Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting for the PA guys

a couple friends of mine and I would like to come hunt in PA. we would like to spend a week or maybe even just a long weekend, during deer gun season.

tell me about some good places to start. we would be willing to pay to stay at someone's camp or just hunt public land, have not gotten very far on planning and still open to ideas.

I might even let Efw come too, if he promises not to drive his prius.

let me know what you guys think about where/how, etc

I'd suggest Washington and Green Counties in the SW corner. I lived and hunted down that way alot in the 1990's, early 2000's. I spent most of my time in/around Claysville. There is a big state gamelands south of Claysville (SGL 245). A path bisects the whole gamelands in a "L" shape. There used to be several bazilion deer on the GL because its surrounded by farm fields and is big enough for deer to escape the masses. Be a bit careful on shooting one in the center some where. I've done it a bunch of times and the drag out sucks.

If you want more of a big woods flavor, just about any of the state/federal property in the middle part of the State will work. The deer density is much lower - much lower. I'd also suggest the bigger gameleands in Crawford and Erie Counties. Crawford and Erie counties are farm country and grow big deer. I'd look at SGL 270, 214, 101, and around Pymatunin Lake. I've personally hunted all these areas and have killed deer and turkeys.

The other option is to start this summer and knock on a few doors. You can still gain access to hunt private property by simply being polite and considerate.

BTW: I wouldn't bear Buckeye Gear when visiting.... <G>

ok. that's a good start. I think sgl245 sounds like what we are looking for.

a ton of hunters there? any laws that aren't normal, run of the mill type? here in ohio we have an either sex tag but can only shoot one buck in my county, then can get another tag but it has to be a doe.

how long is your rifle season? do muzzleloaders have to be flintlock?

Rifle season is two weeks beginning the Monday after Thanksgiving. The after Christmas muzzleloader hunt is flintlock only.

I hate to say this, because I was born and raised in PA.....

Don't waste your time, unless you have access to private land.

I've hunted in PA. since 1969, when I turned 12.

My brother and I gave up gun hunting there around 2004. Just wasn't worth fighting the crowds for a week, and not seeing deer.

That is not to say you can't have a good time at a camp, as we did. We have a camp in Pike co., on state game land. Woods are mature, and the deer have moved out due to lack of food.

It sucks, because the state does nothing to improve the habitat.

Anyway, good luck in your search.

If you find something let me know, I may join you.... Lol

Tony

PS...I just saw you are from Ohio, that is where we went to hunt starting in 2004.....

I grew up in Washington County.In the 50's there were no deer there,but in the 80's & 90's they were every where. My brother still lives there, but he tells me a lot of locals go to Ohio now to hunt. Of you can find a farm that would let you hunt you might do OK,but State Game lands are a sea of orange.

No offense, but I can't understand paying out of state fees and travel to hunt the same critters I could hunt at home, and especially in a state like PA.

Can use rifles in PA so it's a novelty for us

Allegheny National Forest has clear cuts all thru it and there are some hogs living in them. Not a lot of Deer, but more than in the recent past. Motels open up after the first two days in many of the towns. Restaurants to eat in.

Hunted a couple Game Lands this year in Armstrong starting the third day and I saw somewhere around 10 hunters total during Wed thru Friday's. Definitely no sea of orange.

Saw sign of a couple big bucks. One huge rub and a scrape close by you could have easily curled up in. Found this one on a GL that someone had hit, but didn't drag out.
Shot too far back.



Pick your place and there will be Deer. Saw 81 total in two weeks. 31 the first day, but that would have been on private land. 7 Bucks, two nice ones that beat me, one small legal that I passed on and the others not legal.

Understood, but you can use rifles on other critters not found in OH and still pay a non-resident fee. What's the non-res license in PA for shooting the same kind of deer you shoot in OH?

Like a hundred bucks I think. Not much. And it's a change in scenery and a small adventure to try out. I am certain to see more deer than I saw this year which was zero

Bud pulled this one out of the ANF.




