traditional hunting while hitting the easy button...

[rabjr]

Well I would wager that the best time period for deer hunting would have been for the folks who first showed up to the frontier, before it got hunted out.
Todays deer population might be at all time highs since the records were started, but before the arival of the settlers the game populations must have been much higher than now.

Thats not exactly right....there were a number of predators here that aren't here now. With a handful making a comeback atm. The way nature works is populations grow and always crash due to a number of things. Also when settlers came here this was an old growth forest here. Deer don't do so well in old growth forests. They need new growth forests to flourish. Case in point. Growing up here in the 60's and 70's it was a memorable moment for us just to see a set of eyes at night. You rarely ever saw a deer. We set a record for deer taken in 84' in our shotgun season when we harvested over 100 animals here state wide (104). In the 70's we had a lot of wood cutting going on here, clearing out a lot of old growth stands and by the mid/late 80's deer populations here exploded. Back then you bought one either sex tag for archery/muzzleloader/shotgun seasons and were lucky to see a track. Today I can buy 13 tags and earn a couple more if I wanted and I know people with crop damage permits. All pretty much because of wood cutting...

 

[cynthialee]

I stand corected.

:redface:

 

[jrmflintlock]

In New Mexico It is still only one antlered deer a year, if you draw a tag. There are No over the counter deer hunts and only a few youth hunts that offer doe tags

Our Mule deer populations are still trying to rebound from Drought and Excess poaching!! There is only a few Whitetails (and mostly the Cous subspecies)in limited portions of the state.

Count your blessings, even though I live in the State with the most restricted hunting opportunity that I know of in the US, I am happy some years just to hunt Turkeys and Small Game for the year!

Our Elk herds are booming but the limit is still one elk (depending on what you draw if it be bull or cow) per person per year!

 

[Deadeye]

Same here in Utah, gotta draw to get 1 deer tag.
Elk are thick but for a cow or a big bull you have to draw. A spike Elk tag can be purchased over the counter. I was camped at about 10 ,000 ft. Friday morning when I woke up there was about 40 or 50 Elk feeding in the aspens about 50 yds. from me, a lot of cows and calves but not a spike in the bunch. Deadeye