You might be Old School if.....

[Bankermane]

Bought all my wstuff at Gibson's Discount which was later bought by Howard Brothers. I grew up hunting in East Ms. Didn't know you could kill ducks in the morning. Get to a beaver pound about 4:30 and shoot till 9:00 PM. Could see 4 foot of flame coming out of the barrell. may have had a J.C. Higgins pump. Hunted out of a car and walked in.

[GET-N-RITE]

Don't have much to offer to this post because I am to young to have any old school stories, but this topic is one of the best I have read in awhile. Funny how easy us young gunz have it.

[goosebruce]

Walls blizzard pruf.... we had a set in every couple sizes, and as you grew you just got a bigger set. still got one of the smallest sets, that everyone was too small to ever wear out. coveralls, coats, all that stuff was hand me down when you where the baby of the family. I got a 'float coat' when i was probably 12 or 13. with your float coat and waders and a leather shell belt around ya, you where waterproof to your neck but if you ever fell in deep water you bobbed around on top of the water! but as far as a regular hunting coat, first one I got NEW was in college and we had already moved to memphis. brown blob o flauge, from kmart. I still wear it as a kennel jacket in the winter. I think brown blob o flauge still looks RIGHT, and wish I could find some pants in it. travis (who had forgotten about hand warmers till this thread, and thinks it cool to remember but doesnt want em back).

[Hambone]

"Blob o flauge"...love it! When I was about 15, I got an L.L. Bean Goose Down Mackinaw in greenish blob o flauge, complete with corduroy collar. It's still in the closet in my bedroom at the camp and warm as the day I got it. Since fleece and some of the other materials came along, I don't wear the coat often anymore, but it's there if I need it.

[Bankermane]

I think the ducks are on to camoflage. I'm thinking a dark navy is the ticket.

[Gumbo]

Anyone ever have those canvas duck hunting pants with the knit cuffs at the bottom to keep them straight inside your waders? I have a set of olive-colored ones that belonged to my grandfather, who died in 1970. And I still wear them hunting.

Man, that's it right there! I have an old pair of those my dad wore in brown canvas...he also had a pair that LACED up the calves!!

[Deltamud77]

These cats are as old school as it gets. Uncle Pots is the one on the far right.

This might be one of, if not, the best duck hunting pictures I have every seen -guys dressed better than I dress to go to church with 100 ducks around their necks. This is proof you don't need the latest Max8G supercamo, $1800 Italian made shotgun, $50K truck with $2 worth of tires, $15K ATV, face paint or anything else like that to kill ducks. You need to be where the ducks want to be and have a true aim. Not to say that all of the gadgets of today are not great and convenient, but you don't NEED them to kill ducks. Man that is a thing of beauty!

[GulfCoast]

Bought all my wstuff at Gibson's Discount which was later bought by Howard Brothers. I grew up hunting in East Ms. Didn't know you could kill ducks in the morning. Get to a beaver pound about 4:30 and shoot till 9:00 PM. Could see 4 foot of flame coming out of the barrell. may have had a J.C. Higgins pump. Hunted out of a car and walked in.

Gibsons was the BOMB! They had all the cool Mann's Jellyworms that no one else carried. Then stupid Wal Mart showed up and killed them. I loved Gibsons.

[BeastMaster]

two of those guys wearing ties???? shazzam!!!!

[swamprooter]

Thats good stuff Acornman!.. I have some of those mentos.......i hunted on the land of the guy that taught CHick how to make calls and met his daughter last year. Does anyone know who that is?.Who did Chick teach?...........This is not old school but remember when you could drop by Butch's shop and he would turn you a call right there in his shop and bitch about it the whole time?

Barely Old School here........
I remember the first weighted keel PLASTIC decoy i ever saw.....Flambeau..
Remember when you could look on back on box of shells and it gave you the size shot for every upland game.
I remember my first pair of hunting pants..waxed tin cloth Ducbax..(73') ..wore them till they rotted off.

