I grew up hunting in Central PA. Back in those days, I hunted with my family. When I say family, I mean father, brother, uncles, cousins, etc. We used to put on drives on the ridges and mountain. I remember one season we put on two drives the first morning and filled our tags (all 24). I remember spotting for deer before season and seeing 300 in a night.

I think that the numbers are certainly lower these days, but I think changes in the way people hunt changes the number of deer people are seeing. When I was a kid, the deer had no choice but to move because of the way we hunted. Now, they know the safe areas and hang tight for a few weeks during the season. The same happens at my house in NY. After the first day of shotgun season, it is a ghost town. A week after the season, there are ten deer in my backyard again. But they are just "dumb" animals, right?