When he reached the restaurant beside the Memorial Centre, he remembered that the extra money he had saved was intended for lunch. The restaurant on the southeast corner had the reputation of having the best fish and chips in town. They wrapped up your order in newspapers and it would stay warm until you got home. This would be a real surprise for his family. Today, there would be a treat to take home.
When Jake got home, his older brother admired the rifle and showed Jake how to use a rod to push string through the barrel and then, after removing the rod, how to pull the string and a wadded cloth full of oil slowly out of the barrel, removing all the little specks of lead and powder that were left in the spiral rifling. This procedure would have to be done two or three times until the barrel was perfectly clean. The rifling is the spiral etched into the inside wall of a barrel that turns the lead shot of the bullet into a twisting projectile. This keeps the shot more on target than if there is no rifling and the barrel has a smooth wall like that in a shotgun.
“Remember, Jake, always clean your .22 after you use it and then oil it. Keep it under your bed in this old towel, safe and sound. Don’t leave bullets in it and leave the safety on.” That was the end of that Hunter Safety Course. Jake had tailed his brother on so many hunts that he knew inside and out what to do and not to do with a rifle.
This year at hunting camp, Jake would use one of his Uncle Ross’ deer rifles. His single shot .22 was not a suitable rifle for the deer hunt, as you wanted to be able to shoot a long straight distance and bring down your prize cleanly. He hoped to get his deer-hunting rifle on his sixteenth birthday - a lever action one like his grandfather’s. It looked like the rifle that “The Rifleman” used on that television show. Jake was busy saving for something he really wanted and was prepared to wait another two years to acquire it. He knew that his parents could not afford to give him such an expensive gift for his sixteenth birthday. He also wanted to put notches on his own rifle.
Going to hunting camp was one of the major events of the year. In this camp, there were seven men, of which, Jake was the youngest. Seven men hunted, ate, played cards, drank, slept, and lived with each other for one or two weeks. Many years, it was three or four days, not two weeks. Once your limit was killed, camp broke for the year.
Deer have favourite paths or runs that they prefer to travel on and each person in the hunt camp would be assigned a run with an exact spot to wait for deer. At daylight you were on this run for at least two hours and, just before dark, you were on the same run for an hour. Deer are nocturnal, feeding at night and bedding down during the daylight hours. At dawn and dusk they are on the move. Deer can be persuaded to move faster if there is a trained dog running on their scent.
Hounds would be released in the morning on the main run. Their barking, sniffing, and howling would move the deer along the runways. You would get only one clean shot, if you were lucky, and the rule in this camp was that during the first week, you could shoot only at bucks, the male deer. Their horns would be easy to spot. Does were protected so they could have fawns the next spring, thus increasing the deer supply. In the years that deer were low in numbers, the buck rule was followed exclusively, and during the years of plenty, does did not have to be shot. Some camps in the area shot everything and even killed yearling fawns. This Norwood camp was a buck camp and these hunters looked down on other camps’ traditions. Jake, being a teenager, thought it must be cool for the surviving bucks, which could have a harem.
The hunting camp was at the north end of Concession Eleven in Dummer Township and as far back in the cedar woods as a good half-ton truck could carry a full load. It was important to take a compass into the woods. To the north was a stretch of land over ten miles long with no roads and only man-made trails to find a way out. If you got lost, you might circle for a day or two, until a search party found you.
There was no electricity, no running water, no phone, but there was a two-seater outhouse. Modern times had come and the catalogue from Eaton’s or Sears was no longer hung on a hanger. Instead, modern toilet paper, carefully placed in a waterproof, mouse-proof can, was always available to do the job. Shiny catalogue paper was not missed. It did, however, provide reading material when time to wait was required.
Water had to be trucked in and old cream cans with their tight-fitting lids worked well. Groceries and necessities were trucked in on the first day, as few men wanted to leave camp to go to town or home to get something they had forgotten. The Camp List grew longer every year, and soon it took more that one truckload to bring everything into camp. Wood, cigar, pipe, and cigarette smoke filled the camp, because in the fifties, just about everyone smoked or chewed something. One tradition, that remains today, is that the mattresses were filled with fresh straw each year. It was one person’s responsibility to get fresh straw and fill each mattress cover. Old timers loved the smell and the texture of their beds. It brought back memories of the days when they would be sent off to the woods to cut firewood for the winter. Straw mattresses were used only for the hunt and, at the break-up of camp; they were emptied outside to make a pile of bedding for deer or a home for all sorts of small animals and rodents. Leaving the straw inside invited mice to take up residence and make a mess that had to be cleaned the following year.
The duties of all seven men in the hunt camp were sorted out in advance each year. No one needed to be reminded or told twice what his responsibilities were. Jake, being the youngest and the most recent member, was in charge of firewood and garbage. Each year, firewood would be cut, split, and piled so it was dry for the next season. Small limbs of wood and finely-split hardwood were piled for the cook stove and larger chunks were piled separately for the box stove that heated the balance of the camp. These two stoves would use almost two cords of wood if the hunt lasted a week, and double if they needed the second week. If it turned cold and snowy, you burned more. During the day, when Jake was not hunting, he was busy cutting and gathering wood for next year. Most men would rather be out working than sitting around, so Jake did not have to do all the work by himself. A couple of short days, and cut wood was brought back to camp. Then Jake could build his muscles splitting and piling.
Garbage detail was easy, as garbage was wrapped and burned in the box stove along with the wood. Only cans and glass jars were bagged and taken out of camp. Leaving any garbage around invited black bears to break into camp and rummage around for a snack. Bears would not come near the camp during hunting season as most camps had bear licences and bears would be shot. Bear meat is very tasty and any game, including the venison, was divided among the hunters at the end of camp. Ron, one of the camp crew, hunted game all year and had a trapping licence. Extra bear meat would help fill his family’s freezer. He would not allow his family to eat any store-bought meat as he said he did not trust what was in the meat. He knew wild game was good and he wanted his family to eat healthy.
The hunt camp was a good size, twenty feet by twenty-four feet, with a kitchen and dining room table at one end and four sets of bunks and a double bed at the other end of the large open room. The kitchen sink’s grey water ran out into a forty-gallon steel drum that was buried in a hole with a lot of gravel around it for suitable drainage. Grey water included all used water, except for the flushing water from a toilet.
Extra beds were for visitors who dropped in during the hunt. As the evening wore on, somehow some hunters could not find their legs to go home and there was no need for someone to take them home. Jake’s dad would hide their truck keys and the men never could find them, even if they wanted to go home. Men looked after each other, in camp and out.
One tradition Jake found interesting was that all the chairs were hung on the wall after the meal and were taken down only if the men wanted to play cards or sit around the stove in the candlelight, when all the catch-up stories would be spun out for the fun of the evening. Hanging the chairs up on the wall created more space and it also made it very easy to sweep the floor and to clean up.
This was a typical
