Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer camp is what you make it.

A nice lakeside cabin. A little shack out in the forest-running water? Yeah we got it-you want water you run down to the spring and get it! A pack camp back up in the mountains. A lean-to at the base of a hill.

For us, for the last 20 years or so, deer camp's been a small cabin rented at a little resort on a small lake in central Minnesota. For us, this is deer camp, and unless finances allow our group to buy a place, it'll continue to be deer camp for some time to come. Deer camp's special to every group in different ways, but the common factor is it brings us together for a few days of fellowship, hunting, and just getting back to our roots.

What's deer camp mean to you?

Whatever you got going up there photograph it, document it, get it down. Would be nice if you posted the pictures here. There is book about deer camp, Pa. I think. In telling the story it told us some important stuff on the history of American living and culture along the way.

Never had a deer camp until you let us tag along to yours. Thanks again for that experience...we talk about it a lot still.

Deer camp, Antelope camp, elk camp, ect. We use the same camp.....merely relocate! The camp is a get away for the wife and I. We work too hard most of the year.....going hunting is our “escape” from our routines! For a short time, we don’t talk about yard work, bills,ect. memtb


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I am at camp know . 18ft camper 14 by 14 porch with a roof and a wood burning stove when it cools off. 4160ackers of private prop. hotspot my phone to get my puter on the fire life is good. hunting is slow cuzz of the heat but it is better than work

I hope we get a chance to do it again Matty.

Deer camp means the world to me. Nothing else like it, even though most of my old companions are gone now. Their memories linger on.

Most here have never lived a Pennsylvania deer camp experience. Those of us that have are lucky to have a place to call home for the week after Thanksgiving, now with the season starting on Saturday. Man, that seems weird. Dube, I'm sure there's lots of camps shuttered near you, just as there are by us. Iconic names like Camp Misery, Bear's Den, and The Plastered Bastards. All long running camps near ours. All no longer in use. Bear's Den is little more than a pile of scrap wood now. So sad to see. There were 7 camps on our trail,and it's down to three now.

It’s where we all share time together, fun time around the campfire

I bought my deer camp 30 yrs ago. It was 7 ac. on the fLambeau River in northern Wisconsin. We had 8 or 9 hunters one year and now it is just my son and me. For deer hunting, it is all but useless. The bear and grouse hunting is good however if you can get a bear tag. The smallmouth fishing is ok if you want to catch 10" bass but that is it. The camp is dying and I have only been there twice this year. Once to check on it in April and in August to fish for 10" smallmouth. The two properties are both for sale on each of my sides and has been for over a year. The winter was real bad again this year and the deer numbers are way down again . Thirty yrs ago I could go in the woods and see a few deer .Now , I only hunt it for gun season and only 1 or 2 days cause being there is only for memories that are fading away. My dad, is gone, brother, 2 brother in laws quit 15 yrs ago. They dont hunt and wont go there . Other BIL stopped many yrs ago too. I would like to just get rid of it , although I should shave a bear tag next yr. and my son the year after, I think. After that , I am sure my son will quit too. I will go there only cause I have no other place except in S.E. Wisconsin public land and it is very tough with all the hunters. I may just hunt 5 miles from home some day and forget northern Wisconsin.

I still enjoy being there but feel awful that my son will never know what decent hunting is at deer camp.

I'm at deer camp right now aka my year round residence. I can walk out the back door and hunt or go out the front, down the driveway and hunt the mountain across the road. I can point to the spots on that mountain where I've killed numerous bucks from where I'm sitting right now.. There are thousands of acres of state forest land a mile and a half up the road and 3 miles down the road. No real need for me to go anywhere else to hunt.

blackheart that's a good set up . its 24miles to my camp on the ST johns river but my back yard is on the intercoastal water way I can fish like you hunt

Here in a state where the large majority of deer hunting is done on public land, portable camps are the rule, like campers, tents, etc.

+1 Good friends, good food and NO TV! Doesn't matter if you bring home meat, kill the biggest buck of your life or come home empty handed, just the experience and camaraderie. Something good to sip on by a fire doesn't hurt either.

For the last several years deer camp for me has either been Mom's house when in Montana or my pickup when here in Wyoming.

No camaraderie.
No luxury.
No campfire.

I guess I am boring, but I don't go to deer camp to lounge around camp or hang out with others. Good for anyone who does, but it doesn't interest me.

