Forgotten Generation

4orMore · Oct 29, 2010

Anybody here that's 25-45 years old ever feel like we got shafted when it comes to hunting in Utah? We're too young to have experienced the "good old days" when there used to be a lot of deer and it was common for small town people to shoot more than they had tags for every year. (Thanks old timers for screwing us, much like you've done with every other resource in this country.) And then the DWR comes out with all these incentives and benefits and tags for hunters under 18 years old! Where was that when I was young? I couldn't hunt until 14 and was lumped in with every other sucker hoping to get a good tag. I still haven't drawn my first LE Elk Tag and won't for a few more years. Seems like we fund the majority of this program for the fewest tags. I can't wait until my two boys are 12 so I can experience some of the fun.

Aaron84 · Oct 29, 2010

LAST EDITED ON Oct-29-10 AT 05:50PM (MST)[p]No I don't feel shafted, I'm thankful everyday that I get to wake up in a free country. Where I have the right to bear arms and the privalege to hunt. Ya it might not be like it was forty years ago, But I still get the chance to go every year, and that I'm thankful for. I just hope hunting is still around when my daughter gets old enough, so I can take her out and make memories. Now if you want to talk about getting shafted how about the damn gas prices these days. Almost three bucks a gallon!!! Oh and I'm twenty six.

ColoradoOak · Oct 29, 2010

I fall into that age range...I don't feel shafted. Back when I was a kid, there were no hunting forums or trophy hunting magazines making me believe that the only worthy hunt was for a record book animal. I was happy to buy my (then) over the counter deer tag and take my chances with everyone else. I was super pumped to go hunt my cow elk.

Kids don't need trophy tags or special seasons. If their parents have taught them the proper values when it comes to hunting, they will understand that there is a lot more to it than slapping a photo of a big buck up on an internet forum, or getting their story in a magazine.

Kids today see way, way too much emphasis being placed on the size of the animal by the people teaching them. That's why a lot of them quit hunting if they can't kill a trophy in the first year or two of hunting. Misguided adults may be just as much problem to recruitment of new young hunters as things like video games, Ipods, computers, and all of the other excuses we make.

SoleSearcher36 · Oct 29, 2010

I too don't feel shafted. Not long after I started hunting at age 14 here in CO, the deer went WAY downhill.(1988) But throughout my hunting career I have seen that turn around to a great extent and have enjoyed increasingly good OTC elk hunting virtually every year since then. I now archery hunt nice bulls in places that only held deer if you got lucky enough to have the snow to push them down. I am the first amongst my family to pass up legal bucks/bulls.....opting to wait for a more mature animal or go home empty-handed. I guess I am a trophy hunter of sorts......albeit a fairly unsuccessful one since I spend most of my time helping friends and family tag out rather than searching for "the one". With the proper guidance I find nothing repugnant about teaching my sons(the oldest of which will hunt elk next year) to be "trophy hunters" as well. By that I mean that I will teach them to not just kill for the sake of punching a tag and to appreciate allowing a young buck or bull to live another year. I will first and foremost teach them to respect and cherish the resource and the intangible rewards of the hunt.........in doing so it will make every hunt they go on a successful one. I have as many or more opportunities as my father had before me...sure they might have changed some but they are there and I will fight to keep them there for my youngest as well. Nope...I'm not sour at all.

woodruffhunter · Oct 29, 2010

LAST EDITED ON Oct-29-10 AT 09:33PM (MST)[p]4ormore:

I'm 39 and I don't agree with one thing you said.
I appreciate my "Elders" introducing me to hunting.

You ought to try respecting the older generations.

BTW: Where is Nickman when we need him lol...

4orMore · Oct 29, 2010

Great comments SoulSearcher36. I'm glad things are going well for you in CO.

I hope things improve in Utah for the average hunter like myself. I share the same respect for the animals and mountains and never shoot just to fill a tag. Like my name says, I've adopted a personal rule years ago that a buck must have at least 4 points on one side and be better than any previous buck. I hunt for the experience in the outdoors with my family. I'd like more opportunities to share those moments and make those memories. I'm concerned that the hunting conditions we've inherited will continue to degenerate leaving even less opportunity for my kids and grandkids.

