Is deer camp becoming a thing of the past?

[Dakota]

I'm not sure how it is in other states, but where I live the bulk of deer licenses are lottery drawn. Now, it's nice when you want to eventually draw a great area, but there's just no way to get the family together for a quality deer camp anymore unless everyone is bow hunting or just muzzleloading for whitetail does. Youth, mentored youngsters and first time adult hunters do have an advantage in that their tag is guaranteed for an any antlerless deer statewide starting September 12th-January 1st, so you can get a somewhat mixed bag of hunters in camp. It just seems like the traditional deer camp isn't feasible in many states anymore. Thoughts?

[elkoholic]

As family units, along with friends, disperse to find employment or living conditions that suit them it will continue to become more difficult for traditional hunting camps to maintain their yearly gatherings.  Out of state tags are often limited and expensive.  Here in Montana there is a Come Home to Hunt program/license which allows for a reduced price license for nonresidents who come back to hunt with family, but those are limited in quantity and must be applied for.  The call for hunter recruitment is almost ridiculous  in the face of limited tags on ever shrinking habitat that is open to hunting.  So, with limited tags at increased cost along with changing lifestyles moving family/friends apart added to the loss of hunting land, I believe traditional hunting camps are not that feasible anymore.

[wtnhunt]

Never really done the hunting camp thing.  Walk out the back door to my stands.  Guess our home is our camp.  

[Ravin R10 man]

Our Family grew up on deer drives, from daylight to dark. Land has been parcelled out now, and many drives have become impossible to do.

Stand hunting/tower blinds have become the norm along with baiting.

[fly]

Still feasible in IL as hunter numbers continue to go down. What used to be full camp sites during deer season were rarely half full since 2010. The big deer are there but in areas hard to access. My dad is near 80 now so we (me, my dad, and my son) have deer camp on my small 32 acre property. It works for now.

[Rhino]

It's still a tradition here in Mississippi and for the southern part of the country.  Don't see that changing anytime soon either.  Still seems feasible in Missouri too.  I guess it depends on the state regulations and bag limits for the state where you deer hunt.  

[Shaun_300]

We still do it in Ontario! Lots of camps around. In this area (Ontario is about 670,000 mi² so it varies by area) we are guaranteed a 1 antlered deer tag, and put in to have it valid for antlerless or antlered. Each WMU has a different success rate based on the previous years mandatory survey we have to do after the season of how many deer we saw and what we killed etc. Party hunting is allowed. So if my brother has a doe tag and I don't, I can kill a doe and he can put his tag on it. 

We generally have 5-8 guys in our camp the second week of November for rifle season. We usually do drives in the morning, return for lunch and sit in the afternoon til dark. Most of the deer we get are on the drives.