I live up here in Steuben County. The overall numbers this year seemed down for me while on stand. I probably put in 40 or so sits this year. But most were 60-90 minute sits. I think I only sat more than 2 hours 3 or 4 times. So while I hunted a lot, I didn't actually put in a lot of tree time overall. I would say that I actually saw a deer on 2/3 of my sits, which is way down for me. I would say that I saw 2 or 3 deer on maybe 8 or 9 of those hunts. I only saw more than 3 deer on two sits that I recall. The volume of deer on trail cams has been down all year too. I am not complaining, I killed a nice reduction zone doe and two very nice bucks (one reduction zone). But all in all, it was slim pickings. On my farm that I own, my daughters and I have not killed a doe off of it in 6 years. I kill one doe a year off of my other farm that I hunt. I focus on bucks beyond that. Numbers are down, way down. We were a 4 bonus county for a few years and it put a real dent in the numbers.

Our county has hammered them hard for too long.