Thread: Hunting on skis

Great vids.

We started hunting on skis in the 1960's. One year the snow was exceptionally deep up to our waists and made going into the forests to hunt rabbits near impossible. We found some surplus military skis and tried them but had trouble with them breaking, so we took the bindings off and put them on long Head downhill skis made of metal and fiberglass, the worked pretty good. Cross Country skiing was in it's infancy at the time and imported equipment was too expensive for a couple of high school kids. We did get a reputation as the hunting fools on skis though. That spring we had a real problem with packs of feral dogs killing deer that couldn't escape them do to the tick crust on deep snow(the deer would break through and the dogs could run on top). The local game warden asked us if we would hunt the dogs for him, it was an exciting spring for us. We did this for him during years of these conditions until snowmobiles were more available to him.

Through the last 50+ years I've run traplines , hunted big game and fur on skis. My equipment has improved, and I've spent time learning to ski downhill on XC skis. When I go on hunting trips in the winter there is two sets of skis in the van, one shorter with metal edges for steeper crusty conditions and one longer set for open country and softer snow. I'm 72 now and still love getting out on the skis hunting.