I think one reason people are seeing less deer now than they did 20 years ago has a lot to do with hunting practices. Back in, let' s say the 1970s, a lot more people hunted and there was less private property. There were more people in the woods to push deer around. There were also a lot of deer camps where guys hunted together and put on drives. That gets a lot of deer moving. When you are the only guy sitting in a tree stand during bow season, there aren' t going to be a steady stream of deer running past you. If there are camps putting on deer drives around you, you' re going to see deer.

Also, the lay out of the land plays a part. If the forest is timbered and there are a lot of overgrown areas, the deer will hunker down in the cover and not move. Things change but I don' t think deer sightings in the woods can tell the whole story.