I agreee with GregH and __Dan, you do have to look harder for them. I rifle hunted with 5 others and most of those guys did not see a deer. I, on the other hand saw one doe with fawn and one buck fawn, 3 spikes and a wall hanger at 325 yrds sneaking away from me down wind. Was it a successful hunt? Yep, am i the farthest from the road? yep again. They are out there, and letting smaller bucks does pay off. My brother saw 7 deer before 7AM opening day,shot a 6 point that I would have loved for him to let walk and taken a doe instead, but to each his own. He saw nothing after that for two days, but he also did not take the hunt as seriously after he had one on the ground. I would bet that if there ws snow on the ground the kill would have been much higher also, in fact, I'm sure the kill was higher, just not the recovered deer due to no tracking snow. Keep looking and changing little things and you will get your deer. I would rather see few deer and maybe a wall hanger than a bunch of 1-1.5year olds running around all over. Good Luck all!