Having just returned from a hunt in Pa., I had three days of driving to reflect on how deer hunting in that state has changed in the last 50 years... When I went on my first hunt with my grandfather in 1959, he had a simple shelter put up to keep off the wind and rain. We also built a fire... For a day and a half we watched the wood lot where he had spotted a buck hanging out before season..(He was the local mail carrier>>) Each day the neighbor hunted over the bottom behind the hill we watched, and stopped by for a visit. John carried an old 30-40 Krag with 30 in. b arrel straight military.. Grandfather had his model 54 30-06, with about 20 different kinds of shells gathered from 30 years of his previous hunts... I had dad's model 94 32 spl. and ww 170 softpoints. Later we hunted different woods with no success. We did see several doe. Most of the country was open to hunting... We just parked and hunted where we pleased..Through the next 13 years it was much the same. Most land was open to hunting, deer were not thick, but plentiful. Drives were common with both large and small groups. Some years we went north to the big woods, but mostly hunted near home. Folks practiced stand hunting, drives, spotting across mts. or fields, and still hunting... Most of the deer I took the first years were by still hunting, then I switched to stand hunting which was merely picking a crossing and in most cases standing by a fire. This was usually only done the first day and on Sat.s...When I left that country, these styles of hunting was still common. By the time I left that area for the west deer were thick. Seeing 25-60 deer per day was not uncommon. When I retired and had time to return to hunt this same area, what a change.... The north woods we hunted is void of most game, except some turkey, and bear...The area around the old hunting grounds is almost all posted... Deer blinds, the size of small cabins dot the mountains some higher that the local firertower!!!!! Drives are a thing of the past for the most part...Tracking deer is un heard off, most hunters probably couldn't kill a deer by still hunting if they were starving.. Plus there is little country to pratice this sort of hunting any more. In the last 10 years since my retirement, the Pa. game comm. has cut down the numbers of deer to the point, many folks I visited with didn't see any deer...The area I tried had a bunch, but two valleys over there was nothing...Deer hunting there used to be an open, friendly, pleasurable experience. Now it seems to be a cutthoat, private, don't look at my deer or land, experience. The need to kill the biggest buck in the state dominates many of the hunters minds... My girl friends grandson is just starting out and is very excited about deer hunting even as it exists there today... honestly I feel very sorry for him...And the others who only know todays conditions...
