I spent a few days in the Sproul SF last week on a bear research trip with the PGC and I have to admit that I had no idea how poor the habitat in the Sproul had gotten. It has to be right up there among the least desireable habitat in the state for the whitetail deer.That area isn't going to support big deer densities for a long time. On the other hand, while traveling to get there and back. we saw 80+ deer from our vehicle in area 2G mostly from I80 and Rt 555.

My limited observations tell me that it would appearthe deer population is still quite healthy in 2G in the areas where the habitat still exists to support them.

The guys on here that tell of having success in 2G are undoubtedly telling the truth. The hunters who are seeing no deer arealso notfibbing either. They dont need to go terribly far to find deer in good numbers , but they may need to find a new hunting area just down the road.

Just my $.02

You hit the nail on the head BT.There's plenty of deer in 2G where the habitat can still support them.There are no doubt areas with very few deer and the FLIR bears that out.It still amazes me that people expect to see large numbers of deer in areas where there's no browse.

Doug,
What is FLIR?

Bt, were you the good looking young fellow with all the women surrounding ya.
Oh, never mind, I think that was Dennis.
Hey, even if there were deer in that pole forest, can you imagine trying to negotiate some of those hills? That is some very rugged country and all a deer would have to do is drop down from the top and bed about halfway down the hillside. They'd see a hunter coming from 500 yards away.

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?Q=171391&A=11

Gene,that's the abbreviation for the IR flyovers.

BT,is 555 the route that runs through elk county?
One place in the sproul that's very,very thick is along rte 144 where a fire took place a few years back.Thousands of acres were burnt.I drove through there awhile back but didn't hike or anything.I'm told the deer numbers are also low there and don't know what type of plants are growing in there since the fire.

Any place close by to look for the elk?

T - the Benezette area had about 100 elk around last week.

yep, thats the one. We also saw about 40 head of Elk as we passed through.

I did notice the fire area and assumed it had been clearcut. I really didnt get a good look at whats growing there but it is extremely thick and we didnt see many deer tracks as we drove through.