# Interesting find



## furandhides (Jul 3, 2008)

Bought a small packet of old fur related paper today. In it was a 1940-41 Mic. Game Law Digest. Didn't think much about it, until I looked at the back page, entitled THE GAME KILL. Has a listing of 29 species specifics. 1939-40 in the state 4 deer killed by bow and arrow, 45,148 gun. 907,848 pheasants, 819,447 muskrats, etc.. That is more muskrats than offered at all the sales this year. Why we don't have numbers like that? Habitat destruction. These furbearer numbers are amazing. 32,882 skunk, 27,287 weasel, etc.


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

furandhides said:


> Bought a small packet of old fur related paper today. In it was a 1940-41 Mic. Game Law Digest. Didn't think much about it, until I looked at the back page, entitled THE GAME KILL. Has a listing of 29 species specifics. 1939-40 in the state 4 deer killed by bow and arrow, 45,148 gun. 907,848 pheasants, 819,447 muskrats, etc.. That is more muskrats than offered at all the sales this year. Why we don't have numbers like that? Habitat destruction. These furbearer numbers are amazing. 32,882 skunk, 27,287 weasel, etc.


Are your numbers for rats taking into consideration the fur sent to the big auctions?

You are never going to have numbers like that again.

First off one of the biggest high grade muskrat producing marshes, Muskegon, has been dry since Lake Michigan levels went down. There is hope now that the big lake is up to historic average.

With the loosening of rat trapping regulations how much seed is left to build up the population. I wonder how many of todays trappers could catch rats out of a house with out setting in the hole instead of having to be 6 foot away.

With the colony traps it looks like cleaning out an area could be a piece of cake.

The high price of rats lately makes it awful tempting to over trap an area leaving no seed. Plus the extended season just leaves less seed.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

furandhides said:


> . Why we don't have numbers like that? ......


For the most part, the Great Depression had ended in the US by '39, but the effects were still felt until after WW11. 
Just my guess, but I think guys in the rural areas were still trying to find a way to make a buck during the winter season. Probably a lot of trapping throughout the '30s. The lumber business would have also been a good winter time employment possibility.

EDIT: Were artificial fur or leather even available yet 75 years ago ?

L & O


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## furandhides (Jul 3, 2008)

820,000 rats taken in Mi. in 1939-40 season. That's more than the numbers offered at the Jan. Feb. Mar. May, and upcoming June sales at NAFA and FHA combined for this season. That's a lot of rats. Shows you what the old boys in the state had to work with. Lots of fur buyers.


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## hillbillie (Jan 16, 2011)

I have a old MI game law digest of Dad's,I found it in his army field jacket so without digging it out of storage I'm guessing 1945.I remember reading no CLOSED season on hawks and owls and a hunting season on mink, dogs allowed.Heard there was far less **** in those days,another muskrat predator.


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## Davelobi (Feb 14, 2012)

The most interesting part to me was only 4 deer killed with a bow. Hard to believe that number. I like to tag out before gun season.


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## hillbillie (Jan 16, 2011)

Davelobi said:


> The most interesting part to me was only 4 deer killed with a bow. Hard to believe that number. I like to tag out before gun season.


That was using cedar arrows and before compounds,crossbows,camo,tree stands,bait,scents,scent blockers,gore-tex,grunt calls,doe in a can,pop up blinds,TV,videos and internet.

We've come a long way.


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## hillbillie (Jan 16, 2011)

45,000+deer with a firearm,betting over 80% were taken with a lever action.
Does Michigan even have 900,000 pheasants today?


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## Unregistered4 (Dec 11, 2004)

hillbillie said:


> That was using cedar arrows and before compounds,crossbows,camo,tree stands,bait,scents,scent blockers,gore-tex,grunt calls,doe in a can,pop up blinds,TV,videos and internet.


Yep, when we started bow hunting in 76, my buddy and I would rarely, if ever see another bow hunter. And, the looks we use to get from our dad's, who were all gun hunters, were hilarious. They were like..."you're going to hunt deer with a what"..."a bow and arrow?" They'd just shake their head and laugh.

You didn't go to no big box store for equipment (if you can even call an old recurve equipment...lol) or clothing. You either went to a place called "Indian John's" (in St. Clair county) for a bow and arrows or the army surpuss for camo clothing...or you drove a long way to find the stuff elsewhere. And the broadheads were so crude...you could barely cut your fingers on one. If you didn't hand sharpen them beforehand...they had little effect.

Heck, I just realized I was around before the first recurve was around...lol



> We've come a long way.


In some respects, yes...and in other respects, no.


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## furandhides (Jul 3, 2008)

Davelobi said:


> The most interesting part to me was only 4 deer killed with a bow. Hard to believe that number. I like to tag out before gun season.


 Yeah. That was on the top of the list. My wife and I found that big bow kill odd. Also, the nearly million pheasants. What happened.? LOL Also, 1,900,000 cottontail rabbits. A lot of bunnies. Was down from over 2 million the year before. Also, 26,600 prairie chickens, lots of those to hunt today.


