PA DEER HUNTERS???????????

[Adirondack Bowman]

and when it reopens have a 4 day gun season.

[Adirondack Bowman]

one more thing that will definately make you PA hunters feel a little better. Spend some time bowhunting the Adirondacks.

[Earl Jeff]

The excuse was that the deer herd damaged the forest. the deer were actually damageing more automobiles than the forest, the real truth. also if the state agencies were allowed to keep up with their timbering quotes 1% of their land a year which they are not allowed to do because it would flood the the market with timber and drive the prices down there, the deer would have suffience food and cover.????? Trust me I work pretty close with the PGC it's not a lot of hot air.

[danseitz]

Picarelli
"I'm not an Alt fan nor do I favor the restrictions but to be fair,the only thing the PGC did was sell the tags...it was the hunters filled them and killed loads of deer,and now they're bitchin."

I must take strong exception to this idea.  I am not a game commission person and neither is anyone else but the few that are.  We don't make the game laws or set the limits.  This is done by the game commission.  Sure, hunters killed deer, but that killing was done legally USING THE TAGS THAT THE GAME COMMISSION DETERMINED WAS APPROPRIATE. To suggest that we should take it upon ourselves to in effect do the job that the game commission is appointed to do (e.g. set limits on kills) is sort of a nonviolent anarchy. Doesn't make sense to me. The game commission sold us down the river and we who hunt public land are forever screwed.

But, heh, congrats on the buck.

[Bob Palmer]

I'm not from Pennsylvania but hunt there every year...done so for at least a few days ever since 1977! It's a very special place! My father owns about 50 acres adjacent to the Loyalsock State Forest in Sullivan County. Certainly the numbers are down…in fact they are way down compared to the ’80’s and early ‘90’s. I do miss it!! Bowhunting in PA is why I bowhunt today! My home state of Delaware had very few deer when I was younger…in fact the yearly take with archery gear for the whole state was less than 50 deer in 1980!! My father had always traveled north to hunt the big woods…going with him when I was 12 sparked a lifelong love of bowhunting!

Even though I miss the glory days, there are a couple positives. The deer and the habitat look healthier. The deer are bigger…no ribs showing and does are more likely to have twin fawns! That was rare back in the day! And the habitat looks really good….especially in the fenced enclosures!! The plants are more diverse and thrive. Depending on your view whether the herd reduction is good or bad, there is no arguing the habitat has improved in the enclosures!

But that’s about where the positives end!! First, we don’t see bigger bucks antler-wise! I did for the first couple years of herd reduction but not many since…PA hunters are quite efficient and take most legal bucks annually on public land…that will never change! To get bigger deer, they would have to change the regs to allow only mature deer (e.g. 15 inch inside spread or something along those lines). Second, there are tons less hunters…I was up for the bow season opener this year and saw two trucks on the 11 mile road up from our Cabin…that’s two trucks covering 7,000 acres or so!!! There used to be a truck (or two) at every pull off (20 or so!!) I can’t help but imagine what that does to the local economy!! Third, we rarely get any deer! Sure, we hunt hard (harder than most) and see deer and take some every now and then…but it’s getting rare! We used to have an average success rate of 50% or so annually for the 8-10 guys that use my father’s cabin. Considering most guys were up for about 3 days each, that’s remarkable! I don’t expect that to ever return…it’s way too much to ask!! Now, on a good year, they get an antlerless deer during rifle season and rarely anything during bow. I know the tag is not a guaranteed deer, but it is hard to justify the expenditure every year just to go for a walk in the woods! I’ll do it forever! I doubt my kids will! I doubt my friends will!

I don’t know the solution…it’s a difficult dilemma to solve! The pressure to please all parties (e.g. hunters, foresters, tree-huggers, insurance companies, etc.) must be overwhelming…hopefully there is a compromise somewhere that will satisfy all!! Right now, the scale is tipped away from the public land hunters…perhaps someday, that will change!

[Chub]

i agree the deer pop is shot in the but im 38 started huntin when i was 12 i dont see the amount of deer that i did in the past . also i am a gun hunter ilike gettin together with my fam,and friends i made it a practice to buy deer permits and when they arive at the door they go straight to the can!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hoser1268]

The best thing we could do for ourselves is buy up the doe tags and burn them.  It would not be long before the deer came back.

[danseitz]

Just listen to yourselves. There is so much animosity for the game commission and the United Bowhunters of Pa. which started out on the correct side have turned into a shill for the game commission.  It is truly sad.

I laugh every time someone from some national organization or magazines asks everyone to support their state bowhunting organization. In most states that may be a good idea, but in Pa. you'd be foolish to do that.  The UBP is not on your side.

But burning doe licenses won't accomplish anything.  It would take some coordinated effort by a statewide org. that actually was a friend of hunters to put such a program together.  And the game commission would just sell more.  With the legalizing of crossguns more and more rifle people are buying them.  That means more hunters in archery season and ultimately less deer.  Not a pretty picture.

[jackdaw]

i have to agree with the bulk of the hunters on this thread. i reside in snyder county...just about dead center in the state....not a large county, but the number of hunters per capita might be the greatest in the state. the bulk of the county is rural farm land...a veritable deer PARADISE and our deer numbers have been slaughtered off!!! period! the amish suck up the bountiful amount of doe permits in sector 4-D and pound our small county and so do many of the other local hunting gangs! the many camps around the county are having less and less hunters in them and they are finally leaving the area to go descimate the herd further west , [near huntingdon], and i hear the hunters out their are starting to grouse about the influx of new hunters to their area. I personally find this humorous as the game commission chose to create those huge hunting zones...2 1/2 hours to drive from one side to the other. should have stuck to the original plan of "micro-managing" counties to help curtail the outward slaughter in areas that had high hunter population densitys. instead, they screwed 100 years of tradition and our next generation....that just pisses me off....jackdaw

[Red Beastmaster]

I got up Saturday morning, looked outside, and said "Screw it". I strung up my Abbott longbow and put a bunch of flu-flus in my back quiver. I went squirrel hunting! In 5 minutes I had more action than I had hunting deer in 6 weeks! I had a blast!

