atlasman

Could be worse..........you could live in NY.

livbucks

I know the herd is down somewhat in Warren County where we hunt when at camp. The number of hunters is also down. There are deer there though and some really nice bucks too. Success in the mountains is sometimes dependant on the number of hunters in the woods pushing the deer around. Second day was always hard because there were no hunters around to push them to you. Mountain deer seem to be more sensitive to pressure and harder to hunt one on one. Where I hunt at home has never been better. My Dad, two brothers and I all tagged out in archery on bucks this year. We have never come close to that in years past. The good 'ole days are here and now for buck hunting in PA...in my opinion. (Where I hunt at least)

GR8atta2d

I'll just make some statements and let you judge what this means.
1) This is the first year since 1983 that our camp got skunked. (6 hunters..buck only)
2) Opening day I saw 20 deer. My record is 85 with mid 40's being the norm.
3) I saw 0 confirmed legal bucks ( i sawa buck with a nice beam, but no way to confirm points)
4) Tuesday-- true the weather was horrible I saw 0 deer
5) As a group we saw 3 legal bucks and 7 non-legal bucks, no shots taken.
6) Saturday, usually a good day..saw 3 deer

atlasman

My NY season this year has included over 150 hours in the woods so far and I have seen 1 buck with a rack (a 4 pt)........I am not counting spikes which I saw a couple of.

This is over lots of different areas.......public and private........bow and gun........and 6-7 different counties.

Seen probably around 20 something does (9 of which were all at once)


Pretty freakin' scarey.

ram96

Went out tonight. Had a group of 7 does under my stand. Had not been in that stand for three weeks. While my friend walked down toward me so I did not spook them , I had 4 more does and a buck pass me on the other side.

Last week in all that lovely weather saw 6, 4 does and 2 bucks on Monday. Two on Thursday including an 8pt taken at our camp. 11 does on Friday in the wind and snow.

I don't know where all the deer have gone????????

OH Yea! I have had to put my stands in new locations this year.

atlasman

So are you saying that everyone's perceived lack of deer in the woods is actually due to their inability to properly place a stand?

jhalfhill

stand placement isnt the problem.

pennsylvania is such a diverse state with many different habitats. that is the main problem. some areas around cities and civilization still see a bunch of deer, while the more mountainous and rural areas are seeing less. the game commission needs to do a better job of which areas they allocate the doe tags to. maybe even have different doe seasons for the different WMU's (wildlife management units). there's so many different habitats here thats its impossible to satisfy them all with the same laws

wolfen68

Probably the most amazing post I've read in a long time! And this guy is against QDM[&:]

You have no bucks because you kill them all when they are in spots, you have waaaaay too many does, and yet you whine that you only saw one buck....DUHHHHH! OPEN YOUR EYES!!!![:-]

atlasman

Absolutely...........we don't need QD...........we just need D.


You can't shoot any more bucks now then you ever could before.


Obviously you didn't read......or just don't understand my post. If we had waaaaaay too many does I would have seen more then 20 in over 150 hours in the woods. We don't have waaaaaaaaay too many anything. We have waaaaay too little everything.


My eyes are wide open...........we need to back off on the number of deer taken (especially does). Has absolutely nothing to do with QDM.

PABowhntr

I consider myself a fair hunter in terms of how seriously I take it and how successful I am in it. I will say that deer numbers in all of the areas that I hunt are down significantly in the last 3 or 4 years. But that was the intention of Gary's program now wasn't it? Shoot more does and reduce the number of 1.5 year old bucks taken. Well, he has accomplished that. The question is when is it enough? As mentioned we cannot have blanket policies that govern most if not all of the state. The herd needs to be micromanaged. The current WMUs are much too large to be effective in controlling deer numbers within them. The difference between private and public land alone is enough to justify changes in the deer management policies.

I feel very fortunate to have taken a nice buck during archery season this year and I hope to be as fortunate next year. However, I do believe that the intensive hunting of does really needs to be cut back at this point. Many public land areas are being decimated by the generous seasons and bag limits. We really need to....

1) Reduce that two week rifle season for does. I don't have any specific suggestions but two full weeks is just too much considering the current herd levels in some areas.

2) Eliminate or further regulate the early muzzleloader season in October.

3) Reduce the number of doe tags issued specifically to heavily pressured areas. It does no good to issue 40,000 tags to a Wildlife Management Unitwith heavily pressured but limited public hunting land.