I was only able to hunt until lunch time on Saturday, saw one tail bouncing thru the brush. Very little shooting in my area, saw no hunters in the woods, a couple of cars parked along the road but they left before I did. I did go out for a couple of hours Sunday afternoon, no deer and about 3 shots in 2 hrs.
Most of the neighboring properties are now posted (used to all be enrolled in PGC access programs) and most of the neighbors sit in tree stands both during archery and rifle seasons. Nobody drives deer, nobody moves around. God forbid you chase a deer off your property and onto someone else's.
To me, the best part of hunting was the drives. It's like a chess match with deer. We go here, they go there. Get a shot at a buck and it was a successful day.
And I agree with battue about crossbows and archery seasons that last friggin forever. And No, I'm not buying one. I have absolutely no desire to hunt with a bow of any sort.
Dale
The biggest problem the PGC has helped create is the lack of recruitment of new hunters - primarily for the reasons you and Battue have voiced. Other problems are people don’t need to hunt and hunting traditions have not keep pace with the times. Most people when I was growing up made Thanksgiving/deer season a holiday unto itself and families were together over those times - how many families are together now? I couldn’t wait to go hunting because all my siblings, cousins, uncles, grandfathers and pretty much anyone else were going. We hunted for meat and antlers were secondary. Now with the antler restrictions (which work - why wouldn’t they??) we seem to have become greedy - posting land to keep “our bucks” from others. I’m not against trophy hunting but it was not how I was raised and I could care if the racks are big or not - I have shot some nice racked whitetails but not my priority - opening day this year I shot a 165 lbs dressed six point in 2F. I hunt the Allegheny National Forest and some places have lots of deer others not so much but the average age of deer in the areas I hunt is up there because most don’t go in that far (I bone my deer out and backpack out and I try and stay in the woods as many days as I can depending on schedule). I also typically shoot one deer per year which is enough to keep me in venison (only my wife, MIL and myself currently and wife is not a big meat eater).
Hunting is only going to get worse as $$$$ drive the management practices - I’m older and I’ll enjoy what I can and try to help keep what traditions I can alive to help some of the future generation……don’t expect to make big inroads but hopefully a few can appreciate hunting the way I have.
PennDog
