It's a competition any more. Who can get the biggest buck. My daughter hunted harder than any man could to show she was tough enough for the challenge. She is 13 and God bless her soul. She was out there every morning with me to try and get a deer. 2 weeks of rifle season she was out there 6 days for she been up60 hrs at the least thinking about deer. One deer she seen full body while it was running. Only shot she had at a deer. She will not give up. What touched me was when she said dad, I hunted for 2 weeks and only seen one deer to shoot at. Now that touches anyone. The deer was running when she shot at her. Atleast she seen the full body of the deer. She kept warm from the hot hands in her hand muffs and the ones in her boots. She sat in an old wooden treestand and fed the field mice trail mix as they rustled in a pile of twigs below from the browse cutting years before. The season has ended without her harvesting a deer. But the memory we have ofour first hunt together will last a life time. Next year it's time to kill and enjoymore memories to remember. Amen
Sounds similar to some of my first years. We didn't always see deer even back then. 28 years later, thru tough times and good times, I'm still at it even harder than I was back then. The point is that even tough hunting will not deter a youth who is truly interested in deer hunting. When I was a kid though, hunting was the thing to do. Today it is just one thing of many things the kids can do. Has nothing to do with how many deer they get to shoot their first year. I have a brother that hunted 12 years before he got his first buck. It didn't deter him one bit. The high speed soccer Mom lifestyle is the reason kids don't have the concentration to enjoy hunting. They go full speed from one activity to another from the time they are little. They are trained to live this way, with constant entertainment. Did you ever have a hard time unwinding enough to have an enjoyable sit in your stand? The kids just can't slow down enough to find hunting enjoyable anymore. I think that hunting in PA is as good to me as it has ever been, maybe better. Hunting is still hunting. You can't use the short form or high speed version.
Today, people seem to think that a deer tag means they paid for a deer and expect one no matter what. Some equate deer hunting to going grocery shopping. Something for nothing is what deer hunting seems to be about these days.