livbucks

Sproul, I think it would be better if you stay away. While you are hunting buck, you will inadvertantly bump does and fawns to other hunters and they will get shot.

sproulman

you would not believe all weapons and money spent to try to get deer.i know hunters who had recurves,then they went to compound, now crossbow.
they have rifles,went to flintlocks, now too in-lines.
a lot have over 4,000 easy in these weapons alone not including all they neat things and ammo etc.
most are not in it to kill a buck for sport, its to get more meat.

its like hunter i know. he sat at club having beer.he said, SPROUL I GOT 36 GROUSE LAST YEAR ROAD HUNTING.he had smile a mile long.he knows i get mad when he says that as i believe in being a sportsman with dog hunting grouse not road hunting.

i said,JOHN DID YOU KNOW YOU COULD HAVE BOUGHT 99 TURKEYS AT WEIS STORE FOR AMOUNT OF GAS YOU USED TO GET THOSE 36 GROUSE.

you know, he never looked at it that way. he was after MEAT and thought he was getting a great deal road hunting

rem700man

Although i did'nt see many deer,,,i must say that i had an awesome time with friends and family members. The 1st day i passed on a legal 5 pt. in hopes it would go to my son,,,it was with 3 does all bleating like i have never ever heard before,,,they sounded like a herd of goats,,,all 3 does had their tails straight out continually bleating short bleats,,,it had that 5pt so goofed up,,,the poor bas^#rd didnt know which way to go,,,,this alone made my week! later on that day i saw 8 more deer two of which were spike bucks. The 2nd day i let a one horned 4 pt. walk,,,had no desire to shoot em,,,but i will say that if he had his other side he mighta bought a parking ticket! he woulda easily went 19" wide with the other side. 4 more does throughtout the day,,,wed. morning seen 3 does,,that was that for the week,,,thurs. and fri. no sightings at all. My son and I sat 55 hrs. on stand and between the 2 of us we saw 21 deer so im hopin when the neighbors got started filling doe tags on wed. that some of them made it thru the drives? I wont complain about this season because i passed on a few bucks and i had a beautiful week with my son,,,i have plenty of opportunity to shoot deer here in Va. and i feel good about deer sightings there in Pa. compared to prior years. Good luck to all of you!

muzzyman88

You know, the deer drive thing that is mentioned quite a bit on this thread is another thing, in my opinion, that combined with the everything else the PGC has done, is really taking its toll on populations in certain areas. Now, I realize that we've been allowed to drive for deer forever, but it makes me wonder how many more deer, combined with the ridiculous amount of tags given out now, are killed this way.

It's common practice for many I know to sit the first day or two, then get their buddies together and start driving all day, from woodlot to woodlot until everyone fills a tag. There are places close to me that will chase deer from wood patch to wood patch until their all shot off. Kinda sickning if you ask me.

Camosteel

Driving deer is a tradition in many families. If the tags are limited the number of deer killed will be limited. Please don't blame a perfectly legal form of hunting on the mass extermination of our deer herds. We as hunters need to stick together, not out here in plain view calling a perfectly legal form of hunting sickening. It may not be your cup of tea but to someone else it's a loved tradition.

livbucks

We never really did any HARD driving of deer. If things are slow, sometimes one or two of us will go on a walk about in the thick stuff on the chance that something might get rousted out. Then again, we don't hunt does much. If the woods are real busy with hunters, we refrain, because it will get all the does shot by them. Let your own conscience be your guide in how you hunt, but don't denigrate another's legal hunting methods.

sproulman

i think what our good friend muzzy was trying to say is what i have been saying with start of HR here in pa. in wmu2g.
dad would not let us kill off all doe in our area.he would even talk to other hunters if any went into area about passing on doe if numbers were low.

TODAY most dont care if 1 doe is left.notice i said MOST . i know crews that came into area i hunt and said,SPROUL WE ARE NOT GOING TO KILL A DOE.that was nice to hear.
today you cant seem to stop this from happening because they are DESPERATE.
ITS LIKE dmap TAGS HERE IN sproul FOREST. they are to be used in certain areas. privateland owners are using them the first week of deer on their land.you cant hunt doe first week in non-dmap areas here in wmu2g.see how SOME are getting around illegal getting doe.using a DMAP TAG.
why because they have to get doe before you or me.
no doubt that if the deer were not pushed by driving we would have more deer and i believe more bucks,no doubt about that.
i made a little obeservation in my area say about 10 mile circle.i think about 300 hunters were sitting or still hunting the first 2 days .about 100 were driving deer.out of say 20 bucks that were killed sitters got 14 of buck PUSHED out by the drivers,drivers got 6.
so driving first 2 days to me is not way to go,you only push buck to a NEW JERSEY HUNTER.notice i said that with no malice towards a new jersey hunter but bulk of bucks were shot by them as they station themselves yearly in middle of drives.
when the crews dont drive the new jersey hunters go home without a deer.i seen it for years now.
i miss DRIVING deer when we had lots od deer and no hunters sitting in middle of drives waiting for us to push a buck to them.
it really is not a good idea to drive the first 2 days of deer with all hunters yearly waiting for you to push a buck to them.

Camosteel

So Sproul, am I reading this wrong or are you saying it's okay if you sit on a stump and shoot a doe that is just wandering through but it's not okay to kill them if on a drive? I'm probably taking this the wrong way. I just can't blame driving deer as a reason for declining numbers. Stop selling the tags is my answer. I know many guys who just want to shoot 1 deer and they buy their doe tag simply because the odds of shooting a doe are much greater than shooting a buck for them. I can't look down on this type of hunter one bit. Shoot one deer and they are done. The hunter who mows them down with as many tags as they can get I have a problem with but they are still within the law. D map tags? Aren't we just hurting our situation by buying these and getting rid of the deer in a so called overpopulated area? Like I said, I'll never have a problem with the guy who shoots one deer a year on public land or for that matter even if he shoots a doe and a buck. All these extra tags, even the left over bonus doe tags are what is hurting us. not the only thing but a major, major part.

muzzyman88

Camosteel, I think you may have misunderstood my post. I'm not saying or blaming driving on low deer numbers. It may have come off that way. I was just referencing the incidents we have seen right down the road from us on how they basically drive the entire mountainside and wood lots and shoot everything that they can. A few years back, this group started doing this and now, most everyone I know in that area said there aren't many left. This group continues to do this. The first year this group came in there, they killed 27 deer in one day and I would imagine they kept doing it until there wasn't anything left.

I agree with you in the fact that its the sheer number of tags at fault. Not the hunters. But the kind of act I referenced above doesn't help.

Camosteel

Sorry Muzzy, that's what I get for thinking. I do agree with what you just said.