The reality is that--upon turning 50--I have more hunting years behind me than I have ahead of me, and as much as I hate to admit it, the mountains are getting steeper and the deer are getting heavier to pack out. But I've got quite a few good years ahead, and it will be some time before there's any hunt I want to do that I cannot physically do.

So, without too much nostalgia and with no melancholy, this is a fine time to reflect on our sport, the changes I have seen in my short span and my spin on trends that I like--and some that I don't. The most significant change in hunting in the past 30 years has been the explosion in whitetail populations and the cult of whitetail hunting that has developed. The whitetail deer is now the most populous and most popular game animal on the entire planet.

I grew up in Kansas, at a time when the whitetail was still recovering and hunting meant quail and pheasant. Hunting wasn't crowded, "posted" signs were few and finding a good place to hunt was simply a matter of knocking on a few doors.

Through the 1970s, after I'd left home, farming practices changed. A lot of those wonderful weedy fence rows, thick hedgerows and brushy creek bottoms that held birds were gone. There were more hunters, more leased land and more "posted" signs.

When I came home to visit in the 1980s, I found that most of my old quail hunting buddies had acquired duck leases, taking advantage of the numerous reservoirs and impoundments and the good waterfowling that followed. But the big news was the explosion in the whitetail population and the fact that Kansas became a big buck hotspot.

This is a microcosm, but it has happened all over the country. In the Deep South, the favorite game was once the bobwhite quail. Wild southern quail hunting is now scarce and precious, but the length and bag limits in southern whitetail seasons are so generous as to be almost laughable. In the Northeast the classic game was ruffed grouse, but serious grouse hunters are now a vanishing breed--and there are deer all over the place.

Obviously, one of the biggest trends the author has witnessed thus far in his hunting career has been the skyrocketing popularity of whitetail deer hunting.

It's a little different in the West. While the whitetail has become an important game animal in country where the mule deer used to reign, mulies are still the West's primary big game animals. Unfortunately they're in a long-term slump, so short seasons and limited tags mark modern mule deer hunting. At the same time, elk herds have exploded throughout much of the West.

Another hunting phenomenon is the incredible proliferation of the wild turkey. Like the whitetail, the turkey does well in the woods, hills, and forests of public lands, and it also creates a second and extremely important spring hunting season.

Here in Central California, and in much of the Golden State, our deer herd is in serious decline. However, our growing numbers of wild hogs have long since supplanted deer as the state's most important big game animal. This is a unique situation, and I certainly don't predict that pigs will leapfrog the deer's popularity elsewhere in the country.

POSITIVE TRENDS
Hunters are more interested in a quality experience enhanced by quality equipment, and many people have turned to archery and blackpowder--not as exclusive users of these more-restrictive arms but as a way to extend their seasons and enhance the quality of their hunting and their lives.

Today's hunters are much more quality-conscious as they shop for equipment. The classic example is the tremendous increase in market impact of top-quality hunting optics, but it extends to almost all other products as well: clothing and camouflage, rifles, knives, you name it. Why is this good? To me, a day afield is somehow more enjoyable when you feel like you have exactly the right stuff.

I see good things in today's licensing, too. In my youth, animals such as sheep, moose and even pronghorn were already on a permit draw, but mule deer and elk tags were almost universally available over the counter--for a fraction of today's prices. Those days are over, but I like the permit draws. No, I don't like the hassle or the extra planning, but I enjoy the thrill of drawing a good tag because I know it carries with it the opportunity to enjoy a really good hunt and the chance to take a mature, respectable animal. Permit draws aren't the only way to obtain this opportunity, but I don't know of another way on public land.

While some may decry the difficulty of drawing some tags, Boddington likes the draw system because it means a shot at a great hunting experience--if not a great animal.

In general, this is a very good time to be a hunter. I've already mentioned the terrific trends in whitetails and turkeys, and in general most of our other big game animals are also doing extremely well. Pronghorn hunting today is really no different than it was when Dad took me on my first big game hunt 37 years ago. Black bears are much more plentiful and far more widespread today than they were then.

There is far more caribou hunting open, and moose hunting hasn't changed much--except that big bulls are generally more scarce. There are more bighorn permits than there used to be but also more people applying for them, so it isn't much different. I can't do anything about that other than put in for the tags and hope--and be happy that there are still tags for lucky hunters to draw. We have always known that the future of our sport lies in getting young people involved. This is critical, but as our society becomes more and more urbanized, it just isn't enough.

A smaller and smaller percentage of kids are exposed to our sport, and hunters as a group are aging toward obsolescence. The good news is that the fastest-growing group of hunters is comprised of women, but I'm convinced that a whole lot of hunters just haven't gotten the drift.

Guys, get over it! Ladies, we need you in the field with us, and it's our job to make you welcome.

THE DOWNSIDES
We as a species are highly competitive creatures, and hunting is a competitive sport. To me, though, the competition is against nature and against oneself--not against the man-made criteria of the record books and certainly not against another hunter.

Hunting is a serious business that, when successful, results in the loss of life of an animal. That life should not be taken unless it is fully appreciated and fully utilized. Each of us sets our own criteria: A fat doe for the table, a huge buck (which also yields great venison), something in between. That's up to you, but you shouldn't kill it unless you're going to be pleased by it.

Over the course of an active hunting career, some great trophies will come along, and I absolutely believe in the record books as a yardstick of excellence: How big do they really get? But I hate it when the success of a hunt and the quality of the experience are judged in inches of horn or antler. I fear this is a growing trend. One of the current trends that I find extremely frightening is the long-range shooting that is so popular today. Believe me, there are people out there who are absolutely deadly on game out to 600 yards and a bit more, given a calm day. I have seen them do it with absolute confidence.

The opportunity to pursue game on public land is a privilege all hunters must strive to safeguard or risk losing our sport altogether.

Chances are they use pretty good equipment, but it isn't the equipment that gives them the edge. It's skill born of practice. You can't simply buy the equipment and step out and duplicate their performance. But I'm afraid there are a lot of folks out there who believe you can.

I don't like fenced hunting. Lest it seem that I'm the pot calling the kettle black, I'm not rabid about it. It's a fact of life in many places such as South Africa. I have enjoyed some wonderful hunting there and in Texas for game such as blackbuck and axis deer. In fact, good Texas whitetail hunting that is unfenced is getting hard to find. But game fencing is not a fact of life in North America, and I sure hope it never becomes so.

There can be great hunting on adequate fenced acreage in natural habitat, but I am very much opposed to the "put and take" game ranches offering guaranteed harvests of big whitetails, huge elk and so forth. Montana led the way in outlawing this practice, and I applaud the move. I also applaud Boone and Crockett for holding the line--against serious dissent from its own members--on not allowing any animals taken within a fence to be entered into its record book.

At its best--large acreage, natural habitat, breeding populations--the fence makes no difference at all. But at its worst, it just ain't hunting. The problem is it's impossible to say where the line should be drawn, so for me the fewer fences the better.

I hate how much guided hunts cost, and I hate how much equipment and all the rest costs. Unfortunately, that's just part of our free enterprise system.

I am genuinely concerned that, as hunting opportunity shrinks and more people are obligated to buy into leases in order to have a place to hunt, we will lose more and more potential new hunters who just can't afford our sport.

I don't have an answer for this--except to thank God for the whitetail deer, elk, wild turkey, pronghorns and all the other species that do just fine on our vast public lands.

Our political system is such that we cannot prevent landowners from fencing, posting, charging for access or simply denying it--nor should we wish to. That's also part of the American system. But we need to work hard to preserve our privilege to hunt on public land in this country, because if we lose that, then our sport truly is a money game and will soon wither away.