ORIGINAL: Buck Magnet
I don't know where some of you guys are hunting at in Indiana County, but I have seen more deer this past season than the previous three of four. The thing is that I didn't see as many bucks as usual. Last year my buck sightings FAR outweighed my doe sightings and that was reversed this year. It was nothing to see 10 to 12 deer every time I sat in stand! Granted, the deer numbers are down from 10 years ago, but to make it sound like there are no deer left is a little bit of a stretch. Try heading to a different part of the state. I spent alot of my summer and early fall up in the Mill Hall/Lock Haven area and I never saw a deer, heck, the only thing I saw was a single turkey on my way to Ravensburg State Park.
in clinton its very hard to get turkey,its big mountains and no corn fields .
i only got 9 in my life, only hunt gobblers,no hens with peeps.
you are right, very few deer in clinton.
yet, some or most hunters still shoot a fawn,not many as there are not many.its not because of the habitat even tho its not great.'
its just OVERHARVEST OF DOE.
when you have no doe for miles, not good.
drive up youngwomans creek, you used to see cars parked at every hollow,NOW,you can go miles and not see car THEN 10 cars in 1 hollow..
why, because they killed the doe out of the other areas and what is left is in that area.
next year, you wont see those 10 trucks in that hollow..
hunters are not going to same spots as they have all their life.
they now do more scouting and hunt where some doe are left until they clean them out.
hunting is very hard here in clinton,you have more pressure on the few deer that are left..
its hard to even hunt archery here,you have so many hunters in 1 area now.
i went to my shot out area that i grew up in,i only hunt there,in 4 weeks of hard hunting i saw 3 doe and 1 buck.
this would be about a 3 mile area .
then in gun season, father/son shot the mother and her fawn.
what i will have this year, who knows but i only saw 2 tracks in snow in feb hunting coyotes.