Dec 3, 2016 4 min read

As I stood watching the hillside, many thoughts entered my mind. Of course, I was watching for that special 10-point buck I had seen four times before the season opener, and it was natural that I was watching the hillside where I had seen it.

But I was standing near the road and couldn’t help but notice the lack of hunters. Where for years I not only seen orange-clad people in the woods a distance, from the nearby roadway I had also watched cars go by with orange-garbed people straining to see that buck alongside the road.

This year things were strangely quiet. I saw but one car all day holding obvious hunters.

I couldn’t help but wonder why the sharp decline among the hunting fraternity?

Was it so many busy young people with all their technology? Was it a lack of opportunity or the growth of posted lands? Maybe man was suddenly turning a corner and losing the desire for contact with the natural world? Maybe it was a little bit of all those reasons.

Regardless of the reasons hunting pressure seemed low, or I should say, it was low where I was hunting.

I didn’t shoot a buck but did see five small bucks, three of which were legal. But I decided to hold out for a few days hoping for the big one.

I am sure there are some who would disagree with my appraisal of the season as I see it so far. But the season is young. The ideal deer season is when you hunt for two weeks and down a good buck the last day. That way the hunter gets to go hunt.

As most readers know by now, my first deer hunting was done in Washington County during the 1950s.

Then, I started to go to the mountains and hunted in McKean County. Next, my base of operations moved to Warren County near the Buckaloons.

In 1974, deep snow kept me home and I have never gone back to the mountains to hunt deer.

During this past bear season I spent many hours on the stand near the Alleghany Reservoir while others drove the area. In three days of hunting I saw but three deer while in the woods.

What a far cry from the days when I used to keep count and would spot up to 50 deer in one day in the mountains.

Closer to home in the suburban areas and few farms of Washington County, hunters face no hunting signs. In the mountains, he faces few deer.

Is it any wonder hunting pressure has fallen?

My daughter, Kathy, and I were talking about the changes I see in the hunters today. We talked about the technology available to the younger generation and how little outside time they spend.

When she was young, she spent a lot of time in the woods with me. Do parents still teach that?

I also feel older hunters such as myself feel they are being pushed out of the hunting scene by antler restrictions. We just don’t walk like we did or see as well.

This can make it seem not worth the effort.

Even if we shoot a buck, we have to worry about getting it out of the woods.

Younger people really can’t understand the frustration involved in watching a buck and letting it pass because you are not sure of the point count, or the realization of the difficulty in retrieving the deer.

Many older hunters have decided it’s not worth it and quit hunting.

That is sad and the Pennsylvania Game Commission should be ashamed of the way the older hunter is treated.

I’m lucky. And while that deer might have to lie in the woods for a while, I can get help in getting it to the vehicle. I talked myself into it I think I will go out for a while.

Incidentally, for those who read what I write, and I hope there are a few of you, I have an article in the December issue of the Pennsylvania Game News titled Six Decades of Deer Hunting.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.