Would You Go Back?

[Swede]

Assume everyone is restricted the same, and the seasons are kept as they currently are. Also the opportunities to kill elk by gender and point limits are kept or are improved. Would you willingly go back to iron sights on your gun and only the other equipment we had in 1970 or earlier? For you archers, would you go back to the primitive equipment we had in 1970? You can keep all the knowledge you have gained, but none of the modern equipment. Even the modern strings have to go.

I would go back in a minute even if it meant the older vehicles we had back then. Of coarse in 1970, my pickup was a 1957 2 WD, 6 cyl. 235 engine, Chevrolet truck with recap tires and no radio. The heater was poor and the seals around the doors were mostly gone. Never mind the cold, it was the dust that boiled in that was the problem.

If you would or wouldn't want to join me. Why?

[Roosiebull]

Heck yeah, I wasn't alive in 1970, but I am slowly trying to make the transition to hunting with a recurve...i have never been a person who sets size goals for animals, I pass on plenty of...well spike bulls are the only legal elk I pass, but I pass a bunch of deer...not to hunt a "booner" just to extend my season...a recurve I think would add an aspect for me, just like when I was younger, my goal was to kill a legal elk...i think recurve hunting would bring back that simple mindset.

Same with rifles, I would be fine with it...it would just be a new challenge, and a welcome one.

[six]

Yes sir. In a hot minute. I play around with a recurve now when shooting with the kids. In the late 70's when I first started hunting I made my first kill with a recurve, or maybe the chipmunk jumped in front of the arrow on purpose. Simpler mind set back then. Any animal was a trophy with a bow.

[>>>---WW---->]

Heck ya! In a heart beat! Does that mean I also get back the youth I had back then? I miss that old Herters recurve and the Shakespear one as well.

[Swede]

Does that mean I also get back the youth I had back then?

Sure does Bill. I guarantee it.

I remember reading in Glen St Charles's book about how he drew back on a very large bull elk while hunting on the Olympic peninsula. His guide slapped his arm and said, "don't shoot him. You could not get a fork into the gravy. Shoot the cow." Glen shot the cow. A different time and a different mindset.
I often longingly think about those days. I still carry much of those values.
Back in those times hunters would often shoot a doe for camp meat. We never did, but hunting as a party was just a matter of fact. We were all in it together. No one cared much who shot what. We were all hunting, and if you got two bucks, I tagged one. We got two deer. It was not legal, but it was common and poor people lived on the meat they got hunting. It was not just a vacation or recreation like it is today. Bragging rights were not the same as today. I never heard of B&C antler scores until I was in my late teens, but at the time they meant nothing. A four point was big, but a fat buck was more valued.

A different time and a different era. I have to admit that I did not think many, or maybe anyone missed the old days of hunting enough give up the modern amenities. There sure is a lot of them being sold. Where would we be without Mountain House slime for breakfast?

[Beendare]

Not a very tough question there Swede- grin

Would I go back to drawing Arizona elk every few years

Hunting Colorado high country that is now a 10-14 year wait on draws

Hunting the Nevada high country STATEWIDE with very little pressure and bigger herds of deer

And all of the above while hardly seeing another bowhunter...its a no brainer my friend. Now it seems like half of my planning is how to avoid other bowhunters

[Swede]

Now it seems like half of my planning is how to avoid other bowhunters

I hear you loud and clear. I think all of the people that hunted in the 50s and 60s would go back if it were possible. Maybe we are daffy, nostalgic, sentimental or something. I don't know that, but I would pitch all of the ease and refinements we "enjoy" today for an annual hunt the way it was in the early 60s. I can get a deer as easy today or easier. It is the same with elk. I just wish Olympushunt and I could live one of those old hunts together. I wish all the younger people on this forum could experience what it was like.
Maybe they would not like it. You could get lost. There were far fewer roads back then. We were poor and lunch was home made and carried in a cloth sack tied to your belt. We drank from a stream.