We can make the best of those cartridges with better platforms, better primers, better powders and better bullets...and we can be more precise with better scopes and laser rangefinders. Don't remember too many laser rangefinders or true weatherproof scopes being written about 100 years ago.
Overlooking the component/ammo shortage, this is the golden age of shooting.
I see your premise and pretty much agree. Like above the first thing I thought of was the optics side of the house and we do have better components. I'll kick the bee hive a bit and say I think the improved components have had a bigger impact on shotguns than rifles . But yes I see your point.
It seems to me that the standard pitch the last few decades has been that we need the new 'more' to do responsibly or effectively what we used to do with 'less'. I'm sure this has happened more than once in the last 102 years, where faster, flatter, harder, more accurate, tougher, etc. has been sold in such a way that newer shooters develop the belief that the new 'more' is now the required minimum.
In several ways, my approach to hunting and shooting has been regressing rather than progressing. This goes for the cartridges I'm drawn to, the bullets I've come to prefer, the gear I use during the hunt. Though my stuff is modern, I have quit listening to sales pitches.
It seems to me that the standard pitch the last few decades has been that we need the new 'more' to do responsibly or effectively what we used to do with 'less'. I'm sure this has happened more than once in the last 102 years, where faster, flatter, harder, more accurate, tougher, etc. has been sold in such a way that newer shooters develop the belief that the new 'more' is now the required minimum.
In several ways, my approach to hunting and shooting has been regressing rather than progressing. This goes for the cartridges I'm drawn to, the bullets I've come to prefer, the gear I use during the hunt. Though my stuff is modern, I have quit listening to sales pitches.
Maybe I'm seeing things a little different. I see a lot of "more" in the OP.
The most glaring lack is the flat shooting high velocity 22 centerfires like the 22-250, 220 Swift, and the .222/.223.
But high velocity .22 CF's weren't unheard of in 1912. Just that not very many people had access to them. Niedner and Newton had by then started experimenting with them, to name two.
I see the point. If I were to list the improvements in the last 100 years that really help me, though, #1 would be primers that don't leave potassium chloride residue in the barrels to pit them if I don't clean with hot water right away. Second would be better barrel steels that allow thousands of rounds through many calibers without accuracy loss. And I just remembered good scopes that allow older shooters, like me, to still shoot well at longer ranges. But, as far as powder bottles go, we had a lot of very good calibers to use 100 years ago....and the proof that they were very good is that many are still with us in modern rifles and handguns. And the bolt action rifle is still a very popular platform for some of those calibers....as is the single action revolver and the 1911 pistol.
Hey; don't forget the venerable old 30-30, which has been around since about 1895 IIRC. It was quite popular since it was introduced and has been going strong ever since. From what I've read over the years the lever action was also a lot more popular circa 1912 and the bolt actions didn't really pick up momentum until after World War One.
the 98 Mauser the 1892, 1894, and 1886 Winchester the High-Wall Winchester the 1890 Winchester pump action 22 rimfire the hammerless side-by-side shotgun, the 1912 pump action Winchester, and the Browning Auto-5 the 1873 Colt SAA, the modern double-action S&W, and the 1911 Colt...
the 98 Mauser the 1892, 1894, and 1886 Winchester the High-Wall Winchester the 1890 Winchester pump action 22 rimfire the hammerless side-by-side shotgun, the 1912 pump action Winchester, and the Browning Auto-5 the 1873 Colt SAA, the modern double-action S&W, and the 1911 Colt...
What can we do now that we couldn't do in 1912 ?
Nothing.
But nowadaze we have the Teddy bear toss. Thanks to President Teddy Roosevelt!
Since the .22 Hi Power came out in 1912, I guess we had it all.
It came out a couple years before 1912. Charles Newton invented it and sold Savage on the idea. He was also playing with other .22's before then. A.O.Niedner had by then necked down the .32-40 case to .22 for Dr. Mann and his experiments that were included in Mann's book "The Bullet's Flight" in 1909, and was killing groundhogs throughout New England with it prior to 1912 and not getting much sleep for having to build them for his friends. Ballistics not unlike the .223.
Other pre-1913 cartridges still widely available, because they've proved very useful, include the .22 Long Rifle, 6.5x55 "Swedish Mauser" (actually a joint Norway-Sweden design for the Norwegian Krag rifle), 8x57 Mauser, .35 Remington, 9.3x62 Mauser, .416 Rigby, and .45-70 Springfield.
In 1912, my grandfather was 10 years old. He walked to an unheated school and milked by hand. Ten years later, he was hunting quail on horseback with a 16 ga. SxS, in a place where you could ride over three counties without seeing a "posted" sign. You could ride over three counties without seeing a deer, too, but SW Missouri was a bird hunter's paradise.
In five more years, he had a Model T (and could have had a .270, but still no deer so he didn't bother). I vote for 1927.
