What has changed in the last 80 years

[Europe]

In private conversations with folks here on the forum and a group of young men off the forum , some have ask "what has changed since you harvested your first animal 80 years ago ?

a lot and nothing . In many ways absolutely nothing has changed. The wilderness, the friendships, the campfires, are still the same and are still many times the best part of the hunt--but

1. The number of people who dislike hunters and firearms have gotten worse
2. The desire for more velocity, energy, and distance, is understood, but some of the reasons for it ( not all ) I do not subscribe too. I am surprised at why it seems more important to say "I took an animal at 500, 600, 700 yards, than to say "I got within 100 yards or less". To me, one is hunting, and one is shooting, but that is just my opinion of course.
3. The desire for a non walnut stocked rifle as well as the desire for very light rifles, is also a change that escapes me. All my rifles had wood stocks and a light rifle was actually harder for me to shoot accurately and it delivered more recoil
4. scopes--this has been a good change as you now dont have to buy an expensive German scope to get good glass. Scopes have changed for the better
5. Powder, another "changed for the better" item, especially temp sensitive powders.
6. Bullets. Personally I feel this may be where the greatest improvement has been. Starting with the Bitterroots, which my husband loved and Alaska Bullet Works, although it is a small company and very independent fellow owns it, but a great guy. But then came Rhino for DG and GSC for Plains Game in RSA, Woodleigh in Australia, Norma ( love the Oryz ) in Europe and North Fork, Nosler, Swift, Barnes and others in the U.S.. Also some good custom bullet makers and paper patched bullet makers---Bullets are better!
7.Actions. I accept the fact that if you have a few tools in your man cave Remington can be useful in a Build, if you dont have tools, then Savage could work, and I can not deny that Mayfair Eng/England, Granite Mtn/Arizona, Montana/Montana make excellent actions--but they are so called "Improved" Mauser 98's. So I am not so sure that anything is any better than the Mauser 98 or Pre 64 Win 70. however the Weatherby fans here might disagree and I hear that the Sako 85 is a good action, but they came along to late for me to know --I did however enjoy their finnwolf 308--but I digress lol
8.Animals the most noticeable to me is the lack of Mule Deer is Arizona, they use to be all over the place, Black Rhino in RSA, Caribou in Canada ( however I heard the Caribou herds in Alaska are increasing and that is good news )

Remember guys this is just one old woman's opinion as she looks back over the years --no more, no less

Your turn--for those of you who have been hunting 30-40-50-60-70-years--or more. What changes good or bad have you seen and.or experienced ?

 

[noharleyyet]

Hunting forums are no more the spit & whittle clusters at the coffee shop, lumberyard office, or general store....for better or worse.

 

[antlerradar]

Scouting. Back when I was younger most hunters picked a spot and went hunting with little to no knowledge of what animals where there.
Now hunter are far more familiar with what is in the aria, some hunters have even the smaller bucks named

 

[Brittany Chukarman]

Tags. When my dad first taking me along in the 60's there were no drawings for tags. If I remember right Nevada was the first western state to have a draw for both res and non-res. I think Utah was about $50 for a deer tag. I bought the Idaho version of a combo tag that included about everything for around $135 in the early 70's.

 

[kmbrewcrew]

Access. I remember 30 years ago, you talked to a neighbor and they’d let you hunt. Now, most of the properties we hunted are posted by those who bought and allow no hunting, or its leased by “hunting clubs” or private leases. In the west, we have a lot of public lands to hunt...but that just isn’t true in the East. We relied on friendly neighbors, and sharing access across all of our properties...now it’s hard to get permission.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Access. I remember 30 years ago, you talked to a neighbor and they’d let you hunt. Now, most of the properties we hunted are posted by those who bought and allow no hunting, or its leased by “hunting clubs” or private leases. In the west, we have a lot of public lands to hunt...but that just isn’t true in the East. We relied on friendly neighbors, and sharing access across all of our properties...now it’s hard to get permission.

When I was very little all the farms on the run including my grandparents in northern Pennsylvania let friends and neighbors hunt on eachother and shared the meat to help feed each others families. Now every farm on the run is posted.

 

[Europe]

noharleyyet--and I, for one, miss them. We had a feed store where many of conversations were had among neighbors. If course neighbors then were everybody in the area

antler radar --I am guilty, as game was plentiful and we didn't really do any scouting before hunting and we didn't really go far either, sometimes never left our farm.

Brittany Chukarman---lol--excellent point--tags were something we played after Sunday dinner. Which by the way was at noon--we had supper later (-:

KMbrewcrew, hilljackoutlaw, Another excellent point. We all hunted each others farms, and made sure the gates were closed behind us and didn't leave trash---plus, we actually knew our neighbors and talked to them, helped them and they helped us----different times for sure.

