RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
Where do I start,
First off, I know that Loleta is in Millstone Creek. I had to DRIVE through Clear Creek from my home to go to Loleta. The guy that illegally shot the doe there was from Ridgeway -hework's at the Royal Motel at the top of Boot Jack hill!
That's a long way from Ridgeway to Clear creek where we were at.
Second off, O'Donnel Bridge is not in SGL 31, it is in the Renoldsville Game lands. 44 or 54 or something like that. I know because I hunted there many times.
Third off - you need to have someone read you your hunting digest,
WMUs 1 A, IB, 2A, 2B & 2D: Four or more points to one antler. All other WMUs: Three or more points to one antler. Exceptions: In all WMUs, junior license holders, disabled persons permit (to use a vehicle) holders and residents serving on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, or in the U.S. Coast Guard, two or more points to one antler, or with one antler three inches or more in length. Senior License holders must abide by antler restrictions.
A Legal Point: An antler projection of at least one inch in length from base to tip, including brow tines. Main beam shall be counted as a point regardless of length.
Antlerless Deer: A deer without antlers, or a deer with antlers both of which are less than three inches in length.
Protected Deer: A deer not defined as an antlered deer or an antlerless deer.
Limit: One legal antlered deer per license year. One antlerless deer with each valid WMU specific antlerless license.
Field Possession Limit: When multiple harvests of deer per day are authorized, only one deer at a time may be taken. Before attempting to take an additional deer, the first deer shall be lawfully tagged.
Fourth off - we had the doe tags, there was nothing that said that we had to fill them. Like I said, I hunted all 12 days and most days I hunted from sun up to sun down.
The people in 2D will shoot anything brown, if you don't shoot it, the next guy down the trail will!
It's not an organized system like other areas where people say that they refuse to shoot does.
My fifth point being -
I know the game warden - Mike Girosky, I know where he lives, Elenora, I been to his house, he has been to my house. Mike is a dick, but he treats everybody the same. I also know his head deputy, Dick Rankin, he works at Jefferson Grocery. He is even worse than Mike! Which makes him a good deputy game warden!
The fact of the matter is - where were they? They were not patroling like other years. It's not my job to turn in poachers, I shouldn't have to stick out my neck - only to get it cut off for doing something wrong myself.
The fact of the matter is that I don't like these road hunters that drives around looking for an opportunity to shoot out the window at a easy one.
I don't like all these roads opened up so any Tom Dick or Harry can drive right into where I like to hunt. I don't believe that doe season should be more than 2 days long. I don't believe that people are going to hunt and not take a doe when they have not seen anything legal or did see deer and couldn't put 4 points on them.
Everytime someone breaks the rules, more posted signs goes up. Then the people that hunted there has to look for someplace else to hunt. That moves them on to other properities and eventually on to where I like to hunt.
20 deer becomes 10 deer and 10 deer becomes 5 deer and 5 deer becomes 3 deer and 3 deer becomes one deer and one deer becomes no deer.
I turned in a group of hunters last year that were CAMPING in the parking lot that I was just talking about. SGL 31, It is illegal to camp in the Game Lands. The Game Warden couldn't get them to leave, but he did ask them to go down the road for a while. I believe that their statement to him was that they were not camping, they were just waiting for Monday for the season to open up.
There is no rules as to when you can go in the game lands to hunt for deer.
They had a camper and a boxtruck and sleeping bags and a cook out fireright there in the parking lot. Gas and charcoal grills and the works!
Half of them was from Ohio and the other half was from Latrobe!
5 deer in the grand scheme of things is not a lot of deer. Especially when you consider that I put 80 miles a day just to get to and come home from where I was hunting. I have a dozen places where I am welcome to hunt anytime I want and I never take more than one deer from any one spot.
What is one deer? The cars on the road will just hit it if I didn't shoot it anyways.