RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

I also hunt on private land on PA so I haven't witnessed very much pressure myself. But, I can tell you that there are alot of hunters around my area, and it seems like there would be lots of pressure.

RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

I think that statement is false, You might want to check but, I think that license sales have declined a little over the years. Let me know if I'm mistaken.

I know that by rights, you should secure permission. But in PA it is a long tradition that if it is not posted, everyone assumes it is ok to hunt. Just like the practice of laying your money on the bar in a tavern. you could go to the john and come back and it is still there. And the barmaid just takes the money off the pile when you order another round. Unique to PA. Go the extra mile though and ask permission anyway, landowners appreciate it. And you never know when you are dealing with someone new to the area that is not aware of these traditions.

RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

Blah, blah, blah! I'm so sick of people using tradition to justify illegal activity. We can't hunt on Sunday here because of blue laws....it's blatent discrimination, but it's tradition. Take outdated, rediculous traditions like whacking the first buck you see...and use it to justify not supporting AR.

This isn't directed at anyone in particular. Livbucks, you're right about traditions....I just can't stand to see people use that as an excuse for not following the law.

We have too many hunters in this state. I wouldn't mind if they were anything more than one day wonders, but unfortunately the majority of PA's deer hunters are just that. I don't want to take away anyones right to hunt, but it really sucks when I put in the time to scout, pattern, and select the right stand only to have someone come stumbling in from the road that just decided to hunt there because they saw someone else parked in the area.[:@] Every year I do everything in my power to fill my tags in archery season....save one doe tag for rifle so I can hunt with my wife. I have run across many a hunter on the ANF and SGL's that have never been there before and want me to tell them where a 'good spot' is just becasue I'm local and know the area. It's absurd if you ask me. I have no problem being friendly or having a chat in the woods, but half of the people I meet are from Pittsburgh or thereabouts and think they're mightier than God and a local is someone to scoff at. Enough of my complaining, sorry to go off on a tangent, but I know some of you out there can relate.

RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

im from new jersey and have hunted pennsy for many years. i have a family cabin in the poconos since 1960 and hunt turkey in the local woods and hardly ever run into other hunters. NEW JERSEY IS MUCH WORSE AS FAR AS HUNTERS. i deer hunt pennsy near state college and except for the occasional clubs or locals doing a drive dont see that many hunters at all to worry about.the hunter that comes through late and comes through my area usually dont stick around all day and would probably push the deer around if anything. at least thats how i look at it. i think you need to explore more areas and get in the woods a little deeper. i always hear pennsylvania hunters complain about the quality of there deer herds and wheres the bucks but if you only hunt one day out of the year your never gonna score. my buddy from new jersey also killed two monsters in pennsy back to back years before the new management system. the only thing he did was sit in his tree lounge all day long and didnt bother to get out for lunch or a pow wow session with the rest of the guys at the parking lot. i once sat in a tree in one of my spots in new jersey from 4am till 5pm only to have a guy from Virginia come right down a trail by me and shoot a deer right at the end of the day basically in front of me. he did see the deer first. i wasnt mad about a guy from another state hunting mine. i did tell him it hurt a little because i was set up all day but i congratulated him and i went home. i hate hunters that yell at you WHAT ARE YOU DOING IM HUNTING HERE! unless they set a stand up or sit within 100 yards of me i just whistle to let them know im there. life is too short to get angry or to do the blame game. we should help each other in the woods. HUNT HARD AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED;)

RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

i try as hard as i can to stay away from the SGL during rifle season. i will admit that a lot of people are lazy in pa and won't go far to shoot a deer. i put in my time and as time goes on, i get madder and madder at rifle hunters because in PA it takes no skill (other than shooting) to get a deer. All season, I bowhunted and I did shoot a nicer 9 point and I know a lot of friends that shot there biggest deer last year. The restriction is working but in some parts where i hunt, they shot anything that moves no matter what. I was talking to this one guy and he said that he shot a little 4 point that i saw during bow season. The horns weren't more that 4 or 5 inches high and he shot it anyway[:@]. another place i hunt i had a small but legal 4 point walk by me at 15 yards. i watched him for about 15 minutes and then he ran off. a few minutes later i heard a shot in the direction he went. i was pissed because i knew it was him getting shot and he was a deer that should have been left[:@] the opening day hunters are really bad here in pa. as for the private land issue, i respect most posted signs unless i am tracking a deer i have wounded. i am not going to go and ask permission while a deer suffers somewhere in their woods. i bowhunt a private farm about 500 acres and there is not much bowhunting pressure there but once rifle season rolls around the place is loaded. good thing is that most of it is pine thickets and most of the people don't really bother to go through them so it keeps the deer safe. pa is a nice state and i hunt many different areas with different results. do i wish there were less hunters in pa? yes. do i wish that everyone would follow the antler restrictions? yes. but i can't control all that so i will just keep hunting....

RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

By the sound of all of this.....PA isnt the best state to get startted on deer hunting.

RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

Tossing that one out there generated quite the reply... lemme see what I can add without waving a breeze on smoking tinder.

