deer limits in the 80's and 90's

[redblood]

I started deer hunting in 1970 in Warren & Van Buren Co. Season was 5 days, 1 buck and total statewide harvest was like 3500. We also went to Ft Campbell and stood in line each morning at the Provost Marshall's office to see IF we got a spot to hunt that day. Remember sleeping in car at Waffle House parking lot with dad ( low budget hunting). Good times.

Now that is dedication!

 

[bowtechgump]

I had a rack stack from those yrs that i stumbled on when we moved to this farm in 2015. I just shook my head. All those yearling bucks i killed. No wonder i never killed a good deer until 1993 and that was a fluke. But that was the hubter mindset at that time. If it was legal, you shot it. Everybody did, monkey see monkey do. Its just what we did

I killed one deer a year since I was 13.....in 90. I had a limited opportunity placed upon me by my father of 8 points or more at 14, before the 93 season. My father's biggest buck was/is a 4 point in Ohio in 1986. I again say that whitetail deer are no longer as valuable as they once were seen...(seek1 and others)....that's truly sad! The discussion at the dinner table of killing a deer was once like pulling Excalibur from the stone. It doesn't matter what limits are made for you by TWRA.....but your connection to the animal and its value. Honestly, there's no individual alive that hunts who will not agree that the whitetail deer is the most beautiful and sought after animal in the world.

 

[tellico4x4]

Now that is dedication!

My dad was extremely frugal

 

[Flintlocksforme]

Middle Tennessee was 11 in the late 80s to 1997 i believe.

4 bucks with archery

3 with muzzleloader

4 with a gun

The wack em and stack em years. I am glad I got to experience it in West Tennessee and I loved every minute of it. It makes me more excited about deer hunting now more than ever. My dad limited out on bucks and does every year. Statewide, WMAs, quotas. He averaged 10 with a bow before that was cool. I shot every deer I saw but we hunted the same places and he got to take off work so he killed most of them. He's 82 now and has hundreds of skull cap racks, he saved them all. 80% year and a half old bucks. He hasn't deer hunted seriously in 15 -20 years. He can't believe the bucks I kill now in the same places and I can't either.

 

[Smo]

Wondering if anyone has any old Tennessee hunting guides they could post pics of. Was talking to one guy recently who said the buck limit has never been over 3 and he believes it was 1 one year. I have several guides but I cannot find them.

I'm with you I know I have some older guides but
finding them is my problem as well…

I did run across a map of old public hunting areas from the mid 80's..

These properties were owned or leased by Champion Paper Co…
If I remember correctly a permit was $15 or $20 per year..
Each Country had their own maps furnished by the paper company at the time you bought your permit..

Limits that I remember were much inline with what redblood has already mentioned..

Wayne County map.

More land than you could shake a stick at!
Those were the days


This was prior too the craze of leased land by clubs or individuals..

 

[chris1976]

I killed my 11 bucks several years back in the late 80s through the 90s. It was a ton of fun hunting back then. No one cared about antler size and everything with horns was something to brag about. Deer were as thick as ticks here in Montgomery County. Everyone says now is the golden age but it was much more fun back then. Although I do enjoy a big buck, I really do miss that part of my journey.

 

[ROVERBOY]

I knew a couple assholes that killed 11 or 12 deer every season.

 

[redblood]

I knew a couple assholes that killed 11 or 12 deer every season.

I never killed 11. I think my best yr was 8. Nary a one over 2.5, most 1.5.

 

[Smo]

I think a lot were killed back in those days with straight wall cartridge guns….

At night!

Of course it could have been coon hunters shooting at night I remember hearing.

 

[GRIT]

I think you could kill more than one buck a day in the 80s.

 

[Smo]

I found this on the web, so y'all know it's gotta be true…

Extracted Article Text (OCR)

FOCUS THE SUNDAY TENNESSE AN Wednesdoy, November 9, 1 988 November should be rich for hunters i 4 WARREN IH7.AK hocus Wnlt'r November may be the best month of the year for hunters. No fewer than five seasons open this month, and according to Tennes- see Wildlife Resources Agency officials, the 1988-89 season will be a good one. During the first muzzle-loading sea-son which opened Monday and I runs through Sunday hunters are allowed to take one buck. The weeks' long hunt is growing in popularity eve-; ry year, a TWRA official said. "The prospects are going to be ex- cellent this year because we have an increased deer population throughout the state, and the popularity has just increased considerably in the last three years that we have hunted," I said Larry McGinn, the TWRA's Re-I gion II manager.
"We are going to find that a lot of people that formerly gun-hunted are now picking up a muzzle loader and getting involved." Starting Saturday, the muzzle load-: ers will be sharing the woods with ''t rabbit and quail hunters, and McGinn I said at this point their prospects look good. "The early dry weather we had in the spring seems to have created good conditions for reproduction of our rabbit and quail, and we are looking forward to good rabbit and quail seasons," he said. "It's a little early to say for sure because a lot of things affect what happens to rabbit and quail population, but right now it looks like we are going to have a good opener." The following weekend Nov. 19 deer hunters will put up their black-powder guns and break out their modern rifles for the opening of the 1988-89 gun season for deer, another season that McGinn said should be impressive. "It is going to be excellent, and we expect to break another record in the number of deer harvested," he said.
Four days after the deer opener, waterfowlers will get their chance at the well-established flocks of Canada geese on the lower unit of Old Hickory Lake and most of Percy Priest Lake. A two-goose-a-day limit should make this year's special hunt even more attractive, but McGinn urged hunters to remember that the use of steel shot is required. "They need to be cautious about using steel shot and be sure and use it," he said. The goose quota for all of Old Hickory Lake, including the early season and regular waterfowl season which opens Dec 10, will be 1,000. On Percy Priest, the quota will be 200, while at Cheatham Reservior where goose hunting will be allowed only during the regular waterfowl season the quota will be 300.
"But we don't anticipate reaching those quotas, so we do anticipate hunting throughout the season," he said.


