This brings up memory of my wife’s nephew wanting to come hunting with me. I’d guess 20 years ago and he was maybe 12-13. I asked him what he wanted to hunt. Duck hunting was tops. He’d been watching lots of hunting shows and that looked the most fun. Bear in mind this kid lived in south Florida and hadn’t even been around a gun. I asked about deer hunting and him saying well there’s nothing to that. You sit in a house wand watch a field, you shoot a deer. I took him duck hunting in the morning and deer hunting that next evening.
The next day we slept in and went squirrel hunting with dogs. That was his favorite type of hunting.
I think deer hunting is the most difficult IF one doesn’t sit a field while in a house. I’m not dissing that at all, it’s just not experiencing the world around you and listening for all the subtle clues. Figuring out the puzzle and so forth.
These days using all the technology kinda changes the expectations. I think that’s a bad thing. Used to look at the sign and try and figure out the bucks and how big etc… from the sign they’re making. Now put cell cam on it and get instant pics etc…. Then they get named and put on the save or the hit list. Now it lessons the wonderment of what is out there. I think that’s kinda where we’re at.
I think taking the mystery out kinda kills the zest or maybe that’s my older cynical self hating change. 🤷♂️
I guess where I’m going with this. I think there fewer hunters in the woods year after year
I agree with you on the technology taking the mystery out of it, and I posted something similar many years ago here. I didn't have many to agree with me then and I'm sure they won't now either. I think cameras have changed deer hunting even more than legal corn has, and not in a good way. It appears to me to have greatly increased jealousy among hunters, even those in the same club.
I enjoyed deer hunting the most when most of the people hunting with me just wanted a rack buck. We had to find the deer from the sign he was making, just as you described. And it was a great joy if the buck you were chasing actually appeared and you were able to kill him. Everyone was still interested in the antlers, but they were more of a curiosity that you examined after you killed him, and if he turned out to be a big 6 pt it didn't make any difference to the satisfaction of the hunt. That type of experience is just lost in the camera and corn era.
Fwiw, I have never used either. My only camera is aimed at the gate, but others get pictures and I'm always happy to look at them. I just don't use it as hunting technique. I am not criticizing anymore for using them. If you are in a big club you may need to in order to have a chance. I just think deer hunting was a lot more fun for most before that became the primary hunting method.