Addition: You no longer come to Pa to just shoot a Deer. However, you do come to hunt Deer. Up to what you are looking for in a hunt.

There are lots of opportunities and plenty of various seasons. There is an early muzzleloader season that allows any muzzleloader and optic sights. Plenty of archery opportunities.

Some areas have been hunted hard and deer can be scarce but there are plenty of other areas with deer. I've hunted one of the gamelands here in Somerset, only saw a couple of hunters and saw plenty of deer sign.

Pa. has some great public access programs to private land, there's info on the Game Commission website.

The Special Regs areas (Pittsburgh/Philly) have some different rules and there are 3 Disease Mgmt. Areas with rules about carcass removal but there in the central and eastern part of the state.

Some units sell out of Doe tags before non residents can apply. Don't forget, your general license is good all year and includes spring/fall turkey, a buck, and small game. Bear is extra.

Hope this helps,

Dale

Nonresident Adult Hunting License ($101.70): Issued to nonresidents of Pennsylvania (from any state or nation) who are age 17 and older.

Nonresident Junior Hunting License ($41.70): Issued to nonresidents of Pennsylvania (from any state or nation) who are ages 12 through 16. Eleven-year-olds may apply for a junior license if they reach age 12 by June 30 of the current license year and have successfully completed the required Hunter-Trapper Education Course. The actual hunting privileges granted to the junior license holder may not be exercised until he or she reaches age 12. In addition to the junior applicant's signature, a parent or guardian must sign the license to validate it and the information provided before the junior license holder goes afield. No archery, muzzleloader or furtaker add-on privileges are available for this license. If a junior wants any of these privileges, they must purchase a Junior Nonresident Combination License.

Not a bad deal, honestly.

You can use rifles in OH now,I just picked up a .444 Marlin for such an occasion

I'd find a WMU where you can get a doe tag as a non-resident. My farm and camp are both in 1B and it is nearly impossible to get a doe tag in 1B unless your a resident. Now with the staggered start, split doe/buck season, your probably best served hunting from Wednesday after opening day through the next Wednesday with both doe and buck tags in hand.

I can't think of any reason to hunt PA public lands.

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but I don't own a 99 or any red plaid. dammit!

Then you're in good company 'cause neither do any other PA gun hunters these days.

You've obviously never chewed any of the same dirt I have Mike. My 99, and my red plaid Woolrich's are down stairs in the gun room as we speak.

Quehanna Wild Area.....find the food, you'll find the deer. And there are some monsters there. Though you'll work for one, I'd much rather hunt there than deal with the myriad of other hunters in the south west part of the state, or near any of the bigger towns. Just my 2 cents...

You're in luck, Grice had a 99 EG on the used rack and Bob's Army-Navy had red plaid clothes on the rack. Just need to get yourself to Clearfield.

Dale

Gopher, I've hunted in red plaid head to toe and carried a Savage 99. But didn't see anybody else doing it.

My buddy comes down from NY to hunt for 3-4 days. It's only $100, so its pretty reasonable.


I'm in the opposite corner of the state, I'm sure there's plenty of good hunting between OH and here.

Everybody else hunts red plaid and a 760.

i have the full woolrich outfit. bloused pants and even a woolrich jones cap. i wear it once in a while for old times sake in late muzzleloader when theres no orange required. what i really want to find is the green plaid outfit, head to toe. made up in Vt or somewhere if i remember right.

rem141r----Johnson Wool
http://johnsonwoolenmills.com/product-category/hunting-collection/

Probably the last thing I should be doing is encouraging more hunters to come here, but consider WV as well.

We have a 2-week firearms season, a week-long ML season, and about 6 days of antlerless split into two chunks. The kicker is that in many places, does can be taken at any time with the proper tags, which is helpful if you're just trying to "make meat". Any centerfire rifle is legal. Bear season runs concurrent with deer season in most places. There's lots of public land, including some massive National Forest sections. If you're willing to hoof it, you can get away from the pumpkin patches by walking in.