[hawkeye n pa]

I would say I had close to 150 hours in the woods this archery season.  And for that I am most great full.  But, as far as I could tell seen only three legal buck inside of 75 yards. And many days with seen a button buck and 2 or 3 small racked bucks (not legal) if I seen anything at all.  Yes this system is broken on public access land.

Work with a guy that he and his buddies hunt posted land with permission) and they had a bonus year.  Four really nice racked bucks and others that where legal plus does.  He is not much more than twelve miles away.

And I seen twice as much baiting this year.  To much TV perhaps????

[George D. Stout]

Jeff, I hope you called the warden and explained where you saw those baits.  A friend of mine found a guy baiting for bear last year and informed the local warden.  The guy was picked up the first morning while he was hunting over the bait pile.

[rybohunter]

Wow, after what now 7 years, y'all are still whining like 6 yr olds about the deer hunting here. LET IT GO.

As for me I had one of the best years since 06. Saw deer almost every trip out, killed a buck & 2 does within 2 weeks.

[longbowman]

I had a post earlier on being 0 and 16 for hunts during the first 3 weeks of the season here in Crawford County.  This is a place that I've shot my last 19 bowkills.  The last 3 weeks I ended up seeing 10 different buck but only one legal one that I couldn't stop while he was on a does tail.  I was and still am for the A.R. but I truly feel it should be 3 points to an antler state wide that's all.

[Tioga]

Originally posted by rybohunter:
Wow, after what now 7 years, y'all are still whining like 6 yr olds about the deer hunting here. LET IT GO.

As for me I had one of the best years since 06. Saw deer almost every trip out, killed a buck & 2 does within 2 weeks.

Your post smacks of "me-ism" from start to finish and really doesn't deserve one ounce of recognition. In fact, it is fairly obvious that in your case, it's "hooray for me and to he11 with everyone else". But I'll make an exception.

  There are plenty of hunters that have legitimate gripes about legitimate concerns. This thread is a discussion about the current deer management plan that affects each and every one of us. In case it hasn't sunk in to you as of yet, us hunters pay the freight, and many of us feel shortchanged these days with a plan that started out with facts that weren't true and has led to a he11uva lot less deer then the plan promised in the beginning.

  There's been some great dialog in this thread by hunters that have decent enough skills to kill deer. The only thing missing would be the deer. I don't call that whining. I call that good dialog.

  I'm glad that you had a great season. That's wonderful. Many of us did not thanks to a bad management plan based on false numbers and facts. You may be the kind of person that bows down to the sheepherder and goes BAAAAA.....BAAAAA....but many of us are not.

  Obviously in your own little self centered world, things are fine. But obviously, in your own little self centered world, you seem to think that things should be fine for everybody else to. It's not. Things aren't fine. And it's attitudes like yours that contribute to the great division that we continue to have and see between hunters.

  You should be supporting your brothers that are down. Not kicking them in the teeth. May your safety harness shrink 5 sizes in the crotch area with you in it.        :mad:

[hawkeye n pa]

Tioga, well spoken. And rybo count your blessings, I lived in an area like that prior to HR and AR.  

George, Yes I have work with the officers.  Although I thought they might recheck the area the following year on their own):

[rybohunter]

Originally posted by hawkeye n pa:
Tioga, well spoken. And rybo count your blessings, I lived in an area like that prior to HR and AR.  

George, Yes I have work with the officers.  Although I thought they might recheck the area the following year on their own):

Hakeye, you still do live in a great hunting area, that's gotten 10x better since AR's came around. I know Apollo very well.


Tioga,
I'm not really a very "me-ist" person, I understand there are a lot less deer in some areas compared to the past, but it's just been a while since I've seen such one sided PGC bashing & complaining. The goal was far less deer in many places and there are far fewer deer in many places. Where is the deception?
And for the record, I have had bad seasons. The 2 previous to this one, were absolutely terrible. But I didn't go complaining that it was the PGC's or anyone elses fault besides my own for not seeing any deer. I refuse to be a bitter PGC hating hunter like so many have become.

[danseitz]

No offense, Rybo, but anytime I see someone from western Pa, especially the Pittsburgh area, expressing how wonderful everything is in the deer woods, I've got to laugh.  Same goes for people that can hunt the Philadelphia suburbs.  You don't know what it is to be affected by the great deer slaughter.  You still see deer.  For many of us who hunt on public land in the interior part of the state, the deer are for all practical purposes, gone.

The game commission killed them.  I have no respect for the Pa Game Commission at all.  They are a bunch of liars who are in bed with the Sierra Club and other antihunting orgs.  If I had anything to do with it, the PGC would be dissolved.  They do not serve hunters and are brazen enough to admit it.

[jsweka]

danseitz - Be careful what you wish for.  Dissolve the PA Game Commission and deer management would then become the responsibility of DCNR and in that case we are not the #1 constituent anymore.  We would definitely be on equal ground with the "non-consumptive user groups".

Yes, hunting has gotten tougher.  I didn't see a legal buck all season while hunting state land.  And yes, I had a lot more fun 15 years ago.  But bashing the PAGC or United Bowhunters of PA won't solve the problem of more posted ground and increased pressure on public land.  That, my friends, is out of their hands.

[Wudstix]

Grew up in PA, I'm in Texas now.  Have heard the bear population in PA has been a problem with the fawns, also coyotes can be a bugger.