RE: Is your state's hunting better or worse then when you were a kid?
Worse in my area of NYS (catskill mountains) The deer populations are way down,the forever wild no logging on state land has led to over mature forests with no consistent food source which has forced the majority of the deer down to lower elevations where they are more visable but most often unhuntable because of the them being in close proximity to homes or being on land which is now owned in most instances by metropolitan NY second homeowners most of which have no understanding and/or appreciation for hunting.
The significant decrease in huntable private land coupled with these other variables have led to much worse hunting in my opinion.
It was common when I was a kid to see fields in the evening with 50 to 75 deer in them,the same fields today will have one tenth of that.