The Good 'Ol Days

[Straight Arrow]

Was digging through some old pictures today. Found this one. One of the few pictures we have of dad during his brief time in collage at Bozeman. He is the one in the sunglasses. Maybe @Straight Arrow knows the other two.View attachment 308872

They do look familiar ... and since I spent more time in the streams and rivers than in the classroom during college, likely we crossed paths.

 

[Nameless Range]

This is a picture of my father, sitting atop a buck shot by my grandfather, in 1950.

My grandpa was a life-long farmer, but spent 1939-1945 as a pilot in the Army Air Corps/Forces. He flew PBY Catalinas in the South Pacific. When I was a teenager, he spent the last few years of his life living with us here in Montana, and I loved him and miss him.

Coming back from the war, being broke, he owned no guns. When he as well as others went hunting, they checked guns out from the local American Legion in Grand Forks, ND. Ain't that something? Anyway, he checked this 30-40 Krag out, shot a whitetail buck, and checked it back in. Eventually, he had the opportunity to buy the rifle or win it in a raffle, I can't remember which, but did, and it hangs in my father's shop today.

 

[Straight Arrow]

In 1992, high school hip-hop attired son showed up in the north Bridgers off Sixteen Mile to call in a herd bull tearing up brush, snorting, bugling and ready to come in to get arrowed. As I watched him from above out in the open, a satellite bull showed up and stepped behind a tree just long enough for me to sit up, draw, and get a good heart shot. I had a used PSE from which I'd stripped sights and aiming paraphernalia, since instinctive shooting was all I'd learned when shooting only a longbow as a boy. My loud excitement at dropping that bull chased the herd bull away and disappointed the hip-hop teenage archer. But it was a fun day for me!

 

[Cmf88]

Seen this today on some BLM land

 

[Flatbrimmer]

It's amazing how deer and elk have evolved. Now days it's not possible to kill anything without wearing $1,000 worth of boots and camo made of the latest high-tech material.

Or paying 10,000 either to draw apps or guides for 90% of those animals

 

[gonhunting247]

Montana - 1965

First I'd like to say, like several others have, this is a great idea and a super thread. Also, Breaksrunner's contributions are most interesting and informative. Keep it up!

Here are a couple of old pictures I have to contribute. Both of these animals were taken in 1965 from an area that later on was purchased by the State and became the Beartooth Game Range near the north end of the Big Belt mountain range.

View attachment 28415
My friend, Al Bergum shot this bull, shown here with my wife an oldest daughter. We spent some time and effort to show it off to our friends. Then Al, who had never killed an elk before, stashed these tremendous antlers in the rafters of his garage. They stayed there until 1985 when the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation held its first banquet in Helena. The antlers were measured and then displayed at that banquet. After 20-years in storage they netted 373" B&C!

View attachment 28416
The following weekend I went back to the same general area where Al had shot his bull and found this buck. It remains one of the largest I've taken. It was 28" wide and unofficially scored 176" B&C.

Sorry, we didn't make a practice of carrying a camera in the field in those days. I would love to have had some good field photos like we take these days.

My favorite pickups of all time in that pic

 

[Moserkr]

Whats crazy is Ive hunted and fished the same spots as my great-grandpa, grandpa, and Dad. If I take my son back there, we could round out 100 years of hunting/fishing those exact locations over 5 generations.

 

[gonhunting247]

I think I've posted this pic before somewhere, but since it's one of my favorites to look at, here it is again.
This is a blacktail that my Dad killed when he first came to OR from OK in the 50's. I still hunt a lot of the same spots he hunted back then. The model 94 Win.30.30 he used was the only rifle he had for years. He killed a ton of deer with that gun! My sister has the rifle now. It is almost silver looking from the bluing being worn off . This is pic taken at the home place where my brother's house sits now!

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

Not my video and don't know who's it is, but it's good. Some big deer.

 

[buckbull]

My dad with a deer on the roof and beer in hand.

 

[buckbull]

My dad with the original Allen compound bow.

 

[Chad Gus]

17 years ago, my son was 10 months old.

 

[SixPoint]

Here’s my Grandfather in Missoula in 1961 with a buck he killed up the Rattlesnake. I’ll have to see if I can dig up the pictures of my other Grandfather that shot some giant mule deer in NV in the 50’s.

 

[duckhunt]

My dad with the original Allen compound bow.

View attachment 309294

My dad had that same camo hat he wore for years.

 

[Bowmannate2000]

My dad with the original Allen compound bow.

View attachment 309294

Can you imagine trying to hunt with one of those bows? You'd have to do some serious hammering to get it done .

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Came across this older photo at my uncles place it’s early 90’s , he caught this 24lb rainbow out of lake Pend Oreille , told me he won the fishing derby that year and was 1lb short of the 25lber club said you got a patch from the city of Ponderay if your 25lbs or bigger , he’s old and grey now , it was cool to see him in his prime

 

[gouch]

Came across this older photo at my uncles place it’s early 90’s , he caught this 24lb rainbow out of lake Pend Oreille , told me he won the fishing derby that year and was 1lb short of the 25lber club said you got a patch from the city of Ponderay if your 25lbs or bigger , he’s old and grey now , it was cool to see him in his prime
View attachment 322368

Early 90s? Damn! It makes me feel old when my glory days are spoken of as "Back In The Day"

But I really like that hat.

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Early 90s? Damn! It makes me feel old when my glory days are spoken of as "Back In The Day"

But I really like that hat.

I figured it qualified for back in the day considering it’s 3 decades, I think uncle Nick is in his mid to late 70s now, I was early 20’s ha

 

[Wvhntr81]

Awesome pics and info

 

[ismith]

LA Huffman photo from the Montana Historical Society.