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What do you OLD TIMERS think?

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What do you OLD TIMERS think?

Old 12-04-2008, 04:46 PM
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Default What do you OLD TIMERS think?

I was talking to my dad the other day out at our farm and he started talking about what it was like hunting 20-30 years ago.

He started deer hunting sometime after he got back from Vietnam, and was on the same family farm that we still hunt (it was a few hundred acres bigger though). He was a recurve man, and later on finally picked up a 12 gauge. In those some 40ish years of deer hunting he has killed more deer than I can dream about, and put down some pretty darn impressive bucks. His knowledge far outweighs any that I have ran across inmy area.

All the way up until about the early 80's he was the only one hunting the farm seriously. And by serious I mean that he would bowhunt about a week in November, then hit the woods with his shotgun. While he says that he did not see near as many deer and would hunt long and hard to SEE a buck, butthe bucks he did see were usually OLD and BIG. Some of the deer he talked about were nearly all good ones, and the history on our farm proves it. It used to be AT LEAST a 140+ inch deer a year for one of the hunters, but over the last 12 years or so I can only think of about 7 bucks that would go over 135, but 2 of these were the only B&C's ever taken off the land.

So what do some of the older veterans think? 15-20 years ago did you see bigger bucks? Didyou even see bucks?

I found it interesting with all the modern ideas of food plots, passing smaller deer, and all other QDM ideas. This was a period where "brown and down" was accepted.
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Old 12-04-2008, 04:51 PM
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Default RE: What do you OLD TIMERS think?

Let me also note, that we hunt in West Central Illinois, so a "shooter" buck for us may be the buck of a lifetime elsewhere. I have seen up to 20 deer in one sitting before, but have also be skunked plenty of times. Overall it is a great farm and I am blessed that my family owns it, but I know that my location will not read the same types of numbers as say a guy in West Virginia.
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Old 12-04-2008, 04:51 PM
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Default RE: What do you OLD TIMERS think?

I think that over-population, lack of hunting pressure and milder winters leads to this.
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Old 12-04-2008, 04:58 PM
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Default RE: What do you OLD TIMERS think?

Hang on a second, Where's my teeth? hand me my eye glasses! hey do we have a replacement battery for this damn hearing aid? who leaned my cane against the keyboard? OK, I'm back. So who are you calling an old timer you wet behind the ears, snot nosed punk?[8D]
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Old 12-04-2008, 05:01 PM
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Default RE: What do you OLD TIMERS think?

Im no old timer, I began deer hunting in 1988, and we have always had big bucks where I live, now we have more deer as well.
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Old 12-04-2008, 05:03 PM
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Default RE: What do you OLD TIMERS think?

ORIGINAL: GregH

I think that over-population, lack of hunting pressure and milder winters leads to this.
Has lead to the current condition of today's deer herd?
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Old 12-04-2008, 05:15 PM
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Default RE: What do you OLD TIMERS think?

Going by the 15-20 year ago range I am an old timer at 22 years hunting

There are more deer and bigger bucks now than back then. But there was also much more accessable land back then.
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Old 12-04-2008, 06:30 PM
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Default RE: What do you OLD TIMERS think?

15-20 years ago, that was yesterday...

In the late 60s and early 70s, we had less deer, but I could ride down the road and watch bucks feeding in soybeans during the summer...I wouldask my dad who owned the land and easily get permission to bowhunt that area...I could walk out my back door (or front door) and hunt for 6-8 miles in either direction, never see another hunter and not get run off someone's land...If I did see a farmer, we'd stop and chat and he'd ask about what I had seen and actually tell me of deer he had seen...

We all know it's not that way anymore...Heck, my brother had a poacher try to run him off one of our farms last year...

But...No, the bucks weren't bigger back then, I've got several on the wall from then and frankly, we are killing bigger bucks now...Because I'm now an old fart andactually talk myself out of killing bucks...I'll kill one everyonce in a while, but I'd rather let them breed or let one of the younger hunters kill them...I kill the does...That's what helps you have bigger bucks, passing on them and frankly, back in the 70s and 80s...I don't recall any deer hunters in NC passing on any size bucks...


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Old 12-04-2008, 06:52 PM
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Default RE: What do you OLD TIMERS think?

ORIGINAL: magicman54494

Hang on a second, Where's my teeth? hand me my eye glasses! hey do we have a replacement battery for this damn hearing aid? who leaned my cane against the keyboard? OK, I'm back. So who are you calling an old timer you wet behind the ears, snot nosed punk?[8D]
That's some funny stuff right there magic!!I started hunting in the early '70s, when you couldn't even hunt with a compound bow in my state of Pa. The very first tree stand back then was a Baker.Up in the "big woods" of Bradford Co. Pa (where I took my first deer with a bow) there were a TON of deer to hunt, and it actually snowed for most opening days of rifle season. Now it's rare.[:'(]Now sightings are WAAAY down from everything I read and hear. On the flip side, here in my area of Montgomery and DelawareCounties there are a ton of whitetailsto hunt. I don't even give the mountains a thought much anymore.I could go on and on, but you get the gist of it.
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Old 12-04-2008, 07:07 PM
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Default RE: What do you OLD TIMERS think?

I know that around here 20-30 years ago. There were not that many deer in this area. At least compared to what it is now.
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