ldb pikester said:
A one day season, that seems very tuff. How did you know that you had a good chance to get one, to even bother buying a tag for a one day season. Back then do you remember was it a general tag or did you have to put in for a draw.
I hadn't even planned on going...a co-worker talked me in to going with him. I had never hunted the area before, so my taking the boar was pure luck. The general hunting license back then cost $8.50, and included a buck deer tag, a bear tag, spring and fall turkey tags, and small game license...For an additional $2.50 you could purchase an archery tag which entitled you to take either a buck or doe during the archery season...however, if you shot a buck during the archery season, you weren't allowed to take another buck during the general buck season. It was one buck a year. There was also a special doe license, available by drawing, that was available during the rifle doe season, which was always the Monday and Tuesday following the two week rifle buck season. Does couldn't be taken during the general rifle buck season....only bucks...and, if you took a doe during the archery deer season, you couldn't take another one during the rifle doe season, even if you drew the tag. It was one deer a year...period. And, if you were unsuccessful during the archery and rifle deer seasons, you could purchase a muzzle loader license (flintlock only) for the primitive weapons season which was the week between Christmas and New Years.
Archery season lasted a month, general rifle deer season was two weeks, doe season was 2 days, bear season 1 day, muzzle loader season was 1 week, and small game season was a month. There was no open season on elk. There was, however, a late season archery hunt conducted for a week in January, as well as a late season rabbit season for a week, also in January.
Overall hunter success ran on average about 15% for buck deer, 50% on does, and less than 1% on bear. Back then, there were approximately 1.5 to 2 million hunters in the woods during buck season. In those days, it wan't unusual to see over 100 deer a day while hunting, but the bucks were small...both in rack size, and body weight. Any buck with a spike 3" long was legal, and if someone shot a "rack buck" that was news. Dressed average weight of a buck back then was 110 to 125 pounds, and the does 65 yo 75 pounds. There were just too many of them competing for the available food. In the late 80s and through the 90s, the game commission started issuing a lot more doe tags to bring the herd numbers down, to get closer to the carrying capacity of the habitat. They also introduced more stringent antler restrictions, requiring a buck to have at least 3 points on a side for it to be legal. These changes have resulted in a much healthier deer herd with heavier bodies, and impressive racks are no longer a rarity.
Our bear population is very healthy, with some of the largest bears taken in North America. Each year, several bears are taken that exceed 600 pounds, and a couple over 700 pounds are also taken. The bear season is now 3 days long.
In addition, we also now have an elk season. They only issue several hundred tags, by special drawing, and hunter success on elk runs 30 to 40 percent. Last year a bull scoring over 400 points was taken.
Live Well.
