buckmaster_27

anyone hunt north or northeastern pa?where is some good land to start at?any ideas?

Legacy357

I use to hunt wayne county (northeast corner of pa). This year, I am not going back. Never really saw or heard of any good bucks coming off of private ground or public. Herd has really declined up there....

sproulman

here is scoop on wmu 2g..do to the massive doe killing here in last 8 years,deer are very scare and real hard to hunt..some like things hard but they have time to spend in woods..

i know hunters that hunted the early muzzloader season..it took them 4 days of hard hunting to get a small doe..you dont see any big doe here anymore..

i live here and on stateforetland i have not seen more than 15 deer in last 2 months..clinton/potter/cameron countys are worst in the state of pa..

unless you can spend time here scouting and hope that others have not spotted the doe you are after,all you are going to see is coyotes..

things are terrible here in those 3 counties on deer..there is lots of motels open for deer hunting as hunters are not coming here anymore so you will not have hardtime finding motel..

4u2njoy

Just got back from Muzzleloader this weekend in 2G. I do not understand why people are crying about NO deer here. Hunted Thurs Rained out Friday and hunted Sat. There was three of us hunting, two doe were taken with a six pointer being about 20 yards away. Alos saw 5 more doe but could not get shots at. Thats not a bad weekend.

R.S.B.

I too am finding lots of deer.

I have very limited time to hunt but I have managed to get few hours of archery and early muzzle loader hunting in.

So far I have hunted a total of 16 hours, over parts of five days, in unit 2G. All of it on a large timber holding that is signed up in the Game Commission’s public access program and where I have a DMAP permit. During that time I have seen 26 deer. I passed up several small does and button bucks until last Wednesday when I harvested a large adult doe on one of my DMAP permits.

Last Monday I got off work at 3:00 and was on my bike heading back into an area on the Allegheny National Forest on my bike. I had plans of going in about 1.5 miles to an area with some oaks that produced a few acorns I figured the deer would be feeding in the evening. I never got that far. I was only in about a quarter mile when I saw a deer feeding in the edge of an opening. I stopped, got off the bike without being seen and just watched the deer for a while since I could tell it was a juvenile deer and I didn’t want to shoot it. Before long I saw another deer move into the opening. I watched it long enough to be convinced it was an adult doe and when it gave me a good broad side shot I harvested it on my ANF DMAP permit. The whole hunt lasted about 20 minutes.

That is a total of 28 deer seen, and two harvests, in about 16.5 hours of hunting over parts of six days. I have not seen even one other hunter in any of the times I have been out hunting.

Dick Bodenhorn

sproulman

i see just opposite hunting here in 2g..i happen to be out hunting about 4 days a week..i seen about 15 deer on stateforestland in about 2 months..

most of deer i am seeing are very small doe..i did see some fawns but all were on PRIVATELAND..i have not seen fawn on STATEFORESTLAND,so far..

i agree with you on your comment of not seeing hunters in woods walking..most i see are road hunting and they are getting their deer and i would guess its from riding roads as i see them ALL day going back/forth..but it is taking them days, like 3 or 4 or more days to get a doe..

i have to wonder all gas they spend road hunting they could buy a steer..some hunt grouse this way and gas they spend is ten times what that meat would cost them at stores..i cant understand ,if meat is important to some, why spend all that money on gas to get it..they are losing and think they are winning at meat game..

anyhow,i dont hunt doe only bucks..i have only seen 1 legal buck so far all archery on STATEFORESTLAND..lately i feel better when i come out of woods without a buck..i am getting lazy as i get older and enjoy seeing deer more than killing one..i had my day killing bucks,now i feel better when i see another hunter get a buck..

sadly my friends from kentucky are not coming back this year to hunt do to lack of deer..they only hunt bucks also even if they could get a doe permit..they used to be 18 ,last year 9..we only got 1 buck for 10 of us hunting in 2G ..they hunted hard for 4 days ,i had 2 weeks..in those 4 days they saw a total of 5 doe..their stands cover about 2 miles.they sit in stands from 6 am to 6pm,those 4 days..

what is bothering me now is all these coyotes in woods..i saw 8 last year but could not hit them..i never in 50 years saw coyote huntingand now they areall over place barking..every time i find coyote poo i see deer hair in it..

sorry i got off topic..

chr103yod

Does anyone hunt 3D on state land? I have given up on all my old spots that used to hold deer because they aren't there anymore. I've found a couple new areas that may be promising. I did some scouting last week in a new area and about 3/4 of a mile back I started seeing deer sign. I found one rub on a tree about 5 inches in diameter with a bunch of rubs near by. I seen three doe total in four days of scouting and no buck. Few years back it would have been more like 10-20 deer. Work has kept me from hunting this year but I'm going out Thursday so see what happens. Good luck.

sproulman

you are not alone,deer are very scare..wmu2g is worst in state of pa..clinton/cameron/potter/elk countys are bad..

when i see a deer now it usually by itself or 2..i also remember days of 6,10,15,20,25,30 that you would see in 1 group..

i can tell you a little about going wayback..in wmu2g,there is no place, wayback..roads and pipelines and trails take you to almost any area WAYBACK you want..

if you looked at dcnr aerial survey, it did NOT show deer that are left WAYBACK..most of deer were near roads..this is why you see so many road hunting..

hunters are not stupid..if deer were WAYBACK as some so called experts would say,then hunters would be there..

that WAYBACK sloganis being used by some that want to make us think there are lots of deer left..

well, DCNR survey did not show that..

cuernos1

Glad to hear some one can hunt... Was home and saw a ton of deer.. Was walking the dog too... Could have shot plenty, but was away this year and only had limited time to check. Quantity of deer is not success. Carrying capacity is the key and rarely do I hear much about that..

Everyone complains about Mr. whatever his name was, but we followed his program on bear and now we have one of the best bear hunting states there is..

We needed to keep on the plan as our area was getting greener and we were seeing more new growth to support the herd. Now, we are seeing the woods go back to the way they were... We are enlisting the services of about 20 folks to just slaughter does on our farm. We will be killing mature old does.. and there are plenty of them. We are right next to the state lands you all are complaining about... in the past you could do nothing and see deer. now one must hunt. we will be attempting to get the area balanced like other states with good herds. Ill, Ohio, In, Tx etc..

sproulman

hello, can i kindly comment on bear..mr.alt did not do anything i can see to make this bear state..lets go back in time..back in 60s,i hunted bear in wmu2g..there was lots of BIG BEAR..you could only get 1 per crew..we left many of bear go because they were notreal big waiting for a big one in 350 and up area..

in bitumen in 1969 we had over 23 bear in a 1 mile area, yes 23 bear..i fed 1 of the biggest bears in state killed then..back then you could not kill a baby bear..most hunters would not kill a mother bear with cubs..

now on to today.. bears are not as big as they are not left to grow up.. yes, we are killing more bear but over half are small in 40 pd to 125 pd bears ..yes, alt did do something,he allowed cubs to be killed..

so, you look at counts and say, boy ,pa has a ton of bears..we always did but difference is we did not kill cubs..

you also have 10 times bear hunters now than they did wayback..most in my area did not hunt bear,only deer..

i will not comment on what i think of cub killing..it was done for 2 reasons,1 to reduce complaints from citizens but the real big reason was LICENSE SALES..it all is about MONEY!!