"Good ole days of deer hunting"

[KBotta]

I wish I knew the good ole days of hunting Tn. I've only hunted here for about 6 yrs- and they have been the best hunting days of my life. I grew up in Michigan (go ahead with the yankee jokes) and hunting private land was easy. The farmers WANTED you to help kill off deer- to keep them from eating their crops etc in the Fall.
Fast forward to now- and most private is "leased"- and I understand why. To BC's point- yes! I view a "successful" hunting trip as seeing deer, sometimes killing one when things feel "right" and sometimes I feel successful when I simply am able to clear my mind of all the distractions around me and see Gods creation unfold in front of me.
Great post IMO.

 

[catman529]

Re: "Good ole days of deer hunting"

I think it's still the good old days as far as the deer herd goes...we have so many deer to hunt that we are spoiled, and people are now selective and going for the big racks and talking trash to those who don't care to let every buck reach 4 years old. The antler craze causes problems for all of us but it wouldn't be the case if we didn't already have such good deer hunting opportunities in TN. But I think you are right it is headed downhill somewhat. Everything seems to go in cycles anyway.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TheLBLman]

I think today is better. Back then yes if u killed a buck it was a big deal. But it was very hard to see a buck where I live. I kind of enjoying seeing several bucks a sit when i go now. Whether I kill one or not is not that big of deal anymore. I love the feeling of knowing I could see a real big buck anytime. I think if things were still like they were back then I probably wouldn't go much.

x 2

True, some aspects of deer hunting today aren't as good as yesterday, other aspects are better.

Just to focus a bit more on the positives . . . . . .

1) Most of us now annually have a better chance of killing "a" deer (any deer we choose, buck or doe)
under today's 2-buck limit than we had when the limit was 11.

2) Today in TN, no matter where you hunt in TN, you're able to hunt the best of the rut days with a gun (not limited to archery only), and that's the case whether your area's rut peaks in mid-November or late December.

3) Today's juveniles now have two exclusive weekends of "juvenile only" deer hunting --- one of which precedes any other firearm deer hunting. In times past, it was relatively rare for a juvenile to kill a deer, any deer, yet today, it is common for 10-yr-old girls & boys to kill multiple deer annually.

4) To kill a deer, comfort & technology advances have totally made everything more "comfortable" and the skill sets required less.

Instead of the recurve bow that was all we had, today's "archery" hunters mostly opt for high-tech compound bows and rifle-scoped crossbows.
Today we have RELIABLE muzzleloaders for muzzleloader season!
And the effective range of what the average hunter is carrying has roughly doubled in the past 30 years!
Heck, we even have "rangefinders" now, something few of today's bowhunters could imagine hunting without.
These are relatively new advantages that did not exist in times past.

Almost no such thing any more as "getting cold", due to advances in clothing, hand-warmers, and inventions such as the pop-up blind.
It's also much easier to climb, more comfortable to sit, say in most any of today's climbing stands than yesteryear's "Baker" stand.
If you want to consider "safety", today's deer hunting is also much "safer".

Never mind the buck limit was one (1) when I start deer hunting in TN, we had no muzzleloader season, no juvenile season, and nearly all deer hunting was strictly "buck only". Yes, it was a "big deal" when someone killed a spike buck because so relatively few people were able to kill a deer. Even seeing a deer track was worthy of a long-distance phone call. Oh, yeah, our communications are much better today than yesteryear, too, at least in my opinion.

Gotta go, have a long-distance call coming in! :mrgreen:

 

[megalomaniac]

I guess it depends on what a hunter defines as a successful season.

It was hard to beat the mid 90's if you wanted to kill a pile of 1.5 y/o bucks as the herd was increasing in size and if you could get out there before all the other hunters killed them....

It was hard to beat the mid 00's if you wanted to kill a bazillion deer with the new unit L regulations allowing a hundred does to be killed in a single season if you had enough land to hunt.

But if you're happy just shooting 2 or 3 deer a year, with the chance that one of them is going to be an old monarch buck, despite the lower populations now than we had 5 or 6 years ago, it's hard to beat right now.