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## furandhides (Jul 3, 2008)

hillbillie said:


> 45,000+deer with a firearm,betting over 80% were taken with a lever action.
> Does Michigan even have 900,000 pheasants today?


 Don't believe that we've got 10,000. 35,000 **** by hunters, 8000 by trappers.


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## Watersmt (Jan 28, 2011)

Ahh, the good old days.
I love to listen to my 96 year old grandfather talk about the numbers of rats he put up and sold. He likes to tell how he made more money trapping than most guys made working in factories.
Habitat loss, pesticides, herbicides, self inflicted low water levels... Doesn't leave much left for our small animal population. Unless you are talking corn for the ***** and deer.


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## hillbillie (Jan 16, 2011)

Been doing some math for brain excises/I hate crossword puzzles.

39/40 season 819,447 muskrats vs 43,000 raccoon =19 muskrats per raccoon

Mi State fur sales combined for the 13/14 season as reported on this forum (for % comparison) 17,069 muskrats vs 5884 raccoon =3 muskrats per raccoon

Just a for "what it's worth comparison"no point intended.


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## Luv2hunteup (Mar 22, 2003)

The good ole days were the early 80s. I was making more trapping **** per hour than working construction per hour. I would check my traps before work and sell them in the whole on the way home.


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## 9 (Jan 17, 2000)

Davelobi said:


> The most interesting part to me was only 4 deer killed with a bow. Hard to believe that number. I like to tag out before gun season.


 Not really. You have to remember there was no "electronic age" than, everything had to be taken to the DNR in order for it to be counted. I figure most successful bowhunters of that era didn't bother with that stuff.

Bear came out with his recurve line in the late-40's when "baby-boomers" were being made, the Korean War was ready to rock-roll, and pheasants were just about everywhere and plentiful. Most folks back in that day figured hunting deer with sticks during pheasant season was crazy and completely untraditional (the "Red-Coat Army" was traditional) as told to me by my older relatives.

I bought my 1st recurve which was a used Bear Cub(45#) when I was 12 in 1958 and killed my 1st deer 2 years later. Since I rode my bike the 2 miles to my hunting spot, I had to gut and leave the doe lay so I could ride home and get one of my parents to drive over and bring it home. Back in those days nobody was at all concerned about 12 year-old youths hunting alone with firearms, let alone a bow & arrow. By the way, yes, I tracked that 1st deer and every one thereafter by myself, most by an old flashlight that compared to today's lights was likened to using a candle!:smile-mad

Nope, no bait plies, no tree stands, no tracking strings, no expanding heads, no camo to speak of, no masking scents, just ground blinds on runways and you DEVELOPED skill and LEARNED patience. 

The Midland area had enough of an archery following that in the early 50's the Mid-Michi Bowmen Club was formed and is still operating today I believe. Even than, I never saw another bowhunter in my early years. I used Bear Razor heads on cedar and had to choose which arrows were the straightest each time I went hunting. I quit bowhunting in 1988 because it was no longer the challenge it once was for me and trapping was far more important.


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## hillbillie (Jan 16, 2011)

Michigan game law digest 1947 edition I found in my dad's army field jacket.
Hope you're able to read it
No open season on black squirrels
No closed season black bear in some counties
No deer hunting in zone three
Bounties paid on wolves and bobcats
Deer and bear was same license you could shoot either
Coyote,wolf,lynx,bobcat,fox,opossum,porcupine,weasel,red squirrel. May be taken at any time.
No closed season on owls,crows,hawks.
.




















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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

hillbillie said:


> ...........
> 
> No deer hunting in zone three
> 
> ............


There was an archery season in Allegan Co. as noted in booklet. This was the one county in the SLP where deer were not totally wiped out by 1900. Allegan County had the 1st modern day antlerless hunt in '41. Info from DNR site, "Deer Hunting Regulations" page 5.

1948 the entire SLP was opened to gun hunting. If you look at the CBM records, some nice SLP bucks were taken in the late 40's and later recorded into the record book.

L & O


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## hillbillie (Jan 16, 2011)

The rest of the 1947 digest




















Unlawful to take waterfowl by means, aid, or use of cattle, horses, or mules.

No mention of game #'s harvested the year before.


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## cooner_jeff (Mar 21, 2006)

Wow, cool stuff


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## magnumhntr (Aug 18, 2003)

furandhides said:


> Bought a small packet of old fur related paper today. In it was a 1940-41 Mic. Game Law Digest. Didn't think much about it, until I looked at the back page, entitled THE GAME KILL. Has a listing of 29 species specifics. 1939-40 in the state 4 deer killed by bow and arrow, 45,148 gun. 907,848 pheasants, 819,447 muskrats, etc.. That is more muskrats than offered at all the sales this year. Why we don't have numbers like that? Habitat destruction. These furbearer numbers are amazing. 32,882 skunk, 27,287 weasel, etc.


Pesticides, draining of wetlands, street to street tilling of fields ~ and I was once told that there is theory that there are strains of vegetation developing in the marshes that cannot sustain the rats....

-Chris


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