I've spent the last 16 years filling a weblog with thoughts on this very topic.

It started out as a way to blow off steam from a high-pressure job. I spent the better part of 20 years looking for a spot. I liken Deer Camp to a joke; you either get it or you don't. There's no way someone can explain it to you and make it funny.

By the time I found one, I was already on Wife 2.0. I'd acquired 3 sons, my job had gotten even more hectic. By this time, I was determined not to let my kids turn into suburban mall rats. I wanted to give them an alternative to soccer, video games and getting stoned. With KYHillchick's help, we took an abandoned cabin on 200 acres and turned it into a home away from home.

The latest steps along the path came this past weekend. Originally it was going to be Moose and Angus coming down to help set a few deer stands and sight in their muzzleloaders for the upcoming Opener. Both decided to invite their new girlfriends down. Moose's new squeeze is an old high school friend. Angus brought one of the drummers from his pipe band-- a smart, quiet, willowy lass going to mortuary school. A good time was had by all. Moose brought sirloins big enough to feed hungry linebackers. I remarked to the women that the quantity of meat showed the boys had a definite interest in them-- real Desmond Morris-type stuff. Angus' chick had to drive back to Indiana to get up for church.

Moose's new squeeze spent a good deal of time alone with me in the woods, spotting me while I went aloft into the new stands to get them fully dressed out for season. She remarked that she'd never had a weekend like it before-- never so peaceful. She's a game woman. I like her. While the rest were out shooting on Saturday, we adjourned to the Thoughtful Spot, drank scotch and watched the moon rise. I think she gets the joke.

Our place is just an old cabin in the woods in upstate NY. We've had it since 1964. We call it the Beartown Hill-ton. It is located up Beartown Hill in Steuben Co. Go figure.

Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, my little granddaughter Esther will be the first member of the 4th generation of our family to hunt from our Pennsylvania camp, Camp Opa. My dad and 4 others started this camp shortly after they came home from beating the Axis powers in WWII. 7 decades later, we still have a presence on Boone Mountain, in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. Our camp is one of the oldest camps on the hill, and there's so many great memories from the days of yore. Sadly, my dad and all the other members of the Olde Guard are long gone, but the legacy they laid down continues today. There's just nothing like a stay at deer camp.

Sure you have. It may even be a truck.

Maybe...we grew up hunting little wood lots near home and also driving deer using slug guns. Only hunted when I could thru college and then worked a lot so never had time to really commit to it. Always a weekend day here and there.

I'd give a lot right now to have just 10 acres of woods and a week to use it.

Maybe someday. But right now it's still a weekend day here and there.

Since then I have started bow hunting to get more days in the woods.

That's why I started as well. Haven't now for a few years but would like to get into it again when time permits.

Going to the deer camp this weekend. I hope to stick an arrow in something

Da Yoopers ROCK!

Deer camp is where I go to get away from everything. No computers or cell phones. Of course it's in northern PA. It has to be. There is no other place where a deer camp feels as appropriate to me.

Many of our spots still are called by the names of departed hunters who could almost always be found there opening day. Cal's tree, Mike's Chair, Blake's Corner. But they're gone and now we have Brad's Tree. So maybe deer camp, while it seems constant, is always changing. It's a change for me this year, I'm back home on the farm after 25 years of moving around Pa.

So like Blackheart, I too can walk out the back door and go hunting. Brad will probably be out, Dad will be in the tractor at the edge of a farm field and I'll be out. I'm not sure how this Saturday opener will work out, it's costing me a day with my daughter and her family for Thanksgiving so I can get home.

Dale

My guess is, that anyone who drives half ways across the state to get to camp, ain't happy with the Saturday opener?

I can't say I'm thrilled with it. Dale, as for names of places, we have Spike's Rock, up on the gas line on top of Boone Mountain. There's the Pallet Stand, the Postage Stamp stand, and Dad's Pass. There a tree up there with about 30 slash marks on it. Most were from my dad for each deer he shot up there. A few were mine, and there' several others from other guys that know a good spot when they see it.

when I drive by an old fallen down camp the first thing I think of is all the memories that passed through it throughout the years. The second thought is how many stories about the one that got away,some true some probably stretched a bit.

To me, it's the guys you're with, the stories you make and tell around the dinner table. Doesn't matter if it's a tent in Colorado or block camp in the woods of PA. Not many things better than coming back from (un)succesful and hunt hearing each guy's story of the hunt or the old timers' stories of how hunting was 40 years ago.

