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As I listened to the shooting all day Sunday and heard multiple ATVs rolling around Sunday & Monday I realized it's no wonder I didn't see any deer!


For the past 25 years there has been a camp across the valley from mine (roughly a half mile) that thinks getting up there is an excuse to run ATVs on the weekend after Thanksgiving, expend hundreds of rounds of AR ammo and set off ka-booms like a buncha idjuts.

One of their neighboring farmers told me the ka-booms this year, were from cases of Tannerite exploding targets they fetched up with them. Before that I think they were content to touch off quarter sticks?

Then come Monday, they can't figure out why there are no deer in their woods.

Doesn't bother me much, 'cause if they run off most of "their" deer, means there might be more deer on our side of the valley for those of us that came to hunt?

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Originally Posted by moosemike
In 3B the deer numbers are horrible and hunter numbers are down.


I agree, 3B is dismal. They need to slow way down on the doe harvest.

Numbers in 4E seem to be increasing.


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2C/4A eastern Somerset and most of Bedford counties, have not seen many deer around at all. Only hunted 3 days but saw only a few between 3 hunters. A lot less hunters than in the past due to less deer. Many older guys that had been passionate hunters have gotten tired of not seeing deer. we had deer sign on our property but when I think back to the trails we used to have it is sad. It is easier to see the old depressions from trails than to find where a deer recently passed. 13,000 CWD doe permits for an area he size of a county sure will not help. Guys bitch about no deer but will get every tag they can and try to fill it. Used to myself but feel guilty about even killing a doe today


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Seems like some have few Deer, some have more than a few and some found a lot of sign, but few Deer showed up.

Weather and full moon seemed to be against some of us along with no snow to help in picking them out. With the exception, from what I here in the North country. Us shooting too many Does in certain areas is another problem, but not in all areas.

Hunter numbers seem to be down for the most part, so they were not out moving Deer into us. However, it has been that way for some time.

Re weather: I recently read an article where they tagged Deer to study their propensity to get up and move. Most movement occurred on windy, cold days with clear sky. We had some wind, but it wasn't really cold and there were a lot of cloudy days.

I hunted every day of the season except one, which would have been the first Saturday. Never less than 7-8hours per day. Didn't get a Buck, but saw two nice ones that I didn't get to shoot at. By Saturday I was physically and mentally tired. Then it was raining in the AM and since I wasn't having fun took the day off. For what its worth, I did see a good many on Windy days.

Some days I saw quite a few and some days only a couple. Most days I saw the most from 4-5:15PM. When it snowed Wednesday night of the second week, on Thursday I started seeing Deer that I probably would have missed earlier. More Deer moving ahead and ones I kicked up. Only obvious, but I wounder how many I missed seeing on the snowless days. The area is relatively thick. They didn't have to be too deep in the cover for me to have missed them.

At least 7 Bucks were taken during archery in the area I hunt. Big dent in what was left over for rifle. Archery is big in that area.

Took a Doe on Friday AM of the second week. She crossed an open field around 8:30am.

Cousin and his new SIL put on a two man drive on his place Wednesday of the second week. It is an area they usually don't go into until at least Thrusday of the first week. Put out 16 different Deer. Two Bucks and one was pretty nice from what they tell me.

Odd season. Not much movement seems to be the norm. Weather may have been a factor. Perhaps it was a season to find a place and wait them out if one has the patience for that.

Last edited by battue; 12/17/14.

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It will be a small sample, but what were you doing when you got a Deer. Standing around, in a tree or blind or still hunting?


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Didn't get a deer (yet) but nearly every one I saw, I saw while standing around. I did put some past my Dad while doing a couple of one man drives. I didn't see them but he did.

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I do believe that one reason for not seeing many deer is hunters not hunting. I mean sitting in a stand all day. Not many people drive or move anymore. The only people here that drive are the ones hunting others property, usually trespassing.


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I remember the day when most of us were together. Posted land was the exception. TV shows, the quest for big "bone", Bucks with someone's name on it and a "hit list" rang that death bell.


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I think you and I could talk at length about all those topics. You may remember a little farther back than I. When I was a kid, in the evenings my dad and I would squirrel hunt, just going where we felt we could find them. If we met a landowner it turned into a BS session. Would often get invited to hunt deer, and they would get insulted if you did hunt with them. We owned land that we did not hunt, but left others hunt. I've posted here before that I hate Jackie Bushman. That man has been responsible for a lot of the changes in attitude, although it probably was not his intent.


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Mostly public land in 4A/5A through rifle season and did not shoot any deer. I am now 35 and have shot a buck in PA every year since I was 13. I know the season is not over with flintlock and second season archery but the deer numbers and hunter participation are definitely off. I hate all of the CWD tags that the PGC offered up to everyone for the taking. We have a cabin in 4A and all of these extra tags sure didn't help our deer herd. My son is a mentored youth and I constantly catch myself telling him how good it used to be. I would love to see the doe tag numbers cut back, get rid of the early muzzleloader season and have a three day doe season starting on the last Saturday of rifle season (concurrent with buck) and then going to doe only for Monday and Tuesday. I know many good hunters that did not fill tags in PA this year and struggled to even see deer in rifle season.

