cardeer

Land posted,development, and the Pa hunters are to cheap to buy land and plant healthy food plots.Your either a hunter who gives up the stupid non-hunting junk or sacrificefor the sport. Your wife dont need them 30 pair of shoes and from experience young children will play with inexpensive stuff more then them fancy toys you spend lots of money on and then they throw it in a corner and play with a paper bag.My grandson has lots of store bought junk to play with.You know what he likes at 9 months old ?? paper bags ,spoons, and the dogs toys .Save the money and buy a piece of land for the family and manage it yourself.And for petesake stop supporting the developers by buying the homes where there use to be a farm or wood plot. Plenty of used homes for sale.

PABowhntr

I have to believe that most of it is from overharvesting of does in certain areas. Deer are extremely adaptive animals so I would havea hard time believing that development has had more than a minor impact on reducing their population. In fact, I think the argument could be made that development might have actually helped to increase the population due to the increase in the amount of posted property.

951hunter

I have noticed that the winter of 02 and 03 have had a large affect on high elevation and forest deer. The numbers are way down. If you travel a short distance to agricultural land and low line areas the deer are thriving. I live between the catskill mountains and the poconos. I hunt ny and pa. My feeling is that the deer in the high forest regionswere hit really bad because the caring capacity of the land was not manage to well by the dec before the tough winters hit. The deer populations were to high for forest regeneration. I see a big differents the past 2 year with the vegitation in the forest. I'm sure in years to come that the large heards will return to these areas. But if they are not manage corectly we will be doomed to the same aftermath when the tough weather returns. If you see deer heards in your area start to grow out of control. I would write to the dec and demand more doe permits. 30 dpsm is way to much for forest land.

germain

model 99er,a good bat population=less skeeters in bow season.Send those little flyin rats up this way.

heeze gutshot shortee

PABOWhunter...How bout them Engineers..Agood friend of mine graduated fromLEHIGH way back in the 70s.. I did two years at EAST STROUDSBURG then transferred to Florida STATE .......years ago it was not uncommon to see at least 30-40 bucks during the rut.. and im not talking spikehorns and immatures..(Hunters can blame other hunters for killin em before they grow)....Im talkin BIG BOYZ ..when is the last time anyone has seen such a beautiful sight....thinkin bout it brings a tear to my eye....yes ..the times they are a changin
GERMAIN....Whats the skeeter thang....a good bugsuit is all I can offer

DougMD

germain nailed it. In WV it is the same thing, we had pretty bad winters at the same time we had no acorns. Combined with liberal doe seasons and there's your formula for herd reduction beyond what was desired.

dirz1

There is less deer because of the increase in doe permits and concurrent seasons PERIOD! It is indisputable. People who say that they are seeingtons of deer are most likely not hunting on public ground. I am 28 now and have been hunting the same game lands since I was twelve. I have seen harder winters than the last 3 previous ones and deer were still plentiful before the increase in doe permits and seasons. I drive home to my parents house every weekend and pass the fields that border the game lands. I would easily see 15 deer in a field towards dusk. I haven't seen 15 deer all year. There can't be a large herd when there is no herd to breed.

livbucks

He doesn't actually chew on them, does he Cardeer?

T_in_PA3

Beg to differ. I don't know where the people are coming from but housing starts & real estate are definatally a sellers market. Houses, new & used, are selling in days of coming onto the market. Want to slow it down, increase interest rates.

DoubleLung55

deer huntion in the suburbs is just as good as always for me , actually im seeing more large buck then ever , but im mad that i cant even go to deer camp in the mountains and have the chance to see deer like i used to, when i first started i would see 20-30 deer a day , not ur lucky to see 1 , its just piss poor in my opinion that its been so over hunted , and all that , we just need the deer to get back on track up there , and perhaps cancel a doe season and make it only a 3 day hunt in the mountains! but as for the suburbs , keep huntin em , they r there!