ORIGINAL: jhoffman

People weren't kidding about the low numbers of deer in PA. I hunted our 100 acres of private land that is bordered by both state land and Seneca Fule land on two sides of the property giving us 500 + acres to hunt without any other hunting pressure - this property was logged out about 8 years ago and no one has steped foot in the woods during hunting season there for the last 5 seasons - It was my brother, two cousins, and myself hunting the first week of rifle and during the entire week I saw about 10 doe and one real nice shooter buck - looked like a 10 ptr but could not get him in the scope - we pushed him out of some real thick stuff and he was running with a couple doe - I only had a split second with him in any type of shooting lane and it just wasn't happening that day. The other three people in the hunting party saw a couple of small spikes and one 4 ptr. and a couple of other doe. That was it. The closest camp to us really hit it hard the first couple of days - they had 15 to 20 guys in thier camp and hunted sun up top sun down the first 3 days of season and they took one nice 8 ptr a 5 and a half rack 3. Lots of sign in the woods when snow was on the ground the day before season but then nothing.

The two week anterless season has got the bucks so spooked come opening day it's ridiculous. In NY our doe and buck season run together and I see a ton more deer on less than half the land than I did this year in PA. I am taking it like it is though and pretty much usign this year as a scouting session for next season. We found plenty of nice stand sites that with be setup during the off season and found a couple of nice sections of woods to put on drives and found out what the most likely escape routes were.
Not a lot of luck but I still had fun - Hey its a week out of the office - We're looking to make this a yearly event. I am looking forward to next season and maybe getting down for a little bow hunting as well.