Okay I want to know who agrees with me on this topic. My dad has been taking me hunting since I was a little scrub in the second grade and as far as I knew I was the only deer hunter I knew, or for that matter the only kid that had shot a rifle. Hunting shows on TV were as rare as seeing boone and crockett buck off beach and 820, Sporting good stores carried the bare minimum supplies and finding a lease didnt cost you an arm and a leg or the title to your truck. Im almost 26 now, and it seems like they are trying to make deer hunting scene into a second NFL franchise AND IT MAKES ME SO ANNOYED! Any plain jane/joe can go out there and pay 35-5500 dollars to shoot the buck of a lifetime and then head home and forget about the next monday they go to work. Does anyone else feel this way? I feel like all these game ranches advertised are nohting but a joke, what happened to heading out there 2-3 months before the season started, busting your [censored] scouting, setting up stands, fishing in the stock tank, eating the the sandwhiches and drinking the dr peppers your mom/ wife packed for you the night before???? To me so much of that has been taken away, the fun, the thrill. Im all worked uup right now so what im trying to say maybe hard to understand and I just have so much to say, but fort all of you who understand me andhave a feel for what im talking about, let me know. What happened to the days when you were the only deer hunter on your street, in your city???

They're LONG GONE!

u r so rite even in africa they r starting to high fence

Its a fine line we walk because having too few of us could be equally disastrous.

So what's wrong with: "you hunt the way you want to and I'll hunt the way I want to?"

It's an avocation, right? We do it for enjoyment. Maybe I enjoy it in a different way than you.

Are you proposing to establish rules on how one must hunt?

What happened to the old days when you were the only hunter in your city? Well, the "old days" to me are when every boy in town owned a gun and could hunt after school.

Yep, I miss it but it is long gone.

Big bucks generate Big Bucks$$$$
As stated above enjoy doing it your way and do not worry about the guys who enjoy being taken care of on a high fence hunt.
Personal satisfaction is the goal, not everyone has the same goals. Some like do it yourself. Some like to just be the trigger man.

Old days are kinda like old girlfriends. They are probably not as good as you remember them!

"What happened to the old days when you were the only hunter in your city? Well, the "old days" to me are when every boy in town owned a gun and could hunt after school."

Me too. Hunting is like everything else in our disposable society Buckshot. I am twice your age and it used to be "camo" was blue jeans and a Khaki jacket. It's more of a statement on society rather than the true sport. Two income families, soccer, select teams, band, all the time constraints on the modern family have reduced opportunities people had before. Add in the shrinking of huntable properties and living in a private property state and you have the high prices, hurry and shoot and get back home hunters you have today. I am lucky enough to not be a party to this and it irks me some too, but I do get it to a degree. Supply and demand drives most every market even ours. I am proud to see the younger guy's on here that take hunting seriously, those types will always be around. You just have to look for them. Sorry for the length of the post

I don't know how old you are buckshot, but back in my good ole days every male in school hunted and most of em drove their truck to school with guns in em locked and loaded.

I'm with you on the whole commercialization of hunting. Hunting shows have become unwatchable for me these days.

......X2

i'm a get ready all year long kinda hunter building stands fixing feeders cuttin brush back drinkin the drinks and eatin the sandwiches i almost love getting ready for huntin as hunting i go every year with my brother and dad to their south texas lease just to set up stands and feeders cut senderos and scout never get to shoot anything but still love the getting it ready and seein the deer they shoot when they bring them home and i'm only 20 but i don't forget the hunts on monday i just think about the next saturday morning.

Keep it going young man!

My wifes says I have problems. We are going down this weekend to spend time with my Grandmother at Septemberfest in the Gap and I told her we were going to head to the lease to check cameras and put up 2 deer stands. Keep in mind my lease is another 100 miles away. I can not get enough of hunting I am always thinking about it. I scout all year long at the lease atleast twice a month. So the guys that live to hunt are still around and kicking. I to am one of those young kids (28). Alot of those hunting shows suck now. My favorite is still Buckmasters

Oh, I had some really good girlfriends. And I pretty much remember them all.

I couldnt agree more with this thread. I have said several things like it in the past on here and have been accused of being anything from jealouse to poor and everythign in between, none of which are true. Three years ago we bought our own place and couldnt be happier, huntin with my brother and dad, just how we like it, how I think it should be, and how i will try to do with my kids some day.

matt

I hunted in those old days when we used hand me down 30-30 rifles that were well worn with iron sights, and parts missing off of them, and also the old military rifles you could buy at any Fed Mart or Gibsons. There wasn't much for camo gear and the old blue jeans and a plaid flannel shirt usually in red was what broke up your outline against the brush, but you wanted to be seen and if you were lucky, you were able to buy one of those new fangled flourescent orange caps.

Your ATV was an old beat up two wheel drive pickup with mud tires on the back wheels, and your blinds might be an old shipping crate if you where lucky, but most of the time it was an old folding chair or a cedar post wedged between two limbs, and some 2x4 nailed to the tree for steps.

The old camp had a pot bellied wood stove and cots to sleep on under a canvas tarp fashioned tent to break the wind, with plywood walls and floor to keep out the critters and rain.

Usually you saw a forked antler that was a legal buck, and if you were lucky you got to bring him back to camp and hang him on the meat pole, and we couldn't shoot does or spikes back then.

We had fun, but now that I think about it and have seen it grow and become big business, I feel it's made deer hunting better and opened up more opportunity to more hunters than those early days.

