Although you may not realize it, you keep contradicting yourself. Now you say the deer density averaged 15DPSM, but before you said you saw 27 does in one herd after the season plus several other groups of 10.

So which is it? Are there 100 DPSM or 15 DPSM? What food is available to these deer with the current snow cover?

Boy, I'll say. It read like BB had him on the witness stand. trying to discreidt his success. The classic deer hunter class warfare.

I said nothing that would discredit his success. I am simply questioning his claims about the large number of deer he is seeing on public land and how the habitat can support that many deer without severe over browsing, heavy crop damage and significant winterkill.

Deer never were and never will be spread out evenly accross the landscape.They concentrate on areas that have food and cover.It's a pretty good bet that if a 5 mile area had 15 dpsm,there will be areas with no deer,areas with few and the better areas will have alot more.Now if the entire area had 50 dpsm,the deer would now be in huge groups,concentrating in smaller areas.

I hunt strictly public land in 2G during rifle season.Every year,I have days were I seee nothing and days I see in excess of 20 deer in a relatively small area.

But based on what you have posted on this MB, the deer densities that Hunt4L is reporting should be devastating the habitat and creating severe crop damage. Also, he is reporting those densities during archery season, before the deer have herded up in response to hunting pressure. At the same time he claims there is high hunting pressure but that the hunters aren't controlling the herd.

Obviously I was kidding about the special deer call and bringing deer in from all over. The area certainly has a higher deer density than 15 dpsm but I am sure surrounding areas with less food have less deer than this particular piece. If you thought I was serious when I said all the deer came running so there were 100 dpsm at that moment but it averaged at 15 dpsm in the area then i am sorry. I dont know how high the deer density actually is and I don't really care, but it is definitely over 15 and most likely not 100 dpsm.

Also, there is definitely significant crop damage in the area and a browse line is present, but I doubt there will be much of a winter kill. The groups of deer I have seen lately have been close to the small development so I am sure they are feeding on birdseed and possibly corn if anyone is feeding them. Also, in the cut corn fields there is still substantial corn on the ground and they are feeding on that as well. Obviously an area with crops planted can support more deer than an area of big woods. There were a lot of deer present in archery season before deer herded up because they had everything they needed on that property. They had the cover and safety in standing corn, a housing development, and impenetrable thick patches and all the food they wanted at that time in planted corn, soybeans, clover, brassicas, and alfalfa so why wouldnt they be there in high numbers? Also just because there is high hunting pressure doesnt mean that they are correctly controlling the herd. With all of the cover present the deer had plenty of places to hide and seek safety.

During bow season deer entered the fields before dark each night but usually out of range due to the size of the fields and them entering in different locations each day. And as soon as rifle season came, the deer were not using the fields except in the middle of the night, while using the safety of the housing development during the daylight hours. There is also a good amount of private land around the property, and many deer took refuge on that land as soon as shooting began. While there are a lot of deer here, the older deer have lived and learned and teach the young ones what to do as soon as the shooting starts and they are hard to hunt after gun seasons begin, which is when i said there is heavy pressure. If more bow hunters hunted the area, which I said not too many guys do, I am sure more deer would get killed and the herd would be controlled better.

So now we finally have the truth about the high deer numbers you were reporting on public land and we now know those deer were not available for the rifle hunters to harvest. Thanks.

Where in his post did he say any thing about the habitat? Why is it odd to you for someone see so many deer in one place. I counted 15 deer in one food plot on SGL 141 one summer night at dusk, 28 on the whole six mile ride. Why is it his responsibility analize the habitat and explain to you why there are deer there?
The bottom line is, the opputurnities are still there if you look for them.

I didn't say it was his responsibility to do that. However, I wanted to know how the habitat could support that many deer and why the herd hasn't been reduced in that area. Now we all know the answers.

Do you have a problem with that?

Everyone here knows what your posts like the ones here in response to a hunters success are really about. You simply cant handle the fact that there are hunters out there who find good hunting and find the deer. When someone posts good results you do your best to pick it apart, make excuses or rationalize your way into saying he has some unfair advantage. It's getting really old.

If you really cared about your fellow hunters as you claim, you'd be happy for this young man who made some time from a busy college schedule to go out and find a good place to hunt in an area he didnt know before getting to Penn State. Our hunting ranks need more like him.