The regs vary from place to place and there are some CWD areas with meat restrictions, so do your homework.

I hunted private land in Adams County PA for a long time, but after dealing with the crowds on public land during small game season, I never gave that a serious try.

I have and will again. Mostly, it's because the same critter lives in quite different country than I currently hunt or the chance for a good 'un is better. A true mountain (East or West doesn't matter) whitetail hunt is much different than what I do here in IN. Hunting one on the plains, even more different. I'll be looking to go to KY in the next couple of years, which will be the same critters in very similar terrain. But, my kid gets to hunt for free and will be able to use his forthcoming birthday present. That will be a 'big' hunting trip for him.

I can come up with more reasons to go than to not go if the difference is just the tag and travel cost.

I love mountain whitetail hunting.

Make it Pa woods hunting for me.

Shame it has to be crammed into two weeks for rifle.

I've been in touch with MJ and extended an invitation to him to join me at our camp in Clearifield County for the opening week. The man can't be too bad-he's from Ohio! I'll be coming down from Minnesota, possibly on Thanksgiving Day. After a stop in Indiana to pick up my son, and then a quick stop at the relatives in Ohio, we'll be off to camp. If we can get in Friday night, we'll hunt small game and turkey on Saturday, and then the games begin Monday morning. Lots of logistics involved with matching up with Galt, but hoping this all works out.

Good deal GG!

I am looking forward to it. Going to see if efw can join us.

You can't hunt on Sunday in PA, can you?

Nope,

By any chance, would you guys have one of those propane fired deep fryers? I can probably get 15 to 20 pounds of Lake Erie jumbo perch fillets off my brother for a good ol' fish fry on Sunday. We've done these in the past and invite all the guys from the neighboring camps over. Good chance to catch up with the neighbors and find out where the locals will be hunting on Monday morning. I forgot to tell you-if you like the chance for some longer range shooting, there's gas lines up on top of the mountain where you can easily scratch that itch if you want to.

Nice! I dunno what efw has but I don't have a fryer

Only coyotes, crows, and foxes.

Dale

I probably won't be able to get to DuBois until late Sunday but I hope to be able to hook up with you guys sometime.



Depends, does he root for the Suckeyes?



That's for sure, let me know, I may be able to help with the fryer

Dale

If it doesn't work out, we'll be fine.

No. A good friend of mine started Hunters United for Sunday Hunting but they lost their court case.

I grew up hunting in Ohio and Pa which still had the old blue laws-no Sunday hunting. I never knew people hunted on Sundays until I moved to Minnesota.

They ran the wrong issue. The right case is the one that Safari Club International was threatening in VA that resulted in the change there. If PA hunters want Sunday hunting, they're going to have to properly challenge the law. Contacting Safari Club International would be a good start.

I agree 4ager. They sued on the grounds of being an infringement of the 2nd amendment and therefore unconstitutional. I felt that was a stretch.

Beyond a stretch; just stupid. The 2A has nothing to do with hunting. If they had sued on the dual grounds of an unconstitutional "blue law" and an unconstitutional infringement on property rights (use and enjoyment), they'd have won.

I could point a guy or 2 in the right direction. If you're not afraid to walk or hunt, you will get into some deer.

All of these guys bitch about it but the hunting is still pretty good. And still better than most states.

It's not like back in the 80s/90s when the stump humpers would see 60 DOE in a day, but if you see 7 a day in my neck of the woods, chances are ones a buck..

Yep, the ratio is improving and the numbers will rebound. Simple biology.

When I moved to Georgia a few years ago I was all in coming back to Pa. to hunt ( I did move back to Pa. so it was unnecessary). I did hunt down in Ga.and found it lacking compared to my experiences in Pa.

I hunt up in Dale K's neck of the woods. The herd has done well now that everyone's settled into the QDM restrictions.

