Originally Posted by
ManySpurs
I work hard at it to, and I'm one of the biggest beechers and critics around. If I showed you the track logs from my GPS of some of the places I've been since August while scouting, bowhunting, turkey hunting, bear hunting, and firearms deer hunting it'd make your head spin. I've been in good habitat, bad habitat, mediocre habitat, areas that produced well in the past, areas that haven't produced in the past. You name it, I've been closeby. I spent 3 days in a DMAP area in several locations recommended by a DCNR employee in October covering many miles with snow on the ground only to cut the tracks of 3 deer. In our little village, we have 2 big cornfields nestled between SGLs on each side with not a deer track near them. I have 4 deer cams running all year around and my pictures show me one or two deer using a trail every 4-5 days. We have a bear population explosion which has been addressed by WCOs and residents alike, and our BOCs and bear biologist completely ignore the problem and continue to establish a 3 day season which falls at a time when many female bears are already denned up.
I got alot to beech about. And it ain't just me. Hunters up here were close to non-existent this year. Those guys spend money and I'm sure the merchants noticed the lack of business. The camp next door to me had 3 guys in this year where they usually have 15. They were all here for turkey and bear season, but decided not to come up for deer because of what they seen during turkey and bear seasons. It's just a matter of time before those guys that didn't come up decide to throw in the towel and stop buying licenses. In my household, we've decided that unless the PGC choses to address the current deer situation at this years January meeting, that we will no longer buy and use a Pa hunting license. That's 2 adult licenses, 2 junior licenses, 4 bear tags, 4 archery tags, 4 M/Ler tags, at least 8 doe tags, and a furtakers license. Now, how many more people are there out there that feel the same as I do and feel the same as the guys at the camp next door do? I bet there's plenty. And if in fact there are only 20% that are unhappy, if those 20% stop purchasing tags, then the PGC is in for a dramatic drop in revenue. When that happens, open the door for state funding. And according everyone that I talk to, that's going to be a very bad thing for hunters in Pa. The fact that this commonwealth is hemmoraging hunters at twice the rate of the rest of the country is very alarming. I think it's high time that guys like you stand back and take a better look at the big picture and start standing up for some of us guys that do hunt our a$$es off, do know what we are looking for as far as habitat goes, and don't expect a deer behind every tree. There's plenty of us out there that have our crap together and have experienced this idiotic overharvest and mismanagement first hand. All we are asking for is a slight slice of the pie.
OK MS you've given me a lot to think about and a lot to answer. It's out of respect for guys like you and Germain, Pike and a few others on here that I dont just dismiss what you've posted.
I beleive you when you say you put in the time and know how to hunt. Obviously when folks that appear to be reasonable get as riled up as some of you are, there's got to be something there and I'm acknowledging that. On the other hand, I'll ask you to put yourself in the shoes of guys like me just as I'm trying to do for you. I have no affiliation with the timber industry, PGC, audubon or anyone else like that. I'm just a hunter like you. Believe me when I say that virtually all the places I've seen far less deer are the places that really needed it. Believe me when I say that the guys I hear complaining in person are the casual one day a year type of hunter. Add to that the folks on here who will say or do just about anything to make their case. Anything like using numbers and stats out of context to make 2 plus 2 equal 5. Like fixing polls and making ridiculous assertions while shouting down anyone who disagrees. Like a guy who lives in a very high density WMU crying the loudest about no deer and then screaming liar when someoen tells of having consistent success in that region. It's hard to believe that a guy who claims there is no need to scout any more is really that serious about his deer hunting. Obviously, I'm not talking about you, Germain, Pike and some others but the constant barrage of screaming tirades, complicated convoluted statistical flim flams and gross exaggerations from the more radical posters does kind of jade us into dismissing that side of the story.
You ask that guys like us stand up and support you. Hey I got no problem with that. I happen to agree with the idea of smaller WMU's. I agree with a better seperation of antlerless permits between public and private ground. I stand on some form of letting immature bucks have a better chance to get a little older and I think limited AR is the lesser of evils in that regard.
I dont understand the valuing of an immature buck over a doe but perhaps we can agree to disagree there.
I also adamantly believe that the strangling of the PGC purse strings by some hunters is the biggest mistake of all. While some yell "no more money till the deer thing is fixed" they are playing right into the hands of the forces they claim already have too much influence. Trust me, the minute we take a one little suck on the outside money teat, the game is really over when it comes to meaningful hunter influence. If we dont pony up and soon, we'll lose even more footing and it
will be permanent!!!
There's more common ground between us than would first appear and I got no problem listening to guys like you. We wont always agree but I'll always at least listen.