Excellent Read about the "good old days"

And I agree wholeheartedly about this when it comes to whitetail hunting.


I do believe the good old days for Mule Deer have passed us however in most western states

https://www.americanhunter.org/arti...were-the-good-old-days-really-that-good/

Definitely agree. The "good ol days" were sometimes very tough, but I do think they taught much more self-reliance than today, before cell phones, GPS, etc.
I do know that plenty of men took just some cans of sardines and some crackers, maybe some bologna and a loaf of white bread. Or...Vienna sausages. To hell with that!

On the lease last year, one of the other lease members had his uncle and cousin out. The LO has some old mounts in the cabin. The grown cousin asked "Why would anyone mount that?" Because there weren't many deer, as your article states. No feeders, scents, game cameras. And, a whole lot of men worked 6 days a week. There wasn't tons of "vacation", "sick leave", etc. One deer hunt, maybe a week long, was a HUGE event, just to get out there.

times have changed, my dad hunted ducks with a 12ga single shot, 2 & 3/4 shells

Is that Ron Swanson in the bottom picture behind the guy? haha

we had a deer mount that hung in our original ranch cabin for many years that my uncle shot in Cotulla in the 1970's. It was the biggest whitetail he had killed up until the late 90's. Landowner insisted he get it mounted as it was a very good deer, so he hauled it down to Nowotny's over on 35 next to Dixie Flag and they did it up for him. Deer was a 3 year 9 point that would probably score in the mid 120's.

I'm not old and I remember as a young teen hunting in east texas that if you saw a buck that was at his ears and had more than 4 points, you shot it. If you didn't see a buck that fit that criteria, you shot whatever legal buck presented itself on the last weekend ( lots of spikes and forkhorns hit the ground ). That was just the way it was. Deer were fewer and farther between...sometimes you saw 5 or 6 deer a hunt, sometimes none. You could generally count the number of bucks you saw in a season on 1 hand, but you def. wouldn't have ran out of fingers if you had to move to the second.

Now, due in large part to AR's and those old time practices dying off, that same ground readily produces 150-170" deer every year. Deer numbers are the highest they have ever been.


And we all ate are fair share of Vienna sausages!

Here's my mom's dad, back from the hunt. (He's on the right.) Dig those high-tech hunting clothes! And that's snow on the roof of their house on Palmetto Street in San Antonio, south side of Fort Sam Houston.

Great pic Creekrunner!

God only knows how long those deer had been strapped to that car!

When I was little, my grandpa, and family would load up 2 cars and go to Colorado to is brothers place at Pueblo, then the entire crew loaded up and went and camped in the national forest, the kids would play in the snow and women did the cooking. The deer we brought home, rode on the fenders of a 1946 Ford sedan to Rowena Texas. Sometimes my maternal grandparents would also go. One year, when we caravanned up there it was 5 cars, not one pickup. All 4 of my grandparents, my parents, 2 of my aunts and uncles and their families. It was like the Beverly hillbillies.

It might have looked like the Beverly hillbillies, but it was the thing that memories are made of. Doesn't happen any more.

Oh, it still happens. In the mountains where we hunt caravans show up hauling huge 5th wheels, gooseneck trailers full of 4-wheelers and UTVs and family in another car. I’ve seen camps with 10 people in it all related from young teens to grandpas in their 70’s.

Traditions are still going strong.


I’m just happy that some have family they can do that with.....majority of my family I can’t be in a room with for more than an hour with, let alone a 7 day hunting trip

Current technology has provided those who still hunt deer with some great tools for increasing their chances for success. Unfortunately, many are only using it to keep themselves entertained while they wait for something to show up and eat.

I think that has been happening ever since a guy brought a book hunting with him.

Whitetail Deer hunting as a whole has never been difficult. It’s pretty much always been a waiting game In one form or another unless your a member of the Benoit family.

I'm not really that old, 46, and I see a huge difference just in the last 36 years. I started hunting at 10 years old, and I recall many hunts not seeing a single deer the whole weekend...or maybe seeing just one. I went years before I even got my first deer. Fast forward to last year...hunting the same property as when I was 10...taking my 10 year old hunting with me, we saw close to 20 deer on the first day of hunting. The deer population is by far better now than it was just 36 years ago. I have no doubt that it is better than 60 and 70 years ago.

