RonPenner

Hey guys, lots of great comments on this post, I confess I am a gear guy and love to keep an eye out for the newest gadgets, some work out and some don't, at the end of the day it still comes down to the time you put into practicing with your bow, your gun, the time you put into learning your hunting area, learning the patterns of the animal you're hunting, choosing your hunting spots carefully etc, don't know of a single gadget that'll do any of the above for you. The one aspect of technology that I do think has benefited me is the tech clothing, I hunt in some of the coldest climates and the right clothing buys me some time in a tree or affords me that extra mile or two hike to my spot without overheating...that being said, the final outer layer is still my old green wool overalls great comments guys!!

WVCritter

What have we become? With the help of a laser range finder, warmer clothing and waterproof boots, I for one have become a more proficient hunter. One that can stay out in the cold longer, climb higher and stay safer in my tree stand and be confident in the shots I take, whether it be with my compound bow equipped with carbon arrows, expandable broadheads and a trigger release, scoped inline muzzleloader with saboted bullets and a blackpower substitute or my scoped bolt action .270. It hasn't always been this way though. I got started back in the early 70's and didn't have squat but a lot of what we have today was either too expensive or just didn't exist. I killed my first buck with a bow that shot maybe 160 fps. Talk about putting the "arch" into archery......lol. Killed my 2nd with a Marlin 336C lever action 30-30 with open sights with rain/ice/sleet blowing in my face and I thought I was going to freeze to death. We've come a long way for sure. I still don't own a 4 wheeler though and probably won't until I'm no longer able to drag a deer. Some things will never change

JakeGrice

Great thread... Ive noticed many people wearing underarmor and the newest expensive camo when all they have to do is grab an old pair or even buy off brand and it still does the same thing.

Outdoor

Jake...that was the jest of the whole thing ...Under Armor sucked me into believing their "cold gear" was the best stuff out there... I fell into the advertising BS and bought the stuff.
Those of us with some years under our belt have really seen this sport change...that’s what I meant "What have we become"
We see something new out there and believe it...hunters have been harvesting game without the use of scents way longer than they have with scents...what does that tell you? Do you think old timers really cared about Moon phases? I can tell you 99% did not and they still shot deer. Look there is a lot of good improvements but they are miniscule compared to the amount of new items that hit the market.

Blackelk

I believe in outdoor skills vs. gadgetry. As far as clothes I still use wool but hunting boots now there's a massive improvement.

Valentine

The problem with getting older, besides just getting older, is putting up with change. Some change is an improvement, some just plain old advertising, and some plain old unnecessary.

I worked up some sayings over the years.

"Nine out of ten things, in a hunting magazine or a hunter's internet site, has nothing to do with me, or my hunting."

"Pay cash, instead of credit, on your hobby, and you find you can enjoy it too."

"I can't buy everything in the sporting goods store, so somehow I can survive it."

Last week I made a hike in a park. I wore some old clothes from the decades past. I wore twenty year old polyethylene underwear, some wool socks, a wool pair of pants, a duck down parka, a hand warmer fueled by lighter fluid, and a still wearable 41 year old Shetland wool sweater.

In fact, I had too many clothes on. I had to sit down at some park benches in the 20 degree, in the teens with wind chill, just so I wouldn't work up a sweat.

I sat and looked around at the quiet. Not even a newbie with a high tech winter outfit.

browningbolt

I know exactly what weve become.Weve become so worried about what everyone one else is doing,instead of just minding our own business.And im just as guilty as everyone else out here.Maybe we all need to stop worrying WHO,WHAT,WHEN,WHERE AND HOW and if it floats someone elses boat and its legal good for them.

hunt12ga

Television and the Internet have definitely played a role in making hunting what it is today. We can't get away from hype and advertising. People see what the 'professional' hunters are doing and want to be able to do the same thing. "Since Michael Waddell kills a great big deer that came into his X grunt tube and his X scent trail while he was in his X ladder stand shooting an X bullet out of his X rifle, if I use that same gear I can kill those bucks too!"

Well, most (some?) of us know that isn't the way it works. I'm sure if Michael Waddell hunted in the same spots wearing no-name clothes with Grampa's old rifle he would still kill the same deer. Of course nobody would pay him to hunt, so he probably wouldn't be hunting the same spots, so he wouldn't get the same opportunities. Kind of a vicious cycle. It's the opportunities that they are offered that kill the deer, not the name of their underwear. But seeing it and hearing it all around us sinks in to all of us in different amounts. Some will go along with it, some will stick with what they know works.

I won't knock anyone for trying new things (although I may laugh at some of them). Some seem a little overboard, but if people didn't try new things we would be killing deer with clubs and eating them in our caves. That would be fine with me as long as I can get a club in the new Mossy Oak Infinity pattern

rw

mr.mc54

Amen, Amen Brother!!! Us older hunters have enjoyed the best years of hunting. It wasn't about P&Y or B&C, it was about friends, family, tradition and survival. Yes, survival, venison was a staple people fed their families on. Now days its more of a contest as to who gets the biggest buck!

Gunplummer

I don't think we (hunters) have become anything we were not 40 years ago. It is the people that make a living off hunters that have changed. Outdoor products were competitive and manufactured better 40 years ago. I struggled with poor boots and clothing because I could not afford to buy the better products when I was young. I reached a point when I could buy better hunting outfits and what a difference. The last few years I have been trying to replace clothing that has worn out and it is almost impossible to find well made clothing, especially in orange. I tried the major outfitters and they sell the crappiest outfits of all the sports stores. All I can say is, the guys that endorse that junk must hunt like girls. As for gadgets, I think we all get suckered into that stuff when we are young.