# How has Hunting changed for you over the years?



## moonwolf (Sep 20, 2004)

Is game hunting for you about the same, better, or worse than what you recall in the past? Or, in other words, how have you changed or adapted to make hunting still a part of your lifestyle? Or, if you've given up hunting, why? 

In my experience, I used to hunt waterfowl in the past that I rarely do now. Don't know really why, except that I like so spend the time more hunting small game like grouse instead at that time. Plus, I think living on the homestead ground has made me more 'terrestrial' so to speak. There is access to pond shooting, and the occasional goose overhead in fall. 
My hunting is much less ranging than before, mostly it's the expense of fuel going out where I used to do a lot along logging roads. Now it's more just nearby and along trails to still get the odd grouse, hare and such. Deer hunting for me has actually increased from what I used to do. I gues it's knowing there are more deer around in numbers and they are good game for the table in my area more agricultural than where I used to hunt more in the forested areas that the deer aren't as 'tasty'. lol. 
I do 'hunt' more with my camera. The nice thing about that is when it's not firearms hunting season, I can still see game while out in nature to 'shoot' with the camera. lol. I guess part of it is that hunting has become more a part of my homesteading activities.

How do you see it for yourself? more hunting? less? the same? Is it an end to a means? Do you prefer one type of game to another, and has it changed for you over the years?


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## hillsidedigger (Sep 19, 2006)

Even though I live in an area with a relatively abundant amount of public hunting land, 1/4 of a million acres within 40 miles, it seems most of these areas are overrun with hunters during the season so I haven't hunted since 1978.


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

For some reason the hills keep getting steeper. As I get older it's not about getting game as much as being there. I've had wonderful days hunting and then found out I forgot to load my gun.


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## tryinhard (Jul 19, 2007)

I hunt a few squirrels and for sure take my 9 yearold out on opening day of deer season but other than that I am trying to make a living to support my family. 

I used to hunt or fish every weekend but not any more.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

I seem to have lost my interest in hunting in the last few years. All my life I have enjoyed hunting, started when I was about 5-6 years old. Now if I killed an animal I would not want to go to the trouble of cleaning it and can't find anyone that will take an animal that they have to clean themselves. Can't see killing an animal just for the sport.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

As a teen, we hunted anything that flew, walked or crawled. After working the woods for many years in Fisheries, I have changed my attitude. If I do hunt, it is being on the lookout for the bears and mountain lions on the property. I would only shoot if necessary, and the only time I have shot at a bear was with blank ammunition to scare it away from the house. I do carry a weapon around the hilltop, but nowadays I do not buy a hunting or fishing license. I would rather watch the deer, quail, squirrels, grouse, and other wildlife than take a shot at them with a shotgun!!


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## Haggis (Mar 11, 2004)

I've never been a "sport" hunter but rather, a meat hunter, and with perhaps one exception I am yet. I have kept a few antlers over the years; Herself used them in her vignettes about the house, but most of the antlers end up thrown out with the hide and entrails. Herself tells me that if I bag a bear this year the hide will be sent off to be dressed into a rug; ones supposes that is a trophy, mostly I want the meat, the jaw bones for knife handles (teeth intact), and the full set of claws for another necklace.

One suppposes that everyone is partially a meat hunter, and partially a "sportsman"; I like to think that I'm about 99% meat hunter, and 1% sprotsman; I have been such my whole hunting life. 

Two things that have not changed for me over the last 50 years of hunting, other than remaining first and foremost a meat hunter: I yet prefer my recurve and wooden arrows to all other forms of archery, and I wouldn't wear "camo" if it were free and the law required it. I wore enough camo when I was in the Army to last me three lifetimes.

By the by, in the same vein, I do not practice catch and release fishing; if a fish is within the legal size limit I keep it to eat, and when I have ample for supper or the freezer, I go home. "Catch and release" fishing, at least as I see it, is little more than harassing the fish much a child would capture and tear the wings off flies for "sport".


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## brownegg (Jan 5, 2006)

I was a serious grouse hunter when I was younger. I raised sprenger spanials and german shorthaired pointers. I also was a serious deer hunter, using both gun and bow. Since i'm older now and don't raise bird dogs anymore I've given up bird hunting. I'm still a very serious deer hunter, loggging around 300+ hours in the woods each fall with plenty of venison for the whole year.