Hmmm....this thread makes me wonder. If I were to vote for the best time, I would pick the 1950s. "Modern" guns were essentially here (after all, you could have a Weatherby or a Superposed), game was plentiful due to conservation efforts (funded to a great degree by hunters), and more hunting was within the average person's reach. That was the time when one could find a good place to hunt on private land more easily than today.
Not much as far as firearms go. Although LW bolt actions were not all that common.
Used to be a serious "Bird" hunter with Dogs usually had a station wagon instead of a truck.
The clothing choices back then left a lot to be desired. Comfortable boots especially. Never could see the advantage of pants that hugged the calves and non-waterproof boots that laced up to the knees.
As a general comment, I always love it when people talk about older, simpler times, especially when they didn't live then. In 1912 the average pay for American workers was the equivalent of $5000 to $10,000 a year today, and the average age of death was around 50 years for men (women, as now, lived a little longer), mostly because of infant deaths and adult diseases.
Effective innoculations against pneumonia and flu were decades in the future, the reason both were major reasons for early death. In 1918 the "Spanish" flu killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people in the world. That was at the tail end of World War I, which started in 1914 and lasted four years, killing an estimated 16 million people died and wounding 20 million others.
There were very few big game animals in most of North America, and unless you were one of the relatively few people who made a lot more than the average worker, you couldn't afford to travel where good numbers existed. Elk were at their lowest population level ever. And it got worse during the Depression. Today there's a huntable deer population within a day's drive of almost everyone in North America, or if there aren't many deer there's some other sort of big game. Yeah, Southern quail hunting was a lot better in 1912 than it is now, due to so many small farms, but on most of the continent hunting is better now than it was 100 years ago.
My grandparents all remembered those days when I knew them in the 1950's and 60's, and all much preferred their modern life to what they went through earlier in the 20th century. Think I'll stick with 2014.
My dad was born in 1921, and spent his entire life on a farm/ranch in eastern MT. He told me that he was in his late teens or early 20s when he saw his FIRST deer. He was riding up a draw in some rough country when he heard something, looked over, and saw a deer that he had startled. His horse was a bit startled too, as the story goes. So when the rules change and we can't shoot antlerless (read tasty) mule deer cause the numbers are down, I don't complain. I know that it is indeed possible to have great deer habitat, but no deer.
Mule Deer, you are very right about the advantages of modern times, but I think that there is a concern that modern times may change hunting opportunities, and not always for the better. When I was a kid, there were about three times as many farms in my part of the country as there are today. Same acres, but fewer, and larger, operations. And that means fewer people know someone who is happy to let them hunt. A lot more acres are leased for hunting, and unavailable to those who don't hire the outfitter who leases those rights. But on the other hand is CRP (still quite a lot of it, though not as much as a decade ago) and block management, both of which have opened up acreage to hunters. It's still good....but will it stay that way?
No bigger curmudgeon than me,and I would gladly hunt about anything with a 7x57 or 30/06,and a 375H&H.
But today we have cartridges giving more velocity (and everything good and bad that goes with that);bullets that shoot more accurately,have better ballistics and are better terminally,far better scopes,LRF's,and rifles that are generally more accurate.
If a person practices they can hit further and be more deadly, even with the 30/06 and 7x57.
What we use them on is a different question. There may be more hunting available than ever before in NA but if starting now, I know I could never duplicate what I have done today....many of the hunts I did routinely and inexpensively are 5 figures today,and some hunts I have done cost as much as a new SUV now.
Logistically I could not live long enough to draw the tags. You have to sit and wait for permits (years?)for hunts I did with over the counter tags annually.
I'll hunt Wyoming this year unguided,on mixed public and private land;but at least half of the country I have hunted since the 70's is now in corporate ownership and off limits. I have seen this happen quite a bit as the years have rolled past.No more access.
+1 to what you said Bob. But on the other hand I remember hunting in Colorado in the 70's and early 80's. There were so many hunters when they were selling tags to everyone from anywhere.
You could set on the side of a hill and watch swarms of little blaze orange dots moving around in the distance. I remember being on a trail in unit 40 as an October snow was melting, there were stuck two wheel drive pick-ups jamming it to the point it looked like a convoy going around the hill and out of sight, miserable.
Point being, the drawing for tags and managing for trophy racks has improved everything in the field, including chances at a trophy. Maybe the good ole days are now. Happy hunting
It was crowded and over hunted.The draw has helped Colorado...I stopped going there (after killing a 200+ mule deer), for the reasons you stated.Guess I hit it right or something in those years....Today it's a better place to draw a tag for sure. The quality bucks are there.
What I did was shift locations to other states and provinces. In the helter skelter of scheduling hunts I had to leave some tags on the table in the process, but I would hate to have to duplicate it all today.....I still have no patience for draws,and doubt I could afford to do it all again.
After reading the OP my first thought was 1935 and the Swift.In SW GA with the exception of whitetails the late 50's and 60's were the golden years for quail and dove. I was the retriever with a BB gun and have picked up 50+ dove on good days. very best winpoor
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