Originally Posted by
archeryrob
As they said go and be a "deer watcher" in areas where you might be able to public hunt. Get a climbing stand and learn to use it and a safety harness and climbing rope. Watch where they move and learn to pick better trees for your stand. You'll start to learn how to notice deer trails after you are out observing more. Learn to walk farther on public land as most people won't and you'll see more deer during the season.
Get yourself a compound bow and learn to shoot it. Being a newb in rifle season, without help, would be overwhelming and maybe dangerous. I would imagine deer get chased off state lands in PA as I know they do in MD. We have a few mountain state lands near me and it looks like orange dots on the hill rom the road. No way, I would want to be out there during rifle as it is too many shooters and that many hunters and the deer aren't there.
Don't worry about shooting a buck and take what ever game the state allows ar first. You can define your ethics of game choice after you know what you are doing and have killed some and learned some. Don't let people define your choice for you.
Hunter safety class are just canceled right now and will be back when the craziness ends.
I will say this, and mean no bash, but telling a new hunter to get a compound bow, that has no hunting experience and or shooting experience, isn;t the best advice, when there trying to learn to do it themselves right now
a compound bow requires more skills, and consistent shooting form, more skills to get closer to game, and knowing more about shot placement, to be ethical and have good results
NOT saying its impossible to do, just saying it would be harder for a new guy to learn on there own
if they really wanted to get into archery type hunting, and being NEW
they would IMO be way better off getting a X bow
less to learn on form, the shop tends to help them on knowing shot ranges, as most scopes have hash marks for 10-20-30-40-50 yards and so on like
(bow have pins, that have to be adjusted) scopes tend to be out of box and good(still need to be checked)
but be a lot easier on a new guy to start off with a X bow, where legal(pa they are)
as for entering the woods in rifle season,
its NOT that bad anymore, yrs ago when we had a million plus hunters on opening day in the woods, it was pretty wild at times in spots, but hunter numbers are about half what they used to be, and truth be told hunting is a rather very safe sport, with few accidents, even with so many out there at once on opening day of rifle season
learning where higher pressure is at, can save you some worries and that can be done by asking local game wardens , ask them about pressure on opening days, on any game lands where one plans to hunt and you will get GOOD info IMO
and then there are always them GIG game lands where one can walk in a LOT farther than most others and have a LOT of elbow room if one is worried
this however turns into a LOT more work to get a deer out LOL
but it is fully possible to find spots few if any are at on public lands in PA on opening day!
and many of these spots get deer pushed into them for the same reason!
actually increasing your odds on scoring!