battle buck

If they are proud and hungry let them poach to feed instead of asking for handouts like people on welfare do. I would do the same thing if I couldn't make ends meat and pay the rent. More power to them.But you cant blame the reduction on deer herds because of poachers.LOL And for the where you cant hunt at yes you are goanna have deer there.They give tags out for that area to reduce deer herds and car accidents but they are not solveing the problem in that area.If your not allowed to hunt it how can you cure the herd in that area?Your just shooting all the deer around the area your not allowed to hunt and the problem is still there.What the hell are they thinking that more tags is goanna do the job where you still can't hunt at? Hello,any body home in the pgc head quarters.

mfunk922

I'm not blaming the entire herd reduction on poachers, but i am saying thatpoaching usuallygets overlooked when talking about herd reduction....people always blame the PGC for handing out too many doe tags or whatever.I usually spend a few weekends a year up the mountains and its not uncommon to hear a few shots a nite. I realize that its not always poachers shooting at nite, sometimes its just yahoo's that like to play with guns. All i'm saying is that poaching is a big problem in my opinion. I just read an article in an edition of PA Game News from a month or two ago about 2 guys who got caught poaching in Bradford county.They killed 10 deer in 2 weeks. They got caught and were fined over $5,000 each.

PA GOBBLER

mfunk922- i can agree w/ you about places that you cant hunt that have a herd that isout of control. but i cant agree w/ you about poaching being the big problem. few years of 2 week doe hunting w/ anyone who wants a tag or more is the problem. winters and predators and a 3 day doe season w/ one deer per person in those areas will keep the herd under control. im talking about SGL's mountian ground.

problem is there must not be places to hunt down south east.their is a camp near where i hunt and there has been guys from lancaster and york areas coming up for years now. 2 years ago the first day they had 19 doe on the pole. thats one day. this year they didnt come up to hunt. wonder why?

mauser06

guys....dont you relize this is WHAT the PGC wanted...i still think they WANT more deer killed off......sad to say.....but this is WHAT THEY WANTED....i dont like it much....and even in the populated areas special reg areas that always had loooots of deer we are seeing a majorrrrr decrease in deer.....hunted venango co the last 2 days on SGLs...in the past me and dad used to see 20 some deer by 9am regularly.....the last 2 days i saw ZERO deer...no tracks in my spot(nope...nothing changed...no terrain change or anything like that) did find where some deer been feeding on a hillside the first evening i hunted....set up there this morning....nothing......they came through at night......so i snuck through the thicket for a lonnnnnng ways......never found a bed.....fresh track or jump a deer......i used to jump them like rabbits when id bust that thicket.....so i made a good circle (2 and a half hours of sneakin and peekin through allllll the best deer terrain) and never cut a fresh track in fresh snow...SAD.....and down home in 2b its getting thinner and thinner.....guess thats what happens when you give out doe tags like its no tomarrow and allow rifles all rifle season PLUS flintlock season......SAD.....why in the world would they go and mess up something so good?? we had some dang good hunting before.....maybe ARs 3pts to a side state wide to grow a better buck population......maaaaaaybe keep the seasons the same and cut the doe liscenses by a good 25%....i think they just kicked themselves in the balls.......and they have the balls to RAISE liscense prices????? im really thinking about not hunting next year...it will kill me.....but a couple years and im sure my job will take me to MUCCCCCCCCH better hunting than the joke PA turned into....i know the buck to doe population needed corrected......and if we let the traditional spikes and Ys grow we would have a good buck herd....but they went the wrong way about it.....and it went WAY too far.....

livbucks

Mauser
I'm not trying to bust your stones or anything, just a thought I have lately.Has the vegetation in this spot matured over the years to almost a bare understory? We hunt the same areas year after year and really do not notice that changes take place over time and these changes affect deer movement. As the trees mature, they begin to choke out the understory. Without this cover, deer are unlikely to be there during the day.I have seen this in my own areas. What used to be bedding areas and daytime feeding areas have turned into wide open mature timber. I hate mature timber! Let the loggers in PA for Pete's sake! I think that the whole PA deer herd debate is caused by the eco-weenies and their fight to convert the whole state into a giant stand of barren floored, mature forest.

rile1564

PA still has a lot of deer. So no we can't still all agree that deer are on the verge of being wiped out. Don't believe me? The NRA, in their American Hunter magazine a couple months ago,printed a graph that shows the DPSM. PA had more DPSM then moststates inthe USA. I'm not kidding. Check it out page 68 in the December 2005 issue of the American Hunter magazine.

RUFNECK

still alot of deer in the poconos around pike county havnt seen a big decrease if any seen more big bucks than last few seasons and still a ton of does guess its all about where you live

PA GOBBLER

you are right. in places in PA there is still a lot of deer. and SE PA is one of those places, i agree.
I think its odd that the NRA knows how many DPSM PA has and the PGC dosen't.