333_OKH got me thinking about this with his story 'Nostalgia in the Mountains' https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3411043/m/775108388

I've recently bought a '56 8x60S BRNO with an amount of what could euphamisticaly be called patina! My thoughts have got round to wondering what the hunter from the late 50's and early 60s would have been using and wearing with a view to perhaps trying a couple of local hunts so clad and equipped.

So what would your experienced hunter be using in say 1964 (my year of birth)

Optics - What European scope?
Mounts - were Warne in business back then with their Premier or perhaps Conetrol?
Bullets - don't think 8mm partitions were around then how about sierras 175gr or speers 170gr?
Binos - ? What European type and model?
Clothes - ?

Let me know - I think it would be fun project!

Period hunting has always been fun for me also. I started hunting in the late 50s and early 60s, mostly with an unscoped military surplus British Rifle No. 5 Mark I (Jungle Carbine) which I bought in downtown San Francisco for $16.00. They wrapped it newspaper and I carried it through the streets and to the Greyhound Bus Depot. Times have changed.

Ammunition was factory-loaded and could be bought by the single cartridge or by the box or sackful. I didn't reload back then.

European optics (if one could afford it) was anything made by Zeiss. Back then I always hunted with unscoped rifles because peep sights were the only thing I was used to.

Clothing that were worn were made by Woolrich and had red and black checker patterns. Sometimes I wore what I called a Pendleton, although I can't recall if it was made by Pendleton or not.

I hunted a lot just a few miles east of Seattle, where now downtown Bellevue sits.

In 1964, the year you were born, I was in Vietnam doing a different kind of hunting.

Have fun with your hunting.

Namibiahunter

1894,

Did you see this thread?? Some of these photographs might help - apart from make you drool...

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7621043/m/757100609

- mike

Don't forget a pair of L.L. Bean boots - the mid-calf height with those heavy grey wool socks with the red band at the top, turned down of the tops of your boots of course! Don't say where you're from but a Stetson for west and for the east one of those Elmer Fudd type Woolrich caps with the earflaps tied over your head would be normal early sixties head gear. Any big game hunter who could possibly afford one just had to have a heavy, black and red woolrich coat. Most I remember (in the east) used open sights and few had binoculars, those that did had some huge (by modern standards) 10X50s maybe. Wouldn't want to carry them around my neck today even out of nostalgia!

quote:

and for the east one of those Elmer Fudd type Woolrich caps with the earflaps tied over your head would be normal early sixties head gear.

Stormy Kroomer's, made in da UP..

Some vintage pix that show hunting clothing from 1960s-1970s. I have a bunch more somewhere, but I'll be darned if I remember where I put them so I can find them easily.

The first photo below is my oldest son, Keith, (right) with the first big-game animal he killed when he was 11. He's now 45.

The tale:

We had drawn permits for Unit 19, so I went up a couple times to scout beforehand and found a lot of bucks on one of the ranches. One day, I drove into Paulden and asked who owned the ranch. The person told me the owner's name was Bob Keikeffer (sp?). So when I got home I called him and asked permission for us to hunt it, which he gave me. It was myself, my son, a friend (in the pix with Keith) and my grandfather, who was already in his 70s.

On the very first day, my son and I were just about to cross one of the fences when I saw a guy on a horse approaching. He rode over to us and asked, "Are you Tony?" When I said I was, he reached down, stuck out his hand and said, "Glad to have you here." Then he proceeded to tell us where he had seen several decent bucks.

So that afternoon, we headed to one area where there was a windmill. I stopped to glass and spotted the buck in the photo. He was a good 1/2- mile away. I told Keith I didn't want to shoot it but he could if he wanted. Naturally he was quite anxious to do his part.

To that end, I had bought him a used Savage 99 in .300 Sav. that had the stock already shortened.

So off we went. We used a deep ravine to cut the distance, but when that petered out, we were still a good 275 yards from the buck with not a bit of cover available other than a couple sage and creosote bushes. The terrain was completely flat.

I knew Keith would have a difficult time hitting the 'lope with the Savage at that distance, so I told him the only way he would be able to shoot was if he used my Mod. 70, .264 mag. He had never shot it before and was quite apprehensive about the recoil. He finally said he would use it, however.

