PA question?
 

After reading this and that about the "deer problem" in PA I have become quite interested, but don't really have the time to do all the research myself.

I've read where PA went from having too many deer to not hardly any deer. This and that.

So, you PA fellas sum it up for me. Whats going on in your state?

RE: PA question?
 

Were i hunt seeing deer is rare, I live in Altoona and hunt around here and up in houtzdale by the prison, i dont see deer. Period.
Ryan.

RE: PA question?
 

i see maybe 50 all year when before the "management" i would see 50 on the first day of deer season

RE: PA question?
 

In much of the state the deer numbers have been reduced to a level that the habitat can support. Which means, yes there are far fewer deer. Much debate still goes on about HOW fewer.

HOWEVER, in other areas of the state(yes even public land areas) there are very good quantities of deer with good size bucks to boot.

So there is a bit of a disparity, but it's not like they are extinct even in the places where they are fewer in number than they used to be.

RE: PA question?
 

I know that it seems like one thing. If you PA guys don't all stop your bickering and get together and take a stand, PA is going to be the first state where deer hunting is banned or at least halted.

I had a few PA guys in my classes at FLETC down in GA. I was shocked at the stories they were telling me.

So, what caused it? Too many does being shot?

Reason for the questions is that I live in SC. We've never had a limit on the amount of deer that we can shoot. We can kill 50 a year if we please. Over the past few years our state is being torn into Upper State VS lower state....on the whole "management" issue.

RE: PA question?
 

The main difference between PA and other states is there are about 1 million resident hunters. You will never get all those guys on the same page. The archery hunters want to argue with the rifle hunters, some guys don't care about antler size, other do. Some just want it like it used to be and see lots of deer, others want the herd reduced to create bigger bucks. The bickering that goes on is unbelievable and the PGC is in the middle of it. If you want to see all the fighting that goes on visit the http://www.PaSportsmenPortal.com click on the forums and visit the legislative section. It is unreal how these guys go at it all day long, every day. Frankly it is wearing me out.

RE: PA question?
 

first of all we have more hunters than in any other state which is not a help like jsay said, second of all i am seeing and harvesting bigger and nicer bucks on my land than i ever have, as for not seeing as many deer i have no problem with that as long i can keep gettin close to them big ones once or twice a year, i dont see why any state would ever let you harvest as many deer as you would like, if that happened in PA i guarentee that the herd would disappear, the state is not in bad shape and the antler restriction has been a big help

RE: PA question?
 

In most cases it all comes down to hunting pressure.Where there's alot of hunters there's few deer.

RE: PA question?
 

Personally, I think the state's deer herd is in better shape than it has been for years. Growing up I would agree that I did see a lot of deer. The first day of buck season I could almost be guaranteed to see at least 30 deer. Granted, every single one of them was a doe but I saw deer. If I did see a buck chances are it was a 70 pound spike that was running for it's life after being shot at 50 times so I couldn't get a shot anyway. People are claiming to be "meat hunters" when they argue against antler restrictions yet they want to be able to shoot that 70 lb spike over a 110 lb doe. Hmmm, "meat hunters" who "don't care about the size of the rack" but yet shooting an animal that weighs 40 lbs less. I would go to the local butcher shop the first weekend and if there was 200 inches of antler in the entire cooler you were lucky. Now, the average buck I'm seeing is at least 100" and 2.5 years old with some of the bigger ones going into the 170's. As far as the numbers of deer I will say I am seeing fewer but in no way are they close to being gone. Whenever I hear that statement from another hunter my first question I ask is "How often do you get to hunt?" The typical response is " Well, I take off for the first day and then I might get out the first weekend of rifle. But that spot has been great for the past 20 years so they should still be there." My standard response is then "Oh, so the same tree stump that you've hunted forever doesn't have deer running by it this year so they must be all gone". I guess the bottom line is... Are there fewer deer? YES...Are they almost gone? - Absolutely not ...Are they harder to hunt? - yes, you may actually have to "hunt" for them now...Are there bigger buck? - As far as I'm concerned with what I'm seeing scouting and on trail cams...no doubt.

RE: PA question?
 

I have to agree with bearklr, the bucks are 100% better than 7 years ago. I can't even tell you how many people I know that used to shoot spikes and fork horns, now with the antler restriction the same people are shooting more mature deer. I have always been against shooting button bucks and spikes and typically when we are hunting when the spike walked by it was with a doe. Another thing that has changed is that when you check out a local deer processor you don't see that scrap pile of little racks that the hunters don't even want to take home, they just tell the processor to keep it. I think over the next few years you see a steady decline in the number of doe tags available. I can't speak for eastern PA but in western PA the hunting is still good. When we go spotting we typically see 60 deer an evening (1-1/2 hours) and a lot of nice bucks.

JMO