Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Pa. Game Commission Releases Deer Harvest Numbers

Excerpt from the article.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission today reported that, in the state’s 2014-15 seasons, hunters harvested an estimated 303,973 deer – a decrease of about 14 percent compared to the 2013-14 harvest of 352,920.
Hunters took 119,260 antlered deer in the 2014-15 seasons – a decrease of about 11 percent compared to the previous license year, when an estimated 134,280 bucks were taken. Also, hunters harvested an estimated 184,713 antlerless deer in 2014-15, which represents an about 16 percent decrease compared to the 218,640 antlerless deer taken in 2013-14.
“We put these numbers out each year and, whether there’s an increase or decrease in the harvest, people want to know why,” said Game Commission Executive Director R. Matthew Hough. “While it’s impossible to provide explanations with certainty, there were a couple of factors over the 2014-15 deer seasons that seem to have contributed to a decreased harvest.”
Some of the decrease is by design, Hough said.
The Game Commission last year reduced the number of antlerless licenses available for sale. Fewer licenses were allocated in nearly every Wildlife Management Unit, and statewide, 59,500 fewer antlerless licenses were issued.
Reducing the allocation within a Wildlife Management Unit allows deer numbers to grow there. Records show it takes an allocation of about four antlerless licenses to harvest one antlerless deer, so a reduced antlerless harvest was anticipated due to a reduced allocation.
Additionally, the weather during the two-week firearms deer season was less than ideal in much of the state. Some parts of the state saw unusually high temperatures on the season’s opening day. And depending on where you hunted, conditions on the first Saturday might have included steady rain, snow or dense fog.
“When the weather is warmer, hunters tend to sit tight longer, and the deer tend to move less, as well,” said David Putnam, the president of the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners. “Meanwhile, adverse weather can be just about unhuntable and the deer seek cover, too, which decreases hunter success rates.”
Pennsylvania’s reduced harvest corresponds also with harvest decreases within neighboring states this past season. Research shows that when mast crops like acorns are especially abundant, as was the case in many parts of Pennsylvania this past season, deer harvests tend to drop because deer don’t have to move far to get food.

Full article here:

PGC News Release

Looks to me like the PGC has been listening to those who say there are no deer and want fewer tags issued.

Dale

Not passing any judgment but I find the statement that there are "no deer" yet there were over 303,000 killed interesting? The kill is higher than Maine's deer herd.

I think they listen to the habitat, if the habitat can sustain more deer they decrease tag allotment.

JDK, I used to mess around in Maine years back. It is like comparing apples and rocks. It is not uncommon to see deer killed down in PA that weigh 250 pounds, but they are usually almost always in the lower part of the state with a lot of farms. Even when we have winter kill, it is usually restricted to the extreme upper areas of the state. I work nights and since the end of deer season the only deer I have seen while driving to where I work have been right next to houses or the couple I see next to a WALMART. Added up the number would not come to 10, and none of them in an area that can be hunted. A better statement would be "There are no deer in huntable numbers in areas where you can hunt."
It may not be overhunting causing it now. The fact that the Game Commission is starting to address the situation should tell you something is wrong. Along with tag reductions, they are now starting a fawn mortality study. There is something going on with the deer numbers and they know it.

Comparatively speaking, Virginia's harvest numbers were 24% lower last season than the previous year and 18% lower than the 10 year average with less than 200k killed in 2014-15.

I don't hear VA hunters whining, though.

Ohio is down more than 8%. No whining there.

Maryland is down 9%. None there, either.

North Carolina is down at least 16-18%, after several bouts with EHD and now the second largest mast crop (reducing deer travel for food) in the last half-century. No whining there, even from areas that have lost 30-70% of their deer due to EHD.

New York isn't out yet.

Odd that every one of those state cites heavy mast crop reducing deer movement as a factor in reduced kill numbers and that those years are consistently low. Virginia is even lower because of a goal to reduce herd density, and because of an outbreak of hemorrhagic disease. Still no complaining there about "no deer".

WV is down THIRTY-FOUR percent. No whining from there factors? Heavy winter kills in the two years prior, no mast in 2012 and 2013, and heavy mast this past year.

Year in, year out, the most whining about "no deer" and "management is terrible" and blah, blah, blah, comes out of PA. It seems this year will be no different.

I don't really take a post seriously from anyone that does not post where they are from. Seems as if all the "Experts" leave that out of their posts. I have been hunting WV for over 20 years and there was and is whining going on about deer numbers on public land for the last 10 years. Seems to me the only people that don't whine are hunting GranPa's farm or club property. There is a definite problem in PA and the PA Game Commission is starting to address it.

I've hunted PA, VA, NC, VT, NY, NH, MD, ME, CO, and ID. Where I live currently is of no concern, but it's in one of those states listed. Oh, and I have and do public land hunt in every state I currently visit (PA is off that list; too many Fudds).

I'm no "expert", but the facts are as they stand: PA's deer kill is not out of line in a decrease from the surrounding and nearby states, and for similar reasons. I can provide those links, easily. Those state aren't full of whiners, though, so we're not hearing the lamentations from those states. Hell, PA's deer kill totals are larger than any of those other states. For a state with "no deer" that math doesn't add up.

