Cardeer, PaBowhunter, Rob, Dale and other PA hunters, I understand what you are saying and would venture to guess that most if not all of the guys that post here do not fit into the category of hunters that do not feel they are accountable for their actions. The deer densities in PA are definitely messed up and severely so in south east PA due to the large amount of private land that is posted. It all comes back to the hunters though. We are the reason the land is posted.

You have said the game lands in your area hold a low deer density and a high hunter density and the private land is unavailable. That's because the hunters shoot anything that is brown and nothing gets old enough to learn how to avoid hunters. Also someone blasts away on a running deer that was pushed by on a drive and wounds it then goes trapsing on some private landowners property without asking. Next thing you know they kick up the deer and start blasting away again and the land owner hears shots outside their window. What happens? Next year there is a posted sign on that property.

I have hunted in PA all my life and been fortunate enough to hunt in some other states as well. In comparison to other states, hunters here (not all but many) are a joke. We have one of the highest if not the highest number of hunters in the nation and a vast majority of those care nothing about wildlife conservation, QDM (which includes herd health not just big racks), respecting others' property, and many times game laws. There are too many hunters and not an efficient way to manage them.

I know there are some things that need to be ironed out with this new program and as time goes on things will change (for the better hopefully). As things stand right now, the deer densities you complain about are a result of the old regulations, so it obvious that some changes need to be made. IMHO PA needs to manage its hunters more than it needs to manage its deer.<img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle>

Edited by - huntingbry on 09/12/2002 08:08:57