bluebird2

This quote is from a 2005 PGN article.
That certainly has changed since the new deer plan was implemented.

BTBowhunter

LOL The deer plan was implemented well before that article so you just contradicted yourself.

4evrhtn

You don't realize how true that is. When I told people what I had seen, they asked "where at?". I sat on the first day of muzzleloader and heard a total of3 shots from 5:30 AM to 10:30 AM and then 2 shots from 3 PM till dark. I hunt in a valley where the sound of a door slamming echoes, yet I heard so little shooting???? A friend (who hasn't seen anything yet this season) and myself went scouting this past Sunday. We walked at least 5 1/2miles and found 4 rubs and 3 scrapes. The sad thing is this has been the most productive scouting effort since early August.

bluebird2

Actually ,as usual ,I get the last laugh. Although the plan was implemented in 2000 ,initially it resulted in record harvests keeping many hunters happy. It wasn't until 2004 that harvests began to crash and hunters felt the effect of HR. In 2005 the PGC was satisfied because we still had 1.013M hunters in 2004. After 2004 many hunters expressed their discussed with the plan by quitting and by 2007 license sales had decreased to 924K and then the PGC expressed concern about declining license sales.

BTBowhunter

Simply not true

That theory would be plausible if not for the fact that the guysbitching now are the very ones thatwho cried wolf from day one

bluebird2

You have absolutely nothing to support that claim but your very biased opinion and it doesn't explain the decline in junior license sales.

sproulman

i was out today in clinton county, i saw 5 road hunters and 2 hunting deer in woods for about 12 miles area.

i did see 1 doe along road, road hunter saw me and was afraid to shoot.

i was going to blow my truck horn

i did see 3 grouse,1 in road and 2 in woods hunting.

yet, in my yard last night i had 3 bucks, 3 doe and 2 fawns,2 fox.


i may send my picture to btb so he can put the buck fight on here for us, that spike buck was kicking that 7 points butt

sproulman

junior lic holders here in my area of clinton ,i feel are up from a few years ago.

i see very few in woods hunting,i saw about 6 last year yet i know there are at least 50 in my area that got lic.

i see dads in woods riding around or walking .very few kids in woods.

4evrhtn

I have been out since my last post and have seen a doelast night and tonight as well. Both times it was at dark and both of these places were different areas that I hadn't hunted yet this season. I feel better now that I have seen something but seeing these few deer after the hours I spent and miles I walked scouting is ridiculous. Oh well, I had 205 hours in the woods last season before I shot a 120" 8 pointer, looks like I have an even longer season ahead of me this year. I saw alot more buck and doe last year and this year I have yet to see a buck but have found a few scrapes and alot of rubs in one "specific" area.

I'd like to see that video. I watched a drop tine spike buck beat up on a few buck in Ohio this year. He wouldn't face them head on but as soon as they turned he jab them in the side or in the tail. I am curious to see how his rack develops over the next 3 years. Might have to put him on the wall when he grows up.

Big Country

Let me address this post first..........

Decline in junior license sales are due in a large part to the following.....
1. Growing anti-hunting sentiment in public, schools, etc.
2. Computers
3. Video games
4. Parents having to work longer to make ends meet

I have only just now found this thread, and I have NOT read very many posts, but a few that I did read, surely jumped out at me......

Insurance companies are permitted to assign risk potential for auto/deer collisions per geographic location in alignment with data gathered from previous history of said accidents in a given geographical area.

In other words......insurance companies win in the long run from us running into deer. There is no conspiracy here.

Is there an overharvest of deer in certain areas of the state? IMO, there probably is. There are not enough management units to do the job correctly. Unfortunately, our own ranks cried like little girls and ran the best guy we had out of Dodge before he could get everything he wanted in the management of our deer herd.

Instant gratification is the name of the game today. Every hunter wantsa perfectly balanced herd, that is HUGE enough to take a buck and a doe in a matter of minutes. It just doesn`t work that way.

I can remember hunting in northern PA at our family camp in the very early 70`s........it was nothing to see 30-100 deer per day. If I added up the total amount of antler on every buck sighted, I could probably come up with 50 inchs of bone. Average body weight was probably 80 pounds.

Yep, the PGC needs changes.......they need to move forward with Alts plans, which includes more and smaller management areas.

Get antlerless season OUT of regular buck season too.



Deer check stations..........there are others among us who hunt many states per year too, and as one of those people, I have talked to wardens in many states about deer management issues.

Check stations seem to be no more accurate than our report card method.

The example was given regarding Illinois, and going to phone in system. I have seen no changes there........some folks just do not report their deer kills, regardless of reporting mehtod.

Being a lifelong resident of PA, I feel we have 2 problems here that severely hamper our ability to have the herd that PA is capable of producing..........

1. Sheer number of hunters
2. Rampant poaching, and the apathy that surrounds it.

See a poacher.....turn him in. I don`t care if it is your brother or father. And if he needs to feed his family, he should sell his weapon, put that money in the gas tank, and go find a job instead of spending time in the field.

Okay, I will read some posts now.......