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A few Montana oldies

Great photos MTTW! Thanks for sharing. Not many hunters took a lot of photos (any photos for that matter) back in the day. I sure do enjoy viewing the photos that are still around in someones old photo album/shoe box.
 
Very nice pictures! I will have to try and track down some of my grandpa if I can. I miss deer camp growing up we would all show up at the "Smoke Shack" as they called it. The whole family on my moms side uncles aunts cousins and grandparents. Most lived in the area so it was not far to drive and my grandpa and his brothers all lived less than 5 miles from the Smoke Shack.

As a kid I loved it I got to see my cousins and there was always good food in a crockpot or bars and homemade doughnuts. The adults would go out for their walks and us kids would play in the old garage that had a wood burning stove and mice in the couches. Once the walks were done they would bring the deer back and us kids would get out favorite sticks and go poke holes in the gut piles that were behind the barn.

People passed away family feuds started land was sold and what once was the Smoke Shack is now buried under the ground. It is sad to see those days end, but new memories will come from it. Has anyone else seen these deer camps come and go with time? I hope that one day when I have kids and I can create my own place for them to explore the outdoors and learn how to be a sportsman like I once did.
 
Here is another one with the same jeep. This was 1957. My dad had an uncle who homesteaded north of Big Timber and they used to hunt there, I believe that is where most of these deer were taken.
View attachment 61907

What a great picture. That buck on the top middle is beautiful. I love the Jeep too. When I was a kid I rode shotgun a number of times with my Grandpa in his '46 Willy's while we did a deer body recover from the rimrocks above his ranch. Wish I had photos of it....
 
Darby check station a couple years ago.

No Sitka required.

 
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Lol now that is a load of elk. Those guys hunted to eat and it was really cool. I can remember my grandpa telling me " boy you better get over on that ridge and get them squirrels before somebody else does". Think he just wanted grandma to make some gravy for him looking back. Good times I'll never forget. Love the pics guys.
 
Great pics! I wish the previous generations in my family had been more active with a camera. Wouldn't have an pics of elk or even deer, but it'd be fun to see the amount of squirrels and rabbits they shot back then. Not to mention the beagles that they kept for running rabbits. Thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks for posting MTTW. Amazing to see these pics from the paradise valley back then, sure wish I could of seen it.
 
And to think all these great bucks and bulls were taken while wearing zero camo of any kind.
 
And to think all these great bucks and bulls were taken while wearing zero camo of any kind.
Hmmm, could be an interesting new correlation.

Montana's real/perceived downturn in the quality/quantity of "good" big game hunting just happened to commence at about the same time as the advent of:
OnXmaps, First lite & Sitka clothing, Nosler Accubonds, Leupold TBR 1000 RF's, Rage Broadheads, StealthCam trail cams, etc., ad nauseum......:rolleyes:

Could it be that hunters began to be more concerned with how good they looked and how high tech their gear was vs. the management and stewardship of the very resource(s) that gave them the opportunity to look good and use that cool gear while they got out there???

Full disclosure - a current owner of some of these - I shot my biggest Muley buck before I ever owned ANY of them..................
 
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on point.... I hear you my brother. Many of the same sentiments.

MTTW.... I absolutely love your old pictures! Brings back so many memories of the hunting back then and basically the environment of growing up in such a simple innocent place and time. I had an uncle who had a small ranch south of Emigrant up Dry Creek. Just south of Fridley creek. Probably the day the picture was taken of the two gentleman with the little guy in the back of that truck with the elk and deer. I was living down on Second street as a 10 year old boy. If on a Sunday we were most likely out as a family hunting around that part of the world. Thanks for the pics and memories.
 
Hmmm, could be an interesting new correlation.

Montana's real/perceived downturn in the quality/quantity of "good" big game hunting just happened to commence at about the same time as the advent of:
OnXmaps, First lite & Sitka clothing, Nosler Accubonds, Leupold TBR 1000 RF's, Rage Broadheads, StealthCam trail cams, etc., ad nauseum......:rolleyes:

Could it be that hunters began to be more concerned with how good they looked and how high tech their gear was vs. the management and stewardship of the very resource(s) that gave them the opportunity to look good and use that cool gear while they got out there???

Full disclosure - a current owner of some of these - I shot my biggest Muley buck before I ever owned ANY of them..................
camo_0.jpg
 
You could not have written a better reply than that lol...

Thanks for sharing these amazing pictures. Its a strange feeling I (we) get thinking about how it would be to go back and hunt in those times. I usually go with the "we are living in the good ol days of hunting now" because in some cases with game there are more now than ever, but damn all those big giant bucks your old man and his friends killed with rifles not meant to shoot a mile make me want to get started on that time machine Ive been putting off building...
 
Caribou Gear

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