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## jross (Sep 3, 2006)

I still love to hunt, but pass up most deer I see, but I do shoot one now and then if; If it is facing the right direction so I will not have to go too deep in the swamp to get it (Getting it out is not my concern, I have a 6X6 amphib for that, but we do not like to spook the two or three big bucks that bed in the heart of the swamp), it is the right size, if it is wounded, or a "management deer", if it is the buck of a lifetime, or we are out of deer meat. The younger fella that we allow to hunt here shoots most of our deer, shares the meat, and his family eats it which is a requirement to hunt our land. I take more pictures now than anything, "catch and release", but I still have that passion for having them come to the stand. Most of our ruffed grouse have disappeared, in fact I may have shot the last three around here about 8 years ago. I also will not hunt birds without a dog and since I do not have the time to work one properly, do not have one.


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

I have become disabled and can't walk enough to get into the woods like I used to. But I still go to the edge of the woods and sit and looke at the game that is their. I sometime shoot some small game or maby a deer if it is in the right place.


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## tn_junk (Nov 28, 2006)

I used to love to hunt quail, now there aren't any more wild ones left. 

galump


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## Pops2 (Jan 27, 2003)

Galump 
hopefully if the fur market keeps going up the trappers will thin the predators and a few more wild quail will come back. the biggest problem is habitat not enough open low scrub & pine savannah. the quail seem to like thicker stuff too now. I see quite a few in coastal NC especially on the Marine Bases and the hunting pressure is light for them there. don't shoot them myself, but i enjoy seeing them especially when they spook the bejeebers out of me.

in general
i don't enjoy shooting bambi or anything else, it just doesn't seem sporting to me since they can't shoot back. I finally came to the conclusion during my first trip to the sandbox that running dogs is the only thing i enjoy and the kill is no fun unless the animal can hurt me back. i don't bother w/ a gun, just a knife or a spear for everything. so i got a greyhound mix for deer, fox & coyote (he turned out to be a heck of a hogdog). I already had the cur/bulldog for hog & bear.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

I remember back when I was young The only way folks around here hunted deer was with dogs but there were no deer, to speak of and when someone did kill one, everyone in the hunt was there to help dress and clean and get their part of the meat. Now there are so many deer you really dont have to hunt, just go out and set awhile and one will soon come by without dogs running them. I would say that before the deer population exploded, hunting was more exciting because when you did get one, they were more appreciated, and to a 10 year old with a single barrel 16 ga shotgun, listening to 3 or 4 hounds letting you know they were headed your way with the biggest buck anyone had ever heard about," Folks Thats Eggciting"! Well I'll go wipe that gun barrel off with that old oily sock, thought I saw a speck o rust.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

When I was a kid we didn't have Deer or Turkey.But had plenty of Small Game.We would kill hundreds of Rabbits,Squirrels and Quail.

Started seeing more Deer in '70 and I started killing them,plus couple years later started getting Turkeys.But also in that time it paid to kill Fur animals.So our Freezers were always full.

Now it is mostly Deer,Turkey and Squirrels.Looking to start killing alot more Hogs.

But I've always ate Wild Game and enjoyed it better than Domestic Animals.

big rockpile


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## PyroDon (Jul 30, 2006)

I mostly only hunt deer these days , once in a great while rabbit and squirrel.
Things have changed quite a bit around here not as far as deer rabbit or squirrel , But I used to enjoy quail hunting . Sadly we dont have near as many since the turkeys moved in , we had muskrats a plenty but they seem to have been replaced by beaver and woodchucks. The bobcat and coyote populations have exploded . 
Main change I see in hunters is a few hundred dollars in fancy camo, scents,blinds and protable tree stands . I dont really think it helps much around here . 
I take an extra red plaid shirt and hang in the far corner of the field so it moves in the wind and I walk back to my corner climb the same tree I have for 22 years wearing bluejeans and a blaze orange coat (law requires it ) and about 3pm shoot me a deer ( most of the college kids head into the timber around 2:30 and the deer move to areas they arent) if you watch when folks are heading in or out of the areas you'll know when the deer are moving and which way.
They completely switch routines during season, Our largest go totally nocternal and wont be seen in daylight till seasons over


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## Guest (Aug 30, 2007)

There is much bigger oportunity to kill deer then when I was a youngster, but the fun isn't there much anymore. When I was a youngster we were only allowed 1 buck deer in archery and 1 buck deer in gun season. We had a large family party hunts. There was about 10 to 13 of us, uncles, cousins, brothers and friends. Now about everyone has either quit hunting, died, or have moved off and have their own family and friends to hunt with and I have just purty much become a loner in the woods. A lot more successful, but do miss the comaraderie.(spelling?) 

