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Wisconsin deer camp, 1943, the year meat rationing began.
Indeed, the first appeals of any kind to conserve food in the United States came from the British in 1941, at which time the United States was not yet in the war. The British specifically appealed to Americans to conserve meat so that it could go to English fighting men. In the spring of 1942 rationing of all sorts of things began to come in as the Federal government worried about shortages developing in various areas. Meat and cheese was added to the ration list on March 29, 1943. As Sarah Sundin reports on her blog:
On March 29, 1943, meats and cheeses were added to rationing. Rationed meats included beef, pork, veal, lamb, and tinned meats and fish. Poultry, eggs, fresh milk—and Spam—were not rationed. Cheese rationing started with hard cheeses, since they were more easily shipped overseas. However, on June 2, 1943, rationing was expanded to cream and cottage cheeses, and to canned evaporated and condensed milk.So in 1943 Americans found themselves subject to rationing on meat. As noted, poultry was exempt, so a Sunday chicken dinner was presumably not in danger, but almost every other kind of common meat was rationed. So, a good reason to go out in the field.
But World War Two was distinctly different in all sorts of ways from World War One, so hunting by that time was also different in many ways, and it was frankly impacted by the war in different ways.
For one thing, by 1941 automobiles had become a staple of American life. It's amazing to think of the degree to which this is true, as it happened so rapidly. By the late 1930s almost every American family had a car. Added to that, pickup trucks had come in between the wars in the early versions of what we have today, and they were obviously a vehicle that was highly suited to hunting, although early cars, because of the way they were configured and because they were often more utilitarian than current ones, were well suited as a rule. What was absent were 4x4s, which we've discussed earlier.
This meant that it was much, much easier for hunters to go hunting in a fashion that was less of an expedition. It became possible to pack up a car or pickup truck and travel early in the morning to a hunting location and be back that night, in other words.
Or at least it had been until World War Two. With the war came not only food rationing, but gasoline rationing as well. And not only gasoline rationing, but rationing that pertained to things related to automobiles as well
Indeed, the first thing to be rationed by the United States Government during World War Two was tires. Tires were rationed on December 11, 1941. This was due to anticipated shortages in rubber, which was a product that had been certainly in use during World War One, but not to the extent it was during World War Two. And tire rationing mattered.
People today are used to modern radial tires which are infinitely better, and longer lasting, than old bias ply tires were. People who drove before the 1980s and even on into the 80s were used to constantly having flat tires. I hear occasionally people lament the passing of bias ply tires for trucks, but I do not. Modern tires are much better and longer lasting. Back when we used bias ply tires it seemed like we were constantly buying tires and constantly having flat tires. Those tires would have been pretty similar to the tires of World War Two. Except by all accounts tires for civilians declined remarkably in quality during the war due to material shortages.
Gasoline rationing followed, and it was so strict that all forms of automobile racing, which had carried on unabated during World War One, were banned during World War Two. Sight seeing was also banned. So, rather obviously, the use of automobiles was fairly curtailed during the Second World War.
So, where as cars and trucks had brought mobility to all sorts of folks between the wars in a brand new way, rationing cut back on it, including for hunters, during the war.
Which doesn't mean that you couldn't go out, but it did mean that you had to save your gasoline ration if you were going far and generally plan wisely.
Ammunition was also hard to come by during the war.
It wasn't due to rationing, but something else that was simply a common fact of life during World War Two. Industry turned to fulfilling contracts for the war effort and stopped making things for civilians consumption.
Indeed, I've hit on this a bit before in a different fashion, that being how technology advanced considerably between the wars but that the Great Depression followed by the Second World War kept that technology, more specifically domestic technology, from getting to a lot of homes. Automobiles, in spite of the Depression, where the exception really. While I haven't dealt with it specifically, the material demands of the Second World War were so vast that industries simply could not make things for the service and the civilian market.
Some whole classes of products, such as automobiles, simply stopped being available for civilians. Ammunition was like that. With the services consuming vast quantities of small arms ammunition, ammunition for civilians became very hard to come by. People who might expect to get by with a box of shotgun shells for a day's hunt and to often make due with half of that. Brass cases were substituted for steel before that was common in the U.S., which was a problem for reloaders.
So, in short, the need and desire was likely there, but getting components were more difficult. And being able to get out was as well, which impacted a person to a greater or lesser extent depending where they were.
And, as previously noted, game populations are considerably higher today than they were then.
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