Deer hunters need to come back to Elk and McKean counties like they did years ago so that hunter numbers are high enough to move the deer around. About four years ago, deer numbers were at the lowest that most hunters had ever seen in WMUs 2G, 2F and 3A, but those numbers have increased for the last four summers in a row. This year’s fawn sightings are up, as well as adult does and all age-classes of bucks. Numbers of older mature bucks are up and some very nice-sized antlers are being seen. Hunters need to change their hunting methods these days to adapt to the changed habitat. In recent years, the timbered areas have grown back very thick and even some un-timbered areas now have small trees, shrubs and briers growing thickly. This makes excellent cover for deer and makes it very difficult for hunters to see deer. The best way to improve one’s chances of seeing deer is to have a few more hunters moving around in the same areas as each other. Years ago, deer had very little good cover compared to what they now have to hide in. Today’s deer can lay still in thickets and almost never move for days when only an occasional hunter or two sits in the area or passes through the area. Years ago, one could see a hundred yards or more in every direction in many of the forests up here. Today, the thicker plant growth limits visibility in many areas to less than 20 yards or so. With this limited visibility and the great increase in cover, deer now have the odds heavily in their favor to escape being seen. One cannot stress this enough in many areas of these WMUS. However, if you’re still hunting an area that does not have this abundant cover, if you’re still hunting and area that has mature trees and very little undergrowth and had mostly ferns and leaves on the forest floor and few small trees and shrubs, you will not find many deer living there. Although acorns are abundant this fall, deer need plentiful food year-round in the form of small trees, small shrubs, wildflowers and vines to live in plentiful numbers. This year’s acorns will help some, but a mature forest with little understory to make food and cover still have low numbers of deer. Try hunting new areas and new methods with some friends. Timbered areas with thick cover and mature forests with thicker understories make the best places for deer to hide. This, in turn, makes the best places for groups of hunters to move deer and make them more visible to other hunters. The weather plays a huge role in hunter’s ability to see and harvest deer. Snow and cold weather helps out immensely to make both hunters and deer move, to provide easy tracking and to make visibility much better. If you have not had much luck in the beginning of the season consider coming back with friends to hunt later in the season when snow is more likely to improve hunting conditions. Those who put in more time and try these methods will see more deer on many occasions. Once again, deer hunters need to come back to many areas of McKean and Elk counties like they did years ago. In many areas where 10 to 15 cars used to be parked on the opening day, there are only one or two vehicles there now, and in some places no hunters are in the woods. Hunter pressure is so low in some areas that the deer do not even know that deer season has started. It’s time to come back to some of the McKean and Elk County areas where the habitat has improved. Fair to good

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