Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire No hunters in the woods

Thankfully it's not like that here. My kid couldn't wait to go to school and tell everybody about his caribou this fall.

I didn't see another hunter all this week either. Restless hunters wandering the woods help take the deer out of their nocturnal routine where I hunt.

Same here too. Very few shots heard when I was out, which was quite a bit. The roads got used heavily though.

Even though hunting is still very acceptable here to the general public, I don't think as many young people hunt anymore. Oh, they will claim they hunt, but its mostly a road adventure that starts at 10 AM and being back well before dark. I work with a bunch of young guys and very few of them really hunt.

Rifle deer season just ended... no shots the last few days. Very few hunters all season. We live right out in the middle of the deer woods and last year and this year have shown a dramatic decrease in hunters. I spent quite a bit of time in my blind this year and the deer were never spooked like they used to get in early season.

It's gotta be tough to get some folks going when deer seasons are only 2 weeks long, factor in Thanksgiving during that 2 weeks.

1st Day of Rifle has always been a national holiday here, heck they used to close all the schools 1st Monday after Thanksgiving. Times have changed, I heard 4 shots on first day...within a couple miles I'd guess. I passed 4 legal buck and 5 doe first day...and have seen many more since.

In 2B season is far too long, hi-powers thru January...then Muzzle loader and late archery. The herd seems to survive it, mainly due to lower hunter numbers...of course the deer ticks are thriving, make sure to check yourself carefully.

Yeah Steelie, and Bow season eats into the guys that rifle deer hunt.. it's six weeks long before rifle

Back when, archery season was longbows and recurves. Compounds and crossbows are now legal and can make anyone lethal.

Lots of reason for the decline in rifle season.

PA hunter are down considerably. I'm hearing estimates of 550,000 deer hunters out last Monday. That's half what it was when I started hunting. The northern tier has been the hardest hit. More and more, guys are staying home. I shot my buck upstate on Monday but now I'm home trying to get a good Doe.

The buck are back running does now, so stay ready

At one time there was 1.1 million hunters in PA, 550K seems about right. Here in the center of the state most of the land is open to hunters. I told my friend that Monday was the least number of shots I ever heard on opening day. The average age is probably the oldest it has ever been. Camps are empty up here.

Diesel, I’m just closing up camp here in north/western PA. I’ve been here for two weeks and just built one last fire.

Does a guy a lot of good. I remember when it was time to go home and squeezing every little bit out of camp, Thankfully I live up here full time now.

No good place to hunt. Georgia is covered up with deer, but there are 2 options. Hunt public land which mostly mountains with very little deer habitat or pay a fortune to join a hunt club. Years ago it was easy enough to get permission from land owners. Pulpwood land was open to anyone who wanted to come, but now they lease it. I still see a lot of shooters. Our local range has a lot of people who come and shoot. But there are far fewer hunters.

And most of them are crowded onto the leases where they drive their ATV directly to their stand placed in front of a feeder. The public land is empty. The Cohutta Wilderness Area in N central GA is a 95,000 acre WMA in some of the steepest, most rugged country in GA. I started hunting there in the late 70's and there would be 2000 hunters sign in for a week long hunt. The place was full of big bucks real wild hogs, not domestic hogs gone feral, and black bear. Today a deer there is a rare sight, but it is one of the best places in GA for hog or bear. Today when i go there there may be 200 hunters sign in and most all of them are in their 50's-70's. There are 3 brothers well into their 70's I see every year that backpack 4-5 miles into the same area where I hunt. I've taken younger hunters there several times. None have wanted to go back.

Good post.

I read about that place last year, very interesting:

http://www.gon.com/hunting/big-mountain-bucks

Today is the next to last day of the Indiana firearms season, I hunted all morning and didn't hear a single shot. I hunted northern Indiana opening day and out of 15 hunters in camp only two deer were taken, granted it rained all day but the deer were still moving.

And that's the way it should be!

Good read on hunting mountain bucks.

+1

DIL is math teacher at high school in a little rural district about 35 miles north of me. It's still talked about there. Matter of fact, students ask her if shes got her buck yet!

As for mentoring, Im still doing it. Latest was a young man over here to my shop week before last with rifle his grand dad had given him. We went over it. Showed him how to make a chamber casting. He'll be back with more questions and things to work on. Then there's always the grandkids!!! They like time in the woods with gramps!