Mr. Longbeard

Got a friend that just came back from a week of rifle hunting in Cameron County Pa. He's been hunting there for ever and never kills anything. His dad has been hunting there for 50 friggin years and has maybe killed 5 bucks... He's telling me the deer hunting there sucks...

Just curious if the hunting there is really that bad or is he just not much of a woodsman

germain

I know a group that hunts up there and in years past killed alot of bucks.But now after a few years of HR I'd guess it's like the rest of the NC and yes it does suck.A day hunting on public land in that area and seeing one deer is a good day.

Mr. Longbeard

Why is this???

Does it have to do with hunting pressure???

germain

I think in Cameron's case it's a combination of overharvest and bad habitat thrown in with bad winters.

bearklr

A friend of mine just got back from cameron county last week and they took more buck and bigger buck than ever before (10 pt with 14" g2's and two 8's...one of which had a 20" spread). Sounds to me like it's all based on where and when you hunt.

DoubleLung55

All of the true big woods in the NC region are going down the tubes , 2 to 3 yrs ago it was perfect there , you would see about 10-15 deer a day , and atleast a decent buck , atleast in mckean county where i hunted.

Before that you would see 40-50 deer , maybe a spike or 3 point with a pencil thin rack , and they would be about 120 pounds , and infested with ticks.... and now there is about 3 deer per sq. mile that are really fat, just have fun tryin to find them!

Also did anyone notice a reduction in turkey population in the north? usually ill see a few birds up there , but so far not even any track , maybe its due to the rising coyote population?

sproulman

i hunt clinton and cameron county for years.here is what happened.too much doe killing.you have all these seasons.this is DCNR plan to get doe down to nothing.sadly, deer are not really eating trees as nothing is growing under maples.no sun is getting in.DCNR will not cut trees down as they are not OLD ENOUGH.so, sun cant hit ground.everywhere they cut things grow.if the pipelines were planted with deer food, deer would have food and not bother the forest as much.2g wmu is already overkill on doe.no one is seeing any fawns.this is do to hunting, predators and doe not getting serviced do to lack of bucks and lack of older doe.so, very few fawns.then you have kids shooting little bucks and not many bucks make it to 3 point rule.we did see bigger horns this year BUT very few.if you say that 5 nice buck for hundreds of hunters is great hunting, i dont think so.we used to get that in 1 crew ,first day.solution is this, plant pipelines with food,cut mapletrees,stop doe hunting .

sproulman

turkeys were up this year.big flocks.turkeys have been taking beaten from us hunters here.years ago ,most would only shoot a nice gobbler.now, hunters shoot mother and her peeps.then throw in the bobcats, hawks,fox, yotes and you can see,its hard for turkey to get old here.reason many flocks survived this year is because of all the privateland posted from hunting.this saved a lot of turkeys here in clinton county.for years we could go into these areas and shoot turkeys but a lot have posted do to doe killing.

Four Sox

Tough area to hunt, I agree its just when and where you hunt(posted,verses private). These a days though its like looking for a needle in a haystack in these parts.

PA_BOW_HUNTER

I have to agree with the overharvest comment..... Both legal and illegal in that area....