Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Have you seen a big increase in hunting activity this season?

Not where I hunt, hardly any shots, our deer processor is one of the biggest in the state, opening day evening youd see 30-40 deer lined up. This year, like a ghost town. Maybe one or two deer laying on the concrete when you drive by.

Colorado continues to be a zoo. More and more hunters every year. I hunted 1st elk, that's a limited draw season. You have to draw a tag to hunt, so a fixed number of hunters. While it's a fixed number of hunters, it sure didn't seem like it. There were camps along the side of the main road through the unit that had at least two dozen pickups, and about the same number of RVs and tents. My daughter said it looked like a used truck sales lot. On the flip side, the road we were on did not allow for ATV travel (which I'm mostly happy about) and had very few camp sites so it forced a lot of hunters to share the larger camp sites. In the woods we didn't see many hunters; however, we were significantly past the threshold of convenient hiking to get to our spots.

Hunting in CO has seemingly skyrocketed in the last 5 years. Did bow season last year and saw way more hunters, camouflaged and all, then this year during gun season. Insane numbers of people in the woods here.

That sums it up pretty good.Look at the number of left over tags we saw years ago,vs what you see now. CPW is making a bunch of money now having the 2nd draw

Extreme northern California used to have very good blacktail deer populations. For various reasons that population has crashed. But facing a revenue reduction the CDF&G still continues to sell 2 buck tags per hunter. The folks down south who don't know, say, whoa, look here, there must be deer up there...it's a 2 buck zone. So with high hopes they travel north, tags in hand and hopes in their heart. Success numbers have been in the basement for 7 to 10 years, so yes the woods are overpopulated...but not with deer.

A few years ago I took the family to Green Bay to watch a football game. We drove through N.D, MN and WI in so doing. In the past two hunting seasons here in Montana I have collectively seen more ND, WI and MN plates here in Montana than I did on that whole round trip through all of those states. Good for you out-of-staters for taking your shot; but, it is extremely aggravating. Add to that number the fact that, at least in the areas I hunt, local hunter numbers appear to have doubled. I feel like a hypocrite because I am truly all for promoting our sport and maintaining the hunting heritage; but, holy cow it does get aggravating.

I will give some kudos though. I'm one to hike back in and work my ass off. Even that doesn't guarantee one to be away from the crowds as I am blown away by my ability to stumble across someone else 3, 4 or 5 miles from the nearest road.

Same woods traffic for archery & muzzleloader as years past (virtually nil) I’m seeing some older guys getting back into archery now that we’re allowed to use crossbows. VT is an aging state but, in my area, it’s becoming a common conversation about getting kids involved. We’ll see how rifle season plays out. I track in VT, NH, NY & ME - wherever there is snow - I go.

This reminded me of a time I packed several miles in on a solo backpack elk hunt in Oregon. I had been back there several days and was creeping along a ridgeline inside the timber when I find a guy laying on the ground sleeping. I lit him up with a full blown bugle! LOL He came straight up and found me lmao. He was a real sport about it and we struck up a friendship. Both of us were surprised to see anyone else out there.

You possibly hunt where I do.. almost as many Washington and CA plates as ID

It’s that way in northern MN as well. Lack of interest in younger generation is part, but that isn’t helped by the decimation of the deer herd in many areas by the wolves, bears, and bobcats.
The big deer camps in the back bush are certainly shrinking, replaced a bit by the guys going to their many new lake cabins, hunting a bit but watching football more.
Lotta money all in for that hunting time with general success no where near what it once was. The bigger deer camps in the back country I visit from time to time have the best pictures pinned to the wall, of times past.

Osky

CA and WA plates are seen in crazy numbers in SE Montana as well. Then again they are only there because the State allows it.


Osky

I put six deer in the freezer last season and spent less than 200.00 including license/tags, gas and cartridges.

I guess it just depends and where/why/what.
On our place we've killed as many as 10 deer in a year[100+/- acres] and you wouldn't even know we were hunting them.
When our son was at college and living off campus venison WAS his protein.
He'd come home and kill 1-2 every weekend, cut, pack and take back as much as he had freezer room for along with enough to make jerky around the clock for he and friends.

I was in Ga. last week helping a guy on his lease, it was opening week , when I used to hunt down there I have heard as many as 200 shots by 9 am., in two days I heard 6 shots , 3 or 4 may have been target practice. Saw no hunters

Yeah, it would have cost me less than that but I went to camp a few times, which is an hours drive away. I have 326 acres of private land right out the back door to hunt, plus thousands of acres of State land just a couple miles up the road so kill most of mine close to home. Hunting and wild game meat doesn't have to cost a fortune. In fact, it can be very economical if you hunt close to home and don't think you need to buy a new rifle every time you pick up eggs or milk and shoot up 40,000 rds. of centerfire ammo every year.

It seems the west has become a destination for big game hunting trips. Go West, see the mountains, camp in a canvas tent (or a $100,000 5th wheel), walk around the woods with a brand new 6.5Needmore, and bring a trailer full of ATV's. No matter what, be sure to bring a big box store 4000watt generator made in China with muffler equivalent of straight pipes on a 69 Camaro.

In CO, my casual view is that a lot of in-state rifle hunters have moved to archery thinking it will be less crowded. And in doing so, made archery season just as crowded as gun season. Out of stater's continue to increase in numbers in the rifle hunts. I'd estimate 40% of the vehicles we see during 1st season rifle have out of state tags. While I like the access an ATV can bring, I'm getting to opinion that the Forest Service and BLM should close some of the access roads to all vehicular traffic, or limit it to game removal only. No rifles allowed in the truck or ATV, and/or need to show a punched tag. The ATV traffic has become insane. At 4am it's a buzz of engines - and oh yeah, those generators.

Rifle hunting and even archery is an opening day ambush. It's not hunting anymore. By day three of the season 90% of the animals have rushed onto private. Even wardens we've talked to openly admit it. Close the roads, let people walk in or horseback/mule in, let the animals be natural and allow for a chance at a real hunt. Keep the hunt, a hunt.

Yep, sounds like where I hunted. Had to take your own parking space.

I can buy a lot of beef for what I spend hunting every year. And beef is 100% success rate. LOL[/quote] I put six deer in the freezer last season and spent less than 200.00 including license/tags, gas and cartridges.[/quote]

Not everyone lives in a state where limits are generous or game that available. 40+ years ago in Southern CA I’d take 2 deer a year on my tags & fill more for the old man’s friends. These days the no hunting areas & mountain lions have really reduced the deer numbers where before they were plentiful. I can process my own but won’t invest the time hunting as often for so little return in state. Better to be an interloper in CO with those awful CA plates.

This.
Archery hunting has exploded in recent years. Back when I could wrangle a archery tag and rifle tag for elk the places I archery hunted I rarely saw another archery hunter. Not anymore......

Pretty sure in the GMU's I hunt the number of archers equal or exceed the 2nd season rifle hunters.

Co has become a zoo, mostly fuken Texans and I think they all bring 2 razors. We need a heavy snow, a lot of them will be in the ditch or stuck with there 100,000 campers.