eelgrass
Long Time Member
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I keep hearing how good the deer hunting was back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and I know it's true because I saw some of it myself. I ask myself what happened?
I'm not a biologist, so I can't speak to that aspect of it, (although I have my opinions) but I keep thinking about how things have changed over the years. Changes that I have personally seen myself.
When I started deer hunting, we all looked forward to deer season. Almost everyone loaded up Friday before season and headed up to their favorite spot. We would pick out a campsite, and would mostly walk hunt right out of camp. Nobody knew ahead of time what to expect the next morning, we just knew it was going to be fun. Almost everyone in camp got some shooting or at least saw some bucks. By the end of the week, deer seaon was by in large over for the year. Anyone still hunting was considered kind of a strange bird.
The term "trophy hunter" hadn't even been invented back then. The guy in camp who got the biggest buck was just the lucky one that year, but nobody put him up on a pedistal or envied the guy all that much.
There were very few roads back then. If a buck escaped down the hill a half mile or so, and stayed down there, he was home free, at least for that year.
All was well in the deer hunting world, or it seemed that way to most of us.
Then one year California decided to have a special archery season. It opened up a month before the rifle season. I can't remember the year, but I had an old long bow and was up on the mountain that year. It was great! We got to see bucks in the velvet for the first time, and lots of them. I never got one, but it was fun! Me and my partner were the only bow hunters on the mountain that year.
As time went along, more and more hunters turned to archery hunting. New compound bows came out and soon hoards of guys were flocking up to the mountain. Then I started noticing a pattern. By the time rifle season rolled around, the bucks were pressured enough that they were mostly already driven well away from the roads, and down into inaccessable spots. But it was still kind of OK because when rifle season came, we knew we had to hike down to find them.
Then, all of a sudden, honda 90s and 110s started showing up. Now you could ride down to where the bucks were! Cool! Behind them came 3-wheelers, and eventually the four wheelers. People started making their own roads and buck hunting was no longer just fun, it was easy!
I don't know how or when it happened but sometime somebody decided to hunt just for big bucks, the bigger the better. In todays media, certain people got lots of recognition, and humans being competitive like we are, and the "trophy hunter" thing really took off. I'm sure it always existed in local areas, but now because of the internet it's become huge. You can kill a big buck in the morning, and everybody in the world can see a photo of it that night. That's great for the ego!
Along about that time someone decided we needed a special muzzleloader season, just for the die hard traditionalists, of course. It is growing now much like archery did years ago.
At some point the Fish & Game noticed a decline in some deer herds, for whatever reason. Their solution was to limit the number of hunters by having a drawing for the "Limited Entry" unit. As the herds rebounded, it soon became the "coveted tag" thing that we know today. This added more fuel to the "trophy hunter" fire. Now days we have limited entry units specifically designed and set aside for trophy animals.
Back in the old days there was some poaching going on, no doubt about it. The vast majority of it was old barren does that were taken for meat. I never heard of anyone killing a big buck out of season. That would have been unthinkable back then.
We still have lots of good deer hunting today, but it sure has changed. I guess it's the natural progression of things in the modern world. It sure seems more like a profession than a sport, to me at least. I surely do miss the old days, and the simple good times.
I'm not trashing anyone here. I'm a part of it myself, but it's amazing to me that we haven't loved our poor deer to death. And it does add to the challenges of managing for the future. I'm also sure that the many changes have driven a lot of people completely out of deer hunting, and that is not a good thing.
Almost everyone says they want to do what's best for the deer herds, but do they really?
Eel
it's not a 40 incher but it's closer than the last 40 incher you posted....
JB
I'm not a biologist, so I can't speak to that aspect of it, (although I have my opinions) but I keep thinking about how things have changed over the years. Changes that I have personally seen myself.
When I started deer hunting, we all looked forward to deer season. Almost everyone loaded up Friday before season and headed up to their favorite spot. We would pick out a campsite, and would mostly walk hunt right out of camp. Nobody knew ahead of time what to expect the next morning, we just knew it was going to be fun. Almost everyone in camp got some shooting or at least saw some bucks. By the end of the week, deer seaon was by in large over for the year. Anyone still hunting was considered kind of a strange bird.
The term "trophy hunter" hadn't even been invented back then. The guy in camp who got the biggest buck was just the lucky one that year, but nobody put him up on a pedistal or envied the guy all that much.
There were very few roads back then. If a buck escaped down the hill a half mile or so, and stayed down there, he was home free, at least for that year.
All was well in the deer hunting world, or it seemed that way to most of us.
Then one year California decided to have a special archery season. It opened up a month before the rifle season. I can't remember the year, but I had an old long bow and was up on the mountain that year. It was great! We got to see bucks in the velvet for the first time, and lots of them. I never got one, but it was fun! Me and my partner were the only bow hunters on the mountain that year.
As time went along, more and more hunters turned to archery hunting. New compound bows came out and soon hoards of guys were flocking up to the mountain. Then I started noticing a pattern. By the time rifle season rolled around, the bucks were pressured enough that they were mostly already driven well away from the roads, and down into inaccessable spots. But it was still kind of OK because when rifle season came, we knew we had to hike down to find them.
Then, all of a sudden, honda 90s and 110s started showing up. Now you could ride down to where the bucks were! Cool! Behind them came 3-wheelers, and eventually the four wheelers. People started making their own roads and buck hunting was no longer just fun, it was easy!
I don't know how or when it happened but sometime somebody decided to hunt just for big bucks, the bigger the better. In todays media, certain people got lots of recognition, and humans being competitive like we are, and the "trophy hunter" thing really took off. I'm sure it always existed in local areas, but now because of the internet it's become huge. You can kill a big buck in the morning, and everybody in the world can see a photo of it that night. That's great for the ego!
Along about that time someone decided we needed a special muzzleloader season, just for the die hard traditionalists, of course. It is growing now much like archery did years ago.
At some point the Fish & Game noticed a decline in some deer herds, for whatever reason. Their solution was to limit the number of hunters by having a drawing for the "Limited Entry" unit. As the herds rebounded, it soon became the "coveted tag" thing that we know today. This added more fuel to the "trophy hunter" fire. Now days we have limited entry units specifically designed and set aside for trophy animals.
Back in the old days there was some poaching going on, no doubt about it. The vast majority of it was old barren does that were taken for meat. I never heard of anyone killing a big buck out of season. That would have been unthinkable back then.
We still have lots of good deer hunting today, but it sure has changed. I guess it's the natural progression of things in the modern world. It sure seems more like a profession than a sport, to me at least. I surely do miss the old days, and the simple good times.
I'm not trashing anyone here. I'm a part of it myself, but it's amazing to me that we haven't loved our poor deer to death. And it does add to the challenges of managing for the future. I'm also sure that the many changes have driven a lot of people completely out of deer hunting, and that is not a good thing.
Almost everyone says they want to do what's best for the deer herds, but do they really?
Eel
it's not a 40 incher but it's closer than the last 40 incher you posted....
JB
