pats102862

Found out why I didn't see any big boys in archery. They waited till rifle season to get shot. Took my buck to the local taxidermist, he took me back and showed some of the local Pa. monsters that came in from rifle season. He showed me the archery rack with decent to nice sized deer. The rifle rack had two legit 160s and several 140s hanging on it. The the one 160 was taken a mile away from the shop on public land. Previous years my buck would have been one of the bigger ones, this year he is a average dink compared the the hogs that are coming in.

bluebird2

The big boys didn't wait until rifle season to get shot in our area. The biggest buck that was taken was an average 8 pt. Our group only saw one small 4pt. and the neighbor hunted 11 days and only saw one deer. Herd reduction in our area has totally offset any positive effect ARs may have had if the herd had not been reduced so dramatically.The local paper didn't even have an article on the successful hunters after the first week and there wasn't anything in this Sundays sports section.

But, my 13 yr. old niece harvested a doe someone else crippled on the last drive in the last hour of the season,so that made our group a bunch of happy campers.

Gunplummer

I came on this late, but I might as well throw my two cents in. I live in 5-C and yes, the deer are really thinned out. Where does the fault lie? I hunt a state game lands once and a while in 5-C, but it is small and really not worth it unless you just want a day out of the house. Almost all of 5-C is private property. I worked with guys from bucks county and they shot everything the first couple of years it went special regs. If you and your neighbors can't control yourselves its not my problem because I can't hunt there anyway. It is not like anybody can just walk around 5-C and hunt like on bigger state land up north. It is your own fault.
As for bigger racked deer, what a bunch of crap. I saw way more heavy racked deer 20 years ago. If you think you see more now it is due to more posted property and everybody and his nephew throwing out mineral supplements. If you look in old Game News magazines from the '60s the photos will prove that.

bluebird2

I have no control over the deer the neighbors harvest and two adjoining farms are in the PGC Coop plan and they let anybody hunt. So, you really have no grounds for blaming me for the conditions that exist in our area. Furthermore , do you realize the PGC still wants to reduce our herd in 5C by 40% and are issuing 125 doe tags/forested SM.

Gunplummer

Nobody hunts those CO/OP farms anyway. We have them up here at the northern end of 5-C and the first year or two they got hit hard but now people ignore them. Since the extended doe season opened I went hunting on a state game lands twice and did not see another hunter. I might even get up tomorrow and go. I live in 5-C and know how the deer react. Many a good hunting place around here was ruined because of too much pressure. Those deer will just leave and find a place where they are not bothered. There are too many deer in the lower half of 5-C. I see them hit on the roads in town limits and wandering around peoples yards in the middle of the day.
15 years ago the game lands in Schyulkill County started to take a beating worse than 5-C and is only now starting to recover. You can either hunt somewhere else or whine and wait it out. What I remember most is ten years ago when the rest of the state was having a bad time, there was not a peep out of 5-C.

bluebird2

Of course the hunters ignore those coop farms now because they have a hard time finding a deer. But they did ignore them in 2000 when the new DMP was implemented. Do you realize the PGC still wants to reduce the herd by 40%? If the PGC is successful in reaching their g ,what will hunting be like in 5C on land opened to the public?

Gunplummer

Exactly what it is like hunting on 5-C public land now. The Game Commission has hit a wall in 5-C. They(Game Commission) has tried extending both ends of the deer season, allowing special weapons, baiting, unlimited crop damage tags and who knows what else to no avail. The deer have adapted and the kill will not go any lower. As the amount of hunters decreases, eventually the herd will build up again, just as it is starting to up north. Deer populations will eventually rise again, but never to previous levels. You can either wait it out in your area or try hunting somewhere else.

bluebird2

I agree completely. Statewide we lost over 200K buck hunters since 2000 and there is no reason that the trend will not continue. At some point there just won't be enough hunters who want to kill multiple deer to control the herd.

pa_yote_hunter

I hunt in 5D....I have seen plenty of deer this season....mostly does this year and a few small fork horns. A guy I hunt with has seen some legal bucks (all young 6 or 8 pointers). I have not seen any big boys yet, but there are plenty of sign that they are in the area.....just have not seen any during the day.

bluebird2

In your opinion, why do you think you aren't seeing more big 2.5+ buck? Are they being poached,road killed or do they secure spots where you just can't get to them. In our are of 5C we only saw two 1.5 buck since they got their antlers.