When I was 9, my "heyday" was bagging a bunch of squirrels. Shortly after, it was killing my first deer, then my first buck, then my first bow kill, then my first Buck with a bow, then my first trophy buck, and now it starts all over. currently, I am at the stage of getting my boy his first deer. Most of my favorite hunts have been recent hunts with my boy. Your "heyday" is what you make of it. I've hunted some of the most beautiful, remote area of North OK, where my family is originally from, and am lucky enough to still get to hunt there. I Have also throughout the years hunted in some of the nastiest, muggiest, snake and skeeter infested swamps in Florida; some of the thickest, most impenetrable thickets in GA and LA; some very small pieces of land in various areas, some where you had to be careful where you shot because of nearby populations; Public land that was way too crowded; Public land that was not overcrowded, but had no game; and I enjoyed every hunt. Your heyday is what you make it.

Thank God, we don't have any UTV's or ATV's on the ranch. If you want to hunt, we use the boot leather express or feed he roads and drive. I don't think that most folks realize how many deer they spook with those things, as the only time of the year the deer see them is deer season.
Adios,
Gary

Lol I agree Gary, the people who hunt around us ride atv's etc. like they are on a dirt track or something you can hear them for miles.

God I still love being out in the woods! Although I embrace the changes of comfort and ease of hunting, at times I do miss the hunting of old. What is the hunting of old? Climbing up a tree and sitting on a 2X6 in the fork of a tree while the freezing mist builds Ice cycles on your mustache, the greater challenge to harvest a real nice buck while actually facing and challenging the elements. The stories that these times evoked were truly priceless!

Right now I am sitting in a comfortable office chair in a warm and comfortable tower blind posting on a smart phone. Do I enjoy these creature comforts and the advantage they give me over what I seek, at almost 62 heck yes, then there is the other side me that still relish’s the days gone by


Another way of putting it. If I was single I could get on the computer now and find a date. In the old days you had to hunt and prospect then actually engage with them in a meaningful yet sometimes mindless manner to capture your game. The stories you shared with your buds on your skillful pursuit and victory were again priceless

To me hunting and being outdoors is an ever evolving thing.
I once thought I was a bass fisherman. For many many years i chased those little suckers all over. Now the desire to chase bass has onlh dwindled a bit. But I know I'm no kvd, lack of passion. I can't do a week on the lake 12 hours a day. Just cannot.
I once believed i was a duck hunter. Let me be clear.. I love to kill a mallard duck. Love it. But I know that I am no Phil Robertson.

The last couple years I've been chasing elk. I love putting on a pack and bivying in for several days. Waking up on a mountain with nobody within miles of me.

I've found I love to fly fish. Do it yearly in colorado. So I loaded up and went to beavers bend. Ooops once I realized I was going to be in line with everyone stretched out every hundred yards or so I came to realize. It's not the fly fishing I love it's the quiet mountains of Colorado.

I can slip a canoe in the creek on a cool day and just enjoy. The enjoyment of hunting and fishing to me has always been seeing what's over the next ridge or around the next bend. Its why I cant do a lease. I love to walk miles tnrough the woods in hopes of finding that beaver slough that nobody has decoyed a wad of mallards in. That ridge with that buck that's never been hunted. That crappie hole that nobody knows about.

So for me it's always an adventure. Because there is always a new ridge a new bend and a new slough.


