Here in my state of Wisconsin, the issue is much more complex than "it’s a problem we do to ourselves". Back in the 60s when I first started hunting, you hardly ever saw a "No Trespassing" sign. When you did, for the most part, all you had to do was stop at the farmhouse and ask permission. Back then 90% of the kids I went to school with lived on a farm with 160 acres, more or less. The land was owned to make a living, not to hunt. Farms were side by side, so with the "you let me hunt yours, you can hunt mine" philosophy, one could hunt thousands of acres. You could track a wounded deer for miles and many times the land owner would help. As a matter of fact, up until the 60s, the majority of deer in the state were not anywhere near farm land. They were all up in the northern part of the state or in the central part of the state on large parcels of forested state owned land. My grandfather owned 240 acres in central Wisconsin when I was kid and he went north to Conover every year to hunt State and Federal land, because there were very few deer on his property or on surrounding property. Same was true about the farmers around the small town I grew up in. They all went to state land for the week, because there were no deer on their property. This is why "Deer Camps" became so popular. Hunters were too far from home to go back every-night. Used to be one could not walk very far on any public land without coming across a tarpaper shack with a old rusty wood stove in the corner, and some makeshift bed frames in the other. Generally a pit outside you didn't want to step in. As a kid I would ask about bow hunting local farms and the owners would laugh and say, "sure....shoot all you want!" Once the deer adapted and moved into Ag Land and I started to success on some on these farms......things started to change. Still could hunt, most of the same farms, but some were delegated to bow only. Once the deer appeared in the southern half of the state, so did those folks wanting to buy the land, not to farm....but to hunt. Then the deer became "theirs". Then the "No Trespassing" signs began to appear and when you knocked on those doors, odds were you were told no. Price of land with good hunting went up. Farms were no longer side by side, but checkerboarded with parcels of "Recreational" land. Now. even if you had permission to hunt one farm, odds were, the neighbor would not only deny you the chance to track your wounded deer, odds were they'd jump on the bloodtrail and tag it as their own. Deer became a prize, not just food. Horns became a hot commodity, and viewed as some form of manliness. deer were not ours anymore....they became mine! Nowadays, it's hard to even find a farm. If you do, it has no woods on it. The woods was sold off because it was worth substantially more to some one from the city for hunting land than it was for farming. Cows aren't pastured anymore....they are left in loafing barns all day now. Bad feelings because of the greed over deer has made so neighbors sit on the fence and patrol their land all season now......."ain't gonna get my deer!"
Yes, some hunters spoiled it for others. That kind of behavior has been around forever, but in the past it wasn't held against all of us. Now many times that's just a easy way to say no. Kinda like the liability line. No, the biggest change and issue is the change in culture. Deer hunting culture itself has changed. Used to be neighbors would happily push deer to their neighbors, because the neighbor would push deer back. Now, folks sit all day for fear any movement in their woods will, god forbid, drive that big boy to the neighbor. Used to be any buck was a good buck. Now, if it ain't 18" across, you shouda let it walk. Folks pay big bucks for land to hunt big bucks. Folks pay game farms/ranches big bucks to shoot a big buck. Look at what even a 140" buck is worth on the hoof to a deer shooting preserve. Thousands of dollars. Most places charge $200 an inch after 145". I understand why someone who has paid 5 grand an acre for his 40/80, spent $2000 for food plot seed and has been watching a buck he'd love to harvest all summer, come out to that same food plot, refuses to let a stranger hunt. I understand, but it's still sad.
BTW....My grandpa's old farm is now in the middle of the county with the highest yearly deer kill in the state, and trying to get permission on any private land in the area is a waste of time. I only ever got to hunt it one year when I turned twelve, before he sold it. We saw one set of tracks on it then, in the snow and my Grandpas dang near wet himself outta excitement. Two weeks after season we heard the neighbor shoot after dark and Grandpa was depressed for a week. One reason there were no deer was because as soon as folks saw one....they shot it. With today's enforcement and stiff penalties those days are over. This has led to more deer and many more legal opportunities.....if you have a place to hunt.