Great points guys, thank you

p.s. since posting the above I have been asked about hunting the Kaibab Mule Deer in Arizona. I did hunt them on more than one occasion but it was a while back. I hunted them with the same rifle I hunted most large game in North America, the 300 H and H. HOWEVER---Randy hunted them just a couple of years ago and so maybe he would be so kind as too attach one of his videos about his hunt, as they are magnificent animals, a great hunt, and beautiful country in which they reside. A hunt could also be combined with a --rafting trip down the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon, which I recommend for any here who loves the wonder's created by mother nature. A 5 day trip on the river through the canyon is a very enjoyable experience.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Tags. When my dad first taking me along in the 60's there were no drawings for tags. If I remember right Nevada was the first western state to have a draw for both res and non-res. I think Utah was about $50 for a deer tag. I bought the Idaho version of a combo tag that included about everything for around $135 in the early 70's.

NV went to a drawing in 1974 if I remember correctly. I will admit it was sure nice being able to stop at the local bait shop to buy a tag on the way out of town. No designated hunting units, just hunt wherever you wanted buck or doe. I will add that the deer hunting before the drawings was really crappy. There was a very good reason for NV to implement controlled hunts through a drawing.

 

[Gary]

When I was a kid in PA, deer camps were filled with open sighted rifles. 30-30's outnumbered 30-06's by (probably) 3-1. Most were lever actions as opposed to bolts. Red/black checked Woolrich coats and pants were the "fashion" (along with the matching billed hat). When a hunter talked about "traveling" to hunt deer, he was talking about a 3-6 hour drive to a camp in his home state. Deer (hunting) was nonexistent in the mid-west (exceptions being MN & WI), for all practical purposes.
Changes come with time to everything. Some is good and some is not so good, but you change or adapt or face extinction.
Fortunately we (as a group) have weathered the changes and enjoy, for the most part, greater hunting opportunities than were possible earlier in our lives.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

All hunts in Az were OTC including the Kiabab,The only stipulation was you had to go through a checkpoint so they could pull a tooth for
study and tag it as checked.My brother bypassed the long lines and was caught at Denny's having breakfast.They confiscated his Buck.
Deer tag was $15 and Bear was$5!

 

[antlerradar]

One thing that hasn't changed in my 40 years is Montana FWP management.

Edit: I forgot FWP added 11000 good for anywhere in Region 7 mule deer doe tags.

 

[antlerradar]

Don't take me wrong. I want FWP to succeed. I have sat on several FWP advisory counsels in the past and will gladly do so again in the future. For the most part all of the FWP employees I have met have been great even though I disagree on some things.
I am just not going to hold my tongue on what I think, face to face at a advisory counsel or here on a internet forum.
Keeping the 1970's mule deer management plus the added doe tags in SE MT with all the other changes that have taken place in the last 50 years is not going to succeed on public land.

 

[antlerradar]

Back when I first started hunting the Custer if you ran into a hunter with 3 licence plates he was coincided an outsider. Now the Billings hunters are almost like next door neighbors.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

Antlerradar,,, I hit the angree face to your above post as directed toward our FWP and the 11,000 B's and not on your thoughts. I agree with you 100%!

You would know more than I, as your right in the middle of "Montana's Public Lands Ranch", but what has been happening to most if not all public land hunting in Montana is a damn tragedy. I was utterly shocked at the amount of people that we ran into last year and the dwindling number of deer on the public.

 

[Mudranger1]

. A hunt could also be combined with a --rafting trip down the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon, which I recommend for any here who loves the wonder's created by mother nature. A 5 day trip on the river through the canyon is a very enjoyable experience.

Woohoo we have a shared experience! Lol when I was 15 my parents took my sister and I on a trip down the Grand Canyon. it was pretty great. A hike that was supposed to take us 4 hours to get out turned in to an all day affair. Some great memories and stories still told to this day

 

[antlerradar]

Antlerradar,,, I hit the angree face to your above post as directed toward our FWP and the 11,000 B's and not on your thoughts. I agree with you 100%!

You would know more than I, as your right in the middle of "Montana's Public Lands Ranch", but what has been happening to most if not all public land hunting in Montana is a damn tragedy. I was utterly shocked at the amount of people that we ran into last year and the dwindling number of deer on the public.

Mtnhunter1 My post was not intended for you but for everyone. There are plenty of people that want FWP to fail. I don't want to be lumped into that crowd.

 

[F250]

Private land access - We used to drive down any back road, see a likely hunting spot, and go. There is little public land in the east. Now private land is nearly all posted.
Antler/skull scoring - It seems the main focus for many hunters is how the game animal will stack up against a tape measure.
Food Plots - Never heard of them 20 years ago. Now it is quite an industry.

 

[elkhnter]

In Illinois, the number of deer. My first season was 1975. Hunted the farm and felt lucky to cut a set of fresh tracks the first day and take the only deer I saw on the last day.
Now, if I don’t see 20-25 a sit, I think something’s wrong.

 

[noharleyyet]

The facepaint, flatbill, and heavy metal trifecta necessity...

 

[hank4elk]

Many decent deer in the west & not many elk.
Being paid $20 per wild pig by rancher.
A lever rifle on a rack in most trucks.
Still have my B&R wool coat.
The whittling & spitting goes on daily still here....but half are flatbill boys.