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ORIGINAL: Crazy Horse RVN

Do not get caught posting anything on State game lands property. You will be cited if caught. You cannot even place things on cars parked in Game lands parking lot.

Try and get sporting good dealers to display or have them visable in their shops.

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In WMU 2G where I spend a lot of time having hunted it for 40 years , I believe we could eliminate all doe hunting and the deer herd would be kept in check by the tremendous numbers of coyotes, along with bears, bobcats, and now mountain lions……

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> 2006 deer harvest had size
> By MICHAEL MOLITORIS, Oil City Derrick - Dec. 15, 2006
> Hunters were gunning down animals with big bodies and antlers.
> Pennsylvania whitetails were a little more challenging to find during this
year's hunting season - but when hunters landed their trophy catches, many were
nothing to scoff at.
> Harvest numbers from the combined antlered and antlerless two-week season that
ended Dec. 9 won't be available until March, but a quick check has shown some
impressive animals being taken from Pennsylvania forests.
> "The quality of the deer was excellent if you're looking at body size and
antlers," said Regis Senko, an information education supervisor with the
Pennsylvania Game Commission's northwest region in Franklin. "I've been in some
of the taxidermist's (studios) and have seen some tremendous bucks."
> Bryan Thatcher, owner of Bryan's Creative Wildlife Taxidermy in Franklin,
agreed that the quality of this year's harvest was "much higher than normal."
> "There wasn't necessarily the quantity, but the quality has improved," Thatcher said.
> He typically preserves 70 deer in a season and most bucks average eight
points, but the highest he has seen this year is 14 scoreable points.
> "The average spread is up this year to about 17 or 18 inches," he added. "Last
year, the spreads on most 2-year-olds was about 16 inches. That's increased in
the 3-year-olds, putting some in the 18-inch category."
> The bulk of deer he has seen this year sit in the 2-year-old range, but he
also had one specimen that was believed to be 5 years old.
> "I've seen increases in the 3-year-old whitetails, but the 2-year-olds
dominate most of the whitetails in Pennsylvania as far as harvesting for
mounting. It's nice to see some bucks that made it 4 years (and older),"
Thatcher said.
> Senko said the Game Commission's point restriction guidelines are only partly
responsible for allowing bucks to mature, grow larger and produce trophy racks.
Food supplies, too, have helped the matter.
> "This past year, the winter of 2005, was very mild and we had an excellent
food year going in and an excellent mass crop. Two years prior to that, we had
significant winters and a poor mass crop. Deer were able to exit this past
winter to put on that body growth and extra energy into antler development,"
Senko said. "You're harvesting deer larger than what most of us are used to from
years gone by."
> Though harvest numbers have yet to be tallied, Senko said he also gauged this
year's hunting results from visits to deer processors - many of whom saw
business swiftly boom because of this season's unseasonably warm temperatures.
> "I'm hearing things similar to last year (regarding numbers of deer killed),"
Senko said. "Some people who may not normally take a deer to a processor may
have this year because of the weather."
> He believes that also impacted the season's opening-end harvest.
> "On the first day, conditions were far from ideal. Weather was far from ideal
with most hunters sitting on stands and not getting the deer moving. During colder weather, people get up and
get moving along to keep warm and the end result is that you get deer moving a
lot more.
> "The last day of the season had the best hunting conditions. There was snow on
the ground and very decent temperatures to hunt. It was cooler and hunters found
some good hunting," Senko said.
> From the Game Commission's standpoint, Senko qualified this year's season as a
success.
> "I think it was on par with other seasons with the difference being - from my
personal observations - I'm hearing individuals continue to comment on less
deer. That is what the management program was designed to do, and in this case,
it's been successful," he said.
> "I hear people saying they see multiple bucks. Some are sublegal and they
can't harvest them, or others that may have been of the harvestable variety but
they couldn't get to them. That all adds to the quality of it." >
> The two-week season, however, was not without incident. Senko said two regional gun-related accidents were reported: one in Venango County and the
other in Jefferson County. In both, people received firearm-inflicted injuries,
but Senko could not comment further on the incidents.
>

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Bigger is better for deer hunters
12/15/2006

The following report is provided by Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife
Conservation Officer Darin Clark of Erie County:


"On the third day of deer season, I came across three hunters peering into the
back of a pickup," he wrote. "I stopped, figuring there had to be a deer. The
one hunter had harvested a nice 9-point with a 17-inch spread.

