Hunting in the 1980s and 90s

[Flight635]

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 bow hunting 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!

 

[#1Mudman]

I was hunting in the TX Panhandle back then and there wasnt near as many deer as there is now. I was lucky enough to meet and befriend many of the Ranchers in the area and had lots of acreage of hunting mule deer and whitetail. There some record book antelope up there but not many permits given out. It was fun and challenging back then! It was also a lot less expensive for rifles, ammo ect. Walk many of the Canyons from Canadian Tx to the Boone Pickens Ranch over the years. Sure miss those days of no cell phones. I hunted coyotes at night a lot with some of the ranch hands back then. Yep, we might have had a few cold beers calling and spotlighting all night. Riding around those big ole ranches, stop call, wait, eyes! call and work him in! We called in a Mountain Lion one cold night on the Canadian River bottom. Very tough critter to get in less than 300 or 400 yards. We never raised a rifle on the few occasions we called one in but we dang near run over one on the county road leaving the River bottom one night. My Gosh I miss those days and nights.

 

[Phil Rizzo]

The fun factor was higher for Me, I was less picky about what I shot and so that meant a greater chance I would get to pull the trigger. Hell I was young!
Management was nothing like it is now, nor was the COST of everything associated.
The number of gadgets and accessories now seems 10,000X of those days.

 

[Chadp82]

The biggest change from the 80s and 90s for me is a range finder. Otherwise it's pretty much the same.

 

[Phil Rizzo]

Archery back in those days had a LOT more arch in it.

 

[crashlanding]

We wore denim (blue jeans) most of the time, and killed animals regularly, didn't start wearing camouflage until 2000 something. Now, if you're not wearing Sitka, kuiu, kryptek, etc. the animals have evolved and can see every one of your movements , your success rate will go down radically if you go out hunting wearing the old stuff.

 

[nwmnbowhunter]

Way less deer numbers, way less bowhunters, everyone let you bowhunt their land.

Best years were 2000s right before digital trail cams got big.

Then everyone could "patrol" their land and all the deer became "their" deer without them ever having to really set foot on their land.

Hunting land used to be cheap because you couldn't farm it and hunting was not a focus.

Trail cameras are amazing for knowing what's out there but they also take a lot of the anticipation and mystery out of hunting.

Rifle season has always been insane and a crapshoot.

Hunting out west I think late 90s up until about 2010 was prime for number of animals and opportunities.

 

[Taco John]

Uhm....you could get a tag back then.

 

[dfanonymous]

Yeah, tags were a big one.

There were less people to compete against. I've notice a significant uptick about the time podcast, YouTube and Joe Rogan started making things popular.

That combined with less decline in herd populations (out west, I don't do the eastern stuff). Something that is a common thing related in general to human encroachment. It's been happening (because that's when it started being monitored seriously) since the 70s.

Later, around 2006 on was a good time for bowhunting. All the tech started really booming. Carbon arrows were becoming mainstream, and bow speeds were in competition from manufacture to manufacture.

Clothes have all been about the same. If you hunt and spend like a week deep in the backcountry bivy style, you avoid cotton. Nothing revolutionary.

If you stalked animals in open country, like in this picture miles from any road, and were able to get into bow range in jeans and flannel, you got lucky. Especially back then, when range was even more limited then it was now.

Like, that deer had to be retarded, or depressed to not to see you and run, because these Muley's can see pretty good…and they don't pattern like whitetails.

 

[Phil Rizzo]

"Mule deer always stop and look back"

 

[cajun]

Just depends on where you were hunting. Our deer population exploded during that time. Heard was actually out of balance too many does not enough bucks. But we killed a ton. Our hunting is better now from a balance and trophy stand point. This is private land deep south.

 

[Ol' Red]

The biggest difference for me is longer shots are possible. That is mostly due to range finders. Most of my deer hunting is on private land in blue jeans and flannel. I said it before, if you step out of the truck in camo, every deer hauls butt out of the territory. Tuesday night I was over at my buddy's ranch working on a vehicle and we were within 30 yards of deer.
It's hard to compare the 80' and 90's because I lived in Alaska then, and hunting was good. Now I live in Wyoming and hunting is good. Big mulies are getting harder to find.

 

[dfanonymous]

"Mule deer always stop and look back"

That doesn't help during archery.

If they bail out of their beds, because your snapped a twig stalking in, they see you walking in a sage flat, or more likely they smell you on a wind swirl, they're gone.

If it stops and looks back at 200y…that's pretty useless during archery. Doesn't matter.

During rifle that's fine. It definitely works for the rancheros who bring their 12 family members and run deer drives, treating it like a squad L ambush

 

[quigley257]

For waterfowl hunters in the 80s and 90s, the ammo companies were coming out with some crazy good lead shot loadings that killed very well at good ranges. Then steel shot became mandatory. Unless you've experienced shooting with some of the newer, more expensive non-toxic shot like TSS or other tungsten blend, you can't fully appreciate just how well the magnum loads of lead actually killed birds at extended ranges. I have recently switched over to TSS for my non-toxic pheasant loads. It is nothing short of mind boggling just how much better it is compared to steel and other non-toxic loadings. I absolutely smoked every rooster I shot at last year using Federal Black Cloud TSS/steel duplex loads. No runners, no cripples, just wet-rag dead when they hit the ground. I'm a believer. Expensive? Yes, but worth every penny.