I don't take much seriously from PA hunters, except for proof that they whine, bitch, and complain more than any other group of "hunters" out there. That problem the PGC can't address.

Maryland: http://smnewsnet.com/archives/234459/dnr-releases-2014-15-deer-season-results/

North Carolina: http://www.northcarolinasportsman.com/details.php?id=4899

Ohio: http://www.bcsn.tv/news_article/show/477098

Virginia: http://hamptonroads.com/2015/02/virginia-hunting-20142015-deer-numbers-down

West Virginia: http://theintermountain.com/page/co...harvest-is-down-31-percent.html?nav=5018

Thats because too many hunters believe the deer herd is managed for hunter success and not what the habitat can sustain.

You seem to be the only whiner in this thread. If this is your take on the subject..... You don't know your azz from a hole in ground when it comes to PA hunting.

I know plenty, and enough to know that PA hunters routinely come here and elsewhere to whine about "no deer" and "PGC sucks". This is just another one of those threads. The numbers don't lie, but don't let that stop your bitch session.

If you know that, and feel that way..... why even post on the thread? Plenty of other subjects to choose from.

Is it possible that the lower kill is the result of more than one factor? Less hunters, fewer doe lic. offered, doe seasons shortened, maybe, possibly, fewer deer resulted in less deer killed? Of course that one idea makes me a bubba, but I will show my state.

Dillon,

If you actually read the study results then you'd know the answer to your questions.

Feeler hurt?

I have encountered a few PA hunters and maybe I was just "lucky" and ran into the real ringers but all of them have been long on mouth and short on deer woods skills and nary a one could shoot worth a damn.

One of the most onerous was a fellow that came down to SW VA to hunt with my grandfather and uncle some years back. He was some kin to my uncle's wife.

Being the youngest of the bunch that year I got volunteered to take this fellow out and find him a deer.

He had his trusty 760 Remington .30/06 with open sights and loaded with 180 grain RN factory loads to "show us how its done."

We were hunting fairly open farm country with broken wood lots and hollers where shots could get beyond 400 yards and a 200-250 yard shot was not uncommon.

We all tried to get him to leave the 760 cased and use one of our scoped rifles. We had everything from a .243 to a .338 Winchester ready to go but he refused because he was an "expert marksman and never missed."

So, I took him out to a small pasture that was kind of like an island in the middle of some woods and we set up in a hay shed where I had some square bales set up just like a shooting bench.

I even had sand bags ready. It was about as solid a shooting position as you will ever see in a field situation.

The small pasture was right at 250 yards across (we had measured it) and you could see the whole thing from the hay shed and off to the right you could also watch the edge of the woods with about a 75 yard or so shot.

I was hopeful that a deer would come along that trail and he would have a close chance.

When we first got set up the PA guy looks out over the pasture and says "that's 600 or 800 yards across there. " Way too far to shoot a deer." Then he pronounced the 75 yard woods shots as "at least 250 yards." I knew I was in for a long afternoon.

I had a heavy barrel .300 Winchester topped with as I recall a 6.5-20 Leupold shooting a 165 grain Sierra BTSP zeroed dead on at 225 yards with me and I set it up on the sand bags.

That rifle was super accurate and I had shot ground hogs, crows, and targets with it all summer out to beyond 400 yards so I was in good practice.

We sat there for about three hours and this fellow regaled me with endless stories about how great a shot he was and how great PA deer hunters were in general.

Finally, about 30 minutes before dark some does came out in the far end of the pasture at 225-230 yards out. I told him to get in behind my gun and kill one of them, whereupon, I was told that "only a really stupid son of a bitch would even try a crazy shot like that." "The bullet wouldn't even get half way there."

I really wanted to smack the hell out of him but I controlled my urges and told him "shut up and learn."

I got on the gun and cranked the scope up and waited for one of the does that was facing us to put her head down and start grazing. When she did I put a 165 Sierra right between her ears.

The PA "expert" was sitting there with his mouth open and a glazed look on his face. As we walked out to the doe I explained to him it was only a little over a 200 yard shot. He was just shaking his head.

The 165 Sierra had nearly decapitated the deer killing her DRT and all the PA boy could say was he had "never seen anything like that."

He did help me drag her back to the truck but didn't say much at all on the way back to my grandpa's place.

He left for home the next morning and never came back to hunt.

I'm not going to get into a pizzing contest with you. I was just trying to figure out why you came here to bitch to begin with. You hate it, yet here you are to enlighten everyone to your grand [bleep] opinion of the subject and the people it affects.

You may have noticed that I did mention some of their reasons. What they wont mention is that license sales are way off past sales. Some is due to the drop that many states have seen, some is due to unhappy hunters. You only say that you have hunted Pa. not exactly what experience you have here. I have also hunted other states, I cant honestly comment on their animal populations, but I haven't experienced them over decades like I have Pa's.

The point is that PA hunters don't look at facts or anything else. They come here and elsewhere simply to bitch. Yes, the kill is lower. It's lower everywhere. There are a lot of factors involved in that. Figure them out, first, and then at least try to sound intelligent about what's going on. That'd be one helluva step forward for PA hunters.