"After we talked for a while, I asked him if he knew what the bad thing about
his deer was. He looked at me with a puzzled look, so I told him that five years
ago his deer would have won almost any buck pool around, but this year he
probably did not stand a chance. I have seen several deer that are far bigger
than his this year."

That pretty well sums up the state of the buck population in Pennsylvania's deer
herd.

Never before in the memory of today's hunters have so many big bucks been taken
by hunters in the two-week deer season. The days of spikes and forkhorns being
the norm are over.

With antler restrictions and a reduction of the deer population over the last several years,
the deer population in the state has benefited. Not only are the bucks killed
during the season sporting larger racks, but the body size of both bucks and
does has increased.

"I've got some of the nicest deer you'd ever want to see," said George Sullivan
of Sullivan's Taxidermy in Rochester. "The largest was a 17-piont taken in
Hanover Township. It had an inside spread just shy of 20 inches.

"The mass on this thing is just amazing," said Sullivan. "I have seen more big
deer at the processors than ever before. The body size has really increased.
Most of the deer brought into my shop this year were 3 ½, 4 ½ and 5 ½ years
old."

Most every hunter I have talked with has repeated the same story. The racks are
bigger and the deer are bigger. Deer hunting has never been better in
Pennsylvania. Yes, some are still complaining there are not enough deer. This is
mostly heard from the folks hunting the traditional deer woods of the northern counties.

The buck that won the Potter County Big Buck Contest this year was an 11-point
with a 24¾-inch spread. It had an 8-point frame with three stickers coming off
the base of the antlers. The deer weighed 170 pounds.

When was the last time a buck of that caliber was taken in Potter County?

Entries were way up compared to last year. They had about 80 bucks brought in
the first day this year compared to a total of 90 for the entire two-week season
last year. Average weight of the bucks was over 140 pounds, average number of
points was over 8 and the average inside spread was 17 inches.

Of the five Big Buck Contests I checked into, the winning bucks were all better
than 8 points with more than 20-inch spreads.

There were eight in our party on opening day in Mercer County. Everyone saw deer
and just about everyone saw a buck. Of the eight hunters, we took three bucks
and one doe. The nicest buck was an 8-point with a 17-inch spread.

I have heard the same thing from other counties.

Bob Orie of Orie's Taxidermy in Moon Township agreed.

"The biggest deer I had brought in weighed 265 pounds field-dressed," Orie said.
"It was taken in Allegheny County. The racks are bigger this year. I have
received the same number of buck racks this year as I have last year. They're
just bigger."

Interestingly, as the buck numbers increase in relation to the doe numbers, the
bucks are becoming more "buck-like."

"The thing I noticed most this year more than any other year was the amount of
fighting injuries on the bucks brought into my shop," Orie said. "The first day
when I was out I saw a herd of six bucks and nine does come through."

I hunted in Allegheny, Beaver and Mercer counties this year and I also noticed
the more even buck-to-doe ratio. I saw deer ever day out and bucks most days. On
the second Tuesday of the season I saw three bucks and four does.

The new direction in deer management plotted by the Game Commission several
years ago has really changed deer hunting in Pennsylvania. Some would say for the better and some would say for the worse.

In my opinion the "good old days of deer hunting" are right now.

Mike Barcaskey is The Times Outdoors Coordinator.
©Beaver County Times Allegheny Times 2006

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ORIGINAL: chr103yod

If you buy a Dmap tag and don't fill out the report card you get fined and you can't get another tag the following year. Why isn't this the case with all hunting licenses? If they made this change we would finally have accurate numbers.

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