PA Pheasant Opener
 

Saturday was PA opener and I was going to bow hunt public land in Montgomery County. When I got there I counted 38 cars[:o] between the two parking areas accessing a tract of about 100 acres. I decided to leave the bow in the truck and grab the shotgun. Guys were heading into the bush well before shooting hours started and the shooting began when I felt it was still too dark to see. At one point I counted 13 hunters and several dogs in one field at the same time. I managed to get one pheasant depite the crowds and my having no dog. I guess I got lucky. It sure was different than hunting the big woods up north. I can' t wait to see what that place looks like on opening day of buck season.:D

RE: PA Pheasant Opener
 

Probably worse if you can believe that...:). That bit of public land sounds like where I hunt in Lehigh County....absolutely loaded with small game hunters.

RE: PA Pheasant Opener
 

I skipped the opener this year. Actually my wife' s baby shower made me skip it. ;) I really want to do some pheasant hunting this season though.

RE: PA Pheasant Opener
 

I got rained on a few times by pellets. I was thinking - " I' m glad they' re #6 shot and not slugs.:D I would think that there would be a lot less shooting but who knows. I was wondering if a lot of hunters head north or to private property for the gun opener. The fact that this area was stocked with pheasants might have drawn quite a crowd. I got to see someone shoot a pheasant on the ground at about 50 yards, crippling it, on a baseball field in front of about 20 people. Everyone was in the parking area when a pheasant was walking across a baseball field (park). This guy grabs his shotgun, runs out a few yards and pops the bird. It then starts trying to fly away as he' s chasing it down trying to catch it. I was disgusted. I' m not sure what the safety zone rule for the baseball field but it was an ethically questionable act at best.

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I personally have a problem with the way people hunt these stocked birds. A few years back we happened to be on a game lands in York county when the stocking truck backed into the field. We walked up and let the dogs watch and talked to the guys, as soon as the first bird took flight, guys were coming out the the woodwork, and then the pellets started flying, hell they peppered the stocking truck 3 times, one guy actually was out in the open, shooting towards us at birds were let loose. Game commission guy just stood there and shook his head. We snuck up on that guy, while he was searching for a wounded bird and reemed him a new one. Then 2 weeks later my buddy was at the smae game lands, his lab put up a bird, someone on the other side of the fencerow shot the bird, being a good dog it went to retrieve the bird and the other guy shot and killed the dog, for trying the pick up the bird, then he and his friends just walked off.

I' d walk to South Dakota before hunting the game lands for stocked birds again.

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That' s just sick ! [:@] I can' t believe someone would shoot a dog like that. I' d have gone after the person to get his tag # or license plate #.

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It reminded me of opening day of trout. Guys who only fish one day a year will fight over a spot near the stream. Some guys will even try to foul hook the palominos. All for an 8 inch fish that looks just like the other 1000 that they put in the day before. I fished a lake on the day that the stocking truck was coming. Nobody was even fishing prior to the truck arriving. What a joke. It' s not hunting or fishing, it' s more like shopping.

White Oak Lodge

RE: PA Pheasant Opener
 

A perfect comparison in my opinion.

Now, don' t get me wrong as I enjoy pheasant hunting as much as the next guy but does anyone see a problem with expanding a season for an animal that we have to stock in order to hunt as opposed to not expanding a season for an animal that is largely overpopulated through a good portion of the state??

RE: PA Pheasant Opener
 

you have got to be kidding me? i would have broke that mother %$#@&%@ neck. shot and killed someones pet over a damn bird? i swear to god, if i had witnessed that, that person would have dissapeard.

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PABearman- Jeez! If I saw somebody do that, you can be guaran-dam-teed that I wouldn' t stop at taking a tag number.

I made the same " mistake" this weekend as well. I took my girlfriend out to some gamelands outside Harrisburg, and saw the parking area filled and the field dotted with orange. We just kept driving. Ended up back at her family' s land to hunt squirrels in peace. I absolutely love bird hunting, but will not endure crowds like that. There really needs to be an aptitude test for hunting licenses.

RE: PA Pheasant Opener
 

That sure would get rid of some of the riff-raff.

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I see a big problem with it. But at the same time I can' t see them doing anything about it. Would be nice though.

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Geez, thank God there are no stocked phesants around me. I went pheasant hunting 1x in high school. Went to the local gamelands. There was a car parked right by us that was occupied. Thought nothing of it until he got out and asked us if we knew when the phesant truck was coming. Sorry, not for me. To each is own.

