What the Old Men Did
Forty four ways of hunting deer that nobody does any more, from a man who has hunted the same four hundred acres for forty seasons and ran a gun counter for thirty one years listening to the men who did them.
Somebody has been telling you for fifteen years that the way you hunt is finished. This is my working. Where the old way still beats the new one I show you why, where the research says the old men had it wrong I say so, and every chapter ends with the one thing you can go and check on your own ground this week.
Through Gumroad, a secure checkout. I never see your card number.
On the next screen, about thirty seconds later. Phone, tablet or computer.
The same link lands in your inbox, so you can pull a card up standing at a gun counter.
Every one of the 44 chapters is laid out the same five ways. The slip: the year, the man, what he came in for, what he paid. What he actually needed. How to tell, on your own rifle, with a tape and a dollar bill. The failure mode, in the woods and not on paper. Then one verdict, and no hedging.
- The complete 50-page book, 44 chapters in nine parts, as a PDF
- Chapter one: the bed. How to find it in July and how far off it to sit in November, page 9
- The circle he makes downwind, and why your camera has never once photographed it, page 30
- Every chapter laid out the same five ways: the day, what it meant, how to tell, the failure mode, and what to do
- Rattling with the measurement behind it: loud against quiet, and what each week of the rut actually returned, page 33
- Reading a rub line the right way round, which most men have had backwards for forty years, page 28
- The two man nudge, which is what survived of the six man drive and is the best thing two hunters can do, page 24
- Part eight, written for doing all of it past sixty five: the climb, the cold, the eyes, the drag, page 41
- Five printable cards for the truck, including the bed and the downwind check, page 47
- Lifetime updates: every future edition free
The ground first, because that is where it started. Then the hours they kept, the walking, the drive, reading sign with your own eyes, calling, what they carried, and last the part nobody writes: doing all of it past sixty five.
PART 1Before the Stand6 chapters · the bed found in July, sitting against the tree, the blowdown, the blind you build in ten minutes, access
PART 2The Hours They Kept5 chapters · going in at nine when the others come out, what forty collared bucks say about daylight, the all day sit
PART 3Walking6 chapters · still-hunting at the right pace on the right ground, tracking in snow, sizing a track, reading terrain
PART 4The Drive5 chapters · the six man drive, the two man nudge, what the standers get wrong, hounds, and why it really died
PART 5Reading Sign Without a Camera6 chapters · the rub read the right way round, the licking branch, and the circle he makes downwind
PART 6Calling by Mouth and Hand4 chapters · rattling with the numbers behind it, loud against quiet, the grunt, and the honest limits
PART 7What They Carried5 chapters · open sights and the range where they win, wool, one rifle carried long, the drag rope, the pocket
PART 8When the Body Changes7 chapters · the climb to stop making, the cold at seventy, the eyes, the drag that kills men, what to hand down
PART 9The Card Pack5 cards · 5 printable cards for the truck
The bed
He changes where he eats forty times in a fall and changes where he sleeps almost never. How to find the one fixed point he has, in July, when it costs you nothing, and how far off it to sit in November.
The rub line, the right way round
The torn face points back the way he came from, which means a line of rubs gives you his direction of travel and not just his presence. Most men have read this backwards for forty years.
Rattling, with the numbers
A hundred and seventy one sequences over three years in Texas. Thirty percent in the pre-rut against a hundred and eight at the peak, and loud beat quiet by nearly three to one. The old men were right, and here is by how much.
The Bed card goes in the truck in July, page 47. The Downwind Check takes four minutes at every stand you own, page 48.
Not a promise, and not a reason to throw your cameras away. I run two. It is the two ways of answering the same question, costed, so you can see what you are renting. Plan prices read off the makers’ own pages, October 2026.
What one camera costs you a year
What the July morning costs
It is not the same thing and I will not pretend it is. A cell camera tells you he is alive, and in January that is worth something to a man. What it cannot tell you is where he sleeps, and it cannot see him circle downwind of your stand, which is what sixty percent of them did in the one study that measured it. The book is about the half the camera cannot photograph.
