Outdoor writer Jim Collins is asking PA hunters to report their opinions of the 2010 season.
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Outdoors with Jim Collins......Deer Hunting – 2010 – Part I
We would like to have those of you who read this column, and are deer hunters, to relate your deer hunting experiences during the 2010 deer season in Pennsylvania; and respond to me either by e-mail at: jimcollinsinsurance@frontiernet.net or by writing to me at: Outdoors with Jim Collins; 87 Windfall Road, Alba, PA 16910. No phone calls please.
We live in Bradford County in a small town of perhaps 170 residents near State Route 14 between Canton and Troy. I have the privilege to walk out of my house, cross the Alba Cemetery, insert my clip and go deer hunting. The area is thick, swampy and ideal deer cover with farm fields on either side of the swamp. I can see Tom Young’s Clydesdale horses, which weigh over 2,000 pounds and stand about 7 feet tall at the head, disappear in the hardhack when I am standing along Windfall Road.
What we are looking for is this: your days spent afield hunting deer; the various deer seasons that you hunted in; deer seen each day, sub-legal bucks, legal bucks, antlerless deer seen, whether or not you shot at a deer, antlered or antlerless, the Wildlife Management Unit (s) you hunted in and the County (s) you hunted in. You can also add the results of any members of your deer hunting party in the event you did not hunt alone.
If you own or know someone who owns a business which caters to deer hunters, what increase or decrease in sales have you experienced in the last 10 years? If you are a deer processor, what have been you deer processing numbers in the last 10 years?
Starting with my column of January 9th, without any names, we will tabulate and publish the results over several weeks of columns. We hear various stories from hunters that I have polled; this is your chance to add to the mix. I have always believed that deer hunters have a better take on deer populations that any wildlife agency, such as the Pennsylvania Game Commission. I continue to believe that statement.
When I started hunting deer seriously in 1967 after a 2 year tour of active duty in the United States Navy, we hunted in Bradford County, where my Dad grew up hunting deer. We had 12 days of buck season, followed by 2 or 3 days of antlerless deer season. The seasons for deer hunting seemed to work well for us deer hunters.
I killed my first deer in l968, a spike buck on opening day at 1:30 p.m. I was of course delighted. The buck walked out into an open field; my shot from my Sako .243 was quite easy. It is still one of the most important kills of my deer hunting experiences. My Dad was proud to share that first kill with me at the end of the day. We never left the field until legal shooting hours ended. I am sure that no deer hunter ever forgets the details of their first deer kill.
On that stretch of Armenia Mountain, just north of Canton, PA, I killed my first 10 deer; mostly bucks and a few antlerless deer. I used to hear nearly 70-100 rifle shots within the first hour of legal shooting time during the first day of buck season on the 4 farms that I hunted on and in the valley below. We saw many deer each opening day; perhaps 20 or more deer.
In that same area, a local hunter and one of those landowners reported hearing only 2 shots the first day this year. Neither of them saw a deer. This is in Wildlife Management Unit 3B, where antlered and antlerless deer were legal targets the entire 12 days of rifle deer season. It was a quite shocking report from my earlier deer hunting experiences. This should continue to be prime deer country, crops planted including corn, alfalfa and hay and lots of primary and secondary cover. It is also fairly easy to access and with some Pennsylvania State Forest Lands on the top of the mountain, hunter access is assured. I avidly await your reports and thanks in advance for your participation in this project. Merry Christmas! Remember, Jesus Christ is the reason for the season!
Over all I had a good season in Pa I passed on several small bucks spikes and forks.I hunt the 4 point area of S.W.Pa.I never saw a legal buck.I did kill a huge doe.I was checked twice by 2 diff sets of wardens 1st time ever and I'd say they were all very cordial.
Hunter Input Requested