Woodruffhunter, you missed the point of my post. I have nothing but respect for my father and grandfather that passed on ethical hunting to me and everyone else that hunted ethically. But I'm sure you know as many of the older generation as I do that talk about how the deer have disappeared and the very next sentence is how they used to shoot 5 or 6 deer a year.

I'd like to think when my time here is done that I'll have left things better than they were before. I can't say much for that generation that's leaving more than just hunting in this world in poor condition.

justr_86 · Oct 30, 2010

BTW: Where is Nickman when we need him lol...

I been watching this thread to see what he said to him... Where is he anyways?

cannonball · Oct 30, 2010

Quote from 4forme: Anybody here that's 25-45 years old ever feel like we got shafted when it comes to hunting in Utah? We're too young to have experienced the "good old days" when there used to be a lot of deer and it was common for small town people to shoot more than they had tags for every year.

I am from that over 45 crowd who tried for years to save your deer. The only trouble we had was those under 45 crowd biologists who read somewhere that there were to many doe in Utah, lions don't eat sheep (deer), and reduced the size of our herds.

dleonard4 · Oct 30, 2010

LAST EDITED ON Oct-30-10 AT 06:52PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Oct-30-10 AT 06:49?PM (MST)

soulsearcher sumed it up very well.

I am 26 years old and have been hunting at least 20 of those years. whether it was grasshoppers when i was 6, or coyotes at 14,or bull elk at 26. I have always felt very thankful that my dad introduced me to the outdoors. and very lucky to have shared many experiences hunting with my freinds and family.
Truly I am a trophy hunter to me it is all about the challenge in finding a shooter. shooting a young buck or bull is all to easy. If i cant find a mature animal to harvest that is all the more reason to let the little ones walk. If that means going home with just the expierence and a unfilled tag then so what i do not need to kill something to feel my hunt was a success.
As far as the 60's the "good ole days!". I wasnt there so i cant speak for them. However it seems to me people truly beleive there are no more big bucks in utah. Wich i find hilarious. big bucks are few and far between but can be found. That is what makes them a sought after trophy. however they are there! even on our general season areas.
It seems every year whether i am out coyote hunting or just roaming the hills i seem to run into several bucks in the 180-200" range wich is a trophy in my books. ive even been lucky enough to take a few trophys and currently I am chasing one on the wasatch front extended archery hunt that i believe will go 180-190 as a typical. whether i kill him or not i will still have fun hunting him. obviously there is always room for improvement. However in my opinion those good ole days are here and now!!.

littlebighorn · Oct 30, 2010

I am not in this age group, but rather 61. But sometimes there is a lot of misinformation about the "good old days". I had to wait until I was 16 to hunt which was 1965, and I had to borrow an open sighted 32 special for that first outing. It was probably less accurate and as range limited as most modern muzzle loaders, only with open sights! There were for sure more deer in Utah then, but at that point deer were on a slow decline and big bucks were scarce, and smart just like today. Big bucks were killed, but there were twice as many hunters as now, and you were lucky back then, just like now, to down a big buck.
By the early 70's we were lucky to find a yearling or two. Most of us that killed deer did not find monsters around every corner and if a deer had horns we were all about shooting. We definitely laid down more lead back then because we didn't have long range rifles, range finders, binoculars spotting scopes,etc. etc.
So, my take is, be glad for what you do have. Enjoy every minute of it and hope there is still more of it for your boys!

Muleymonster · Oct 31, 2010

I'm 41, I started hunting when I was 16. My Step dad took me with him when I was 12 and even though we never got a deer, I was hooked. We hunted up in Wanrhodes Canyon off of Diamond Fork, his family had hunted up there for decades always taking more than their share of deer, whether it was shooting every buck they seen in a herd or doing the late night light hunt and transporting the deer out in the middle of the night when the check station was closed. I feel like they ruined that canyon but felt entitled because of a homestead they grew up on was in the area. I feel ripped off by them, but not by the DWR. Times change and so does everything else along with it. As far as the youth hunts, I think its great, I dont even care if I get a deer on the general rifle as long as the kids enjoy it.

REDDOG · Oct 31, 2010

so, how would you have stock piled deer from the 60's? It makes no difference how many were killed back then...Its how WE manage them now that matters.