Plan prices read October 2026 off the manufacturers’ own plan pages. They change often, and one maker’s page carried a labelling inconsistency the day I read it, so check your own plan at checkout. The batteries and the driving are my own figure for one man on four hundred acres and are not anybody’s data.
The cover, the contents, the word before you start, and two whole chapters: the bed, and the circle he makes downwind. Free, and no payment. It is the same file, just shorter.
Read nine pages before you decide →
Somebody has been telling you for about fifteen years that the way you hunt is finished. Not in those words. It arrives as a catalogue, or a man half your age on a telephone screen, or your own son being kind to you about a rifle.
I do not believe it, and this book is my working. I ran a gun counter in this county from 1991 until I sold it in 2022, which meant thirty one years of listening to men describe how they hunt, every Saturday, in the three weeks before the season. I have hunted the same four hundred acres since I was nine.
I am not a biologist and I am not a guide, and I will not tell you the old way always wins, because it does not. There are chapters in here where the new thing is better and I say so, and one method I was taught as a boy that I now think was mostly luck and a good piece of ground. A book that never concedes is a book you cannot trust, and you have read enough of those.
— Ray Holloway
How do I get it after I pay?
Right away. The download lands in your email within a minute, through Gumroad. Nothing is posted to you. If it does not arrive, look in your spam, then write to the address on the receipt and I will send it by hand.
What format is it, and can I print it?
A standard PDF, 50 pages. It opens on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and it prints on plain paper. The 5 cards at the back are made to be printed and kept in the truck.
Is the type big enough to read?
Yes. The body is set in a serif made for print, at a size chosen for men over sixty, with room between the lines. On a tablet you can make it as big as you like, and the cards are set larger again.
Are you a biologist, or a guide?
Neither, and I say so on the first page. I ran a gun counter for thirty one years and I have hunted the same four hundred acres since I was nine. Where I give you a study it has a name and a state on it and you can go and read it. Where I am giving you my own experience I say that too, and you should weigh it as one man on one piece of ground.
I have hunted for forty years. Is there anything in here for me?
This book is written for you and not for a beginner. It does not teach you to hunt. It puts down the ways that are going out of use, with the evidence for and against each one, including the three places where the research says the old men had it wrong.
I am over sixty five. Is this going to tell me to climb things?
The opposite. Part One is hunting from the ground, which is what every man's father did, and the whole of Part Eight is doing all of it past sixty five: the climb to stop making, the cold, the eyes, the drag, and what to hand down and when.
Is this a subscription?
No. One payment of $29.40 with the code, one time, and every future edition is free. No membership and no monthly anything.
What if it is not for me?
Thirty days, no questions, and you keep the book. Write to the address on your receipt.
It is what your father did, and most men reading this have never tried it. 50 pages, an instant PDF, on your phone about a minute after you pay. Print the Bed card before July.
Get the book · $29.40 →What the Old Men Did is a digital book, a PDF you download and keep. Nothing is shipped. Payments by Gumroad.
Where this book gives a study it is named with its researchers and its state and you can go and read it. Everything else is one man’s experience on four hundred acres in western Pennsylvania and is labelled as that, never as data. Driving deer, hunting them with dogs, baiting and legal arms vary by state and by county and they change; every chapter that touches the law sends you to your own state’s current digest, and means it. Nothing here is legal advice. Nothing here is medical advice: whether your heart and your knees belong in a treestand or on the end of a drag rope is a question for your doctor, in September.
© 2026 Ray Holloway · First edition · The channel
Nothing on this page expires when you close the tab. But this week, stand at your stand and turn and face downwind, and look at forty to seventy yards. If there is cover a deer could move through there and take your scent without ever crossing in front of you, that is his lane and you have never hunted it. That is page 30, and it is the cheapest thing in the book.
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