Another hunting season has come and gone, interested in hearing from Pa hunters only, do you think that herd reduction has gone too far in your area?

It has in our area.Farms/woodlots/strippings/hardwoods.A diverse habitat that gets hammered in the rifle season.Those guys shoot anything brown that moves.They'll knock the spots off a fawn if you give them a chance.Problem is I'm on the northern edge of 2E.In the southern portion of 2E there's tons of posted land and tons of deer.Other then to micr manage I don't think there's a fix for my area.Unless they would cut back on doe tags and give landowners the ability to manage with dmaps.

I cannot speak for other areas but I am tired of these extended seasons here in 2B. I am not 100% sure but i believe that 2B also has more doe tags than any other management unit. Those two things combined has greatly reduced the amount of deer in the area that I hunt. A few years ago I could go in the woods and see a dozen deer in a morning or an evening hunt. Now, I consider myself lucky to see deer. However, I have gone through more urban areas of 2B and it is nothing to be driving in your car and see 20 deer. I believe the diiference is that in these areas hunting is not permitted and deer are not stupid. They are very smart animals and are going to go places where they are not pressured, as most of you already know. I am not the type to go and hunt on property without permission, but the people who own these pieces of land won't even let you bowhunt! As there are also State and Township owned parks that you cannot hunt in. Personally I think that some or most of these areas should be opened up to bowhunting. I can understand not wanting rifles, but bowhunting, come on!

Far beyond reason.

I think thats a great idea. Dmap are there for anyone wanting to utilize them. No need for the blanket reduction imho. These days farmers are also premitted to shoot deer for damages 24/7 and even have others do it for them, not to mention red tag program etc. WIth all this currently available, plus a much smaller overall herd to begin with, Im not sure how anyone these days can use use farmers as an excuse for having widespread dismal herd densities or a completely inappropriate allocation.

I also just cant believe the resistance to smaller wmus. Ive heard some weak arguments against them, but its totally unreasonable of pgc not to go that route imho.

Some areas i am sure get hunted very hard,my family has a farm in the eastern corner of 4e we have about 250 acres of private land with many other farms and private land around but most is hunted. We harvested 5 doe and one buck (4hunters)on the last day of season i saw 9 doe and 1 buck before season we were seeing 20+ deer in the fields at dust in late august. I was thinking the wmu should be looked at every 5years to alter lines. This is the most deer i remember seeing in 10 seasons hunting.

BTW, just as a heads up, the past "poll skewer" wont be voting with alternate id's (at least not his known ones) on this poll. The site added a feature not too long ago, because of his antics, where you can click the number of votes and see whos voting, so there'll be no number "boosting" by him on this one.

anyway, interesting stuff, keep em coming.

Not even close. Tons of deer left in my areas.

Just out of curiosity, what general area are you hunting? I hunt in the Mon Valley area and I have talked to many people around the area and the general concensus seems to be the same, low counts. Are you in 2B?

I am not in any way, shape, or form trying to start an arguement but I noticed that you are from Pitts. and was just wondering what general areas you hunt. Meaning large tracts of land or the smaller more urban areas as I described earlier?

buckinbowhunter

Don't know much of the Mon valley but the Allegheny valley still has plenty of deer. There ARE a few pockets that are stomped out but they are areas that have always been hard hit. Any open (meaning unposted and open to all ) private land thats still that way always gets the snot pounded out of it and always has simply because those spots are close to home for lots of guys. What I'm staring to see lately though is a large drop off in hunting pressure in late season and some of these spots are now actually better than they were before 2002 but hey, that could just be a localized thing. How far are you from the Yukon exit along 70? Got a buddy who works near there and has a couple big chunks of woods behind work that're full of deer and not posted.