John, I'm with you on this. When we didn't hunt doe for many years but 3 lousy days a year, we'd see tons of them. They'd circle our stands in gun season over and over. Knew we w ere there, but didn't pay us much mind... they weren't "prey" in those days.
Now we hunt them non-stop. Guess it seems to me that even the does have gotten like the bucks... either go nocturnal, or just plain gotten to the point where they know they're hunted hard and they have adopted the whitetail's basic behavior of hiding welland avoiding us stinky ole people.
I'd agree with Tioga too, that there are some things askew in the numbers game.
But then John's words ring true again. We have such a "patchwork" of posted vs. open (available) land to hunt, nowhere I go is it far from posted property. Why would I hang in my living room if I scented trouble and saw strangers in there...I'd just go next door where it's safe till dark.
I've seen heavy sign overnight in areas I hunted from hour before to hour after dark and see fresh activity sign after I leave. Seems to point to nocturnal activity to me... and there were only 3 of us hunting a large farm and woods...but it bordered game lands.
Tween hikers, joggers, kids playing from the new development, horse riders and hunters, all the local deer, even those on the farm, just decided to go nocturnal, huh?
There is something afoot, but it seems that the deer have really wised up a LOT and changed THEIR behavior a lot more than we as hunters.