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Hunting in the wilderness, he says tongue in cheek

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My youngest son has deer walk by his patio deck on their way to his next-door neighbor's house. She feeds all the "wild" critters. The deer know they are safe from harm. Houses are too close by so no shooting. He has seen black bear wandering through the area too.
His backyard is on an uphill angle of about 30 degrees.
 
I have about 11 acres and hunt it just like you guys. At 78 I cannot go to the wilderness areas I used to hunt years ago. I don't see many big bucks but can almost always see deer coming through. It's a great pleasure to still be able to hunt. Most shots are 50 yds or less so it's perfect for muzzleloading. Patience will reward you with deer sightings and an occasional deer for the freezer.
 
I feel ashamed to read the reports here. Rugged men reduced to hunting squirrels and deer out their back window, because of age and health challenges. Admission: Since my thirties I’ve been shooting deer out of several upstairs windows on private ground surrounded by real public wilderness. Hot coffee, warm food, my son or friends at other windows, warm conditions when it’s usually very cold outside, we just call it “the most comfortable deer stand you’re going to hunt in.” A 100 yard drag straight downhill to the shed beats a mile and a half pack out of boned deer meat through rugged country and a serious downhill that ages the knees by the minute. In my thirties and forties I relished those wilderness deer. Nothing like the experience of hunting in big country. Now I really enjoy walking to the barn, firing up the ATV, and driving up to the dead deer and then dragging it right to the meat pole. Using the ATV winch to pull up the deer is so much easier than hauling against it by hand with the older back. So don’t feel judged here, men. We are all in this together.
 
As population density increases and animals adapt they stop being game animals and commence to be nuisance animals. No longer live there but am most familiar with the suburbs of the Philadelphia/Delaware/New Jersey suburban region. Lots of car/deer inter action. Insurance adjustors joke about suicidal deer. More landscape damage than you would imagine. Especially if a tough winter. Some locales have hired sharpshooters to thin deer herds. Coyote is everywhere but people don't recognize him. "It's a stray dog". Then the cat or the Yorkie goes missing. And birds of prey have rebounded. Have seen an assorted half dozen perched on high voltage transmission towers waiting on opportunity.
Before retirement I worked near the Philadelphia waterfront. Lots of coyotes and birds living on rats there.
 
I usually hunt the backcountry. But we bought 80 acres this year and I spent the first deer season hunting our property, sometimes with a ML. Had plenty of deer come by within range but nothing legal. Bear in mind, these are blacktail/muley hybrids and our season is August - October while the rut doesn't kick in for another month after the season closes. Can't shoot does either. So it's tough hunting. But I spent a fair number of hours perched on top of our travel trailer looking over some travel corridors. I may go back to the backcountry next year...

For my second tag, however, I hiked in several miles along the coast to get my (barely legal) buck with my trusty Traditions Woodsman. I'll keep hunting the backcountry as long as I can.
 
Just me, but I gotta be where if I get lost I might die, where most game has never seen a human or crossed a blacktop road or eaten anything but what nature provides. I'm not a meat hunter exactly; I mean I eat what I kill bit I consider a meatless day in the woods a good, good day.
 
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