Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting PA Game Commision- Vote to change opening day.....

Careful Dale, you may get labeled thinking that way....

So you only ever hunted on your own land. public land or land you paid to hunt on ? Where did you hunt when you were a kid ?

Are sisters up for the sharing too?

Seriously, fugg it, let them use your car, bank account, whatever the fugg. Of course the population being 50% more than when you old guys were kids has nothing to do with it. A new generation of give me, I don't have to work for anything.

If someone wants to let people hunt, or [bleep] their sisters, good on them, if the don't, good on them. I didn't grow up in the post war, boomer, liberal new deal drinking group.

Where did I hunt as a kid? Federal land in Alaska. And today I hunt in these 7 states EVERY year: Montana, Wyoming, Ohio, Texas, Alaska, North Carolina and good old Pa.....yes I pay to hunt or hunt on private property owned by friends. Son you got to put the phone down and use your hands for making some $$...then you can buy your own place with a stack of NO TRESPASS signs.

With each passing day this place becomes infested with more dicks.

I could string you along for at least another 5 pages but the game is beginning to tire me.

As for having places to hunt, i don't see this as being an issue at least in PA. The issue is and has always been the reluctance on the part of people to put forth the effort to get to them. When I was a young kid we drove all day from the SE corner of the state to get to the NC part of the state for deer hunting. Most of the people we knew felt we were crazy for doing that when a short drive to upper Bucks county or the Poconos was all that was necessary for them.
Certainly those type areas have changed to the point that very little hunting can be done there except on what few areas of private/public land is left, most of which is posted.
But nothing has changed in the NC region, except that the area of open public land has actually increased. Certainly some posting has taken place, but by and large it's just along the paved roads, and dosent extend very far back from them.
But over the last ten years especially, the number of people hunting those lands have diminished to a very large degree.
Those who think that hunting opportunities have declined, need realize that to a large degree, they have only shifted to other areas. Today, the big woods is where the biggest bucks live, whereas 25 years ago it was the farm areas.
Even places like Potter county are suffering today as compared to the more rugged remote areas with lots of open land.
The main issue is that it is no longer as easy as it once was, in almost every way.
When I was young, deer season opening day was treated as though it were a state wide holiday.
Over the years the PGC has in fact listened, and changed rules in order to pacify hunter demands.

And here we are, still bitching about what few they haven't.

I didn't read every post, however, I think this one sums it up. Of all the posts I read, I hear there is no place to hunt and all closed up. I dont buy that cause every year in almost every state in N.E. USA , deer license sales are declining and in some areas they are like crazy. Some say there are so many hunters. True, where there are lots of deer and lots of deer means land that was open 40 yrs ago is leased. I can't blame any landowner that doesnt hunt if he leases his back 40ac. for $1,000 a year to pay taxes. Just can't . I have read several times about PA. where there were deer camps and hunters. Now the same areas have old deer camps that sit empty on opening day. Why?? No ned to look any further than the snide posts on this thread, the way hunters get . Want to move up opening day from Monday to Saturday and all hell breaks loose with a big pissin match between fellow hunters. Just unreal. I will bet money , I can go to PA. on opening day, jump off out the truck on a piece of big public land , head in more than a few hundred yds and see not see any blaze orange. Bet you money I can. No, like one poster said, it's not all that great of land but there are deer there. There is a guy here from Minnesota , I think it is Gunner 500. He knows of a camp he hunted in PA. He said several times that deer camps were plentiful but now they are mostly empty. PA hunting should be good , and better than northern WIs ., its further south. As for hunting in Wis. I see the same thing . Hunting pressure opening day in N.W. Wisconsin is down at least 75%. No one wants to hunt anymore . Old deer camps falling down. Some are built and 5 yrs later they are for sale. I saw three deer there this gun season, first deer since 2016 when I saw 1 nubby buck. Many years I dont even see a deer up there. In . S.E Wis. I also hunt public land. It is 5,800 ac. There are about 100 cars parked along the roads there and hunting is not exactly good there neither. Actually it is bad hunting by most standards but I hunt it for free and it is 4 mile drive there. I hunt about 1,000 ac. of the 5,800 ac. I make the best of it and refuse to complain. As for opening day, gun season opens Sat. before Thanksgiving and it should be at least 1 week earlier up north cause no one hunts there anymore. It would increase the buck sightings a lot. Want kids to see some bucks? Hunt the rut. It will not under any way devastate the does breeding numbers. No way, those old bucks have plenty of time and mostly move at night anyway. Need to open Sunday hunting there too. It is strange to close hunting on Sundays to me.

In Wisconsin , I am all for an earlier season and PA. is about the same. Next year , Wisconsin gun opens Nov. 23. This yr it opened Nov. 17. There is a big difference in a season that starts 6 days later. The bucks are all but done rutting . Ya, I know, we still see them chasing but up in the big public land, the does are scarce. The bucks run themselves half to death for a few does. By the time Nov. 23 comes , they are tired. Trail cam pics of daytime bucks are rare, and I mean rare. One or two bucks a year after mid Nov. is rare to see a trail cam pic of any legal buck during shooting hours and this includes areas that are not even hunted so it's not hunter pressure. From Oct. 28 to Nov. 9 is when we get almost all our daytime pics of bucks, and many of those bucks would keep a youngin interested for a few more years and likely forever if they see a decent buck ever few years. Up there, you can go years without seeing a buck, any buck, even a spike is a real treat. The only way is to bait and keep a bait pile active . I refuse to hunt like that . If we outlaw bait , and everyone would stop baiting , the deer would move all day like they used to , at least a lot more than they used to. If we outlaw bait,and everyone stopped , we could hunt the whole month of November and not shoot any more bucks than the 9 day gun with bait. This way we can choose our time easier. You dont NEED to be out there opening morning a 5AM. Also, the second morning of gun season it was just below zero and a good wind. I didn't bother so I took a walk . I just dont have the desire to sit motionless in a tree for long . I likely have a deer from my home town with a bow. If the DNR wants more license , I suggest opening up season a bit earlier. One week would likely be warmer , more " fall ish " weather instead of winter. If y await to hun tlater go with a muzzleloader too if ya like the 10 below. We need to come up with something. Wisconsin lost another 14,000 gun sales tis year . Michigan wad down even more. It can't be much longer and leases will likely drop . No one hunting means less demand, less demand. Less lease demand will not fall off much cause as hunters get older, they say to heck with public and avr. age gun hunter in Wisc. is 54 yrs old. At this time in their lives , they say I will lease, sit in a warm blind on GOOD deer land and see deer. When they give up that ghost lease demand will be reduced. Has to . If license sales continue down , there is just less hunters on public. I have sure seen it in Northern Wisconsin. I have also seen it in S.E. Wisconsin too, but still a lot of hunters, just noticeably less. DNR had a big problem with gun sales. One reason is there are so many crossbow hunters now. Their success rate in Wisconsin is undeniable, and surely one reason gun hunters are tired of lack of deer, after 2 months of bow/crossbow seasons. Up north you get a bait pile going a few weeks and stupid spikes come right in. Put their heads down , stand broadside and shoot a bolt from an X bow with an aluminized scope on a rest. Its not even hunting and no harder than a deer target. To leave gun hunters sucking hind ttiit is not appreciated , although , I bow hunt , I dont bait. Baiting is for those who just want to say they shot a deer, the ones not baiting are out hunting .