I thought I remembered m/z season being two different dates with consecutive days for each..
I also think one hunt was bucs only and the other was either sex..

Other than bow season this was about the only opportunity too kill a doe in most Southern Border Counties legally.. ( Wayne,Lawrence & Giles)

 

[chris1976]

I knew a couple assholes that killed 11 or 12 deer every season.

Hater

 

[knightrider]

I knew a couple assholes that killed 11 or 12 deer every season.

Im glad i was one of those! Man at the fun and good times we had!!!

 

[Lost Lake]

I killed my 11 bucks several years back in the late 80s through the 90s. It was a ton of fun hunting back then. No one cared about antler size and everything with horns was something to brag about. Deer were as thick as ticks here in Montgomery County. Everyone says now is the golden age but it was much more fun back then. Although I do enjoy a big buck, I really do miss that part of my journey.

I feel very fortunate to have cut my teeth deer hunting back then.

 

[Kirk]

This was from the newspaper in 1995.

 

[Headhunter]

Thanks for all the replies. I wish I could find the guides I know I have from late 80's early 90's. If anyone finds one please post a pic. Some people think they are right no matter what. He still says the limit was never more than 2.

 

[killingtime 41]

We also had a lot more land to hunt. Way more farms that hadn't been broken up yet. So it wasn't uncommon for 1 man to own 1000 acre farm. If they didn't hunt and you asked or they knew you they didn't care if you hunted. I could walk out of my door and could walk all day and not see anyone else. Those farms today are either gone to subdivisions. Or most of the land has been sold in sections where 10 or more different people own 100 acres. And what I've was a 1000 acre farm is 100 acres nowadays. Plus all the paper company lands and strip mines. WMA's were still around but because of all the other choices of places to hunt they weren't covered up in people. But We also have a much bigger population of people than we did 20 plus years ago. And add less land to hunt than in the past. Wish we had choices like that again.

 

[Antler Daddy]

I'm with you I know I have some older guides but
finding them is my problem as well…

I did run across a map of old public hunting areas from the mid 80's..

These properties were owned or leased by Champion Paper Co…
If I remember correctly a permit was $15 or $20 per year..
Each Country had their own maps furnished by the paper company at the time you bought your permit..

Limits that I remember were much inline with what redblood has already mentioned..

View attachment 211461

Wayne County map.

More land than you could shake a stick at!
Those were the days


This was prior too the craze of leased land by clubs or individuals..

Just a dang shame state did not purchase a lot of that land.

 

[HoytDawg]

I found this on the web, so y'all know it's gotta be true…

Extracted Article Text (OCR)

FOCUS THE SUNDAY TENNESSE AN Wednesdoy, November 9, 1 988 November should be rich for hunters i 4 WARREN IH7.AK hocus Wnlt'r November may be the best month of the year for hunters. No fewer than five seasons open this month, and according to Tennes- see Wildlife Resources Agency officials, the 1988-89 season will be a good one. During the first muzzle-loading sea-son which opened Monday and I runs through Sunday hunters are allowed to take one buck. The weeks' long hunt is growing in popularity eve-; ry year, a TWRA official said. "The prospects are going to be ex- cellent this year because we have an increased deer population throughout the state, and the popularity has just increased considerably in the last three years that we have hunted," I said Larry McGinn, the TWRA's Re-I gion II manager.
"We are going to find that a lot of people that formerly gun-hunted are now picking up a muzzle loader and getting involved." Starting Saturday, the muzzle load-: ers will be sharing the woods with ''t rabbit and quail hunters, and McGinn I said at this point their prospects look good. "The early dry weather we had in the spring seems to have created good conditions for reproduction of our rabbit and quail, and we are looking forward to good rabbit and quail seasons," he said. "It's a little early to say for sure because a lot of things affect what happens to rabbit and quail population, but right now it looks like we are going to have a good opener." The following weekend Nov. 19 deer hunters will put up their black-powder guns and break out their modern rifles for the opening of the 1988-89 gun season for deer, another season that McGinn said should be impressive. "It is going to be excellent, and we expect to break another record in the number of deer harvested," he said.
Four days after the deer opener, waterfowlers will get their chance at the well-established flocks of Canada geese on the lower unit of Old Hickory Lake and most of Percy Priest Lake. A two-goose-a-day limit should make this year's special hunt even more attractive, but McGinn urged hunters to remember that the use of steel shot is required. "They need to be cautious about using steel shot and be sure and use it," he said. The goose quota for all of Old Hickory Lake, including the early season and regular waterfowl season which opens Dec 10, will be 1,000. On Percy Priest, the quota will be 200, while at Cheatham Reservior where goose hunting will be allowed only during the regular waterfowl season the quota will be 300.
"But we don't anticipate reaching those quotas, so we do anticipate hunting throughout the season," he said.


I thought I remembered m/z season being two different dates with consecutive days for each..
I also think one hunt was bucs only and the other was either sex..

Other than bow season this was about the only opportunity too kill a doe in most Southern Border Counties legally.. ( Wayne,Lawrence & Giles)

Question for those who remember, in this article the twra guy talks about how good a year the quail had reproducing. When did they decline/vanish? I can barely remember my dad and grandad talking about going quail hunting, by the time i could go it wasn't really a thing i guess. Always been something i wish i could have experienced

 

[Lost Lake]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm not a quail hunter, but in the 80's-early 90's, I saw lots of coveys.

By the late 90's in middle Tn, it was rare for me to see any.