INTERVIEW WITH AN OLD OUTLAW (Part 1)

By Agent Brandon Miller

In the past year I have had experiences and made memories that will last a lifetime. One of my greatest achievements is graduating from one of the most prestigious law enforcement academies in the nation, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Enforcement Academy. My dream is now my life. Thanks to all who made it possible and thanks to God for the strength and courage.

Just a few short months after the academy we started working night hunters. I always get excited about the unknown. I started talking to a few of the locals about their experiences with night hunting, and as you may have guessed, no one knew anything about night hunting, as if no one night hunted. While getting a haircut on my day off, a gentleman came in with a stack of photos taken by a deer camera at night, showing some very impressive racks. The barber told the gentleman that if “Ol’ Hog” was still able that deer would be in trouble. The barber explained to me that “Ol’ Hog” was a commercial deer hunter back in the 40’s and 50’s.

After skinning a few cats, I was finally able to interview this individual of not so great hunter ethics. I was asked to keep his real name out of this story, so for our purposes we will call him Mr. Hog (MH). A portion of my interview goes like this.

BM – Could you tell me a little about your background? How you started hunting?
MH- “To eat!” My family moved to Lasalle Parish, what was then Catahoula Parish, which is where I was born. My daddy went into the army for WWI and never came back. We moved to Grandpa’s place in Tensas Parish where he taught me to hunt and fish. Grandpa’s trade was working at a saw mill. The first deer I ever killed was standing outside the saw mill doors. It was a six point.
BM- When did you really start hunting?
MH- 1935 when I was twelve years old. I was doing my part to put food on the table. I was trapping everyday to sell furs to buy meat.
BM- What was your favorite animal to hunt?
MH- Squirrel was my favorite at a young age. All you had to do was sit there, acorns were in every tree in Tensas Parish.
BM- When did you start hunting deer?
MH- I had always shot deer when I would see one. I just wasn’t committed to deer hunting yet.
BM- What drove you to deer hunting?
MH- Money! People in small towns everywhere would buy deer meat.
BM- How did you find this to be true?
MH- Two men looking for lumber bought the deer that I killed one evening from Grandpa for a dollar. When I came home Grandpa gave me the dollar. Sometimes I could work a whole week and not earn a dollar. The next day I went to town asking if people wanted deer meat, and everybody wanted it.
BM- Did you get rich from selling deer meat?
MH- No, just sore feet. Sure I killed a few, but not like I thought I could. For a few years I could only get seven or eight a year, until I found out where the deer were. Deer only feed in open timber in the early part of the fall while acorns are on the ground. I found the deer in the cut over thickets, like mice in a hay barn. Just as I figured this out WWII hit, and I was put on foreign soil, Midway to be exact.
BM- What was it like after you returned from the war?
MH- Paradise, all the big timber had been cut and it was thick everywhere. Deer were everywhere and I had a good rifle that the U.S. Government let me borrow. At first it was slow selling deer, but around 1955 it broke loose. With the help of two good cur dogs I had several days that I killed four or five deer a day. By the 1960’s the market had went down considerably, and laws were being enforced. It was getting tough to sell deer. Everybody knew that I did it, they had been buying from me for years.
BM- What was next? Did you quit?
MH- I thought about quitting. I tried coon hunting for a while, and hide prices were good. People often still asked for deer meat. I had my cousin go line it up with some who asked for deer. After dark we would place quartered deer meat in their smoke house, and they would pay the mercantile store owned by my wife’s brother. I would get my money from him.
BM- Did it work?
MH- For a long time it did. It worked so well that I bought a 1958 Ford truck to help haul the deer around. One night me and my cousin shot and cleaned 27 deer.
BM- Did you ever quit hunting for money?
MH- No, not until I lost my leg to blood clots. A few years I hunted year around, and it wasn’t long before I seen it was having an effect on the deer population. Some nights I could drive 30 or 40 miles and only see one or two deer. In the late 60’s and early 70’s there weren’t many deer left in this area.
BM- Do you remember any game wardens during your career?
MH- Seen a few, but only two names stuck with me, a Cockerham man, and a young fellow named Red.
BM- Did you ever get caught?
MH- Several times, but the fine was only $25. That meant you just had to shoot an extra deer to cover the fine. Sometimes I would leave the house, and see another vehicle following me everywhere I went. One time I took a gun and a light out to my truck like I was going hunting. I came back inside, and sent my son dressed in my clothes to go ride around all night, while I would walk or ride a horse to hunt. It got to be a game with me, to see if I could out smart them tonight.
BM- Can you tell me who was doing the most of the night hunting?
MH- Everybody that wanted to eat and had a gun.

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT LOUISIANA GAME WARDEN...