Back when those camps were all filled with hunters it was because the deer populations were limited to the areas of only about half of the state. Those hunters that lived in areas where there were few deer had to travel to the half of the state that had to deer if they wanted to hunt for deer.
Also back in the old days we didn’t have the easy transportation we have today. Many hunters loaded all their hunting gear in a couple of cars and headed of to the big woods to spend several days to maybe all week at the hunting camp.

Those were the good ole days, but what changed that was more deer not fewer deer. That is correct, what changed all that was increased deer populations in the areas where all of those hunters once came from to fill those big woods hunting camps. As the deer populations increased in the areas closer to home the hunter no longer needed to travel to the big woods hunting camp to have quality hunting.

That shift in where hunters were hunting is also part of what caused both the reduction in deer sightings and deer harvests in the old traditional big woods areas and what actually requires multiple antler less deer license in those still hunting in those big woods areas today.

I can remember being on deer stand when it turned daylight the first morning of deer season back in those old days and wondering if it would even be possible to shoot at a deer because of there being a hunter in any direction you could look out through the woods. Soon there were deer running everywhere because there was no place in the entire darn woods for a deer to stand that someone wasn’t looking and probably even shooting at them. With the spreading of the state’s deer hunters over the entire state I can now stand in those same big woods area on the opening day of the season and never see another hunter. You don’t see deer running around in a panic all day, like they used to though, because they can just leisurely walk to a safe area and bed down or stand around in some cover all day where no hunters are disturbing them. Now hunters have to hunt the deer on the deer’s terms if they are going to be successful instead of just sitting and waiting for herds of deer to run up to them every half hour or so.

What really changed in the old traditional camp areas was from a shift in where hunters were hunting a lot more then any change in the deer populations. That shift in hunter densities also affected the number deer sightings in the big woods and remote areas though. That lack of hunters in the old traditional big woods areas also reduced the big woods deer harvests which then lead to the increased habitat damage and eventual crash in deer populations.

Hunters might not like to believe those facts but that is what has happened whether hunters want to believe it or not. I know, I have been right here in the big woods not only watching it but studying it for the past half century and a bit longer.

R.S. Bodenhorn