Let's Talk About The Good Old Days

[5MilesBack]

While in college we would go into the library and scour over the oversized topo maps.

I still do scour over my topo maps, and FS maps, and whatever other maps I think I need.

 

[cnelk]

We rolled out to Colorado from Minnesota in 1980. Me, my dad, and my uncle. I was 16.
We killed 2 bulls using topo maps and getting off the roads.

 

[Deadfall]

My dad and uncles started in the 70s, driving from Missouri to Colorado. I have great memories riding in a 57 chevy pickup across Kansas with dad. Being followed by uncles in another 50 something chevy pickup.

 

[MeatMissile]

I didn’t do it out of state, but I did it on the other side of my state. Forest service maps, conversations with F&W Dept., and some lore from the locals on a pre-season scouting trip.

 

[Mikido]

We are now in the good ole days while we’re allowed to hunt!

I don’t think our grandchildren will enjoy that right.

 

[AaronMColeman]

I'm new to hunting (last 10 years or so) and I love it. To me this is the good old days...I hope in 25 years today isn't the "good old days".

 

[SoloWilderness]

Started out in 1995 in army surplus jungle camo with my dads old Bear and aluminum Eastons, with 2 blade Muzzys. Killed my first elk (4x3) with that bow, on the last day of the season, after 3 weeks of blown chances, 14 miles from the truck, in the bottom of a hole. Definitely earned that one after 50 hours straight of packing... Back when you could get a good archery unit or 1st rifle with no points, or even on a 2nd or 3rd choice draw... Then I watched several of my favorite units get ruined by people naming specific drainages and trailheads on public forums, or in hunting magazines... (I'm looking at you Eastmans "Best under rated units in Colorado")

 

[dustytrails30]

I generally agree that it’s harder to find the sort of quiet that I hope for while hunting, however, there are still plenty of wild places to get away to if you’re willing to work hard enough!

 

[Pony Soldier]

When I started, hunting season started Sept. 15 and ran to the sunday after thankgiving. Everyday was either sex. Big bulls only showed up once or twice a season, however I only killed one every 5 or 6 years. Bulls rarely got bigger than 340. Big beams but short tines like most of the elk in northern Idaho. Just the genes I guess.

Access was entertaining. My dad had a 1948 dodge half ton, two wheel drive. For traction we loaded the box with rock. You can find every place we loaded an elk by a half ton of unrelated rock piled on the side. When the road got slick we would chain up and I would stand on the bumper and bounce up and down for that extra traction.

It was just as well being there because the heater barely cleared 1/3 of the window. Rubber boots were what we had. Tough stand on verticle hillsides in the jungles. Frostbite was just part of it.

You normally found bulls that died of old age in the creek bottom. At least one a year was normal. A big herd was two and it was usually a pair of bulls. Often a spike and a 6 pt.

Hunting success meant we ate meat that winter. Otherwise it was maccaroni and cheese and I hate maccaroni and cheese.

Everybody hunted. Monday in class was comparing notes on what they saw and where. I remember the coach said I had to choose between hunting and sports. A week later he asked where I had been . Had I been sick? I said I had followed his instructions and quit sports. When hunting ended I started trapping.

I remember wool socks were darned when they got thin- bless my mother and her patience. Hunts only lasted till noon so dad could watch football. When I got a drivers license, I dropped him off and went back out or hunted all day and walked back to town. Later years he hunted with me until he was 79.

Hunting was very hard to brutal but you knew you had all winter to heal. How's that for the good ole days?

 

[mavinwa2]

back in the 1970's, 1980's >1992.
Didn't have much time or $$ available back then. But still managed 1 out of state hunt every other year, in addition to my deer & elk hunts in my resident state every year.

what I miss: The EZ availability of tags.
Now that I have the time, $$$, can't draw an elk bull NR tag for last 14 years.

Guided hunts aren't for me, been there & done that. My experience 3x with outfitters, never was guided by main guy-outfitter, always a guide/wrangler. Heck, I knew more about elk hunting than the wrangler. 2 of those 3 trips I was successful on decent bulls...hunting without the cowboy-guide. They stayed in camp, sleeping in while I was killin'. At least the wranglers were there for the pack out via horse.

But I guess my outfitter trips would be considered bargain basement pricing. but it was all I could afford.
Thus, you get what you pay for.
...AND 2 divorces too!...

 

[ColoradoV]

The good old days…. The good old days. Interesting but in the 1930-40’s around Aspen/marble elk were sparse or a delicacy and deer were everywhere.

Same scene in the 50’s when there were more deer than elk in the roaring fork valley. You could get 3 deer a year and with 6 kids that is how you feed a miner family. As it made no sense to work too hard for one stinky elk when you can take 3 kids after school and come home w 4 deer….

For our family guiding elk hunts started in the 60s-70’s. The hunting was still good enough on public that guiding worked on public land on the flat tops. Moved the operation onto private oil shale land once it got too busy in the 80’s. They sold it when my uncle got leukemia and died. My great uncle was a game warden out of Craig = Dan trained under him before he headed up the meeker office. Made me sad to hear what they are doing what they are to Dan he is a good man.

Killed a ton of deer and elk up to the 80’s around Glenwood but by about then the entire family was hunting 49 as you could hunt it every year so we that for about a decade and filled the freezer every year as well as killed some great bulls for the time. We were chasing deer in the roaring fork valley as well and put a few giants in the freezer as well as filled just about every tag on what are now private ranches owned by millionaire folks.

Went back to the flat tops for my father’s retirement to hunt elk w longbows for about 15 years. Hunted almost every day all season for elk but due to age and over crowding stopped doing that about 5-6 years ago. Killed a bunch of bulls up there as well.

Hard for me to say the late season cow lo tags my 78 yr old dad gets every year and we hunt w both my 7 and 10 year old girls are not the good old days as we are living them now…….

My uncle still has his place on the Buford road so might have to go back up there when my legs can’t handle the 14k peaks here where I live.

Or I guess the good old days is different for everyone and while some come out for a vacay week - for some of us who live here it is literally in our family dna.

Yea fun to think about the good old days every once in awhile.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Wasn’t even that long ago, the elk hunting was great in the 90s and early 2000s. My last elk hunt was in 2010.

 

[Two Roads]

The simpler world of map & compass culled the nimrod herd automatically. You had to know what you were doing and at best keep an eye on weather to not get yourself in a bad spot. No calling mommy via inreach to get bailed out. Stuff still happened and may have made the news but that made a lot rethink their skills and potential lifespan. Sure, I use onX and sat imaging but I still wouldn’t ever leave the truck w/o map and compass ever. In the truck, detailed topo atlas too.

Game management enhanced populations over the decades. But winter can upset that randomly. And do same for those whose not prepared.

I find the most irony in all the F&G department whining over loss of hunter numbers. Pretty jammed up today. Takes a lot of effort but it is still out there if you get after it, resident or NR. Just going to have lots of company between every known conveyance hauling in more who could never have made it 2 miles level. The good old days left with wilderness ethics and leave no trace outdoorsmen who valued experiences first, then family freezer with antler size only a bonus.