RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

My property borders public landand lots of it! I do have a clue! Thats why I am getting together and have been meeting with the people that hunt in my area even the people that hunt public land. Instead of sitting here thinking of reasons why it isnt going to work. I think of ways on how to make it work. To make something work you got to come up with a plan. Do you think the New England Patriots sat and cried in the locker room about plays that didnt work. No they probably looked at the positive things and built from that. Thats why they are a great team. Thats why PA hunters have to work together to become 1 team.

RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

I agree to a small degree, however we have had very good success on only 100 acres with NO food plots. We still see plenty of deer every day we hunt, and take on average 1x 3 1/2 year buck every year sometimes 2 or 3. We do limit the amount of hunters on the property though and try to keep it to 3 to 4 hunters total per day at most.

All of the neighbors around our place slaughter anything legal and a lot of stuff not legal. We have tried to talk to them about doing some selective logging however they weren't interested (I don't understand why). The money we made from the logging pays for all of the food plots and the fame cams and LOTS more..........we were surprised at why more people don't do this to their property.

RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

Rick said what does your property that you hunt and manage have to do with seig's thread? With only harvesting 6-8 doe's per year and only bucks 3.5 years of age or older have to do with wether or not deer hunting will continue to get worse in PA.? Just because HR. hasnt affected your property or area yet doesnt mean it isnt going to in the very near future,
Do you support the PGC.'s, DCNR's, Audobon Society's deer management plan?

But to answer Seig's question, Yes hunting will continue to get worse, and when we cut the herd in half, we will also have to reduce our seasons, bag limits, etc. Pike

RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

Already done. We have 5 stands on 100 acres, and in the middle is a cedar swamp that you can't see 10 yards in front of you. No one ever goes in there and it is made clear to everyone that hunts that they are not to go in there. That is exactly why we do this. ;)

RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

My responses purpose is to show that while some areas have been affected within the state, many areas have not been. The areas I hunt have done nothing but improve.

I don't support everything that PGC has done. I do think there are several WMU's that are mismanaged and have had too many does taken. I do think that they should have supported their changes with a tremendous amount of habitat improvement as well. I think PGC has taken an unbalanced approach to the management with only implementing the HR and AR. I do think that AR is great, and I don't have any issues with that. I do also think the HR should have been better managed in a lot of WMU's.

All I am saying is that we have done our own thing while following the laws we are all bound to and experienced some great hunting, the hunting has actually gotten better over the last 6 years not worse. Before this no one ever shot deer older than 2 1/2 years on this property or the property I hunt in Huntington County.

I also lived in York County for 5 years, and only moved up north a little less than a year ago. I know a lot of places there are overhunted, however there is some great hunting in and around there also. Most of the places I used to hunt up until the 04 season in York County were public land too.

RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

If you only have 100 acres you have little if any control of the herd in that area. You claim you only harvest 3.5 buck, which means you have only harvested 1 or 2 buck over the last six years ,because 3.5 buck are relatively rare in PA.

You claim to harvest 6-8 doe /yr. off 100 acres. Using the average of 7 doe/yr., your harvest rate equals 45 DPSM. the harvest rate for 3b,which includes the southern potion of Braford Co. was 2.9 DPSM. So either you are running a 100 acre deer farm or you have a vivid imagination.

RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

Rick, Like you I have great hunting, and yes there are still some good places to hunt in York co. (which I dont need to hunt) but just because our current plan doesnt currently affect you or I doesnt mean that we should turn our backs on the majority of hunter's in PA. York Co's goal is 5 deer per sqaure mile, how may more year's of HR. is it going to take turn the places in York co. you speak of into poor hunting? PIke

RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

Alright, I guess you know what is going on with our property better than I do. Congrats to you.

RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

Your Dad runs a deer farm in Bradford Co. ,so why would you hunt in Huntingdon Co?

RE: PA. Deer Hunting will only get worse
 

Because I used to lived in Huntington County for about 3 years and I have a lot of good friends and family there with some great land. Hunting is as much about the experience with friends and family for me as it is actually shooting and seeing deer. I usually archery hunt Bradford county 5-10 days per year and then spend the opening week (or at least several days of it) of rifle in Huntington County. And my father doesn't own a deer farm *******, we simply have a nice piece of land that produces quality deer in respectable numbers when compared to the rest of the state of PA. We have worked hard for that and we BOTH pay the taxes on it, and we BOTH inherited it, he is retired and doesn't have to work anymore these days so he lives there.

With all that said, I am sorry that you don't seem to have good hunting in your area and that is why in the post I entered above I mentioned that I know and recognize that the rest of the state isn't this fortunate to have good hunting. I know that HR has drastically affected a lot of the state's WMU's and hunters in negative ways. I wish everyone could have a good spot but that is not possible these days in PA. I simply entered my initial post to let people know that it wasn't the entire state that was horrible hunting some of it is still very good. It is much of the state though and it is unfortunate.