I'll add that I was on a 100 acre lease in Grayson county where we had plenty of 150" deer. I hated hunting it. I'd swear the neighbor shot 10k rounds every Saturday. Tractor noise, truck noise, dogs barking etc etc. Thats when I started to realize for me it's not the quality of the animal but the quality of the outing. I may get back on that place next year as it will be 10 minutes from the house I'm building. Figure my 4 year old may be ready to sit in a popup with a cross bow sooner than later.

ducknbass, never go on a lion hunt with your own dogs...you will not be seen again.
Adios,
Gary

Yes and no. Yes because there are a lot of changes that have occured since I began hunting 35+ years ago. ( I'm 44 now.) I remember turning off the highway onto a dirt road toward our hunting cabin and feeling like I was in the middle of nowhere! That same dirt road is now paved, high fenced, and I can see several rooftops from my blind. It stinks but it is what it is. Ten years ago I had the chance to hunt on a beautiful ranch in South Texas which was as desolate as they come. My last year on the place the oil wells came in and changed everything. I could hear the boss talking on a loud speaker at 6 AM and the place was lit up like a shopping mall. 18 wheelers coming and going at all hours, frac ponds everywhere, and new roads criss crossing the once beautiful ranch. But who could turn down making 20,000 a day? If I was the ranch owner, I probably would have done the same thing.
Several family memebers have passed and our Hill Country place doesn't feel the same without them. That melancholy feeling you get when you revisit your childhood home is sometimes how I feel when I go the place now. The level of excitement has faded somewhat, but I enjoy taking my boys out there and seeing them enjoy what I enjoyed at their age. Hopefully they will still want to take me hunting when I am an old man!

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ THIS^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Even if my heyday was over I wouldn't admit it. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, who really knows as things change all the time. One thing I do know if I don't keep at it by hunting with my buddies, spending time with family, and taking kids outdoors there is a good possibility their heyday is over.

I’m the guy that just returned from the South Texas hunt. First deer I’ve killed in over 30 years. The kill means little if anything to me. What I really enjoy is passing the love of hunting and fishing down to one of my boys. My boys are 39 and 36. The oldest loves to hunt and fish, the youngest could care less and doesn’t seem to have the patience to do either. I’m happy that I was able to pass the love of the outdoors down, just like my dad passed it down to me. Some of the fondest memories I have of my dad and my stepbrother are the weekends we spent rabbit hunting as I was growing up in Missouri. Listening to the beagles bring a rabbit back was pure joy.

I cant say mine has "come and gone", many great and a few not so great memories. Definitely more urban sprawl than there was in the late 70's, early 80's almost everywhere. Ironically, as far as Colorado hunting, I see LESS hunters now, by a huge margin, probably due to strong control now with deer tags and higher cost.

Lived through the "your shot if you take a doe" years in C Tex, remember land being cheaper and much more plentiful if a family wanted to lease

That sounds like a blast.

Young whipper-snapper. When my dad stuck the '66 Bronco trying to get across to me and a little buck I'd shot, I remember having to use a spent cartridge to dial the rancher's ROTARY dial phone to call Mom. ('Guess he'd thrown it across the room too many times. Wild man, but I still consider him a friend.)

I would love to hear that...if they weren't my beagles.

I decided a while back not to post on things that got into pissing contest on here. This is a little different. I am now 71 years old. I grew my first 16 years near San Antonio. My parents had land that Interstate 35 cut in half to build the road. to be exact IH 35 and Weidner Rd. They had around 75 acres there that backed up to at that time was Longhorn Cement Co. The first deer I shot was a Doe when I was around 12 years old with a 22. The first Buck was an 8 point with my Fathers 250 Savage when I was 15. Back then it was real hunting even though now in that area you can shoot better bucks out of you back yard. I started hunting by myself when I was around 12 years old. I know that times were different back then but young hunters now seemed not to be able to to start hunting on their own at that age. Starting at that age and not having as much supervision to me makes you a better hunter. You are at the age where your brain seems to take in what you do and what you could have done better to make the situation more to your advantage. Now even with my Grand kids I can see the difference in actually hunting for a deer and just shooting so you can say you got one. The increase in the deer population, the increase in feeding protein,the pen raised deer, the negativity in just shooting a buck unless it is at least 5 years old and has at least 150 B&C points has taken hunting to a level that in my way of thinking is not good for the sport. I would venture to say that not 0ver 10% of people now could really hunt a Buck Deer if it were not for Feeders and Blinds. It will be interesting to see if there is still hunting and what the replies will be to the original question in another 50 years. I won't be here but many of you will.

