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"I grew up deer hunting with no trail camera or cellphone. I climbed up in a wooden ladder stand or you sit on the ground with your back against the tree. You shot the first buck you seen , be it a spike or 8 point. There was no ”target buck”. No social media shaming. You drug it out by hand unless you were rich enough to afford a 3 wheeler. You took it usually to a country store and checked it in. Always some old hunters gathered around the tailgate congratulating you. Those were some of the best days I ever had hunting! I feel sorry for the people who will never experience this." That's how it was when I started in 1970. It was a magical time to be a deer hunter. You were lucky to get ANY buck, and a big one was a miracle. Yet we always looked forward to going deer hunting, even when we only got to go 2 days a year, the opener on Monday and the last day on Saturday. Our stands were all wood and only about 10 feet in the tree. Blaze orange was cool. We carried one knife and it was a fixed blade on your belt. We sat through some really cold and wet weather and never thought about quitting. I miss those days and the young, strong body of my youth.

I remember most of that . Sitting on the ground with your back against a ice cold tree . Does weren't legal to shoot unless you were wearing a Team arm band . 4 hunters could sign up to get a doe permit . Only the hunter wearing the arm band could shoot the doe . If you smoked , you had to put your cigarette down in order to shoot . Hand warmers ran on lighter fluid and smelled . When I started deer hunting in 1965 , I never heard of anyone hunting from a tree or a tree stand .

60 years old now started at 16. Shot my very first deer on my very first deer hunt. Spike horn, it was the toast of the camp. Gutted it myself then along came an old timer and he gave me some pointers. He politely asked for the heart and liver and put them right in the back of his orange vest. I asked what he would do with them? He told me its the best tasting meat from the deer! After buying a bow we put 2x6's nailed into a tree as steps. Built a little platform and stood the whole hunt. I really do miss the guys that passed away along the years and their stories. That to me is the biggest loss. Sitting around shooting the shit with them was great.

I guess I am the same age as both of you. I started hunting from the ground and still hunted with my Outers compound bow. I shot my first deer, a doe, my second year hunting. Now I pass more deer in one day than I used to see all season when I was just starting out. I also hunt Jersey and some mid-west states now. Most young hunters don't know how to read game sign in the woods. My younger and a couple older buddies only know how to sit in a tree and watch over a bait pile. They will use game cameras to see what time deer visit the bait. They then only hunt those couple of hours in the day. They don't understand how I can walk through the woods, set up in an area that I find, then see deer or kill a buck almost every time I hunt with them. I guess there are different styles of hunting, I'll keep to the old ways that I know.

Yes, even into the mid 70's when I started hunting tree stands were barely ever seen or mentioned. Sitting with your back to a tree or still hunting was how it was typically done. Hunted a good amount from treestands through the 90's to up to a few years ago. Now I hunt from pop up blinds or occasionally still hunt. Don't care to risk breaking my neck falling from a tree at my age. No deer in the world is worth that. Seems like these days shooting accidents are way down compared to the old days yet a good number of hunters get seriously hurt or die falling from trees. So don't know which is better or which is worse.

I pretty much hunt the same way today, no cameras no phone with me when hunting, never was one for a tree stand "too boring for me", I like being on the ground so I can move and reposition. Still hunting, tracking, spot and stalk, that is what hunting is for me. I will almost always kill the first legal deer I can draw down on. Al