63 now and when I first started hunting in the 7th grade, we would get dropped off then would walk out in the woods and find a tree to sit up against, the first deer that was not a fawn got it. Then the progression was finding a tall tree that had a nice fork up high that looked over trails. Next was putting 2X4 as steps up the tree and 2X6 in the fork to sit on

Life starting getting good when I bought a tripod, then corning open areas. Next was having a bump feeder and then finally building my own two man blind with deer feeder and hog panels.
I know I hunted harder back then and enjoyed it more for there was always the anticipation of seeing the unknown versus now using timed feeders, cameras that tell a whole lot of the lost excitement of the unknown.

Had a lot more cool stories of sitting in the fork of a tree while it was sleeting, mustache full of ice cycles and the tree swaying back and forth, or having owls or buzzards land dang near on top of you and trying not to flinch during the stare down between us.
Now it is sitting in a adjustable cloth office chair in a cozy blinds staring out a plexi glass window or surfing on the internet with my smart phone doing the things I thought I was trying to get away from

Loved the good old days, the stories and adventures seemed larger than life, the cooking outdoors, everyone hanging around the campfire enjoying cool ones and a nip or two before crashing in the tent or other crude shelter.
I loved the good old days and those memories and I thoroughly enjoy the good new days of convenience, just different kind of memories.

So what makes you more excited, seeing one deer when there were so few or twenty when they're so many?

IMO, it all boils down to what you want out of the sport. Are you (while not referring to you specifically) looking for the greater challenge or just an opportunity to shoot something within the shortest amount of time?

One of the tracts I'll be hunting this year is one that has never been hunted and one where the landowner doesn't want any feeders. While a lot of guys would have walked away for that reason, I can't wait to see what shows up on the pinch-point trails that show heavy usage.

Most of the young people these days think its a bunch of BS when you tell those stories of few deer and how finding a place to hunt wasn't all that difficult.
I'm 72 and grew up during the 50's remembering my dad driving into the driveway with a 6pt. buck tied across the fender and being so proud he told of driving up and down main street showing it off in Lavernia Texas near his lease.
There weren't that many deer due to the screw worm and I also remember him bringing home a wolf he shot, and yes there were wolves back then.

I remember back in the 60's and 70's on I 35 coming up from the hill country you would see all different kinds of vehicles with deer tied onto the roof, trunk or bumper.

What kind of looks would you get today?

what do you want out of the sport Dan?

It sounds like you are one of the ones who think they should be praised for hunting mediocre property, public lands or aschewing common practices such as hunting over a feeder or a crop field.


There are 4.5 million whitetail give or take in this state.....its not now and never was about the challenge. Its a easily accessible past time for most folks. If they want a hard challenge they go elk, sheep or mountain goat hunting. I don't know one person who complains that their property has a lot of deer or the hunting is too good.

your devils advocacy has gone pretty far reaching here....

Seeing no deer for a whole weekend can get pretty boring for an adult. Even more so for a kid. I get excited seeing deer, as does my boy. If we sat for a whole weekend without seeing any deer, then we might as well be squirrel or bird hunters. My Grandfather hunted birds on this property. Why was he a bird hunter? Because there were so few deer. Now, if it makes you feel any bettter, we don't use feeders, and we don't use blinds on the property that I have hunted since I was a kid. We have a few ladder stands, but we often will hunt from the ground using pinch points, natural browse, and rub lines that we have found to find the deer. It is still plenty of a challenge. Where we hunt in TX, we have corn feeders, protein feeders, nice box blinds, and multiple ladder stands spread all over the property. We see a ton of deer, and we shoot a few of them too. Even though it's not "real" hunting, we still get excited and enjoy ourselves immensely.

That is crazy. I can't remember a single hunt, not even a squirrel hunt, in my adult life that I didn't see at least one deer. We will usually stumble across at least group of does bedded down, when we are after some bushytails.

IMO,a point made in the OP is there was once a time when the thought that you might not see a deer, much less shoot one, did nothing to curtail guys from repeatedly heading to the woods every weekend of the season. They also had a great time doing it. Not too sure many hunters today would feel the same way given that same expectation. Those days of "hunt not to kill but kill to have hunted" have gotten lost in "it's my money and I want it now."

As the conservative radio talk show host put it so well, "Where have all the adults gone?" Someone challenges someone's behavior today and they react as if someone just stole their candy/feeder.

And that's all that matters.

So long as everyone gets to see a deer as their "participation" trophy.

Anyone here ever take pride in telling their son or daughter they can't expect to see a deer every time they sit in the deer stand, much less get one every season?

Speaking of trophies, someone's constantly signing up for the "Cerebral Competition". 'Problem is, no other kids have any interest in it.

