The Good 'Ol Days

[Breaks Runner]

I've played softball and baseball with Brian on and off since I moved up here.. super good guy and a fanatic waterfowl guy....he's also killed several bull elk with his bow too. He works part time for me in my sling business.

One time I was playing in a co-ed softball tournament with him in his home town, Medicine Lake. Anyway there was a local annual event going on there that Saturday night with street dance etc. a lot of people buzzing around. We walked downtown from his folks place to check it out...it was funny as hell he is like an ICON there!!! A local hero for sure! Folks flocked around him like a rock star....I still give him hell about that night! Super good guy and one of my best friends.

 

[Breaks Runner]

I stand next to my best friend of my childhood...he is holding his first buck. Taken on November 23rd 1973 in the north end of the Bridgers, near Bozeman, Montana. His dad dropped us off before daylight that morning and my dad picked us up at dark....we didnt have our drivers licenses yet! We shot the first buck we saw..I had filled both my "A" and "B" tags earlier on small bucks. After he shot this buck the mountain came alive with deer and most of them were bucks....big bucks. Some were as large as I've ever seen even to this day....those glory days of mule deer hunting are gone forever. My good friend was killed in a car wreck only a few short years later...I think of him often when I'm out hunting alone in the mountains. The hunting days we shared in our youth will never be far from my memory.....

 

[belly-deep]

His dad dropped us off before daylight that morning and my dad picked us up at dark

Those really were the good old days...try that now and somebody would turn you in for child neglect.

 

[Spitz]

You guys sure have some amazing pictures. I wasn't around for what are considered the good old days but the facts and record books certainly support the theory. However, though bigger mule deer were encountered at a higher frequency, it doesn't seem as though hunters traveled away from their home states the way they do today.

Those of you who experienced the opportunities of the past and take advantage of hunting many states for different species today . . . how would you compare the two? Or, if you had to choose just one of the two to experience which would you pick as the "good old days"?

 

[Dinkshooter]

I don't know Spitz, but the one stop on the time machine I would like to make is mid 1960s, Central Colorado with a pair of Swaros and a spotter Not sure if you could have beat that hunt.

 

[Lawnboy]

I would of loved to hunted anywhere in Idaho in the 60's to the 80's. Especially southeast idaho. I also would of loved to be here on the Bridgers during the 70's and 80's. All the stories that BreaksRunner is telling is making me wish they would come back to the Bridgers. I moved here in the late 80's and saw the tail end of the glory days.

BreaksRunner what is your opinion as to why the numbers have crashed? It seemed to be a bad couple of winters in the early 90's that really dropped the numbers but I'm not sure if that can be blamed. Your thoughts?

 

[Oak]

I don't know Spitz, but the one stop on the time machine I would like to make is mid 1960s, Central Colorado with a pair of Swaros and a spotter Not sure if you could have beat that hunt.

I agree with that.

Colorado B&C entries, 1964-1969: 79 typical, 23 non-typical

Idaho would have been another good hunt, especially if you like your bucks a little on the trashy side. Same period: 30 typical, 26 non-typical

 

[schmalts]

I would love to post pics from my younger years but my damn scanner is not working since I went to VISTA on my PC. HP software is a joke

 

[JoseCuervo]

I agree with that.

Colorado B&C entries, 1964-1969: 79 typical, 23 non-typical

Idaho would have been another good hunt, especially if you like your bucks a little on the trashy side. Same period: 30 typical, 26 non-typical

I know an old outfitter that could bump up the 26 non-typical if he ever entered his bucks. He outfitted "back in the good old days" and he said his clients from back east usually wanted real "normal" racks. So they would spend all their time finding wide/tall typicals for the clients. Then after he was done with clients, he would go "clean" the gene pool and hunt the non-typicals. He had a few hanging on the wall that I am sure would inflate those numbers in the book from that era.

 

[belly-deep]

BreaksRunner what is your opinion as to why the numbers have crashed? It seemed to be a bad couple of winters in the early 90's that really dropped the numbers but I'm not sure if that can be blamed. Your thoughts?

Even the biologists don't really know. I drew a tag in 2006 and talked to Dave Pac about the unit. He said they thought when the unit went on a draw the bucks would come back but they have yet to see the class of deer that were there in the 70's.

My guess? Go up there on any given saturday in the winter. Everybody and their dog--literally--running around in those mountains. The big bucks get run down during the rut and then run to death by a black lab.

 

[Breaks Runner]

Lawnboy,

I think there are a lot of factors involving the decline of mule deer in the Bridgers and a lot of other places in the west. the increase of elk numbers for one. Predation for another...Mountain Lions were classed as a predator in Montana up until 1977. After that they were managed as big game animals. Coyotes are another factor.....the compound 1080 was banned in 1972. A few years after that coyote populations across the west exploded. I started hunting big game with my dad in 1968 and never saw a coyote until 1973...there werent many around back then. There werent any subdivisions either...think of the winter range that has been lost to that! I'm sure there are a few gagger bucks that slip through the cracks every year but they are few and far between.

I can remember back if you had a fourwheel drive you had a big advantage over a lot of other guys that hunted...seriously! Times have changed..lots of dedicated hunters are out there hunting hard for the big ones...back then not many people cared about hunting for big ones. I can recall a guy who lived across the alley from me when I was a kid had four or five whopper mule deer racks just tossed up on his garage roof and its where they stayed for years,turning white and cracked...today that guy would be considered some kind of trophy mule deer hunting "guru". We all just took it for granted. Im just glad I got a glimpse of it in my youth...it was something else!!

BTW, Dave Pac gave my that photo of the bucks running out of that trap. It was taken north of the Maher ranch.

 

[Breaks Runner]

My last Bridger's buck....11-20-1985

 

[Dinkshooter]

Maybe if you Montanans didn't hunt them bucks til the 30th of freaking November?

Where is your orange?

That is a dream buck for 90% of the current die hard muley hunters.

 

[Dinkshooter]

My guess? Go up there on any given saturday in the winter. Everybody and their dog--literally--running around in those mountains. The big bucks get run down during the rut and then run to death by a black lab.

Absolutely, I agree 100% with that. Then by the time spring time comes and the sheds hunters come out(guilty as charged at times) they are doomed.

Here locally they put in a giant subdivision. Open space donated to the county surrounding it that is supposed to be closed from Dec 15-April15. Any day of the week you can see people out there "Living the Colorado lifestyle" running, hiking, biking, etc. They are not hunters and they could give a shit about any deer they may disturb and or kill. I hate the new west.

 

[Breaks Runner]

I take off the "Orange" for pics....always have always will.

 

[noharleyyet]

...breaks,

You darn sure hang some nice wallpaper.

Oak, some good stats, thanks.

 

[M Orion]

That's me holding the rifle...one of the first Ruger M77s ever built....late 60s. Buck was killed in the Crazy Mountains, Montana

I was looking through these old photos and thought... What if you could go back and see the photo in it's original color? So I did a little restoration.

I hope that it takes you back in time. Enjoy!

 

[M. R. Byrd]

My mother took up deer hunting at age 75. Here is her one-shot buck.

Here I am with my youngest son on his first deer hunt at age 16.

 

[Breaks Runner]

Nice job on the color enhancement!! Now can you make his forks about 10" deeper?.....grin!!

 

[Breaks Runner]

WAAAAAY back....again.....laffin! Powder River.