Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Unsuccessful PA rifle season

15 guys. 2 dead baldies.

By far our worst year ever.

How did everyone else do?

Did Covid kill the population?

OR

Is it because the seasons are too close together with the last week of archery followed by bear season without giving the deer time to relax with nobody stomping through the woods?

Very frustrating 2 weeks of rifle.

The only deer we saw were a few laying in very thick brush next to the road.

On our farm in 3B we took 8 deer off the farm, and could have taken even more. I got a decent 8 on the first Sunday and the first Sat of doe I saw 24 doe and a buck between 7-8am. The one neighboring farm got 6 buck and 7 doe and on the other neighbors farm they got 12 doe on the first Sat alone. So there was certainly no lack of deer and the close seasons had no effect...

I've found that Deer that primarily reside in the bigger woods are more difficult to cross paths with than those that hang around farms...and most often give less opportunity....

There must be more deer there than in the hill country of Texas. Wow

While deer are found in big woods areas, they tend to prosper more in mixed habitats, like open grazing areas and croplands surrounded by woodlands. Years ago I read a phrase that covers that and it has proven to be true in my experience: Deer are creatures of the edge.

I hunt is that latter sort of habitat. Lots of farm crops, hay fields to graze in and more than enough wooded "sanctuary" areas to support a good population, including some nearby actual big woods areas that hardly anyone ever really gets into, due to the steep terrain and dense forest...

For sure.

Jealous, I hunt in 3B too and saw nowhere close to that amount of deer. Where is your farm located?

I'm located about 7 miles from Wyalusing. We have about 160 acres of woods/hay fields and pasture. Driving around our "country block", which is about 4-5 miles around it's nothing to see 50-75 deer. And that's just in the fields you can see from the dirt road. I've seen as many as 33 deer in my one 4 acre pasture. We really tried to thin the herd this year as they are devastating to our corn crop, along with bear.

I'm not from Pa but have hunted in Ark, La (loosEanna ha), Miss, & Al. I've hunted in 'big woods' and you guys are right,
deer are harder to consistently connect with THAN in broken habitat.

I read that "deer are creatures of the edge" too, many years ago. I don't remember who wrote it but he knew what he was talking about.

I've told 2 friends "that" during this very season.

Jerry

Could be deer, like elk in Colorado, know what is private land.I am sure those having great success are not on National Forest or State Game lands.

Even here in Colorado,on my ;small patch, there is hardly a day goes by that I could not kill 2-3 does and a at least once a week a nice buck.

I have son living in SW PA,Washington County, and the deer there are like long legged rats. Destroying trees , shrubs, running into vehicles.When I grew up there in the 50's it was a rarity to see any deer at all.

No but Covid ruined my deer season

Never hunted PA.
Done well in my home state of IN.
This yr sucked.
Very few deer.
Bud checked game cams, 2 weeks and one oic of 2 deer running. Of course he got a pic of the neighbor walking his fuggin dog through the middle of our little thicket.


Said he saw him walking it along field edge like 4th day of season.

WTF

I live and hunt in 2D. It was a strange year deer wise. I saw one shooter all of bow season. Very few doe in legal shooting hours. I got a nice 9 point the last day. The only deer I saw btw. Everyone I spoke to about deer hunting had the same results as me. Now there are deer here, and lots of posted ground. The biggest problem I see is lack of hunting pressure. We just don't have the hunters anymore to get the deer up and moving.

Congrats on the 9 thumbcocker

Mach3, where did you hunt? I hunted outside of Bradford 2F and over by Mount Jewet 2H, nothing was moving during the day. Didn't hear very many shots either, not sure why. Heard they took a lot of deer during bow and muzzleloader, don't know how true that is. Everyone was complaining about the archery and bear season being too close together. Seems like they were in the thick stuff and not moving until dark...too much pressure in the weeks leading up to opening day......

We killed one best 5 bucks and 5 doe

I was the only one who hunted our place for bear


Have a ton of deer on cams. Saw very few during the day..

My opinion our year wasn't good at all (NNY) The rut doesn't seem to have kicked in and our season is over. I never even raised my rifle on the few deer I did see, just a strange year. Normally ya hear shots being fired quite often while out but very few this year. My nephew cuts up deer on the side and normally does 60-80, this year 27

I saw 37 does and zero bucks in Northern NY this year. First year I haven't seen a buck or got one since 1986. I did shoot one in the southern tier. Seen lots of buck sign but with no snow it was hard to find horns. I hunted 35 days of rifle season.

In my area the deer are in the thickest, nastiest stuff which is why I hunt 17’ in the air. There are deer trails everywhere that come to a small opening where I get my opportunity. I saw a number of deer this year and got an eight point.

I can only hunt with bow or crossbow in my area.

Three of us went in cold and saw an average of 4 deer a day per person and killed the deer we wanted. We all had our crosshairs on deer every day. My worst day was seeing one deer and the best was 9. Coming from northern Maine, it was refreshing to hunt around deer every day. We all decided to not fill all of the tags we had but certainly could have

I personally saw 4 bucks and killed a small 6 pointer. I also saw what I consider to be a Maine quality buck. I guess it is all about perspective but we were impressed.