Deer season in Pa

Boyd Heaton · #1 12-12-2004, 02:22 PM

Is over......I LR hunted for 5 days.And still and stand hunted for 3....Saw 8 deer total.5 sub legal bucks and 3 does....Compared to last year when I saw an ave of 38 deer a day in the same areas....One more hard winter and its all over in the places I hunt.....Good job PGC.......No hunting for this boy or my crew in Pa next year.......My money is going to WV...

Swift · #2 12-12-2004, 09:08 PM

Yup thanks to the PGC, DCNR, and the hunters that gotta kill as many deer as they can we are doing a fine job of screwing up deer huntin here in PA.

Classicvette63 · #3 12-12-2004, 10:25 PM

3 and a half days and I saw 4 deer and a few tails. Thanks gary alt and the pgc. Why is it that there were more deer before everyone seemed to everything about managing the deer herd?

ol_spark · #4 12-13-2004, 10:58 AM

I don't know about WVA but bigbrother and I said the very same thing on the last day around 2:30 in the afternoon as we were traveling home from our hunt. Next year we are not hunting Pa but other states. What a same! We're already driving an hour away from home to hunt and we live in the country. Thanks PGC.

Bob_Pa. · #5 12-14-2004, 12:27 PM

I hunted 2 day's, not 1 deer, I have not seen a deer while hunting for 2 year's.

ringneck 1 · #6 12-17-2004, 09:00 AM

Being 63 years old .started out few deer then lots of deer now back to few deer .Being older you learn to change with the times people who really enjoy the sport of hunting will figure it out .this probably be the way it will remain .know more easy deer in most areas.to me its the best time of the year .already looking for archery season next year.Be positive youll get there

dunwerkin · #7 12-21-2004, 05:24 PM

our deer hunting in Pa. is done, thanks to Dr. Gary Ault. We should all go to a different state to do our deer hunting. My findings this past season matched yours Boyd. We have been hoodwinked by the Pa Game Comm. .. Sad

dunwerkin

Mike Moss · #8 12-22-2004, 12:58 AM

I have hunted deer in PA only twice back in the 1970's and each time I got a buck. They were fork horns and I was happy to get something.

We were talking some about going back to PA but then we found out about the antler restrictions. It's way to complicated now for an out of state hunter. I just don't have the time to get a doe permit and maybe out of staters can't get them anyway. Correct me if I am wrong about that. Tell you what though, I really don't like to shoot does. I have shot some. I guess it's what I am used to.

So PA is off my list. There are other places to go.

If the antler restrictions were in place in the 1970's my record in PA would be zero or 0 for 2. This does not make me happy to think about it. I also feel sorry for the PA residents. That was one of the truly great states for a regular guy to go big game hunting.

gd357 · #9 12-22-2004, 05:35 AM

Got a quick question for you PA hunters..... How many bucks and does are you allowed to take each year while hunting (bow, gun and muzzleloader combined)? Something that has been a bit of a mystery to me lately, is the differences in states allowable harvest per hunter, and what it means to the population in different areas. Just curious as to what the PGC has deemed "necessary".

gd357

bigbrother · #10 12-22-2004, 07:53 AM

One buck. (TOTAL)
In most areas, one or 2 does. There are some areas where they allocate extra tags and one could conceivably have 4 or 5 doe only tags.

Chew on this for a minute: Years past, PA had a 2 week long "buck" season. Then a 3 day antlerless season. (this includes spikes under 3") Then we went to a 2 week "deer" season. Which allows you with proper tags to harvest any deer. So the would be hunter in years past that came up to deer camp for the 1st week, could only shoot bucks. If he was lucky, he got one. Most couldn't afford the time off to come back to shoot a doe. (the season was a Mon, Tues, Wed.) Now that same hunter if he has a week off, or only the first day can kill a doe and go back home. This has truly decimated the deer herd in the public hunting areas. I'm only speaking of rifle season in this regard. Our Archery season, and late Muzzleloading seasons remained the same. We also instituted an early antlerless deer muzzleloading season which runs during archery season just prior to the rut. So for the past 3 years the PGC has called open season to shoot off the herd. If PA has a bad winter this year, deer may be on the endangered list next year.

royinidaho · #11 12-22-2004, 08:04 AM

Hell, you guys need riled up a bit.

