Where are all the deer hunters?

[Warren]

I have hunted state land for 50 years and always had to work around other hunters. Not too many years ago the parking areas would be completely full on opening morning. Not this year. 2 cars opening day, Only heard a few shots and by 9am it was quite the rest of the day. I know of one guy who went out Sunday morning and he was the only one. Yesterday (Tuesday) where we hunt, no one else was in the woods. I saw no one the entire bow season while scouting (I don't bow hunt). I'm hearing the same thing from others.
What gives?
Are people giving up because of poor deer numbers, lack of access to land or AR?
Any guesses?

[LouieM]

I have noticed the same and I think it is a lot of factors. Access is a huge factor and a lot of people do not want to put the work in anymore on public land.  The ones that do it seems to pay off eventually.    Also a lot of the long time hunters are aging out and less young hunters starting.  I myself am an adult on-set hunter and from experience I can say there is a barrier of entry. Especially on public land.   

[KillerCrow]

LOL this deer hunter is home on the comp, i have hunted sat till 9:45 am all in all with in id say two mile area one other shot, and maybe if i counted ones way off 10 shots in total till that time,
then i spent the day out doors skinning my deer and shootin the poo with a few buddies not a single shot was heard, and we were in an area with both lots of public and private land that is norm crawling with hunters. 
Sunday was in the zena area sat from 6 am till 10 am only close shot i heard was my doe, and two about a mile off towards the sawkill flats. 
I was working in saugerties today just up 32 headed towards palenville and did hear a few chime off in the distance

Long story short as mentioned it appears that the woods are quite silent this season, but i have heard from a lot of hunters that they are not seeing much deer movement

[MUSKRAT]

Maybe the ticks are keeping guys out of the woods .....Lyme is no joke ....

[greensider]

Definitely not the war zone shooting it was 10 years ago opening day in Tioga County we heard about 20 shots the 25 minutes prior to legal shooting time then maybe 15 or 20 all day and only 15 or so Sunday hardly any in the afternoons and one shot Monday morning

[GrizG]

Where I deer hunt it has historically run in cycles. One year there are people tripping over each other with literally less than 75 yards between them at times. Collectively they seem to decide there are too many people there and don't come back... 3-5 years later the same thing happens. Me... I've been hunting there for 46 years. This year there was one "new" guy who drove up the power lines. He never left them... I watched the deer watching him every time he moved from one location to another along the power lines. I'd put money on it that he didn't see any deer and will not be back. I'm OK with that... Lots of wildlife, including deer, to watch this year and I'm enjoying it.

[walkabout]

Not many of us hunters left. Every 10 hunters who leave the sport due to age only 1 is replaced. Im 52 i hiked 2miles straight up a mountain this morning and it took me 15min longer to get to my stand then it did 2 years ago.. lol. Nice thing about it is i had the whole place to myself. Not many young hunters want to put the work or time in the big woods these days.

[Yotehntr]

It seems like the more video games that they make, the bigger the racks are getting 

[rockwilda1089]

I Didn’t hear a shot in Putnam opening day until almost 9am and there were only a couple after that.

[joey]

I think, like was said, hunters are a dying breed.  Most of my close friends hunt.  Which is why their my friends I guess. But I’d say the vast majority of people my age do not. I try and take my kids hunting whenever I can.  And some of my friends do the same.  Some don’t.  I mostly hunt with my father.  At our local gun clubs there are not many people in the 30/40 range and almost none younger.  At a summer barbecue that’s one of our clubs biggest event I was probably the only person 40 or younger and for certain the only person w kids at the event.  Kinda sad. Really sad actually.  I’m going to try to encourage my kids to hunt and I hope they find friends with similar interests but undoubtedly the numbers are declining.  I don’t know what is the answer.  I like the less crowded woods.  I did see a surge in duck hunters w the “duck commander” fad.  But duck hunting is hard and cold and your instagram pics are rarely the piles shown on the tv shows. The duck hunting fad has passed I’d say.   There seems to be a resurgence in upland hunting at the moment.  Which is good. But.... Unfortunately deer hunting takes the most time and effort and resources.  Good for us for today. Bad for the sport in the future I’d say. Especially in this region.

[Mr Fudd]

Haven't you older boomer hardasses realized that after years of telling the younger generation what a bunch of slouches they are, and how easy they have it that they don't want any part of today's older generation.

[cbyzerman]

easy as mentioned... Hunters are dying off and there are no new hunters coming up in the world.... I am in the 40 yr old generation and only have a handful of friends that hunt and most of them do not hunt NY anymore and are leasing land in ohio or other states. The 20 year old snowflake generation hunters are pretty much non existent in my region. In 20-30 years not sure there will be many hunters at all in certain regions......... 

[touge30]

A friend and i went to a deer processor in schoharie yesterday.I have never seen so many dead deer at one time,somebody has to be hunting,they didnt walk in by themselves.And i might add some impressive bucks i was amazed

[KillerCrow]

after posting yesterday I drove around to 7 state access spots and passed prob 15 DEP access spots total amount of cars 3, total amount of deer five does a four pointer and a very nice 10, best part the ten was less than 50 yards from a state trail head and there was not a car in sight

[Appleman]

Only heard 6 shots opening morning by 10 AM and 3 of them came from me and my crew.  The least that I have heard ever.  I was thinking that it may have been due to the mast crop keeping the deer from bunching because they can fill their bellies at any oak tree they want.  If this is the case the bucks next year should be tremendous!