Hunting in the 1980s and 90s

[Nightstandx]

What was it like? Was there alot of hunter pressure? Lots of deer or not many around? How was Bow hunting in 1980s?

I have heard stories of awesome bowhunting in the 80s....Less pressure. No problem accessing land. Big bucks in brushy swamp ground areas. Modern archery still becoming popular. Wish I could have experienced some of it!

 

[realunlucky]

This might be something you'd be interested in-https://www.rokslide.com/big-mule-deer-then-and-now-with-david-rydell/

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[mtnwrunner]

It was awesome. The 60s and 70s were also great.
You always hear the expression "the good ol days" which are now, right now in the present.
Get out there!

Randy

 

[isItFallYet]

Subscribed!

 

[IDVortex]

I hear the "back in my day" and I've actually wondered if in general, we're hunters back then more serious of hunters who actually got out and hunted, or were they like a lot of the hunters now days where they walk a short little road, or drive around and check a few spots and call it a day then complain they saw nothing.

 

[Ross]

80s, 90s and 2000s were epic. Days of wool, compasses, maps and heavyyy gear. I started using diaphragms for elk in the 80s and my camp of north Idaho loggers and army ranger thought I would scare away all the elk they hated archery hunters as they scared everything again guys hunted in all conditions with no complaining about weather and there were 10xs the camps in rifle season that there are now. There was a very generous cow season that is long gone as wolves were introduced. Once my buddy and I learned how to call well we were upset if we did not call in 1-3 bulls every day and would often hear double digit bulls all in otc. Things were still incredibly good until 2016. Yes the good ole days.

 

[farmermail]

Muzzleloading in the 80's and 90's was awesome. Very few people, great tags. One might go an entire week and only see one or two other outfits. Missed a lot of shots, technology was not what it is today, but we saw a lot of big bucks.

 

[flathead#2]

Back in the 70's-80's you pretty much could hunt wherever, as long as there wasnt a posted sign.
Then along came hunting lea$e$, the 90s, social media and Egos.
We'll never have that kind of freedom again.
Seasons and regs was on ONE piece of paper you picked up at the local hardware store.
Hunters were respectful to each other and did their best to avoid hunting on top of one another.
WW2 and Vietnam era camo. Flannels, military field jackets, and BDU's.
I miss it.

 

[mooretitan]

I think of all the hunts that I missed in the early 2000s. No real reason for it just did not really make it a priority to go out of state or build points. Was starting a family, paying off a small student loan and thought I needed save money and pay everything in cash. Also built a sports program and sent lots of kids to college. Anyways because of that I realized what I missed and have made every opportunity to get out. Try and make 1-2 out of state trips a year and have built points in most states the last 8-10 years. Going to 7 years of out of state hunts with my kids and dad. Killed lots of animals and had some great times. Also realize that that the best days are now and nothing hunting wise is going to get better

 

[NRA4LIFE]

We had unreal hunting in Northern WI in the late 80's and 90's before the wolf and bear explosions. My brother in NE WI has been telling me great stories of the deer numbers in the last few years. Had fantastic antelope and mule deer hunting in SE MT from the late 80's to about 2015. Fantastic deer hunting at my place in NE MO prior to the 4-pt rule, but that has picked up quite well over the last few years.

 

[AHayes111]

If I could time travel, I would much rather go back and hunt the worst year in the 80's than hunt the best year in the past ten.

 

[3Esski]

late 80s early 90s were great and not too crowded where I hunted. almost everything was otc tags. mid 90s there was a big swing, noticed it first in duck hunting and then it just seemed to spread across all forms. I remember being 14 or 15 shooting a compound bow, with fingers since I didn't know what a release was then, and bumped into a guy with a recurve bow. Thought he was a weirdo. Now I are him. Things have certainly changed, but as stated earlier, these are the good old days so may as well get out and enjoy them.

 

[TaperPin]

I think the 80’s was the beginning of the revolution in backpack hunting with better equipment all around and specialized rifles. Backpacks, like DANA Design, had just barely evolved into what would be familiar to many today - much more compact than aluminum external frames. Backpacking stoves, water filters, tents, sleeping bags and thermarests had barely evolved into the lightweight designs that aren’t too far from today. Goretex was just getting popular in backpacking clothing, but barely any hunting designs other than Cabelas even existed.