 

[Poleaxe]

I got to chime in. Great post BC. To me it's turned into "GREED & MONEY". I grew up to tell anybody if I saw a big one somewhere and give em a high five if they killed it. Walk em to the stand even. I've killed tons of em and if it's ment for me to kill a big one then I will. The deep pockets keep the lesser away from affording good land to lease. Why would they invite a normal Joe blow that doesn't pay their money and abide by their club rules? I'm sorry how is that type of hunting fun? Like someone else said how now a days people are embarrassed to post or show pics of anything less than a wallmounter. Those people that pull the trigger on a small buck or yearly doe in our local opinion are true hunters of the sport. Greed is the soul purpose for the good ole days being forgotten about in the past. Most never knew what real hunting a week at a time camping without seeing much feels like so this is gold for them.

 

[TheLBLman]

I guess it depends on what a hunter defines as a successful season.

Pretty much the bottom line.
I suspect for most, it's just going a time or two and enjoying the outing.
Whether that hunter is a novice or a highly accomplished hunter, he probably has better odds of killing a deer on the outing than at most times in the past, and that is particularly true on "public" land. Generally speaking, exceptions respected.

But when I remember those good ole days, I also remember vast public lands having good small game hunting, but very few deer. I also remember my county not even having a deer season, so it didn't matter who we knew locally with lots of land we could hunt, there was no deer and no deer season (in my county and several other TN counties back in the '70's).

Very few, almost none, of us hunt just for "meat" ---- we hunt for a myriad of reasons.
Deer hunting is much like many other activities we might choose to spend our time,
in that one can participate at various levels, some of them involving very little money, very little time, lots of time, or lots of money.

Some of us play golf, but should we demonize Tiger Woods because he's able to play in more costly venues? Should we expect him to invite us to play with him? Might be nice, but what makes us entitled?

A few years ago there was a large tract of land near me which was privately owned, but anyone was allowed to hunt (for free). Over time, more and more hunters (mainly deer hunters) made the choice to abuse this opportunity by rutting up the place, dumping trash, etc. Then came a relatively small annual fee for "permission" to hunt this property, just a few dollars a year, but that at least put some "filter" on who was on the property, the idea being that these hunters wouldn't trash up the place so bad, since their names were known, and they were otherwise trespassing if they didn't possess that permit.

Problem was, most hunters thumbed their noses at buying those permits, never mind the annual cost was in the $10 to $25 range. The majority hunted the property without paying, and the rutting and trashing continued. At some point, the landowner had had "enough", so the property was "leased" to many scrutinzed hunters rather than just selling "permits" to all willing to pay (which was relatively few). Was the landowner "greedy", or mainly just trying to protect his property?

One size does not fit all. Each circumstance, each lease, each public venue, each hunter ---- each is unique.
And there is no free lunch, whether we're talking golf, fishing, hunting or most any other endeavor.
If you have and/or willing to spend more time/money, you will have more opportunities with whatever the endeavor.

As to the choices we make, it's mostly about what we choose to prioritize.
I have a friend who smokes 2 packs of cigarettes daily, and says he just can't afford to spend $700 annually on a good hunting lease.
He also more frequently than I buys a new truck, new guns, all kinds of "new" gimmicks, etc.
He also plays golf, and I believe he spends more than $700 annually on greens fees.
It's mostly about one's priorities. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Winchester]

Overall TN hunting has definitely been in the Good ol days for several yrs now. Ive been hunting in TN for 36 yrs now and while a few things have maybe lost a lil, many more have gained a lot. I think the 3 buck limit did more for TN deer hunting than all other changes combined, as it moved the focus to trying to kill decent bucks and killing more does instead of yearling bucks, or any buck for that matter. Our Deer hunting improved more across the board, without question, under this limit than any other time in modern history. One place we did lose some was the Juveniles getting the first wknd of Nov taken from them, and the first hunt moved to many times Halloween wknd?? This still blows the minds of many and was simply done out of greed imo. But like I said many more positive things have came about vs negative and the hunting in TN shows it. Who would have ever thought TN would have a potential World record buck killed right here in the middle of the state?

 

[Lost Lake]

I remember the "good old days" as well. I tagged along on my first deer hunts as a ten year old, and been at it in Tennessee for almost 35 years. That makes me feel OLD, but I'm not!! A lot has changed for sure, some of it for the better. Some...not so much.

Whichever direction this ride takes, I hope that opportunity for a lot of hunters isn't lost so that a few gain. In my opinion, when that happens, we all lose in the end.

 

[jb357]

You guys ever heard the saying that the past is viewed through rose colored glasses?