Sorry hunting for me. The wife and I drove up and spent all week at our camp in Steuben. The hunting action was VERY, VERY SLOW. We saw 0 bucks and a grand total of 9 deer all week. I'll continue to archery hunt up there, but screw the gun hunting. As soon as the banging starts, the deer vanish. There were rubs and scrapes all over and, after the snow, tracks too. I know of only 2 bucks that were taken in the area. Nothing to brag about either. Nobody much farms up there, and there is no planted corn to be found. I saw many deer that were down in protected residential areas or on Corning property (non-huntible). This was a real wasted trip for me. Oh to have the good ole' days back. When I was a kid hunting up there, we'd see 30-50 deer per day. If you went a full hour without seeing deer something was wrong. There would be cars parked along all country roads, lots of hunters out to move the deer and the shooting (especially on opening day) was non-stop. I'm very disappointed.
I sort of don't understand your post. You complain about gun hunters and how when the shooting starts the deer vanish and then reminisce about the good ole days when there were tons of hunters and the shooting was non-stop? If there were that many hunters today, you would have even less of a chance of getting any deer wouldn't you? I never hunted in your county, but I have never heard of anyone claiming to see as many as 30-50 deer a day anywhere in NYS back in the olden days or even today for that matter unless you are hunting in some suburban spots where there is no gun hunting allowed.