RE: Hunting is great in PA?????
Pa. hunting? Well I will first start with Turkey, even though we have been getting late cold spells along with cold rains at the wrong time as for the turkey hatches the past few years,I'll still rate it good. Comparing what we have today in the southwest region back to when I first started turkey hunting 25 yrs. ago. Squirrel hunting,excellent. Grouse,poor to fair. But this mostly due to how the habitat changed due to when we had higher deer numbers. Since bringing the deer numbers down,grouse and woodcock have been rebounding in some spots. Water Fowl, good to excellent. Deer, Good.Lower numbers,better quality. Some spots could hold a few more deer,some could use more thinned out. Pheasants and Rabbits. Compared to what I had to hunt over when I first started in the late 60's, I rate it poor. My family's farms had so many wild Ringnecks.it was heaven. The area of our farms even made publication in Outdoor Life back in the early 70's as for best spots in the East for Pheasants. But again, it was loss of Habitat that did in the Wild Pheasants. My grandfather and Uncles would always leave some standing corn for the birds. We had 3 to 5 acre Blackberry plots scattered all over to produce for pies and jams, that gave Pheasants excellent winter cover. Grown up hedge rows. Never took the first cut of hay until mid June. All of this has changed because of the demands on the farmers nowadays. But overall, I would still rate Pa. GOOD to Very GOOD for hunting.[/align]