Agree 100%.



For the record, 'had a beautiful, wide 8, standing and looking at me, at 100 yds a few days ago, while I was checking out a plugged water trough (that had a leak in the pipe leading to it.) There wasn't a feeder in the area. 'Gotta walk careful.

Not me, I'm in my prime.

I'm the odd ball that gets more joy out of killing hogs and coyotes than deer. I can hunt them 12 months a year, and no land owner around me has told me not to. I saw the sounder one hour ago, and put a little hurt on it, on my way home. In my business I've made lots of friends, and have had the opportunity to be a guest all over the place. I don't care if I'm going just to help glass, and help drink beer, I'll go! Being in the country is all I want.

Today will be the "Good ol' days for future generations. Keep that in mind and make it fun for them!

I grew up and spent my first 20+ years a few miles down the road from there.

Never really had a "heyday" or am still in it. We always hunted with Dad's business associates or my uncle. Then I was blessed to meet a few landowners that traded work for hunting and I was finally able to get my own small place . I am also blessed to have worked for a great guy that I became friends with and he takes me on a week long dove hunt and later in the year a deer hunt. I also had veteran staying on my place that introduced me to a friend that has land in Webb county that I get to do management hunts on. I've been blessed to have places to hunt.

I shot my first buck, 3 point, when I was 6 years old hunting by myself with an M-1 carbine. Yes times have changed. Each of us individually has to determine whether for the good or the bad. I honestly see both, but when I'm with my 9 year old grandsons out in the woods hunting rabbits, trapping coons and just watching all the other small game, I see nothing but good in their eyes. Next year I am going to let them hunt deer for the first time. And they are enjoying one of the most important things that goes along with hunting...sitting around a campfire with family and friends. I hope they get to continue to enjoy that for a very long time.

just a few years ago, I would have disagreed with you, but not I am more in line with your thinking. I went thru the "gotta be X years old and score X amount for me to take it"


Early part of this year I was hunting on a buddies lease in the Comstock area. I was having a ball of a time walking and stalking the hills. I took a smaller animal that I normally wouldn't have taken in years past, because it was fun. Not a trophy in anyone's eyes, not even mine, but I have a momento of a fun hunt and I enjoyed the heck outta myself.

beating ourselves up over 5" of antler or 1 year of the animals age has gotten to the point of ridiculousness and has zapped the fun outta the sport moreso than anything else

I agree, and I have been caught in that trap myself. I still am to some degree, kinda obsessed with taking one truly giant buck from my own place before I kick (which I hope isn’t any time soon).

I am now resolved to keep it a goal, but not an obsession.

Rural lifestyles are going the way of the Dodo. The number of folks under 40 who actually grew up in the woods is minuscule - and getting smaller by the day. Even rural families rarely let their kids roam the woods unsupervised these days.

Lots of guys hunt, but their focus has turned to killing, antler size, and gear these days. Why? It’s all they know because they didn’t grow up outdoors and time doesn’t allow them to really spend much time just roaming the woods/brush/hills.

Most guys spend more time talking about hunting than actually hunting. It’s not their fault, just the way it is these days. Life moves fast in the 21st century.

beating ourselves up over 5" of antler or 1 year of the animals age has gotten to the point of ridiculousness and has zapped the fun outta the sport moreso than anything else


You are not kidding. I know some deer leases down south where you are heavily fined or kicked off the place if the deer you shoot is one inch less than 140". Or 150". Or whatever standards they set for themselves. Same goes for the deer's age. Shoot a three or four year old buck and it's adios for you. The whole experience is nerve wracking, and not fun at all. I know they are trying to grow big deer, but paying a 1500.00 fine on top of the 6000.00 + you paid to get on the place just sucks.