I did not read the article. I am going on 73 years old. Here is what I remember from when I was a youth. I lived where now IH 35 and Weidner RD. in San Antonio meet. IH35 when it was built cut my parents property in semi half. I started hunting rabbits when I was probably 10 with an old single shot 22 and Doves with a single shot 410. Rabbits were easy but the Doves required them being sitting in a tree.. The first Buck Deer I shot was with a 250-3000 when I was 15. I had hunted them since I was probably 14 years old and had missed a few but this was the first Buck. A 8 point with a 13 inch spread. Back then you could hunt for a week and never see a Deer. When I was 16 my parents bought the Ranch in Bandera. Then the hunting was completely different. When you went out you saw Deer. Maybe not Bucks but Deer. Actually the first Buck I got in S. A. is still one of the better Deer I have taken. And the only one I still remember taking. Quality of Bucks? Here where I live I really don't think it has changed that much. There are way more Deer now than 50 years ago. Maybe it is that nobody around here feeds protein free choice or maybe the genetics are not right. I do not feed the Deer protein. I do feed the Ibex but the Deer only get the scraps. I have a couple of Bucks that I know are over 6 years old and neither would break probably 110. And I am not overstocked. Deer hunting has changed a lot over those years. Maybe it is the years on me or what but I really don't enjoy shooting a Deer anymore. I will go out and hunt and look at them and when I want to make sausage I will shoot one but the excitement is not there anymore.

Weidner road is well inside town.


Kinda scares me where town is gonna stop when I’m 73

Why would you take pride in that? Seeing a deer isn’t a participation trophy its pretty much expected these days.

Even in the national forests I fully expect to see deer most days. Not elk, but just about every day I see deer.


I’ve hunted quite a few places in my day that had low populations......Nothing endearing about those places at all

I do tell much kids to be thankful because deer were not as easy to come by for me when I was there age...I take pride that they are selective and take mature deer rather than the first legal deer they see

It no longer scares me anymore because it's gone, and gone forever, because I hunted off Bitters road near West Ave. and also across 1604 in what is now Stone Oak.
And Also inside of 1604 and Potranco Rd.
Urban sprawl has taken away some very good genetics and great deer from our area.
You can live at 281 and 46 right now and your only need to drive south toward SA would be to go to the medical center, and that soon won't even be necessary.

Hard to explain just how low and sparse the whitetail population was back in the late 50 and 60's so I'll try it this way. From where I live right now you would have to drive a few hours south before you'd start running into whitetails. Pop and I were hunting on the Pecos River at the time, it was 1 buck and does by permit only, hard hunting and lot's of walking. Mid 60's Pop got a lease down by Robert Lee, two buck and does by permit only. In the 70's more and more whitetails were showing up in the south and southeast part of the county, this is where the big ranch is and my place is directly south of there. Back then I was doing allot of trapping and primarily just trapping slides on back country roads. With that much time in the dirt you pay attention the tracks and I was starting to see deer tracks even in northern parts of the county. Let's skip to today and we're a 3 buck county, we have deer coming into town. Now this area is covered in feeders, multiple processors and we're dodging them on the roads. Where I live right now deer are coming into the neighborhood and you might see whitetails or mulies. When the deer are up and moving I might see 50 or more a day on the big ranch which is 5 miles south of the house. On my place I can guarantee a person get a deer probably just in an evening hunt alone. We're covered up in whitetails now and as I mentioned we have mulies establishing themselves in the northern part of the county, they like them scrub oaks. We also have small pockets of exotics that have escaped and starting to establish, y'all seen pics of the axis, fallow and black buck I've taken on the big ranch and this doesn't count the Aoudad that are moving into the county or Feral hogs. It's been an absolute explosion of wildlife, and I've got to witness it.

I might as well throw in the hunting differences over the years. Didn't see my first actual deer blind until the late 60's and those were up in tree's, we did all out hunting on foot. We might pick a spot on the side of a hill early in the morning or late in the evening and watch a spot for a while, during the day we were walking them up. Canyon country on the Pecos was allot easier to hunt than here, we'd walk and rock canyons or walk the top and secondary rims working the headers, I was still doing allot of walking in the 70's and didn't build my first blind until about 80. Now I just feed about 150 yards from the truck and can literally shoot out of the driver side window. My favorite ways to hunt still involve walking, love to rattle and I really like sneaking through the thickets, especially with a handgun.

Deer Population through time in the US...

http://www.deerfriendly.com/decline-of-deer-populations

In Texas it's not the deer populations we have to worry about. It's the fact that the major cities and even the suburbs are continually expanding, and we are losing the habitat and old timer ranchers are dying off and their youngsters don't want to mess with the labor and time it takes to maintain and run those ranches, when they see the dollar signs and investors willing to buy.
Developers are drooling for the chance to buy out those properties and turn them into subdivisions for all those who are moving here in droves to avoid the high taxes in the states they are moving from.
Deer populations are higher than ever, but the land is shrinking and the price to hunt just keeps going up.
Supply and demand is what rules these days!

