fruit loops

Can all the hunters in here agree now that the deer are on the verge of being wiped outin our state of Pa?

mossy33oak

I work with about 4 guys who head "upstate" to hunt deer....(near state college) and all of them said the same thing......they each hunting different parts of the state saw less than 4 deer all week. I dunno whats going on up there but somethings not working.

fruit loops

I myself believe it's the money.The PGC and state are goanna be hurting here in couple years because of the no sales of doe tags.I hope they saved that cash they made from the hunters the last few years because they are goanna need it. And I am sure the retailers who sales the hunting equipment are goanna take a hit also and then all hells goanna break loose and the fingers are going to be pointing in every direction and the hunters will get blamed cause a few of them wanted bigger racked deers.Someone profit off these sales of doe tags and it wasn't the hunters.

mustad

Is the debate on the deer population in PA new? The reason I ask this is because I was on two hunts with two different guys from PA. In addition, I spent some time talking to another guy from Reading about a dog I'm buying. All three said completely different things:

PA guy 1 - Deer population in PA sucks. Anybody who wants a decent deer goes to Ohio.

PA guy 2 - Deer population in PA is awesome. Anybody who says otherwise doesn't know what he's talking about and is too lazy to find a deer.

PA guy 3 - Deer population in PA is good, but there are just too many hunters.

Is it possible that it's that different depending on where in PA you are?

just curious... thx,

germain

Bingo mustad.The populated areas around the cities with little access naturally holds good deer numbers.Farmlands and mountainous areas with land open to hunting are hurting.The bigwoods country in potter county used to be the place to go for deer,not anymore.Deer camp in the northwoods is a dying tradition and as long as Rendell and his boys are running the state forests it won't get better.The guy that told you populations are good in Pa needs to get out more.Obviously he hasn't left his little piece of the pie.
It amazes me though to still see hunters shooting a doe and in many cases the only doe they have seen and then complain about the low deer numbers in their area.Truely amazing!

Totemkopf

Fruit loops,

Pa still has the highest% of deer/car accidents in the nation. I have seen several deer in WMU 3d, 4c, and 5c on state game lands. If you drive on route 80 thru carbon county at dusk, you can still see 100+ deer feeding on the side of the road.

aldo88

We need to knock out the being able to get more than one deer in a year. I know in some areas it is necessary. They need to base everything by county no by the whole state. I live in Warren County. We used to have a ton of deer in this area. I talked to 2 guys tonite that are disgusted with the hunting up here. One of them said he might not hunt next year. Thats too bad........

livbucks

Pa is too big to make a blanket statement like that. You must narrow your search for an agreement from me. My families season was the best ever.

mossy33oak

maybe all you PA guys need to start hunting on the side of the highways, at night!! Just kidding fellas!! I travel Rt 15 alot and yes I see deer on the side of the road hit all the time, but dunno if that area of population reflects what the upstate public hunters see. I doubt it.

BTBowhunter

No we can't and here's the #1 proof.....

There's no doubt that we have hotspots and coldspots but the deer are not on the verge of being wiped out. It's not as simple as public/private land either. Many areas of public land still have plenty of deer.

On the other hand, as Germain said, some of the traditional bigwoods deercounties arevirtual deer deserts. My camp is next tothe ANF and some of the public areas there are getting real tough to hunt. On the other hand, my property is overrun with deer and the farmer nrxt door to me(who allows the public to hunt) has serious crop damage. We need smaller WMU's and we needmore intensive micro management of some areas