Don't be mad The Buckeyes treat Penn St like a punching bag nine out of ten years.

Here in the center of the state the geography is mostly public land that is open to hunting. 10-15 years ago there were twice as many hunters in the woods. The number of hunters is down 20% across the state, but field time is down by at least half. It is simply amazing to drive 6 miles on forest road and see 5 trucks. In the past it could have been 40. Camps are empty up here. Very sad.

There's lots of older camps in our area, and sadly many of these sit empty these days. We used to know most of the guys on the hill. Camp Misery, Bear's Den, The Flying Dutchmen, all camps with rich hunting histories now sit shuttered on what used to be the biggest hunting day of the year. We used to take off up the mountain and hunt our way to one of the area camps around noon, mooch a cup of coffee and sandwich and head back out. Nowadays, you'd better take a brownbag with you if you want lunch. Those camps are all closed up now.

Does the state still offer long-term leases on campsites on state land? I seem to recall it was an incredible deal.

Lots of folks lease the land their cabin sits on from the state.

Up here the camps are overrun with hunters for bear season. Then it is much quiter for rifle deer. This year there were more at the camps for the deer than in the last few years. Access is becoming more difficult. I also believe that more guys are killing their deer in the early seasons and are hunting closer to home for deer.

How many days of vacation do hunters have? Most are here the Friday before bear. Then they are here until Tuesdsy or Wednesday. So they burn 3 or 4 days vacation. If they are archery hunters, surely they burnt a couple days for the rut.

With all the focus on out of state hunting maybe they used a week on an out of state rut hunt.

Point is, the average worker only has 1 or 2 weeks of vacation time. I "think" most guys use their time for other endeavors and are hunting rifle deer closer to home. This is just speculation though.

Around 1970 the State stopped issuing leases to build camps on. As far as I know they are renewing old leases every 10 years, but new ones are no longer being issued. Camps must meet certain State requirements or the lease will not be renewed.

They were good for the local economy in that they encouraged people to come and spend time there. Problem was many of the camps were not kept up and became run down shacks and the State discontinued the practice.

My Dad's dad was part of a camp that was on leased land up near Lake Erie somewhere. I wish I'd gotten a chance to go see if the building was still standing while dad was still with us.

The State would like to do away with all camp leases and keep adding on regulations that make it harder to stay compliant. If you don't they will revoke the lease and it will not be renewed to someone else. You either salvage what you can or they come in and tear it down. Damn shame.

http://www.pscla.org/

Sad stuff there Battue, sounds like part of Agenda 21!!!

Been awhile, but there was a time when the hunting guys threw their weight into a fight and the politicians didn't want much part of it. This stuff would have been stopped quickly back in the 50's or someone new would be sitting in Harrisburg.

We still have the power, but few want to get evolved. It's are own fault.

The other side of the coin is that back then most took pride in their camp-either on leased or owned land-and kept it up. Now you often see one that is maintained nicely and close by there is a shiithouse that some come up and sleep in infrequently.

There were originally 10 active deer camps on our trail. We are down to three that still get used. One burned down and was never rebuilt, two were abandoned and eventually just caved in, and one hasn't been used for hunting in over 30 years. One of the abandoned ones was an old Reo bus some guys somehow got up on the hill. It was nicely converted to a hunting shack. Sadly, they abandoned it and it was eventually drug down off the hill and scrapped.

I'm sure many of our Pennsylvania brethren have the same lament. Classic old Pa. deer camps sitting empty on the opener. I hunt up past several long empty deer stands. I knew every one of the guys that used to enjoy hunting out of those stands. Most are no more than a couple boards left hanging on the trees, blowing in the wind. Such a sad commentary on things. I well remember the rides to camp before interstate 80 went through. The road jams in little places like Clarion, Shippenville, Reynolds, and others.

The PA deer camp tradition is dying. Mostly because since 1990 southern PA deer numbers have exploded.