As a born and raised Pa. resident I read these threads with interest. I hunted and lived in North East Pa. for 38 years. The last two hunting seasons there I saw one deer on public land. Enough coyote tracks that it resembled a kennel. I do miss the open public land adventures and the family hunts. I don't miss the tags sitting on my counter after hunting season. As a body shop manager there , I can tell you the Insurance companies involvement in policies are WAY bigger then most hunters would believe. Heck the State Farm people used to brag about it at meetings. In the 90s (the real Golden Area of deer populations in Pa.) State farm was paying on 220,000 claims a year for deer collisions. At an average of 1800 dollars a claim , add that up and then go huh.........
P.s. Last week I worked 22 miles from home and if I only saw 500 deer each way I would have considered the numbers low. Both mulies and whitetails.
Deer numbers are a direct result of what people will put up with. There is way too many people and way to much big money involvement in Pa. for the PGC to have deer numbers where they once were. And one adds the average land size in ,it's just way to hard to manage deer herds on small lots owned by various types of owners with various types of ideas on what should be the deer herd numbers.