Rifles just barely started being offered in stainless. Custom rifles might have a custom stainless barrel, but the blued receiver was all that was available. Scopes weren’t all that much different from the 70’s - varmint hunters and silhouette shooters were some of the only ones familiar with dialing scopes, but it was rarely done big game hunting because we lacked rangefinders. Fiberglass stocks just barely became commonly available. Bullet and cartridge design had been pretty much figured out before the 80’s, but before rangefinders we heavily relied on fast cartridges.

Optics weren’t bad, definitely not as good as today, but a 1980’s compact pair of Leica binoculars wasn’t bad (the Leupold compacts of the time were rebranded Leica and we never saw Swaros - Zeiss and Leica were where it was at).

In Wyoming residents hunted the best areas of the state with over the counter general tags for elk and muledeer, and the best antelope areas were easy to draw and it was assumed every year additional doe tags would be easy to get. Previous decades had easier tags for things like sheep, moose and goats. Everyone’s source of hunting information were books and magazines (like a blog, but on paper), so if a drainage or identifiable location was talked about, that fall and maybe the year after, there would be double the normal amount of four-horse trailers at the trailhead. Eastman’s videos were just becoming popular and each one hooked a number of young hunters, if they lived in the west or not.

In that decade I never ran across many out of state hunters, other than Utah - guys from the east seemed to stop at Colorado. Few came down from Montana, why would they. I might see one other backpack hunter in a season.

I remember photos by what gear I was using - this is the first year with a custom barrel, the action was hard chrome plated and the year before upgrading to a Brown Precision Pounder stock so it must have been late 80’s. For a guy in his early twenties I felt pretty good about my setup.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Get out and take advantage of everything you can. That's my mindset, even if things don't go as you want. Just got done with the crabbing (hopefully a fall/winter season, fingers crossed). 2-3 weeks of coho salmon fishing and then onto muzzy deer, elk and then MO whitetail. After all that, I may be ready to just watch football. Oh wait, then the razor clamming until the end of April. Then onto halibut/ling cod fishing and repeat the whole process next year.

 

[cnelk]

I save all the old regulations over the years.

You would believe how thin they were way back when.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I started hunting in the mid 90s with my dad, I’m sure that the years will make me forget but tags were easier to get, and there were places you could hit which you can’t hunt now.

My dad and I only had 2 hunting rifles between the 2 of us and an Isuzu trooper we’d take hunting. No internet, no cell phones so we looked at lots of maps. We’d always find elk and deer, occasionally black bears.

I’d say we definetly didn’t spend anywhere near the money I spend these days. We didn’t really buy much gear, a few boxes of ammo a year and groceries to last a week. Now I feel like I get at least one new thing each week in the mail that I probably don’t need.

 

[xsn10s]

My first big game hunting was in the late 90's. Flyout camp in Alaska. We saw no one outside of our group the entire time we were hunting. And we never knew if we were the predators or prey. Things dreams were made of.

 

[derrick454@]

Every thing was better before u tube and Facebook and cell and INTERNET
Yes hunting and fishing was better to and you had to learn by doing. Otherwise getting outside a lot and going thru the school of hard knocks .
We lived life pretty much for the outdoors and sports
I bought books about deer hunting and vhs tapes or whatever you used to call those big things you put in the video machine. also back then the local library carried hunting books. I’m not sure what they carry now but I assume fishing books are still ok

Also in my opinion forests in some cases may of been managed better with exceptions …exception being poor logging practices near creeks/river in the old days.
Derrick


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[derrick454@]

Also nobody shot animals at 1000 yards in the old days. At least I never heard of such foolishness back then. Maybe the elite snipers could but not your average sportsman


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[Rotnguns]

I've been hunting in Idaho since 1974, mostly the southern part. And there was lots less pressure, but our state had somewhere north of 700 000 people in it. Now we're about three times that many. Much of what's changed is there are lots more people recreating in general, at all times of the year. I hiked up Mt Borah last year, during a weekday, and I saw at least twenty other people. But let me say - it's not all been bad. Back in the mid and early 70's there was great controversy on having wilderness areas in our state at all. A considerably powerful faction wanted to mine the White Clouds. Fortunately, the strong influence of a very liberal democratic senator (Frank Church) and a liberal democratic governor (Cecil Andrus) led to the protected wilderness areas that we enjoy today. Church and Andrus were of a different type of liberal than we see today - they respected state values and were strong and vocal supporters of the second amendment.