Heard 'they' were transporting 6 pair of Minnisota Grey Wolves to Butler, Clarion and Crawford counties for a spring release.

Not that its going to happen, but it did here. Due to winter conditions over the years, we now have more Elk than Deer but 'they' are looking to equalize that by reducing the Elk herd as you read in that other thread.

Gloom, dispair and aqony on me, if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all

gd357 · #12 12-23-2004, 07:08 AM

bigbrother,

We've seen the same thing recently in Michigan. Where we hunt in the west end of the U.P. they have had an early rifle season for does in the last few years. On one of the farms we hunt, there were 12 or 13 does killed (on 200 acres or less). I spent 4 days hunting that farm, and saw a total of one deer (and just it's tail at that). About 10 years ago, it was nothing to see a dozen deer a day, now it's in the low single digits. In the fall of '95, hunters in our camp took 45 or 46 deer in 2 weeks (about 20 hunters). This fall's total was 25 or 26, and hunting was very tough. We were lucky to get as many as we did. Bucks were extremely hard to come by as well. Sounds like you guys have had a much steeper drop-off in deer populations. Hope things turn around for you over there.

gd357

ol_spark · #13 12-23-2004, 08:35 AM

If they did that, the wolves would soon be eating there way to Ohio because there isn't enough deer in Pa to sustain life for 6 pair of wolves for more than a week.

U R a smart @$$ Roy.

Evan03 · #14 12-24-2004, 04:33 PM

Roy

how would you exsplain our deer population.

i for one dont realy know, i hear all this talk about how heards have been reduced and hunting isnt as good as it used to be 10-15 years ago.

but i remember 10 year ago hunting with dad i was just alittle tike back then, heck he was dragn me around on horse back when i was 5 thats more like 12 years ago.

i remember seeing deer all the time and dad always getn his buck or elk didnt matter we always came home with something.

my dad has knack at not only filln his tags every year but also filling them with real decent deer and elk. he doesnt get his deer mounted or anything. he hunts for the meet and the hunt not to take set of antlers out of the woods. but more often than not i remember these being real decent deer. with spikes and forked horns and small 3 points thrown in the mix.

i remember being so excited to hunt with him ounce i got my licence, i never have got over the fact that i had the opurtunity to actualy hunt with him and not just be the tag along, wich to him i never was the tag along.

the year i turned 12 i got my first buck a small forky. me and dad split up and i shot him all by myself. dad heard my 270win crackle through the cayon just ounce. i came up to me standn next to my deer with my horse over me. he was so proud.. a few years later he told me that he just knew i missed because i had shot only ounce. he realy was proud. ill remeber that hunt for a lifetime. and everyone after that.

after that year i continued to fill mu buck tag for another 6 years with him filling his tags right along side me. we dropped 2 bucks at ounce more than ounce with him counting to 3 and us both squezzing of rd. man the memories. he evan got me an elk.

anyways someone just pulled up so i gota go

didnt mean this to be big story session

Evan

my hole point with this hole story is that i havent seen the deer population get better or worse. we always see lots of deer and have opurtunitys and at bucks of all varities.

sierra22 · #15 01-07-2005, 10:50 PM

Be careful about jumping to conclusions after only 5 days.
(I dunno how much scouting you guys have done throughout the year)
This season I went a week and a half hardly seeing anything, but still finished my two weeks with ten roe bucks in the bag.

Check the metereological records in the area at the given dates and check for fluctuations in barometric pressure. Sometimes deer just stay put and nibble,nibble if too much is going on.