Also it's a bigger challenge every year to find a place to hunt. The bull dozers and "no hunting" signs have just about wiped out all the old hunting grounds. 

One of these days I will hang up my rifle on the wall for the last time and I will be a hunter no more.


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## bgak47 (Sep 4, 2003)

I retired in June & am looking foward to doing more hunting this season than in the past. Dove season opens here today! I've been a hunter for 54yrs, & I'm a meat hunter. I like the taste of wild game, but I enjoy just being out in Nature as much as the actual shooting of the game. I was always very found of all kinds of bird hunting, but I haven't done too much in the last 25yrs because I haven't had a good dog. I have a young friend that has a very good German Shorthair that will point & retrieve. I'm looking foward to some dove & quail this year.


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## ovendoctor (Jun 28, 2006)

due to a construction accident 6 years ago [messing up my right knee]

ive slowed down a lot wile hunting birds

got a new pup [GSP] and trained her to work slow

I dont cover as much ground as the other guy's I hunt with but I see more birds

they use english setters [and the chase is on :baby04: ]

its a real thrill to watch Hope work woodys and pats in the woods :dance:


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## DrippingSprings (Sep 22, 2004)

the only real difference for me is that when i was younger back in the 70s and 80s through mid 90s there were thousands of acres of state land free to hunt on. Farmers welcomed you to hunt to keep the deer, turkey and ***** out of the crops. 

Now the state has pretty much leased all the publicly held land to clubs, same for the farmers and now I pay about 1000 a year to hunt land that I hunted all my life for free. 

I think that it should be illegal for the feds or states to lease their lands that we pay taxs to buy and keep to a select group of people. It should be open for everyone. This practice is same as if tomorrow you wake up and find that your local city park has been leased and now to take your kids for a stroll or swing you gotta buy into a exclusive club IF and i do mean IF the other members find you suitable and you have a grand laying around for the privilidge.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

DrippingSprings said:


> the only real difference for me is that when i was younger back in the 70s and 80s through mid 90s there were thousands of acres of state land free to hunt on. Farmers welcomed you to hunt to keep the deer, turkey and ***** out of the crops.
> 
> Now the state has pretty much leased all the publicly held land to clubs, same for the farmers and now I pay about 1000 a year to hunt land that I hunted all my life for free.
> 
> I think that it should be illegal for the feds or states to lease their lands that we pay taxs to buy and keep to a select group of people. It should be open for everyone. This practice is same as if tomorrow you wake up and find that your local city park has been leased and now to take your kids for a stroll or swing you gotta buy into a exclusive club IF and i do mean IF the other members find you suitable and you have a grand laying around for the privilidge.


 I think it should be illegal and I believe some of the taxpayers that hunt would push the issue, you will get fair treatment. If the state buys or rents land with the publics taxes, the public should be able to hunt that land. Not a chosen few. If the state does not see it that way, I think a discrimination lawsuit would be in order. That would probably open their eyes. GOOD LUCK :flame:


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## hillsidedigger (Sep 19, 2006)

"The primary reasons, experts say, are the loss of hunting land to urbanization plus a perception by many families that they can't afford the time or costs that hunting entails."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_on_re_us/fewer_hunters


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## shadowwalker (Mar 5, 2004)

I'm told I now live on one of the best states to hunt whitetail. I guess I see the stats from the twra, anyway. I love to hunt and fish. I hate the fight you have to find game here. Not much public land, if you find it, it is filled with hunters or quota hunts. I spent three months trying to find a place to hunt on private land. No go. I will not lease land. Just ain't in me. Besides too much money.
I am waiting to go back to wyoming to live and hunt on public land. I figure that is only months away now.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

In my state NC, the state rents hunting rights from large timber co's and other large private land owners and makes it all available to the public for a small fee 10 or 15 dollars and all National Forest and State Forest is included. If NC did not do that, every foot would be in highdollar hunting clubs where only the prosperous could hunt. Most small landowners do lease out to clubs.


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## JBinKC (Feb 28, 2006)

Not much except I do it much more often now. In the last few years I have been waterfowling and fishing more and fewer opportunities hunting upland game birds because of economics. I don't have my pointer anymore, the locations are more proximate to my LOZ abode (one hunting spot I can row to because it is within a mile of my house) and doesn't require a longer drive and a hotel stay.


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