Like said above, there isn't any use complaining about it because the old days are not comming back and I wouldn't want them to because I'm having more fun nowdays and enjoying the hunt even more.

Well said Jimbo.

I wasnt the only kid that hunted, but there were a hand full of us. Then in High school it was not uncommon to load up 10-20 buddies and go dove hunting.

however hunting has taken a turn to McDonanlds method of Billions and Billions served; some where there is a happy median between enough of us to suport the sport and few enough of us to not be shoulder to shoulder while doing it.

what aggrevates me the most is how deer hunting has become some kind of "tough guy" contest, for reasons unbeknownst to me.

i was getting my oil changed a few days ago, and they had a field and stream mag laying around. i picked it up and there was a ad for a t.v show called "deer thugs".

really? deer thugs? i like to think of hunting as a pastime to be enjoyed, not some mugging of sorts in a back alley sendero or some seedy food plot on the wrong side of the ranch. i used to ask some buddies what they were doing the first weekend of november. i used to get "going hunting" and a smile. Now I get "I'm going bone collecting", while the kid puts on his navy seal facepaint while listening to death metal to pump himself up.

even the other shows are just as bad.....i saw an ad for "getting close" and the dude and his old lady were sitting on the ground, backs to each other, bows in hand, with the most serious looks on their faces, like they were waiting on the viet cong to stage an ambush. take a picture of me and my wife hunting, you'll see two people kicked back in a chair laughing, a few empty beer cans and having a blast. what happend to having a good time?

my family owns a high fence ranch in south texas. we have sold package hunts, season leases, etc, so I understand the need to make money as it costs $$$ to operate a ranch a certain level. I also have no qualms with somebody who owns a ranch strictly to make revenue from hunting. the 3 and 4 day package hunts, especially for exotics, have there place as do season and family leases. but the "i hunt so i'm tough attitude gets to me".

and jimbo,

I'm 25, my first rifle was a 30-30, my first buck ( a fork horn) was shot in medina county in a abandond box blind with no door, while sitting on a 5 gallon bucket. while wearing a pair of bluejeans, a blue flannel shirt and a pair of $20 hiking boots.

some of us still remember the old days, even if we are not so old

similar to how my first one was shot..since then, I've shot them in starched goat-roper attire, Khakis & sperrys & khaki shorts and rubber boots. Will even do my preseason scouting from a climber wearing bluejeans and the deer don't seem to mind as long as I stay still. I don;t mind what hunting is/has turned into. It has to become big business b/c that's the only way it will be preserved.

you are correct but it is not just hunting, it is everything. We have become a bit vain. Everytime I see the 12,000 dollar four wheelers at bass pro I chuckle. You can get a nice truck for that. Go to Sears or bestbuy and look at the fridges or washers, holy smokes. Do we really need all the frills we have at our disposal. That being said I have my toys, but I try to remember everyday that they are not mine- I did not earn them or deserve them. They are a gift/blessing that God has granted me.

I think I know what you're getting at, Buckshot, and I agree with the spirit of your post and many of the others who have chimed in. I was going hunting with my dad, grandfather, uncles, and cousins before I started elementary school. I had my own shotgun at 8 and a .30-.30 at 11. I was expected to save my lawn mowing money for shells, hunting licenses, etc. Hunting was an integral part of our family and a year 'round activity on family-owned land. I knew other kids that hunted, but we were in the minority.

I remember walking to our stands and how excited I was the first year I got a real set of longjohns. Now, the message is that you're not a real hunter unless you have the latest ATV and are wearing drawers made out of the newest super-secret Ninja fiber. For me, hunting was a process through which one learned what worked and didn't work by DOING it, talking to others, and paying attention to what was needed. Being a hunter was not accomplished by listening to a bunch of BS from some suit-clad marketing person promising me that his/her product would make me king of the woods.

It's no problem now to sit down with a pile of catalogs or in front of the computer screen and order everything you need to hit the field...everything but common sense, gun handling skills, field knowledge, and experience. The catalogs and internet don't offer respect for the environment (in the old fashioned sense, not the current tree-hugger sense), land owners, and the game itself. Oh, you can buy books and DVDs to teach you "all you need to know," but those are very, very poor substitutes.

Modern society is all about instant gratification...check out this forum and pay attention to guns and equipment for sale. While some of that activity is the result of honest experience, I'd be willing to bet that a good part of it is frustration because the seller bought "X" and still couldn't hit the side of a barn. Naturally, it must be the gun...

Hunting "success" wasn't measured by game on the ground. I do remember a few particular hunts in which I, or someone in my family, did well, but overall I remember the time spent together. Commericialization and the dollars spent have done much to ensure that "success" must be achieved or the hunt was a failure.

I'll get flamed, particularly by you younger folks, so I've got my asbestos underwear on. Times have changed...but that's not necessarily a good thing.

I completely agree with ya Buckshot. Im 26, and my younger hunting days were identical to what you described. I miss those days a lot, and they are some of the most cherished memories i have of spending time with my Dad. That lease is long gone, and nowadays the success of my hunting season is measured strictly by if i was even able to go hunting at all, much less kill anything. This will be my first year to do the APH thing, and im pretty excited about it.

On a side note, one thing that i find fascinating (or hilarious), is that so many folks spend hundreds of dollars on the best camo clothing, and then go and hunt only from a box blind.