Whoever thinks that putting the gun hunters out instead of the Archers in early season has absolutely NO clue about deer hunting. ESPECIALLY in Pa. If you have never hunted in Pa on opening day of gun season then you don't know what WWIII sounds like. Cuzz that what it sounds like around 7am to around 10am on opening day rifle! You think the deer are spooky after early archery? Deer after the first couple of hours opening day of rifle look like crack addicts on a 2 week bender!

Correct me if I am wrong here Oldtimr but I believe Pa is still the leader in Archery license sales in the country correct? And with Pa now allowing the use of crossbows without a disability permit in regular archery has only INCREASED those sales. Hell my tags were routinely filled in Archery season and I was picky about which Does and Bucks to take. I only took the scrub bucks that I knew would never be anything but a scrawny 6 point doing nothing but taking up resources and usually older Does past their prime. For gun season I would go down to Bucks and Chester counties and fill a few tags on Does to max out the Whitetail chest freezer. I know the deer numbers in the Poc area were pretty much decimated but you've informed me that they are bouncing back around that area. I know there for a while in a lot of areas up there you wouldn't see a deer for miles. Not even a track. And that was in a few areas that I always saw a good number of deer.

Something else Oldtimr, it wasn't "just" the PGC that had something to do with getting the deer herd under control. The major car insurance companies were lobbying HARD to them threatening to raise premiums to a skyrocketing rate because of so many deer/car collisions. So as usual, it had little to do with a healthy deer herd and more to do with money, the all powerful dollar said do something and it got done!