I will stand behind my belief that antler worship, driven by the commercialization of hunting, is the root of most of the division in deer hunting. Maybe it's too personal. I have lost numerous hunting spots to people with deeper pockets that only want to shoot the big bucks they believe live on those woods. I'm just a guy who wants to shoot a deer or two a year to put meat in the freezer and spend time with friends and family.

I'm not jealous of the guys that lease for antlers. I don't want to hunt that way, why would I be jealous? Could I afford a lease? Yes. Can I justify paying that kind of money for a lease? No.

Our camp which we were involved with since 1971 and maybe a bit before has died out mostly due to old age and death and the fact that the kids have moved out of state and have other interests. Sure do miss the old days of the camaraderie with the gang. Good times and lots of memories for over 40 years.

Awesome picture, MnMan.

This is the only pic of camp I have readily available but it was built by my great uncle back in the 1930s. It was more of a beer camp than a deer camp to him but he and my aunt both shot a fair number of them out of this cabin. I think deer camps are still alive and well in this part of the world even though we have a fraction of what the herd once was up here. Winters, coyote and logging decimated our herd. The camp fell to me when no one else in the family was interested in it and I used it as a base of operations for grouse and bear hunting more than anything. That's me and my daughters.

What is antler worship is It like those on this site that have Top Lot worship?. LOL

Don't get me wrong, I won't watch any deer hunting shows because of the antler worship. It's real.

At my farm, I just get to kill does and hogs anyway because I leave the bucks for my boys. Like it or not, teenage boys always have and always will like big antlers.

Still alive here in Maine.

Our deer camp was started in 1942 Willow Creek Hunt Club,at the peak years there were as many as 30 people,all deer drives till 1983,I asked if I could build deer stands to hunt from,then about 15 to 20 hunter,they said yes so I built 26 stands,we still made a few drive's maybe 3 to 5 per season.All of the original hunter's are no longer here,grandson ,great grand sons and daughters now,my oldest brother is the oldest now at 59.Our numbers now are between 10 to 12 now,still a very good time,but I sure miss hunting with some of the originals.So last year was the 79th year for WCHC,hope it will keep on to become 100th year I might not be around to see that ,but you never know.

If one studies the social aspects of the WW11 generation we find that due to the restrictions, loss and united efforts they pulled together and not only in work but socially as well. Decades after the end of the war this generation fellowshipped together and they also retired together. There were places in the south where whole groups of WW11 generation people lived in the winter together. Those bonds carried through in almost all aspects of life for them This generation is now almost all gone. Since the end of WW11 we have found things that divide us more then pull us together and if there is not enough things to divide us we will create more that suit our needs. As to deer camps they are an extension of that generation's fellowship. Many have lasted only because a few younger friends or family members have carried on the tradition. I grew up in Jackson County in the 50 and 60s when Jackson County was always in the top 5 for deer kill and most years number 1. Yet many left that deer country to deer camps in the Winter and Loretta Area of WI for decades. The hunt to them was not about killing deer as they could have seen and harvested far more in their backyard then going north together. I visited a couple of the camps and campers and they were pretty rough for sure but as was told to me by a couple who were in the Battle of the Bulge and survived you really don't know what cold is Bryce, until you put on wet boots with holes in them with no socks.

Bryce

unfortunately 2019 and 2020 were bad for us.

my great great grandfather built the house in 1888

the family has hunted from it most every year since there was an official deer season

my great grandmother a few years after being widowed met her 2nd husband at deer camp Roy some friends and cousins had brought him along they were married in January.

well in 2019 my great aunt who lives in the house had heart issues and had a fall in late September she spent much of the year with her daughter in the city close to the hospital.

she had more issues and again spent 2020 with her daughter near the hospital. and covid

while many hunting camps are men only and ours is mostly male family , my aunt loves deer camp and deer season and at 83 was still out doing a drive or two. when my dad was a kid it was a family reunion everyone's kids sleeping on the floor , I spent some years on the floor also before graduating to a bed. we have some female family hunt some times. we used to have friends that would come hunt also but it has been primarily family for the last 10 years or so we had one of my dads friends who was good the first year he cam with and whined about his divorce the next year and that is when it became family only. well other than uncle Bob who really isn't an uncle by blood or marriage but my great uncles best friend and has been hunting with us more than 30 years so he might as well be family.

so true


when my grandpa died grandma sold the park model in AZ they had lived winters in retirement community there they had dances every Friday night and grandma so loved dancing. She and Grandpa had met at USO dance near Great Lakes Naval Grandpa back from WWII.
she said they were some of the last of their generation , they had been on the young side grandpa only caught the last several months of the War spent more time on runs to bring people and equipment home than combat.

when he died all the WWII men were dying fast , his best friend from the navy also cousin in law who's wife set grandpa and grandma up on their date died in April , another navy friend dies in May , he held on thru June for my brothers wedding and passed in early July.

Grandma said the mood had changed all the young folk 65-70 just sat and watched the boob tube , dances were no fun , hardly attended much any more and being a single lady at such places only made other women jealous if you danced with their guy even if they weren't dancing , she had no intentions of anything but dancing either but , big culture shift she said it had been happening for years as people here age and older were leaving and passing away.

she will be 93 this year.

I have a cousin in his late 60s who worked with his dads lumber crew as a kid in the 60s his old man is in his 90s and still farming , many old veterans on that crew , he employed the guys who maybe couldn't work in town , swing past the dump guy lived in a little trailer , another in a shack or a patch of woods with an old car in it and pick up the guys to work. he talked about how cold it was cutting timber in the winter in NE WI, and these guys were rolling out of the back of the car they slept in that didn't run to work the day outside.

BRYCE still hunting camps around Winter, Loretta Draper area, but as far as deer kills, naught! People with food plots do get deer but if you drive down road like Uncle Toms, nary a deer hung on deer poles.....

My club in Eastern NC is doomed to fade away. Most of the members are in their 70s. Our children cannot afford the dues and their jobs and family evolvement do not permit them the time to enjoy all that their parents have built. Lease prices keep going up and it is hard to keep the farms we rely upon.

I think we have a few more good years left. We need young new members with lots of energy.

Here’s the biggest non typical shot in 1951,Ralph Rehder.

It seems like the old timers got too old or passed away. The younger ones don't carry on the tradition anymore more because the comradery isn't that important to them.

Ralph stopped hunting when he was 85,passed away at 92.Our youngest is 17 great grand daughter of Ralph's then there are 19,23,26 then most of the rest are in our 50's I dont think we have any 40's something maybe one at 49.

Everyone has their own reasons^^^ mostly blaming others or their choice of gear or methods ,as seen above

Nice deer

I think you guys forget one important aspect... many of the deer camps don't have cell service. It's not just the youngsters that can't go without the phone any longer either, most guys have to check in with the wife atleast 3 times a day.

X1000