From your link, it's interesting to see the decline start just about the same time early Spaniards, horses and firearms were making themselves known along with the early Plains Indians horses made a huge difference even without firearms. Gotta remember, around 1500's everybody in the US was on foot.

I went from Hunting East TX just west of Atlanta, TX in Cass county in 1987 where we saw some decent deer to hunting right off of lake EV Spence in 1988 and I will never forget driving around that 500 acres and seeing herds of deer, can only imagine how it is now.

Since just about anything with 10 acres are more has a full time feeder running it's easy to see why the population is on the rise. Plays into feral hogs and I suspect whitewing dove, be interesting to know how much corn is fed out in just one season here in TX. I feed about 1200 lbs a week on 3 sections from September until after quail season.

Prices today make it real tough to buy a place and make it cash flow from ranching/farming.

Lot less farms now than there was 40 years ago so this has turned into more habitat for game which upticks the population

As for urban sprawl....I would love to argue with you but the fact is that you are right. Normally counties that touched a major metro county were the most at risk but now it’s extending beyond that.

In blanco county right now there are 5 developments going on right now offering anywhere from 5-25+ acre tracts. One parent ranch was 216 acres, one was 313 , one 357, one was 508 and one was 1500. Lots of country getting chopped up.

Gillespie is going thru the same thing along with Burnet and LLano.

The place I hunt now with my kids is at risk for the same thing, or one of the neighbors could sell to a developer. Hope it doesent happen but it’s a realistic possibility

There use to a lot of Blue quail out there, are they still around?

We seem to hold at about 75 to 80 percent Blues.

My mindset changed a lot when I retired back in December. I realized even more that hunting was more of an escape so that once the job went away, there was nothing to escape from. After getting bored at home, I've decided to go back to work in far less stressful job and will spend far less time in the woods this season. Less stress and nothing more to prove equates to spending more vacation time traveling with the wife and visiting with the kids.

Shooting has become a lot more enjoyable as well.

I got to thinking about what else has changed about hunting from years ago. What came to mind was what folks did with their Deer once it was shot. Seems to me that more people back years ago did their own processing. Whether it was getting together with others or at their home. How it seems like most take it to a processor. The excuse I hear most is "I don't have the time". Yet there was the time to hunt or watch TV. But it does seem that the dead Deer now are taken better care of after the hunt than from years past. I can remember seeing all the Deer tied to the front fender or laying in the back of a pickup coming back from hunting trips. Now it seems that most are at least in a ice chest or at least out of the hot sun.

I can't ever remember seeing anyone suggesting a way to prepare and cook venison on any of the many hunting shows, much less a comment about how much meat is on a deer once they find it. The camera and attention always goes straight to the antlers.

Your point is a good one. Just as some of the best shooters are those who reload their own ammo, the best hunters are often those who process their own deer. But then as you have already pointed out, these are the ones who invest more time into the sport.

Great points Don.

At first we processed almost all of our deer which only meant boning them out, no sausage or links. Then started just taking the Backstraps and Tenderloins and sending the rest to the processor for cuts, sausage and links. Then it was taking the Backstraps, Tenderloins and roast and sending the rest to the processors for sausage and links.
Bought a Meat grinder last year now nothing goes to the processors although I need to get a lot better at making sausages and smoked links or I might need to take a little to Cinnamon Creek

that's because you are watching a hunting show and not a cooking show.


but several shows have featured episodes on preparing and cooking wild game. Meat Eater series has had several episodes on how to care for and prepare wild game

Born in NJ and started hunting at 12 in 1960. Dad was from rural SC and took me small game then deer in 62. NJ was in rapid transition from farming to urbanization. The " Garden State" Those abandoned farms were a source for exceptional habitat. Always saw lots of deer in fact NJ still has one of the highest deer densities in the US, Small state lots of deer. As 80% of the harvest ( Bucks only ) occured in the first 4 hours of the opening day of the seven day season. Focus was never on racks but meat. You rarely saw any mature deer. I recall seeing lots of deer in a sitting 20 to 30 mainly does and a few of bucks spikes and 4 and 6 points. As we had limited public land you hunted private and the law was if it wasn't posted you could hunt it. Later with more modern management Does became available in a special one day saturday season after the regular season. That's when we started getting our annual venison. No feeders and sitting on or against a tree on a run was our process. There was so much pressure that the deer were on a constant move and if you were committed you scored.

