Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Good luck to all the Pennsylvania boys!

I would think the Bowhunters wouldn't be too fond of it and I wouldn't blame them.

Bow hunter's that I know bitch about the early muzzle loader and jr/sr seasons so let em bitch.

I hear that every year Sauer200. They want a 6 week exclusive with nobody else in the woods.

I hunt pretty much every deer season here in PA. I hunt with my bow, with a rifle, and with a flintlock.

I live and hunt in northwestern WMU5C. I get that some areas of the state are not doing well for deer populations, and if things need to change, I won't object.

But I like how things are here in 5C. I truly hope nothing changes for the time being. We have great seasons and a pretty good number of deer. So if things change outside of 5c, I won't say a peep against it, but don't screw with our seasons here. It's great. A buddy of mine from Maine came to visit and in 4 days saw a fair number of deer. Not a huge number by my estimation, but a good number. He took home a nice mature doe, too.

My hunting pard Angel and I had an awesome time w/ mjbgalt, Jeff & his brother and son. We were pretty surprised by how many deer hunters left after the first day.

We've talked to a couple of our other hunting pards have decided we'll be back in '17. Jeff's brother has invited several others to their camp so we're not sure there'll be room for us there but we'll make a way.

Which reminds me... we're considering going in on a wall tent but not sure of the camping regs on state and national forest? As Gus would say, "anyone know for sure?"

For those who didn't see the thread on my trip with mjbgalt & Agel to Gophergunner's place, here is my Boone Mountain buck:





Mjbgalt saw his twin up top the night of the opener, and Angel saw a shooter buck. I saw one while dragging mine also.

I think your antler point restrictions are paying off. I didn't see many deer but the ones I saw were impressive. An advantage you have too is some rougher terrain that allows bigger chunks (we in the LP have no unroaded public chunks bigger than a square mile so easy access for hunters) and hides holes for bucks to grow.

Awesome buck and story Battue congrats!

Scott that's a really nice one as well!

You got a great big woods Buck in God's Country. Pretty cool....




http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_20030820.pdf



Suggestion: Contact a realtor in the area and inquire about camps available for renting. May be surprised what you can come up with. The earlier you get on it the better.

Comments had little to do with Deer populations and a lot to do with unreasonable preferential treatment of killing Bucks with scope sighted crossbows and late season killing of next years Bucks which have shed antlers.

Thanks a lot for the link and that's an excellent idea on calling re: available cabins!

One of the saddest things I saw on the trip was all the abandoned deer camp cabins.

Thanks again!

I had a great time sharing our camp with EFW and MJBGALT. We had a great hunt. It is sad to see so many camps sitting empty on the opener. Several iconic camps from our area no longer have the lights on for the buck season. Places like the Flying Dutchmen, Bear's Den, Camp Misery, to name a few. The older guys are passing on, and the younger guys are hunting elsewhere, or not hunting at all. Truly a sad sight to see.

I won't be back home for deer season next year, but two years from now we'll be doing this again. Thinking about doing a Savage 99 hunt only. Les all ready said he's interested, if he's back stateside, and I bet we can find 3 or 4 other Savage nuts interested in giving it a try.

I'm trying to understand this rationale.
How many does in your neck of the woods go into spring unbred?

Pa. has an early antlerless season in October before the rut. It's a muzzloader (any) only for everyone the first part of the week but the last 3 days, youth (under 17) and seniors (over 65) can use regular rifles. Plus archery is in before the rut.

So any does shot then would not be pregnant.

The late seasons (flintlock and archery again) happen after Christmas so most of the does are bred. Rut is usually the first half of November, give or take.

Dale

Good Lord willing and the crick don't rise, I'm in.

Dale

I'll put you on the list, buddy.

You really think with all the ppl in this state that can't a hit a deer with a centerfire rifle and a scope, that the late flintlock season is hurting the deer population? Second, a crossbow doesn't have much of anything on a compound bow, other than the fact that you don't have to draw them in the presence of game, i.e. less movement. Range isn't any greater. And thats coming from someone that doesnt care for crossbows. Third, killing a buck without antlers isn't going to affect anything, population included. Except someone might kill "your hog buck". Sounds more like personal feelings than good biological reasoning.

Well, bad shooting and all they managed to kill around 315,000 last year. Bad shooters also must have crippled more than a few.

Yours is another example of "I post on the campfire and those that don't obviously are Elmers and lousy shots? Exclusive club we have here? Laughing....



Killing range wasn't part of the discussion, scopes on crossbows were.

Didn't say it would affect overall population numbers. Although perhaps those horrible shooters, now having to use irons are perhaps hitting even more Deer on the fringes. Can't do the numbers any favors if we are to believe your bad shooter view. Did mention "hog Bucks." Mine, yours and everyone else's. Sounds like you are quick to jump to personal conclusions.

If you're going to go wise azz, best keep up.

Very few go unbred, if any. I guess some might, but come early summer, it's pretty odd to see an adult doe with no fawns in tow.

I've had this conversation locally. Yes, when you kill a pregnant doe you kill the fawn as well. But if you kill that doe prior to breeding, you have the exact same net effect as if you kill her post-breeding, as far as next year's population is concerned.

td,
Agree 100%.

Deer season was pretty good. I got a buck in archery and a doe last week. My boy got a doe in the last hour of Saturday, but best of all, he got a bear, which was pretty exciting!
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Nothing wise ass about it. Just info you seem to refuse to believe because you feel you know more than most? If you want wise ass, I can deliver, but don't really see a need for that here.
What does having a scope on a crossbow vs not having one on it do to make it so much of a problem? As far as poor shooting, and wounding deer, how many people hunt rifle season, vs. how many hunt flintlock? Number comparisons can be made, easily. I have no issues with anyone killing any deer, in any season, with any weapon. The deer aren't mine, yours, or anyone else's. So what if a guy with a crossbow kills a big buck, or that same big buck dies in flint season, after it dropped it's antlers. Good for that hunter, they accomplished their goal of killung a deer. I guess if one is jealous that "their" hog buck got killed by someone else, then I can understand the whining.