I don't know how many will agree with me, but It seems to me that hunting was a lot more fun back then. Most of the strategies came from one's own reasoning instead as from a video or seminar from some supposed "expert". The hunt was all about me vs. the deer, without any concern for who I was going to beat out in some nonsensical scoring system.
It used to be that the conversations at the Monday morning gatherings at work among all the hunters (and there were a bunch of us) centered on that 4-point buck that somebody flung an arrow at, or the huge tracks that someone found on the trail that they were watching. Getting a deer with the bow was a super accomplishment......Any deer, buck or doe.
Now the workplace gatherings to discuss hunting activities don't even happen. Nobody wants to hear about any of it. And if you do talk about a deer that you get the first thing asked is, "What did it score?" If it happens to be a doe, everyone goes back to work without comment or the conversation switches immediately to the new tractor that somebody bought to work their food-plot, or the new lease that they managed to lock up for their own hunting.
It's a whole different activity with hunters now being pressured to compete against each other. We even have rules and regulations for keeping score in our inter-hunter competitions. Altogether different attitudes now. I have to wonder how much effect these new attitudes of hunter to hunter competitions have on the declining hunter participation.