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Have often told people we need to stop doe season for several years. If we did not kill a doe next year many people would expect a big increase. However all that would do would give you a few less does(normal death/roadkill) than we have now and their fawns. It would take at least 2 years to show a difference and that would not be huge. Our herd is down to the point that normal deaths take a big toll.


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I hunt northwest 5C. Saw a decent number of deer, although the first day was slow. I killed a nice buck at 9:20 that morning while he was running 2 does (first time I've ever seen that in rifle season), a 2nd buck came not long behind them, too.

Most of the deer we saw were seen in the first week, and all natural movement. We hunt a small piece of private land bordering on public land, so we don't drive deer (counterproductive....they just get pushed to somewhere else and don't come back, at least in our case). Lots of natural movement, very little pressure on public land, and the bad weather seems to have kept a lid on the pressure/kill in the area.

High hopes for filling my doe tags in flintlock season!:)

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battue, I shot a doe the last day I could hunt. I was following a fresh set of tracks I came across and caught up to it in less than an hour. Depending on the weather (And the mountain has to be empty of hunters), I seem to do the best when walking around. Some areas are different when it comes to the weather affecting deer. I guess they are like people, different area, different ways. There are wayyy less hunters out in the bigger wooded areas than there used to be. That is why some areas are starting to come back with deer around here, but it is really a slow process. We got cut back to a 1 week doe this year and they dropped the number of tags. At last, some reason. I have seen the GC starting to change their ways. The mountains around here have been empty of hunters for the last 6-7 years and the doe population has not "Exploded". That is scarey right there. Like you guys, I see deer sign. That is good enough for me because I know they are there, but there are areas that are simply dead and used to have a good amount of deer.

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I hunted Bedford County, I saw 19 deer in 3 days of hunting (18 does and the smallest spike I've ever seen). Plenty of shooting around us, we were hunting 50 acres private. My father hunted Pike County and 25 guys (over 2 weeks) killed 3 bucks, 1000 acres private and a couple of thousand state land.

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Maybe this is all part of the game commission's plan, let us kill all the deer with the doe tag free for all so we realize its not good and become better stewards of the herd. I know I rarely shoot doe anymore, so its working.


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Gunplummer,

Big congrats on taking one to the end of the track. Not many today
can say they have done that. It is hunting at its finest. I took two fresh tracks Wednesday of the second week. Figured they were a Doe and Yearling, but it was a learning experience. Finally came up on two on the edge of a field where it borders the wood. Lot of tracks went into that field from other directions, so not sure if it was the same two. Congrats again. wink

For those that have two unfilled Doe tags; why not be happy with one? At best you will leave three for next year and one may be a legal Buck for two years down the road. There is enough cover and it is no longer a question of overpopulation.

Addition: It is on record back when the GC first issued Doe tags-and back then seeing 100 a day was common-those old boys didn't want to see a season on them. Many bought tags and then publicly had a Doe tag burning in front of the GC headquarters.

They were wrong in that there definitely were too many for the available food and they eventually saw the reasoning. However, you have to give them credit for standing up for their conviction. We need more like them today. But was that a time when hunters really cared about the game-even if it was misguided-and have we fallen more than a little since then?


Last edited by battue; 12/18/14.

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Can I ask where in Bedford?
TomM1 is it not interesting hoe the PGC keeps selling a lot of doe licenses but cuts the season.$$$$$ I hate to be totally negative but the PGC rarely does anything that is not a money maker. Remember a few years back when we were going to be able to kill two spring gobblers. When the legislature did not approve the extra fee it went away till they could charge us. I know a PGC biologist who said he gets frustrated when he puts together a report on the status of animals and the PGC will not follow it. He is the source of that info and they do as they want.


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spot on about the old hunters. I keep saying we need a mass return of licenses to Harrisburg. If they got several hundred thousand in the mail, by the end of flintlock season, with a note saying that was the last we would buy till things change. Things would change. It is all about the money. we hold the reins and we need to jerk on them a little

Last edited by Dillonbuck; 12/18/14.

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I understand why a lot of guys are upset about doe populations. We still have a fair number of deer where I'm at, so I don't have much hesitation to drop a couple does yet this year. With the light pressure the surrounding area has seen, we can sustain a few more being taken.

I do see where folks in other areas are not in the same circumstance, however.

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This^^^. I'm in the same boat, where I hunt we have plenty of deer. I was out with the spotlight over Veterans Day weekend and saw 48 deer (4 bucks, the rest does) within a mile of my Dad's farm.

PGC can issue tags but if they all get used at one end of the WMU and nobody hunts the other end, you get a wide variation in deer numbers. I don't know what you do about it.

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