With all the knuckleheads running around in the woods today it's hard for me to imagine that this is still the case.
It would be easier to imagine the landowner with a can of purple stray paint or nailing up posted signs on every other tree.
Too many ambulance chasing lawyers, and people just overcrowding and trashing the country with beer cans and trash.

Jimbo as I was relating my experience 40 years ago I cannot say what the law is now or for the past 20 years. At the time someone could ask you to leave if it was their property however if it wasn't posted you were not in violation of any law. I would think things may have changed now

I know that we hunted mule deer around Chama NM (actually east of Tierra Amarilla) on 20,000 acres of private land that butted up against the Carson NF with 3 gate entrances off hwy 64 that all had posted signs on each gate. We caught some guys way up into the ranch, got license plate numbers, a couple of us went back to town to call the GW (before cell phones), GW came out and talked to the guys (we held them at one of the gates. They said there weren't any posted signs, so they thought it was part of the NF. GW looked around, no posted sign on gate and cut them loose. GW told us it had to be clearly marked or there was nothing they could do. We later found the sign tossed in the brush about 30 yards from the gate. We put it back up and caught more guys the next day, same thing, sign was removed and tossed aside, they came on in. One of the few times in my life that I felt threatened since they were just riding around in a 4x4 pickup with rifles out the windows.

to add insult to injury, a couple days later I shot a huge 5x5 muley, 190+ inch (my dad thought it was an elk it was so big) across a canyon, took me about an hour to get over to where I had shot it. blood, bone & hair scattered across the snow. We tracked it a ways to a pasture road and found a body slide mark in the snow over to a set of tire tracks where someone had loaded up and taken my buck. Biggest deer my dad had ever seen and probably the biggest for me too.

SOP for NM. I feel your pain.

I'm happy you got that two fiddy back! Good for you. I know that's a lot of cash by your standards.

Steven Rinella and company are restoring my faith in my fellow man when it comes to hunting and fishing. He, his group, and the folks he associates with are intelligent, thoughtful, innovative, and entertaining - all at the same time.

The tide is turning away from the same-ol’-same-ol’ conveyor belt shows of “see deer/kill deer”. HF and LR hunting is being called out for what it is also, and declining fast as a result.

Many of the newest generation of hunting enthusiasts are turning their eyes to the future of hunting and meeting the challenges head on.

It’s good to see.

agh, d "Good old day's

as pappy once said :
" Hunting - What once was the price of Gov. food stamps has become a Richmans sport..."
just my

83 twas passing threw as ya'll say's its a big state took 30+ years...
Every one was leasing.. twas low-income worker, had place ta deer hunt.. We did the camping (tent) ever since kids were in diapers...
Twas a one deer county buck only- we tried ta get 1 doe tag... told not enough deer...
So when heard about hogs on a lease, (the other wild game) got on first deer lease... Family outing-camping & chance ta put on d ...
Seen & heard the debates way B4 signing on to HF... The more money ya had the more the more freedom ya had... Leaseing wise...
Twas a True Blessing whin a WMA opened up 4 hunting just down the road.. Got off the rising prices of lease hunting..
& when it finaly went ta a 4 deer county twas doing the hog hunts just south of house were had me deer set up down by the creek...
Still took me bow in hand & took a stand down at the WMA 4 me deer hunts...
Still did the hog hunts, never had hog problems, during the Jan-end of March hunts at WMA... One of me favorite hunts twas when
took me ol pard Kentucky .45 me first deer rifle & took a hog... Had posted a pic of hunt in the Public hunt section..
Agh d good ol days...
Things have changed here also... Use me trail cams - Not ta aid in me hunts.. "Thats what the deer were doing..." But rather i enjoy the pic's of wild life...
Use cross-bow instead of me PSE bow, Not been able ta draw back even me first bow (60#) even with it turned down... My Front stuffers tis still in
So looked around 4 a .45 in-line couldn't find one so went with .50 cal.. it kick like mule & too rough on shoulders..
Miss me ol pard Kentucky .45 & back ta the TRUE "Good ol Days"

i still got cheap posts...

Keep your head held high & your powder dry...
pappy

edit pardon d read, it might not b as preddy as the one in OP truely did get a D- in grammer..

I love the Meat Eater series. imo Steve Rinella will go down in the annals of history as a great conservationist and fore thinker.


its about the only hunting show I can stand to watch anymore. I listen to his podcasts and believe his thoughts align with 90% of the hunting world.