The posts in here about what age to let a kid hunt, how fewer kids are hunting, deer populations, and things of that nature have got me thinking back over 30 some years of hunting and how different things have become.

When I was a kid there was a certain progression for most of us.We started off on small game animals, squirrels and rabbitts mostly.Then youd get to hunt phesants, ducks geese, things like that for awhile before anyone considered taking you out after big game.You learned a lot on small game, identifying small targets in thick cover, picking a small area on a small critter to shoot at.Tracking and stealth, safety, and patience.And how to clean what you killed.In between that we would run trap lines, fish, and generally spend as much time outside and away from the house as possible.The seasons were long and the animals seemed plentifull.Everything you learned laid the foundation for bigger game hunting later in life.

The other thing I remember is pretty much an open door policy, you could get in almost anywhere by stopping and asking, many places you only had to ask once a year on, and some I still hunt to this day without having to ask.I could literally walk out my door and hunt for miles in any direction and if you ran into a farmer it was just to say hi and ask how you were doing.Sometimes youd stop hunting and give them a hand if they were loading livestock or fixing a fence and if you had something youd killed you might offer em a couple pheasants or ducks.

There werent gadgets for everything we did, you didnt rely on your GPS to get back to your truck, you didnt have cameras for keeping track of what deer were hanging around, the wind was how you kept critters from smelling you, and the only camo around was military surplus if you could find it.Im not saying these are bad things to have, I just wonder if we rely to much on technology for what used to be common sense stuff.

Maybe Im off base but it seems like today everyones got thier kids chasing deer right off the bat.If sitting in a blind or stand is the only thing these kids have ever known for hunting its no wonder everyones nervous about letting em out alone.

And there are less kids hunting but what do they have to hunt?We have turned hunting into a big business, theres no place for em to go except crowded public spots where theres no room to learn.everythings privatized, leased, locked up, or off limits.In the late 80s and early 90s antlers became the main focus of everything we do, small bucks and shooting does was considered a bad thing.Land became harder to access and companies started convincing us we needed everything on the market to kill a big buck.Many states started seeing the trend and starting jumping thier prices on everything from tags to fines based on the size of deer they could grow there.And hunters started turning against each other over more issues than ever before.Hell, I followed right along with the bandwagon on much of this myself.

Then it started getting political, QDM, antler restrictions, and lower deer populations were instituted in many states.Bad part is most of them cant afford to do it properly and those that try often have thier biologists over ridden by politicians who see nothing but dollar signs generated for the states by hunting licenses.Deer populations were destroyed, nieghbors started fighting over who was killing what, and more land got locked up.

Its been a long strange ride if you think about it and are old enough to remember much of this.But I wonder with all the trophy hunting, greed, and fighting if we havent left these kids in a helluva mess thats gonna get way worse before it ends.