When were "the good old days"?

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Nov 20, 2018
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Wyoming
This year I've seen a lot more posts regarding hunter pressure, full trail heads, cost of big game hunting, the calling fest that archery has turned into, and a lot less pictures of elk on the ground.

I'm a full on adult onset hunter. This is all I know.

So those who have hunted for a lot longer than I have, when were the "good old days" of elk hunting and what was it like? I thoroughly enjoy it as is, but I hear a lot about how much different elk hunting is today, and just out of curiosity wonder what it was like in the past?
 
OP
A
Joined
Nov 20, 2018
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889
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Wyoming
It’s a moving target, every 20 years the good ole days were 20 years ago.


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That was sorta what I was thinking after talking with all the old-timers!

I know we have a lot more and a lot healthier herds than in the 1960s. Or was it around Y2K, or in Y2K was it 1980?
 

mxgsfmdpx

WKR
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Oct 22, 2019
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Central Arizona
For me it is the mid 90s when we were kids sleeping on rocks in the backcountry with crappy gear and hand me down clothing.

Everyone’s good old days depends on when they were born and the memories they created.
 

EastMT

WKR
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Dec 19, 2016
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Eastern Montana
Early to Mid 90’s in Montana were amazing. Elk coming out of the park was an easy meat tag draw, deer all over the North fork, antelope tags were a sure thing for residents in 700. Dad drew the breaks elk tag in 3 years, drew the moose tag for eureka area in 5 years, it was a great time to hunt Montana. I’d say that was my favorite


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Joined
Mar 29, 2019
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664
For elk, in the last century, it was the late 90’s to around 2008. In my opinion, that’s not really up for debate for the species as a whole looking through the lens of quality, ease of getting tags, huntjng dates, choice of weapon and big numbers of elk.

Much of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, even southern Idaho didn’t really have big numbers of elk pre 1990’s.

When I was a young kid, in the early 90’s you were a local legend of the fall if you killed a 300” bull. It just didn’t happen that often. Elk were rare to see in many places. Now days it’s one of the most common creatures on the landscape.
 
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Sep 13, 2016
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Idaho
For elk, in the last century, it was the late 90’s to around 2008. In my opinion, that’s not really up for debate for the species as a whole looking through the lens of quality, ease of getting tags, huntjng dates, choice of weapon and big numbers of elk.

Much of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, even southern Idaho didn’t really have big numbers of elk pre 1990’s.

When I was a young kid, in the early 90’s you were a local legend of the fall if you killed a 300” bull. It just didn’t happen that often. Elk were rare to see in many places. Now days it’s one of the most common creatures on the landscape.
There is a whole lot of truth to that. Elk were just not that plentiful when I was a youngster. It's funny about the 300" urban legend, but it is definitely true.
 

brsnow

WKR
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
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2015&2016, 2 elk in 90 minutes of hunting total for 2 seasons. my elk Per hour of hunting was never better...
 
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Mar 1, 2017
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Location
Eagle River, AK
This year I've seen a lot more posts regarding hunter pressure, full trail heads, cost of big game hunting, the calling fest that archery has turned into, and a lot less pictures of elk on the ground.

I'm a full on adult onset hunter. This is all I know.

So those who have hunted for a lot longer than I have, when were the "good old days" of elk hunting and what was it like? I thoroughly enjoy it as is, but I hear a lot about how much different elk hunting is today, and just out of curiosity wonder what it was like in the past?
If you look at population numbers in Colorado the herd peaked in the early 2000's at around 320,000ish elk. Now they have cut the herd down to 275,000ish so thats almost a 50,000 cut in elk, plus more hunters.
 
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