Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters what is the most important development for Hunters in the last 50 years.

Money. Personal incomes have improved dramatically over the past 50 years. This in turn has allowed more hunters to travel to locations they once only dreamed about. Also allowed us to acquire some or all of the various pieces of equipment mentioned in the earlier posts.

Jim

This is no doubt correct.

For me in open country it's the wonderful modern binoculars.I can't kill what I can't find.

4ager -

good point @ ATVs. I never unload mine till I retrieve deer.

I've had wheelers in other areas come in and mess me up sooner and from much farther away than if they'd been on foot.

Agreed. The better the glass, the more you look through them. The more you look through them, the more you see. Good binoculars to me are every bit as important as my rifle...

Half the time everything I have in the woods with me is 50 years old. The vast increase in personal income is the biggest one by far, but you were probably going for some actual item. I vote for sat imagery/google maps/internet.

Roadless areas that I can walk into and get away from other hunters.



Not from me it won't.

Good question Huntz.

Believe it or not, 50 years ago there were binoculars very close to as good optically as there are now. But they were Porro prisms, not roof prisms. They were somewhat bulkier (though often lighter), and not as waterproof or rugged as some we have now. But many of them got used hard, and the ones that survived aren't as in good shape now, partly because the lens coatings tended to be softer. But they were very fine optically.

I suspect a lot of the stuff on this list so far is there because the people who respond either weren't born yet 50 years ago, or were so young they couldn't afford it, whether really good binoculars, guided hunts, or plane fares. While I'm making a lot more money than I did off my paper route and summer jobs in 1965, with inflation factored in the average household income in the U.S. is just about exactly the same now as it was then.

I did fail to answer part of the original question: What I could not do without on a hunt. Actually I can do without a laser rangefinder, and did part of last fall, just to see what it felt like. I can also get by without a GPS, because I learned to really use a compass and map when younger, but GPS's are quicker and more accurate. The notion that the Barnes TSX changed hunting is interesting, but my wife and i have killed a pile of animals with TSX's and I can't think of one that would have survived or run off wounded because we shot it with any of several other bullets.

Apparently I misunderstood the question somewhat, or didn't really think it through. But I do believe the laser rangefinder has made the biggest overall difference in both hunting and hunting gear, since it not only made it possible to determine the exact range, instead of guessing or estimating with a scope reticle, but changed our scopes, rifles, bullets and general knowledge of external ballistics. And all of that is true even if we, personally, don't use a rangefinder.

True, but the question was, "what could you not do without" so I interpreted that to mean each of us as an individual. Interesting to hear the different answers based on different styles.

On some hunts it would be a rangefinder but not on most of my hunts.

Yes, I acknowledged that in my post.

After thinking about it some more, for me personally the most useful new stuff has been high-tech hunting clothing. The lighter weight has become especially useful as I get older! Also, for a traveling hunter, it's a lot easier to get more clothing (as well as a high-tech sleeping bag) into a smaller space, which also helps on a lot of hunts.

I can't think of one thing. I was given a rangefinder a few years ago, but I have killed a bunch of big game without one for a lot of years. The original Bushnell Banner $18 scope on my .308 was used to kill a bunch of them. I still prefer my Leupold 9X x35 binoculars I bought in the early 80's for a sheep hunt and I prefer them to all these little ones that are on the market today, but my 7x35's are still useable. Yep, I was hunting back then and was born in the early 40's.

Lots of lightweight/compact gear could fit into that category, compared to what we used 30-40 years ago it's night and day. It's hard to pick just one out of all the gear you might carry but sleeping bags and pads would sure be up there on the list along with clothes. And lightweight rifles.

The OP's question involved 50 years ago, not 30-40.

I'm not pointing this out to be a PITA, but because of a point in a previous post, that a lot of people who'll answer don't really know what the state of the art was 50 years ago, either because they weren't born yet, or if they were couldn't afford good stuff.

Lazer range finders

Nothing comes to mind if you exclude clothing. Thinking on it, I'll give a vote to the SagenSaw. Beats carrying a hatchet or corn knife and whacking away to split a deer pelvis or breast bone.

Primo optics aren't required here though they do help. I tried one of the earlier laser range finders and wasn't particularly impressed. In eastern South Dakota the land is surveyed into mile square sections and fence lines are usually set on traditional divisions of a section so range isn't too hard to estimate with a little practice. So, for here anyway, it's something else to carry that you don't really need.

The internet.A DIY hunter wanting to travel and hunt many states a year has more info than they can process right at our fingertips.

As for things we take afield, the LRF by a landslide. Even if you dont use one personally,in a round about way it has changed everything from hunting style to scopes,bullets,twist rates and probly a bunch of other stuff i'm forgetting.

Think the OP and mule deer hit it early in the post. Also improvements in optics .

Gore-Tex, polar fleece and other synthetic, moisture wicking clothing.

This has had the biggest impact on me in the last 50 years.
I can's imagine going back to hunting in blue jeans and a down vest.

Thinsulate and Gore-Tex.

Actually, it goes back a bit farther than 50 years, but close, The biggest development is easily the 222 Remington Magnum...

You might be right--IF some rifle company offered the .222 Magnum with a 1-8 rifling twist....