bob, if you are COMFORTABLE,WARM and have buddy or kid along, thats the fun.......i see hunters say between ages of 12 to 40.......most are NOT HAPPY ........they have to get that MEAT before you do....they sneak around following sproul and then flop their butts 20 yds from me. i had 14 do it this year around me within 150 yds.
i should have sold sportsmans club tickets this year.

now if they were there to ENJOY woods as i do,THEY WOULD NOT BE FOLLOWING ME OR SITTING WHERE I SIT peeking at me for 2 days.
so out of say 80 hunters that were in area i hunt,1 mile circle say,out of that bunch there was only12 that in my opinion were there to enjoy the hunt .rest are just sad group of people if MEAT and filling the tags means that much to them.
out of all those ,the buck i was after was shot at noon first day by one of them 20 yds from me.there i sat and did not get mad .he ran after buck yelling, ITS MINE, ITS MINE...

i offered to help drag BUCK out and he said, no thanks in mean voice.............
so thats what i am seeing in last 5 years.very few are enjoying hunting.
i saw good times when hunters respected other hunters and move elsewhere to hunt if you were there.no one would steal your gun or stand in woods.
now they follow you around and let you do their scouting........disgusting bunch to say the least.
this is because of lack of deer in WMU2G and all tags and MEAT FEVER that is happening.

we used to go too school and BRAG about the nice buck we got and how he doubled back on us and tricked us IN BLIZZARD OR HIGH WIND ETC..it was growing up to be a man thing......
today a kid goes to school and brags about his DEER JERKY,does not know anything about following deer track,is it buck or doe or the excitement of hunting a buck that tricked him the day before etc.

its hard for me to see these changes and not be very sad.i cant see it changing because most never knew what was great and what is now.
sorry got off topic a little again but this was worst season i ever had in 46 years hunting deer.....
but i am enjoying walking woods with toby flushing some grouse this week. we did see 3 grouse for about a 5 mile walk,thats was great to see but toby bro another toenail again.

I think the vast majority of PA hunters would consider a season like that to be a success because very few hunters based their opinion of success as harvesting a mature buck.

The normal definition of a successful season is a season where you had the chance to harvest a legal deer. Since the reason most people hunt deer is to harvest a deer ,IMO a successful hunt is one where a hunter succeeds in harvesting a deer. You may still have a very enjoyable hunt without harvesting a deer but I wouldn't consider it to be a successful hunt.

So the only way more hunters can be successful is to have more deer and you don't support that.

Like I said before Sproul for some people its all about filling that tag. I had a mom and twins up there all year where I hunt. I could have bought three tags and wiped them out like some slobs around there would have if we didnt throw them out. I got more satisfaction knowing they made it through hunting season and have a good chance giving birth this spring than filling my freezer

pats, thats nice story, for sure.i was over on archery talk forum the other day.can you believe that they have topic where hunters are proud to shoot as many fawns as they can because they taste good.......brainless idiots

I certainly dont support the mentality that killing a deer is a requirement for a successful hunt or season. That mindset belongs behind high fences. A hunter who cant be happy with his sport unless he kills is not the kind of hunter we need in our ranks. The challenge, the pursuit and the great outdoors experience are what most hunters will tell you makes them tick. yes, the kill is part of the goal, but it should never be a "requirement" If all, or even most, hunters thought that way, our sport would be doomed for sure.

bob, you ever use one of those HEATER BODY SUITS.i am using a sleeping bag with suspenders but i saw a suit for sale cheap.

Never tried em. I kind of look at it as a gimmick but if it keeps a guy out there I guess it's OK

I believe that if your reason for hunting is to harvest a deer , then in order for that hunt to be defined as a success, by definition of the word "success", you have to harvest a deer.

Now if your reason for hunting is to get away from the wife or the job, or to just spend a day in the woods watching the leaves fall, then your main objective was not harvesting the deer in the first place, so you might say you had a successful day in the woods because you accomplished your goal , but you did not a have a successful hunt.

Most guys I hear complaining are unhappy because they are not seeing enough deer to make their hunts enjoyable rather than frustrating. You ,on the other hand, are lucky enough to hunt where you are still seeing enough deer so you can kill your share of does and pass on legal buck. That is not what the vast majority of PA hunters are experiencing and therefore IMHO you can't begin to understand the frustration expressed many hunters in PA.

Luck has very little to do with it. Hunting is not a casino game. Effort, talent and ingenuity will trump luck virtually every time for those who choose not to sit back and wait for "luck"

Here's a quote that has stuck with me for years from a very successsful person I worked with:

"The harder you work at something, the luckier you'll get"

While the guy wasnt talking about hunting, it fits the sport of hunting like a glove.

That is precisely why you have no empathy for the average and why you can't relate to their frustration. You wouldn't be seeing all those doe and passing on 8 pts. if you lived and hunted in an area with 12 PS DPSM. Some are lucky enough to live and hunt in areas where HR has had little if any effect , but the vast majority of hunters live or hunt in areas where the herd has been reduced by at least 40%.

You base you opinions on your personal experience and success rather than on what the PGC stats tell you and what other hunters are experiencing. I base my position on PGC stats , the history of our herd ,over 50 years of deer hunting and common sense. And common sense says that when you have a lot fewer deer a lot more hunters will be unhappy and unsuccessful no matter how hard they hunt.


When hunting becomes work , that's when I'll quit!!! Cutting firewood would be a much more productive type of work and I actually enjoy it and it gets me out in the woods just like hunting.