Livbucks - I see how my statement "License sales go through the roof and the Game Commission keeps upping the anty" was not properly phrased. My intent was to place emphasis on the sheer number of licenses sold here in PA, and not that they exploded in numbers from past years. That was my bad. Looking at PA licenses over the past five years gives us an idea of how many hunters plan to go into the woods. Adult resident sales listed around 725,000 hunters each year, give or take 25,000. Resident juniors hold about 65,000 more respectively. Non resident adult license holders come in at about 60,000 each year with non resident junior license holders rounding out about 2500 more. Don't load your slingshots people... these numbers are not intended to be exact... just an average to put things into perspective. The PA Game Commission website gives the exact number for those so inclined to know. The latter part of the sentence is 100% on mark, if you have hunted here long... you know the prices have gone up significantly.

To roll a couple topic related remarks into one paragraph... I hunt in Central PA... primarily in Goshen, which is about dead nuts in the middle of the state. I have had a camp on 110 acres here for many years and it is not posted. Why? Because I hunt. I have only 3 things on my agenda. Going to work which pays the bills, spending Q time with Ma and me little 'uns, (heck, now I sound like I'm from WV... LOL... j/k guys... don't shoot... ya'll), and hunting every second that remains. I don't post my property simply because I hunt areas that are owned by others. I cannot justify posting mine. Do I require permission be sought before hunting on me? No, but I prefer it. As Pro-line stated, it's the proper thing to do. Period. I always ask permission to hunt, no matter the circumstances. I introduce myself to joining property owners... especially if their ground is posted. I wish for no conflicts over where the perceived property lines are and respect the opinion of the person in charge... regardless if it cuts off prime stand locations. Bad feelings have no place in the hunting woods. If your name is Richard, choose not to be a Dick.

As far as seeing better bucks in PA... the resounding yes applies. Ahh, but you can't be a guardrail hugger. For the love of God and country, get off the main road already. Do your homework. Stay out of McDonalds and walk some more. Don't pump gas with your hunting boots on and don't stand in line at the coffee shop smoking a Camel before you head to the woods. Ok, yeah, your Grandpa smoked a pipe on stand and killed more deer than anyone you ever knew. This could be true, but if you are a bowhunter, this ain't the norm. I will admit that I was skeptical of the antler restriction recently imposed here in PA. I've hunted here since day one and can only recall seeing a handful of true trophy quality bucks. I am not skeptical anymore and wouldn't jump on the bandwagon to claim PA will never be a trophy state. We all must cope with "hunters" lacking ethics... sad but true. It's not against the law to shoot small bucks that make meet the point requirements. I don't... but some always will. I've not hunted outside of PA, but I have gone to WV to bass fish. Stonewall Jackson Lake is a beautiful stretch of water. BeltedMag - I'll take you on your offer for the cold frosty adult beverage eh? :D

Jason N - are we related? You about 6'1", 190 pounds, (ok, 200... I had the buffet), brown / blue with a wife about 5'2", 105 pounds brown / blue that shoots a Remington model 7 you got her last year? LOL. Hey, I couldn't have said what you said better with more words. Touché ~ very nice indeed. Liquidorange and Legacy357 both make very good points, but I'd have to see Jersey actually having more hunters / hunting pressure than PA to believe it. Liquid, you sound like a nice person to me, but my visit to New Jersey was less than hospitable. Most of the folks there seemed to be in a big hurry to run me over. Was Sammy Hagar from New Jersey? He always said he can't drive 55. [8D]

My suggestion to TheBassMan would be keep your head down if you plan to rifle hunt in PA. Going deep in the bush (PG13 rated comment), will help keep others away, but there always seems to be more lead in the air than in the water come boomstick season here in the Commonwealth.

RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

First off, the ony place I hunt, I have permission, and the other place is right across the street from my house, and to tell you the truth I have been playing in those woods since I was 4 and have yet to know who owns it.

Im sick of everyone complaining that theres too many hunters and not enough game. Do you just want some people to stop hunting, because no ones going to stop hunting just because someone wants them too. It is still very easy to shoot a deer. My dad is one of these guys who says that there are no deer left, compared to when he was a kid. If thats true, you must of seen 100 deer in a days hunting. Its called hunting, not killing. You guys should enjoy the challenge of it or else it would not make it fun. I mean if you shot a huge buck everyyear, you would have nothing to look forward the next year.

RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

I have been hunting in Warren County PA for 26 years. I can say with all certainty that there are way fewer hunters there come rifle season than when I was younger. It seems like once the old timers started dropping off that their families slowly quit coming back. We sometimes hunt all day and never see more than maybe 2 hunters besides our party of 5. I admit that we walk for almost an hour into the mountain to where we hunt. We don't hear all that many shots in the distance like we used to either. The hunting camps around ours are not full like years before either. And one thing I notice too is that most guys don't even bother going out second day. They pack up and skeedaddle on home. Too many satellite TVs and cell phones in camps nowadays. When I was a kid, going to deer camp was like going on the Lewis and Clark exp. And nobody wanted to go home, no matter how few deer were seen or how cold it was.

RE: PA... the heaviest hunted state?
 

A funny story kinda related to people talkin about Pennsylvania hunters not walking more than 20 yards off the trail. We were riding through the National forest a few years ago and seen a hunter from PA setting up his campsite. He was putting a post in the ground when we rode by and when we came back by he was putting up a satelite dish on the post. The camper was only there for a few days, boy was he ruffing it. Was he there to hunt or to watch Friends? We looked for a cable running from the dish to a mini tv on his treestand.

Dave