If you can manage it, and it does not get so cold that the gas pressure drops so low that the gas will not flow, I'd suggest that you go with a propane heater and cook top. We can not get delivery where we are. So, we bought bought 3 - 25 gallon tanks. Filled off site they are pretty tough to handle weight wise, but are not unmanageable. We usually go through 100 - 125 gallons each season. That is now about $400 !!! But it beats the heck out of having to fool with cutting, splitting and hauling wood enough for a 3 1/2 month deer season. For a decently insulated 16' x 16' building a "3 brick" catalytic heater will suffice. A 2-eye cook top is about $100 and a small heater about $125 or so. Plumbing is simple and easy.

We ran a gutter down both eaves and catch run off in 6-55 gallon plastic drums. Excellent source for bathing water.

Smoke / carbon monoxide detection system. A great $30 insurance policy !!

You can put me in the unhappy category. I'll survive but I'm not liking it. For me, it's halfway across the state for Thanksgiving and then back home since home is now 'camp'. Like I said above, while camp seems the same, it does change.

Dale

I know there is a thread around here about camp pictures.... this thread is in need of pics of these camps. Let me see if i can get one uploaded

My deer camp is the neighbors house and front yare. I've been extremely fortunate to hunt with extended family and neighbors for 40 years. Everybody gets along. I was the third generation, now we are on to the fifth generation of family hunting this area. Pretty awesome. So thankful.

We never had what you would call a deer camp. We did have a tin shack where we would meet and decide where to hunt and where the standers would be before hunting, but those were the days of running deer with dogs. The shack had an old wood burning heater and a couch to sit on, that was all. We lived within 10 minutes of where we hunted.

Our deer camp is a one room school house built in 1875. It’s been retrofitted into a hunting lodge. Electricity, hand pump for water and a schit house. The original chalk board is still up and the teachers desk is still in use.

I struggle with what tastes better there, coffee when you wake for the days hunt or the bourbon after a successful day.

Im living at deer camp now too, I like it but not the same, as it was, Im the old guy now, mostly hunt with guys in there 40, But they are so busy with work and Kids sports that I see them less every year. I have one old buddy that I still bow hunt with hes 73 and hasnt been to excited the last few years hunting. only gos out in the moring on opener of rife, the rest afternoons. but I did get him on a nice bear last month and saw my old buddy back he was very excited again! it was fun but alot of work! Time changes not stays the same, just Life I guess!

This is ours in upstate NY. We have 2 bathrooms, a shower, wood stove, generator, gas appliances, room to sleep about 20 and a kitchen that manages to send us home a little fatter every year. No cell coverage at camp but you can call from the hill tops. I call it our big old geriatric frat house. This will be my 45th year here. Good times.

Cell phones do not work in camp, we have to get on a hill to get service. No service is nice!

Our cabin had the original electrical service in it with the old screw in fuses. The electric company told us we needed to upgrade the service, or shut off the power. We are now happily electric free. Propane lanterns, a propane camp stove, and a wood burning stove keep our camp simple and functional. No one seems to care, especially the deer.

Our camp still has the screw in fuses.

My Brother-in-law took this young buck in 2015 at our place in the Ozarks. We named it Trai's End as it is on a dead-end dirt road, off another dirt road, off a narrow county road.

He used an old Kerner Drilling his father brought back from WWII.

This is the front porch.

I bought the surrounding 161 acres in 2010 and 2011, Then got the 120 acres and cabin in 2015.

It is becoming the Deer Camp...building more memories each year.

The gun rack inside the cabin...

My son-in-law holding the heart from his very first deer, shot at our Ozark camp "Trail's End" in 2018.

The cabin at Trail's End

^^^^LIKE^^^^

Man, what a view. Just that would keep me coming back for more.

Excellent!

Very much so

30+ years ago I was invited to camp with a friend and his family in National Forrest here.
It was family tradition for them and the whole family participated for most of the 2 week deer season.
The year that I was invited was the first year his parents didn't camp[age, health etc].
Camp consisted of an octagonal army tent with woodstove and a kitchen of sorts in the middle and cots around the exterior.
I got to continue doing this with them for about the last 10 years or so that they did it.

Really miss the whole experience.

Sounds like a hellova fun way to have a deer camp.