Here we go again with the USP!!
 

Was reading the local paper today and saw there was a notice regarding the united sportsmen of Pennsylvania conducting an on line survey to the game commission regarding deer hunting. You can see it and submit your survey on line at www.usp.cc

All together looks like the old evil empire up to there old tricks to overthrow the PGC and Dr. ALt as usual.

Noticed the questions are rather black or white and scewed to the ANTI PGC/Alt side. Like the question regarding do you think there should be more doe licenses allocated. The answer, "More or less" licenses instead of "More, less or the same #". OR More or less based on DMU surveys on deer herd populations.

I for one, am really getting tired of this anti -PGC and Anti- Alt stuff. I really think they are trying to change things for the better. Yah they are not perfect but they have come along ways in 2 years!!!

Rome was not built in a day, its going to take time to get where we want to go.

I Personnally saw more nicer bucks this year than I ever have. Without a doubt that is directly related to AR. THe number of deer in our area both private and public seems to be rather plentiful.

And if you heard any of Alt's lectures the goal was to reduce the deer herd for the first few years and try and better the habitat before going back to a higher deer populations.

It just seems discouraging to me to see all this ANTI stuff lately in the papers. The vast majority of the people I know and hunt with are in favor of the new regs, AR and more season lengths.

Lets add Sunday hunting and 1 more week of archery to those changes and I would be really happy!!

RE: Here we go again with the USP!!
 

If you've been to huntingpa.com, I'm sure you noticed all the anti-Alt/PGC posts. It gets annoying after a while.

RE: Here we go again with the USP!!
 

Hey ilbback, how ya doing?
Truely glad you saw nicer bucks this year. I have nothing against AR's, but your quote about plentiful deer on public land just doesn't wash.
There have been way too many posts, and not just from me, about the lack of deer on our sgl's and state forests. Please don't infer that we must all be lousy hunters either. If you've got a good place to hunt, good for you, I hope it remains that way. I talked to a guy from the forestry assoc at the Sportsmen Show. He also said we have too many deer (surprise, surprise!), but he hunts Somerset county in SW PA, which, if you look at deer density maps, is high in deer population. I asked him about acid rain and it's affect on our forests. He agreed it was as serious a problem as deer overbrowsing. He also stated he felt the hemlock was doomed due to insect parasites. There is so much more to this problem than just kill the deer. We've had acid rain polution from the Ohio Valley steelplants for lots of decades, but it's only the last few years that the deer herd has declined, coinciding with a sharp increase in doe tags.

PAhunter:
"If you've been to huntingpa.com, I'm sure you noticed all the anti-Alt/PGC posts. It gets annoying after a while."

I went to their site and saw many posts that approve of Dr Alt's programs.

RE: Here we go again with the USP!!
 

I will go submit my survey....biased or not...;)

I frequent huntingpa on occasion but the archery boards seem relatively slow overall in comparison to some of the other forums I frequent. The big game and main forums...well, that is another story...:)

RE: Here we go again with the USP!!
 

Ive summitted mine, I gotta agree with Mike the game lands are hurting at least in Schuylkill County they are.

RE: Here we go again with the USP!!
 

I'll agree that HuntingPA has plenty of anti-Alt chatter, but it's almost all from the same handful of people. I'll be submitting my survey!

RE: Here we go again with the USP!!
 

Mike if you want to see alot of deer on PUBLIC LAND then get up to SGL 36 in Bradford county or the gamelands outside of Wyalusing or the other game lands near Warren center and you will see plenty of deer and deer sign. I cant help that your area is poor in habitat and devoid of deer............sounds like its time to MOVE TO A NEW AREA and quit complaining about the old one. At least thats what i would do. ;)

Again you are generalizing that all public land in the state is devoid of deer,,, this is simply is not true. Again, i find it really hard to believe that in a couple of years all the deer are gone. I just cant believe that all the licenses for your county or DMU went to people that are exclusively hunting your PUBLIC land areas and wiping out your deer herds. I still believe it has been a long time in the making due to habitat issues. To simply put it deer are not going to be where there is nothing for them to eat.

In our area I hunt that is mostly surrounding mountainous game lands, hardly anybody hunts for doe. If you cruise around all the cabins and look at the meat poles of the people that hunt SGL most of them have 0 doe hanging and all buck. Believe me its not for lack of doe. I personally wish they would start whacking doe cause our areas buck to doe ratio is terrible and too many old heads have the idea " Dont shoot the breeders" it will ruin the huntin!!! Why dont you come up here and I'll point you in the right direction, maybe you can help us get the buck to doe ratio evened out;)

RE: Here we go again with the USP!!
 

im all for the regs. but one thing im not gonna do is MOVE TO ANOTHER AREA. I've worked too hard on stand locations,,liscense fees ,,,etc,,, to give up,,,something needs to be done about low deer populations and it has to be done now,,,& if you think deer populations are not down throughout the state, then i suggest you look back thru the threads from nov. & dec ,,,theres a deffinate tell all from the good folks right here at Huntingnet.com

RE: Here we go again with the USP!!
 

Rem, not to be rude or anything, but you need to adapt just like the deer do. If there is no food then the deer won't be around. What good is it to have a bunch of once good stands if there aren't deer in the area? The herd is down in my area too, but instead of whining about the amount of time I've spent scouting I go out, continue to scout and continue to be successful. As far as license costs go, I don't know where you buy you licenses, but last time I checked a back tag is good anywhere in the state and cost $20 for res. adult. Antlerless tags are only good in specified WMU's, but they're still only $6 statewide.

What I'm saying is if you don't HUNT the deer, your success will falter. If you sit on the same stump every year just because it USED TO BE GOOD then I guess your success was determined by noone but yourself.

RE: Here we go again with the USP!!
 

Areas I put time into scouting produced lots of deer sightings. Areas I had as old realibles and didn't scout produced scattered deer sighting results some good, some the same, some bad. Folks need to get used to less deer numbers that's the goal (and the need) of deer managment. The better the habitat the more deer I saw and I killed a 10pt this past year. Could someone please give me the address of the person I can complain to in the game commission about that. I'd like to get a letter out to him right away! Plenty of deer sign in the woods we've seen while running our foxhounds after season. More "Scouting about" and Less "Scuttle butT" by many folks would suit them better. My that's as crafty as I've been in days. Juniorpc.