would say that is ozone, and it is fixing to start with the the thunder and lightning real soon. he was always right, and he would head for shelter. I think he sort of felt like if you ever came that close to getting struck by lightning it sort of had a mark on you for a future date.

I learned a lot from that old guy, and he gave me my first really good hound, a bluetick I called Earl.We had some really good times together, and those stories of his old days out with the wagon sure made for good listening.

[lawdawgharris]

Mr. Mike that's an awesome story.

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[coontail]

Man. Thats great Michael. Thanks

[Cowboyvon]

Good stuff Mike!

[macedonia mule man]

I never rode a horse and wagon to hunt,but I can remember riding one to town shopping with my granddaddy in Grenada county Mississippi. At that time I think in the middle 40s. I believe they flooded Grenada lake in 45-47 so it had to be before that. At that time all towns in that part had wagon yards to park the team with shade and water troughs. The water troughs usually had a catfish or two that were for sale. A lot of animal sales and swapping went on all day Saturdays. My granddaddy carried pigs,chickens,eggs,smoked hams and traded to the stores for sugar coffee or anything he couldn’t grow or raise. He believed on making money not spending. There has been a lot of changing in the past 80 yrs. most every one there was a hunter of some kind. Every one had wild meat on their family table. At that time there was a lot of woods in Mississippi,but large game close to civilization washunted out you then. No bear,deer, lion ( called panther by locals) , just small game that could reproduce yearly. I don’t think they had game laws then, because we ate wild game when we wanted it. Hunting wasn’t discussed very much,it just came along with living at that time. No big deal, no special guns ,boots,clothes,breed of dog. The only dogs I ever heard discussed with any interest was bird dogs.i think at that time good bird dogs were just coming on. Back then they took tree dogs for granted. A topical tree dog went like this. You would see a friend walking down the rode in front of the house with a couple dogs of no perticular breed following along. You grabbed your gum and joined in. Several people and several more dogsusually fell in line and the hunt was on. Rabbit and squirrel were the game of choice. When you came to a patch of woods it was squirrel, when you walked out of that patch you were usually in a grown up truck crop patch and it turned to rabbit hunting. Some of the boys killed rabbits with tap sticks. A 2 foot long broom handle with about a 11/4 plow bolt nut screwed on the end. Used similar as a bommorang but it spdidnt circle back. When I think of those years and some of the people and how they lived and grew up, it seems like a dream. An old man at that time was born in the middle of the 1800.

[lawdawgharris]

Interesting story mule man

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[macedonia mule man]

Law, from what I understand from a good friend that grew up in east Texas, it was just like where I grew up in North middle Mississippi. The accounts of the Big Thicket area is it was settled with people North and East of the Mississippi River that movedout in a hurry for some reason or another. If you know anyone that was born and grew up there they can probably give you the same description of their community as I did of mine.

[WalkerCurCat]

Probably one of the BEST Threads on this Forum!

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