Hunting in the 1980s and 90s (2024)

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.