[acornman]

I am glad that I have lived long enough for my memories of duck hunting to be of some value to someone else....maybe life has a purpose after all.

Yes....Gibson's Discount Center was hot stuff in its' day....they opened in my home town in 1967...Bobbie Gentry was singing Ode to Billie Joe on the store sound system and the record was on sale then...hotter than a $2 pistol. But....they had Airduk fiber decoys on sale for around $6.00 per dozen as a promo special that year.....talk about cheap and I still have some of them as mementos. Spark plug anchors were the ticket too.

I still have my 1968 vintage Mallardtone that I used to kill my first ducks with.....and old RR will attest that I still hunt with an Olt DR-115 double reed (1975 vintage); it does not echo off the water and is very good on close in ducks.

I remember very well an old gentlemen up at Reelfoot who made wooden pushpoles for guides and hunters. That old man peeled a lot of ash and hickory poles with a draw knife by hand. He used to be a guide, but started doing engine repair and boat work as he got older.

Now here is an old school question for you deep thinkers out there...who was Johnny Marsh and what is he famous for? Where did he live? Where did he hunt?


Ahhh....history at its' finest....mouth to ear....one generation to the next.

acornman

[Doc & Nash]

I rode in with my Paw paw on his Yeller Yamaha 3-wheeler. We thought we was in high cotton. That must have been sometime around 77. I was 5 or 6 then.

[acornman]

back to the chacoal bucket post from earlier....

there was a small sportsman's stove that came out in the 50's I think...it had a metal bail type handle and a small chimney pipe. You could boil coffee, cook or warm yourself; it had a flat top with a lid that you could flip back out of the way.

Does anyone remember one of these? You might have one stashed in your attic or storage room if your grandfather was a duck hunter from that era.


acornman

[missed mallards]

Am quite young, so my knowledge of "old school" would probably be technology to some here.

1st pair of boots! Yep, the black ones with the red bottoms. Went quit well with my fashionalble coveralls! They were covered in green camo, and I can still remember trying to hide from my dad in the woods to see if he could see me .

The First fourwheeler. Yes, I even had the pleasure of riding the Honda 110. No reverse LOL. I can still remember my uncle, even years after ATV's hit the market, wouldn't give up his "BIG RED" b/c it had reverse! The 4 wheeler, a honda formean 350. One bad machine, that up to last year could still outperform most on the market when it came to the detla gumbo and long rides.

Decoys LOL. My first Decoys where some old hand me downs that had been stored in my grandfathers farm shop for years. It took weeks to get the dust off of them, and the black really stood out LOL. That with my buddies waders I paid a wopping 10 bucks for got me into the sport. Heck, made a many hunt with knee high lacross rubber boots. Being young, it wasn't nothing to sit for ours in the water watching the water role over the lips of the boots b/c the water was just a fraction deeper than I anticipated. Grandmother didn't like it after me returning several days in a row with wet pants/socks and my grandfather just laughing.

"Old School"

maybe not, but I have fond memories of Jumpshooting ducks on our North pond. First bird to ever flush and blast, drake Gaddy. Pond was froze over and my brother and I devised a plan to get me out there for the retrive using an old boat laying around the farm. Needless to say, I stayed stuck on top of the ice for quite a spell, got colder than I can remember, and made the retrieve. The 2x4 I used as a paddle some years back, stayed stuck up in the middle of that ole pond for years.

My grandfather has a chest full of his old hunting memoribleia. Old paper shells, duck calls, bands, and stories stay in that chest until we get together and reminis about his days in the field.


Great post, and I wait eagerly to see what else some of ya'll got to experience, pretty neat to see/read about.

[swamprooter]

Johnny Marsh was a reelfoot guide,boatmaker, etc. He made the Turpin style metal reed call around 40's to 70's . He was also one of the first to use pattern lathes to duplicate his calls exactly everytime. Supposely his calls were sought after becasue they didn't stick probably due to light back pressure he built into the stopper by adjusting tongue angle is my oppinion. He built alot of calls and boats in Reelfoot.