Looking back, I now think that I grew up in "prime time" for most hunting, for the last 75 years. We had almost endless places to hunt, everything from rabbits, squirrels, quail, dove, duck and geese. Deer were in fair numbers but no where near today's pestilent numbers and turkeys were in other parts of the state. Plus seasons were long and limits were generous. You could hunt almost anywhere you wanted and asking and getting permission was never a issue. I use to run into rabbit hunters and would exchange good "rabbit locations" for places they had found coveys of quail. Rabbits were more a target of opportunity, than a object of desire and I was always afraid shooting too many would teach the pointer they were fair game and encourage them to run them instead of finding quail.
I hope my kids will not look back on these days and think they too grew up in prime times, like I do now. I remember my grandfathers talking about taking 25 ducks, in a morning hunt, and saying that the legal 7-10 duck limits of my youth was hardly worth going for. Perhaps every generation thinks they had the best of times hunting. Perhaps our hunting is in steep decline because too many places I hunted in my youth now have houses sitting on them.
Deer, turkeys and a slightly increased Dove limit are the only improvements in hunting from my youth. Quail are near extinction levels, ducks are down, geese are down, pheasant are almost gone in most places I hunt. Release and harvest are more what people seem to enjoy than I want to experience. I would rather have a Black Duck give me four swing passes ,just out of range and then fly off for no reason than ten dumb released Mallards, fly right to my decoys, or a dozen released pheasants get up all of ten feet in front of the dog.
Did you grow up in "prime time" or are you as older than that? Or is this your prime time?
