I'm ten years younger than you and it wasn't too uncommon to still see a few of us wandering around with dogs, guns, ferrets and our catch slung over the shoulder walking or cycling home but it would be a bit weird doing it nowadays no doubt some do gooder phoning the police.
I've had some good conversations with people walking home carrying a few brace of birds and never any grief. I used to ferret the golf course near our town centre while my dad played golf and nobody would bat an eyelid but sod going on there now it would be all over facebook before I'd lifted the nets.