I asked him his strategies back then, and he said there really wasn't one. He'd just find where the deer were, get there before daylight, and sit until around 10:30am, then go home for lunch, grab a sandwich, take a nap, then hit it again that evening around 3:00.

I had taken a doe that evening, and forgotten my knife. I asked to borrow uncle Floyds, and he graciously lent it to me. He brought out an old Buck Skinner "fixed blade" from a worn leather sheath. As he stroked in on the well worn whet-rock he said, "Delton, you have no idea how many deer this knife has cleaned, yours will be no stranger to it's blade". I could tell the blade was no stranger to the whet rock either. It's ever-thinning blade was proof enough.

The first thing I noticed was the handle of the Buck knife. "nothing like my Gerber, this handle is hard to grasp".. Time had worn the stag to a smoothness that could only be appreciated when looking at...

I then began to think about his early morning ritual of coffee drinking and honeybun eating. In his time, scent wasn't a worry. He's killed more deer than I'll probably ever see, and every morning he drank his coffee, and ate breakfast from a perch about 20 feet up a pine. He prefered pine, because it's soft bark was easier for the Baker treestand to sink it's blade into. How long has it been since a someone used a Baker Stand?

We now live in an age where being as scent free as possible is the "only" way to go. Scent free soaps, shampoos, cover scents, scent lock suits, charcoal lined bags, the list goes on. Then there are the "attractant" scents, fox pee, doe urine, doe in estrus, rutting buck and so on. What did my uncle use for cover or attractant? On his way into the woods, he'd grab a hand full of fresh pine needles, crush them in his hand, and rub them all over himself. "It made my hands sticky, but the deer would never know I was there, and it seemed to work"--from the looks of his wall, he's not far from the truth. He used no attractant scents, "there's no need in them" he'd say "find the food, get the wind in your face, and that's it". A whole lot more simplistic than today.

He took notice to my pants, and asked "neat camo, how'd ya find them this morning?". Sensing his sarcasm, I laughed and said " I used my camoflauged MagLight".. why they camoflauged a MagLight, I'll never know. It's hard enough to find a dropped one in the predawn darkness as it is, let alone it being camo. Back to the point--Uncle Floyd used some old camo he had left from the Army. That, bluejeans and flannel shirts were all he ever used. And a little orange toboggon that I wouldn't be caught dead in!

Having been lent uncle Floyds gun once before when my old "dirty dirty" jammed on me, I remembered it being an old Remington 742 Woodmaster, with a Redfield 3x9x40 with the infamous "tv view" on it. Somthing unheard of in today's Leupold, Zeiss, and Swarvoski days. Say you use a Redfield around the "holier than though" group and watch the flinches.

One his gun, there were the old Qwik-Sites. He liked them so that "if a deer was too close or running, I could see him better". See-thru's now-a-days are a no-no! They say, "you want the scope as close to the barrel as possible--it's' more accurate that way". I haven't figured out who "they" were, but uncle Floyd was plenty accurate enough with his set up.

Then there's his "Jam-o-matic" as some people call them. I prefer bolt actions myself, but he swears by his 742. It's never let him down, and he still uses it to this day. Deer are still falling to his outdated set-up. I guess it's all in the taking care of a gun, not the action type.

In closing this, I just want to say that I'm not slamming anyone in the way they hunt or what type equipment they use. I just find it interesting the way hunters have evolved over time. Many deer were taken then, many are being taken now. Only the equipment and the way it's done have changed...