Sometimes I have difficulty coming to terms with the fact that I am now the same age as old people. But like it or not, time marches on.

I do find it satisfying to be able to draw on decades of experience and memories regarding hunting, fishing and other outdoor pursuits. My father wasn’t a hunter, so I didn’t start hunting until I was in my late teens when I was old enough to buy my own guns and gear and hunt unaccompanied. That was the early 1970s, so my personal hunting career has now spanned more than half a century (that almost makes me feel older than old people). During that period, I have seen a great many changes to the structure and culture of hunting in Pennsylvania.

Some of the greatest transformations involved deer hunting. Since deer hunting in Pennsylvania has been regulated as a form of recreation rather than for subsistence, the prevailing standard was one deer per hunter per season.

Doe licenses were allocated in relatively small numbers based on county quotas and were also limited to one license per hunter per season. Buck and doe seasons didn’t run concurrently. A two- or three-day doe season ran separately after the two weeks of buck season. If a hunter drew a doe license but harvested a buck, he was done deer hunting for that season and his doe license became useless paper.

There were always a small but outspoken contingent of uninformed hunters who opposed harvesting does on any scale. Any doe license allocation, regardless of how large or how small, was too many. Some of those folks would apply for a doe license and then tear it up if they were issued one as a misguided way to “save” a doe.

During the 1980s, wildlife managers began to face the problems created in some areas by high populations of deer. Hunting is the best and most cost-effective way to reduce the deer herd in a given area. In 1987, hunters with the appropriate licenses were permitted to take two deer per year in the Southeast Special Regulations Area. Then in 1988, hunters were permitted to take two deer per year statewide with appropriate licenses.

Doe license allocations were also increased in some counties, and sometimes a significant amount of licenses went unsold because a hunter was only permitted to receive one doe license per season. That was changed to allow hunters to apply for a second so-called bonus license if any doe licenses remained after a certain date. Currently, of course, a hunter can apply for and receive up to six doe licenses subject to availability. We’ve came a long way from the generations of “one deer a year.”

The first archery deer season in Pennsylvania occurred in 1951. It was a “bucks only” season that year with 5,542 sold and 33 hunters reported killing a buck. In 1957, archery hunters were permitted to take either a buck or a doe, and the total harvest that season was 376 buck and 982 does. In 1993, archery hunters were required to have a doe license if they wished to take a doe during archery season, but if they harvested a doe, they could still take a buck in the archery or firearms season as well.

What probably marked the biggest boom to archery hunting in Pennsylvania came in 1973 when compound bows were legalized. I began working in a sporting goods store in 1974 and saw firsthand the amount of interest and the numbers of new bowhunters compound bows attracted. Compound bows in all price points sold nearly as fast as we could unpack a shipment.

It was also interesting to watch all the disapproval regarding compounds by many old-school archers who openly resisted this new technology. Their reasons were endless, mostly selfish and largely unsubstantiated. “It will put too many bad hunters in the woods.” “They will wound many deer by shooting at them out of range.” “Compounds make shooting too easy.” And on and on.

Of course, compound bows became the standard and participation in archery hunting exploded in just a few years. I can’t remember the last time I talked to anyone using a recurve or longbow for hunting. What I find hilariously ironic is during the early 2000s all those exact arguments traditional archers directed toward compounds in the early 1970s were being directed by the compound shooters toward the use of crossbows in Pennsylvania. And they were even more groundless because we had decades of crossbow hunting experience to draw from in several other states, including our neighbor, Ohio. Crossbows were legalized for general use in Pennsylvania in 2009.

Without a doubt, the biggest transition in deer management in Pennsylvania began in 1999 when Gary Alt took over as the head of deer management for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. During his five years at the helm, Alt either delighted or disgusted or both almost every deer hunter in the state.

But love him or hate him, we got antler restrictions and huge doe license allocations and a continuing list of changes to deer management and deer hunting: Wildlife Management Units instead of county boundaries; concurrent buck and doe seasons; and starting the firearms deer season on Saturday instead of Monday just to list a few.

When it comes to what the future of deer hunting holds, probably the most telling aspect will be what if anything can be done about chronic wasting disease. First discovered in wild deer right here in Blair and Beford counties in 2012, this insidious disease continues to spread in spite of the best efforts to contain it. Having recently looked at the latest map on the Game Commission website showing the latest outbreaks of CWD and the newest Disease Management Area established because of them doesn’t spark much optimism. Hopefully, there will be a long-awaited breakthrough soon.