John Remembers Hunting

Hunting with Dad

I remember hunting with Dad between the time I was twelve and when I left for the seminary at age 15.
Deer. I remember deer hunting with Dad and Mike and sometimes Joe Snyder or Juno. The first day of buck season was practically a state holiday. We would lay out our clothes the day before—WW II olive drab sweaters, wool pants with flaps, field jackets that Dad brought home from the army. Later we got Woolrich red-checked woolen coats and pants. At first we wore buckle galoshes with tennis shoes and wool socks. Later we got insulated boots. We got up by 4 AM. Mom packed a huge lunch, often cheese sandwiches that we toasted over a campfire and hot tea. We drove in the dark through Clarion to Marienville, then back to Ox Yoke Camp where we parked and hiked down to the edge of the flats before daylight. The theory was that the hunters coming in after the sun was up would drive the deer to us. At first I used slugs (pumpkin balls) in my Mosberg 20 gauge, later I got a 30-30 Marlin with a 4 power Weaver scope. Mostly we sat and waited for the deer, sometimes sharing a low tree stump half the area of the kitchen floor. When we got cold--we always did—we would build a fire or walk around some. We often got a buck or two that first morning. Dad would cut the scent glands off the legs and gut the deer then drag it back to the car where we would tie it over the fender. It seems like there was always a layer of snow.
We got home for a late supper and early bed.
Rabbits. Rabbit season started with the training of the beagles during the summer. Dad belonged to the Hilltop Beagle Club by the Brady’s Bend Catholic Cemetery and sometimes another club up Kittanning Hollow. Dad bought his first beagle in 1937 and maintained that blood line until almost the end of his life. He bred them with other AKC field champions. He had a kennel license for a while and would sell beagles throughout the area. One of the dogs was named Hardscrabble Hattie. Dad, Mike and I hunted every Saturday, and a few school-days, during the season. Dad built a wooden box for the trunk of the car to transport the dogs. Sometimes we hunted with Joe Snyder or old Roy Slaughenhoup.
We wore tan canvas pants and coats with a large game pocket and red (later hunter orange) baseball style caps. I had a 20 gauge Mosberg with a clip. Dad had a 16 gauge Winchester pump. Dad had an uncanny sense of where rabbits were. Many times he would find them sitting camouflaged. I had trouble seeing them even when he pointed them out to me. Usually Dad would put out a rabbit, set the dogs on it and tell us where to stand so we could get a shot at it when it circled back. We often got the daily limit of four rabbits each. Occasionally we would get a “woods rabbit” which were native and half again as large as the usual “Missouri rabbits”. We would field dress them, then at home clean them and Mom would cook them for us in a pot she used solely for game. She used no seasonings, and didn’t eat wild game herself.
Squirrels. To hunt squirrels we would find a nice stand of large oak trees on a sunny afternoon and snuggle in next to a tree-trunk and remain still and quiet for about half an hour till the squirrels started to move, then we would shoot them with a 22, or sometimes a 20 gauge. Sometimes we would walk through the forest about 30 yards apart and the squirrels would edge around the tree trunk to avoid the front person and could be seen by the follower. Squirrels were OK eating but tough to skin. Later, small squirrels took over, too small to be worth hunting.
Occasionally we scared up a grouse and sometimes even got one. Ground hogs were in season year round and we would sit where we could watch the edges between the field and forest for them early and late in the day. We didn’t usually eat them, the meat was greasy and dark. Turkey, bear and pheasant were rare. We didn’t hunt raccoons or possum. We didn’t fish.
By John Zeitler July 2009