So I put my pack down in front of him for a rest, and he got into a prone position. At that point, the buck was facing away from us, so I told Keith to wait until the buck turned broadside before shooting.

I continued to watch the buck through my binoculars for a couple minutes and saw him start to turn. Just as I said, "Get ready to..." the .264 boomed in my ear. I heard the bullet whack him and watched as he dropped like someone had cut off all four of his legs.

I turned to Keith to say something, but he beat me to the punch with, "That didn't kick as hard as I thought it would."

The bullet had destroyed the 'lope's heart.

Later that fall, he killed his first deer -- a doe on the N. Kaibab. It's the one I have hanging next to my Kaibab buck.

Be sure to take note of the effective camo!!



Some oldies from a circa 1968-69 hunt on the Kaibab's east side. We were camped right alongside the Eastside Game Trail about six miles up from the Houserock Ranch. This was at a time when any deer was legal with a Kaibab permit. The smaller buck in my '46 Willy's Jeep was killed by my grandfather while just sitting on a ridge. He was about 75 then. The big one is the buck on my wall.

Me with my best Kaibab buck:



Roger Beagle, a regular hunting partner of the time. He's also the one on the left with his pronghorn in the photo of my son above.





These are from two successive javelina hunts in Arizona's Pinto Creek area, circa 1965-66.



The younger version of me at the wheel.





I'm on the right.





This was the next year after I had painted the Jeep.



These were taken on my very FIRST big-game hunt in AZ in 1962 -- deer near Waggoner, AZ. The Chevy "woodie" wagon was my first hunting vehicle, and the buck hanging in the tree was mine -- the only one killed on that hunt. I used a Marlin 336 .30/30 with a 4X Weaver scope.

quote:

The Chevy "woodie" wagon was my first hunting vehicle

Bet ya' wish you still had that huh ?

I spent such happy times driving around in old beaters going hunting and running traplines.

If there's a Heaven, my old truck will be there waiting for me with my dogs who've gone on ahead sitting on the front seat next to the old 870 with the Remington Mohawk 12 ga. loads ($1.49/box) on the dash.

Outdoor Writer Tony,

Very Cool Pictures I wonder if those areas in arizona are all houseing tracts now?

I dont feel so old now... Well just alittle. My first vehicle was a 10 year old '65 chevy truck

Period hunters and hunting? At my age I was part of that era..I have a lot of pictures also but they are photographs and I don't have a clue or the where to fore to post them...

I started out my hunting career at 10 years old shooting deer with a M-63 Win. auto 22 L.R., to feed a fencing crew on a ranch my dad leased in Mexico.

In the USA we hauled about 20 mules every year to Colorado and hunted elk for up to 30 days or longer, or until everyone shot out, then came out of the mountains to Chimney Rock Store and sold all our mules to the local outfitters who traditionally would be there waiting for us. We didn't have tents, just place our blankets on a large tarp and pulled it over our bed rolls to keep the snow out..

The rest of the year at home was spent ranching and of course breaking and training more mules for the next hunting season, to pay for our hunt expenses..

We used mostly Win. in 25-35s, 30-30s and one uncle had his "magnum", a 300 Savage M-99..I recall I always swore to myself to get one of those 300s someday! I also recall a hunter coming to our ranch and letting me shoot a deer with his 300 H&H, that was the talk of the camp for days..I shot that deer at probably 400 yards with iron sights and we all assumed it could be done everytime.

Bill Weaver and Dick Shaw along with Jack O'Connor always showed up for Mule Deer season to hunt with my dad..Jack was a professor at Sul Ross College in Alpine, Texas. Bill gave us kids our first scope, a 2.5X Weaver, we stuck them on our newly aquired Rem 722 in the then new 222 Rem caliber and we shot a lot of deer with them..I don't recall every wounding a deer in my youth until many years later and that was with a large caliber rifle and I was much older.

Those were the best days of my life, and its a shame that they cannot be shared with the young folks of today, but we live in a changing world and it a lot of ways it isn't getting better.