RE: PA Pheasant Opener
 

Actually, the PGC addessed this issue recently by granting the stocking truck the same status as an occupied building. So now it' s a what, 300 ft (or yds) saftey zone around the truck? I haven' t hunted pheasants since I moved from the Germansville area in Lehigh County (used to hunt SGL 205). I' m interested in seeing how the WMU' s will change the composition of hunters on gun opener. I feel that when the PGC went to the concurrent buck/doe season, hunting pressure was more spread out than in the past. Heck, on the 2nd day, there' s hardly any pressure, and by the 3rd or 4th day, you' re wishing there were some hunters around to move deer.

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I' m sure glad I didn' t take out my Brittany. I' d sure hate to have something happen to her. I was thinking about hunting squirrels instead of deer when I saw the amount of people there. However, when I got out there and saw all those people and heard them yelling back and forth, I knew the squirrels wouldn' t be coming out of their nests.

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MikeE51848,

Small world. I live in New Tripoli and hunt almost exclusively on 205.

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My friend whose dog it was had to be restrained by the other guys he was with. The dog was on the other side of a fence row and till he got over there and realized what had happened, the guy who shot the dog was way out across the field. He took of after the guy and his friends stopped him. She was a great dog.

RE: PA Pheasant Opener
 

These are horrible stories, I am glad I don' t hunt pheasent. I take the squawker out in January and do some crow hunting.

Why stock an animal only to have them shot right off the truck? Sounds a bit like the old Higgins Pigeon Shoot. Fair chase should be the case. If they are going to stock them it should be days before a hunting day and allow the birds to disperse more. maybe that would spread the birds out and have hunters working harder for a bird. Maybe make it similar to crow hunting only allow it on Saturdays, then stocking on any other day. seems a bit like shopping on black friday when everyone makes a mad dash when the store doors open. (Not Fun)

If the pheasent population isn' t strong enough to survive in our woods then why stock them? Shouldn' t they be treated almost like an endangered species. Maybe after years of not hunting them we can one day start hunting them again. Don' t argue herritage on this one because it seems to be a bit off base if they aren' t living and breeding and sustaining themselves that is nature' s way. Stocking them seems a bit wrong for many reasons.

RE: PA Pheasant Opener
 

cableguy119 - The severe decline in the PA pheasant population isn' t due to over-hunting. It' s due to farming practices that have changed in the past two decades or so eliminating much of the cover and habitat that these birds need. I don' t believe that the population would recover on its own if we limited the hunting of them. Stocking them (right now) is the only way to keep them around. Anybody else have a take on this? Now, the other question you raised, about continuing to stock a bird that has naturally declined and not sustainable, is a whole other debate.

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In the late 70' s and early 80' s, I lived in a rural area of Lehigh County, I still recall the time I drove home from work and saw 40 - 50 cock birds brawling in the cut corn field along side my house. Then they started building houses like crazy and farmers began plowing their fields right out to the road. And the birds disappeared. Once in a while, I still see a stray cock pheasant in May, which means he made it through both winter and hunting season. But he' ll die of loneliness as I don' t think the PGC stocks hens anymore south of I -80. Why stock at all? Sounds just like the Fish Commission trout program, ie; it' s a tradition. At one time the PGC was fooling around with a hardier pheasant but I guess nothing came of it. Me, I' d rather hunt turkeys.

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Mike,

I agree and have seen the same things....an occasional bird in the spring while turkey hunting but nothing significant. However, the game commission is stocking hens with the cockbirds though I do not think it is having any effect in terms of repopulating the area. I do know that there is a wild pheasant population down along the Lehigh River between Fullerton and Northampton. We walk the Rails to Trails paths throughout the year and regularly see birds in that area.

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I hunted SGL 205 last saturday for about an hour and had to leave because at every turn there was another couple of hunters, even If you got a bird up it would have been a free for all. PaBowhunter, I also hunt that land quite often. One of my buddy' s lives in Clausville and we always get together for hunting.

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I' m very familiar with that area. I worked in Whitehall for 30 years. Used to hunt pheasants where they now have a Walmart & Sam' s Club and also behind the present Ice Palace.

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They are tasty and good looking animals, but correct me if I' m wrong... Pheasants aren' t even native to the United States. Yes, it is nice to hunt them every once and a while, but my experience with stocked pheasants has been walking up on " tame" birds that will either just stand there or walk/run away. I guess if you have a good dog, they will flush it out, but I don' t agree with shooting them on the ground.

As far as shooting them when the truck is releasing them... That' s not hunting, that' s trap shooting.