ORIGINAL: magicman54494

I started hunting in the 70's. I could go bow hunting just about anywhere I wanted. Archery was called "primative weapon season" then. LOL
Land up north sold for $25 - $50 an acre! My grandpa bought a lake lot (3 acres w/ lake frontage) for $3500! There was no internet!I never hunted with my i-pod. My arrow flew slow enough that I could see where they went. A fall away rest was one that fell off your bow.lol My bow was so slow I could use a bale of hay as a target. When I shot a deer I had to wait til I got home to call my friends. Then I had to stand next to the phone and talk because it was attached with a cord. I didn't know Pope or Young. I used a baker tree stand. Anyone remember those tree burners? A quad was a muscle group.

I kinda miss those days

ORIGINAL: Antler Eater

In the early days a stick and a string was just that. There was some nostalgia to it howeverif you could get by the people thatchuckled silently shaking theirhead when you walked away. They no doubtwondered why you would freeze your butt off trying to bring down a deer such an ancient weapon when a gun would be so much easier. To this day there is something about traditional gear that holds a special place in my heart. I think it has to do with growing up as a kid making your own bows and arrows out of what you could find. Watching the twenty foot flight of those fish tailing arrows was mesmerizing.

Then came those new fangle "wheel bows" that were loud, ugly, and inefficient. I recall hitting a buck in the "sweet spot" with one and getting almost zero penetration. There was definitely plenty of room for impovement and with time it came.

The modern compound may still be ugly to some but it is an efficient, fast, quiet (subjective to the listener of course) and powerful machine. The proverbial "dragon slayer" of the deer woods if you will.

There are plenty more positives I could expound upon. They out weigh the negatives by far; and yes we are living in "the good old days" of deer hunting as we speak. It is the "under belly" of our pastime that troubles me...

The monster that has been generated by media involvement may be self consuming. Who grabs their bow and justgoes deer hunting anymore? Why hunt anything but a giant mega-monster, you know the one, that double main beamed triple drop tined twenty point three hundred pound food plot fed thirty year old buck that we have six hundred and eighty two photos of from our one hundred and one scouting cameras placed in precisely the right spot on the lease we own!

I am as guilty as anybodywhen it comes to the addiction to a large head gear, but "horn porn" has taken us to new levels of "debotchery" in the hunting industry. Fights both physical and legal over the size of antlers are not an uncommonstory anymore. Hero status and financial gain that can be achieved by either killing a big buck or giving one the chance to is mind boggling for me. We are not curing cancer here...

I don't want my comments to turn into a fight about leasing or outfitters or the farmers making or not making money. We have turned a corner and I doubt very much we will go back. Land that was once accessible to my children and grand children is now unattainable. The bottom line is I know how much my life has been enriched through the experiences in the outdoors.There aremany youngmen and women today thatwon't get the opportunity to enjoy a similar fate.Perhaps that experience would keep them out of trouble and may even inspire them to be a more productive citizen, who knows.

The question was asked "If you could bring something back from the early days... what would it be?"

My answer: When hunting really was a pastime....anda big buck really was just that, nothing more nothing less...

I might have to frame some of this and put it on the wall so it isn't lost. My vote for post of the year on HUNTING.