I started deer hunting in 1980. Back then if I shot a 120" 5x5 WT, it was the biggest in the family group of 10 hunters that brought me hunting with them.
Hell, just getting a tag was cause for joy.
B&C books don't tell the whole story, I know of quite a few deer that I'm reasonably convinced would make B&C but were never officially measured for entry into the books because they were shot by some farmer who didn't/doesn't give a damn about B&C. I'm not even sure I would fill out the paperwork if I were to ever shoot something big enough to make the books. It just doesn't mean that much to me and I'm a pretty avid deer hunter.
Outside of when ND was managed by the Indians, I'd say we are still in some of the best years of deer hunting when it comes to both quantity and quality if you go all the way back to the early 1900s. Deer hunting stats from NDGF would clearly support this on the numbers, the quality thing can be hemmed and hawed about all day long, but I have much bigger expectations for what is possible for each hunting season than I did 20 years ago.
I'd say there are many different problems that afflict the MD population in ND. Much heavier traffic has to be taking a toll on them since the oil fields are in some of the MD populations prime habitat, that's just a numbers thing when it comes to deer-vehicle introductions. Add to that the number of outdoorsy folks we've imported from other parts of the country and we've seen higher pressure on the animals (legal and illegal) when it comes to hunting. Sure, technology has it's hand in there as well. I started with a recurve where I rarely let an arrow fly at anything greater than 35 yds, now we're seeing people flinging arrows at 60, 70, 80 yds! Same with rifles and scopes and rangefinders and gps and ????.
I think the bigger question is why do we have to always find a reason to bitch about something rather than just enjoying what we have? Is this a millennial thing where nothing is ever good enough?
