A friend posted this pic on Facebook this morning....Couldn't help notice the 99....

Joe

Looks like an old 250-3000, sweet. Like the poster also.

Great poster, and also food for thought....thanks..

Not sure if that is still true. I'd like to believe it though.

Nothing like first day of hunting season in PA.

CR

Soon to be a thing of the past, I betcha. I grew up in NW Pa., and this was true. Back then, a lot of guys could score on a mediocre deer. The Gary Alt program gives us bragging bucks to a few. There are fewer deer, and fewer hunters. I do not think it is good. Some guys only get 1 or 2 days to hunt. They oughtta have a good chance to bring home some venison. If most people do not do that, they will not keep going out.

What Benchman sez is true.

I hunted Pennsylvania outta my bestest hunting buddy's cozy cabin up on the High Plateau in the Moshannon State Forest since 1998 just north of I-80... 20 miles or so north of DuBois.

In 1998, I remember seeing maybe 3 or 4 deer (mostly doe deer) each day of the Opening Week (6 days) we hunted. Then after Dr. Alt's Program went into effect, we began seeing less and less deer of either sex although 'most all the deer we saw were still doe deer.

In the last 3 years, hunting Opening Week, I didn't see a single deer... doe or buck.

Last year (Nov./Dec., 2012) was my last year of traveling over to Pennsylvania for deer hunting. It's a beautiful State with lotsa really great folks, but I'd like to at least SEE deer when I'm deer hunting even if they're doe deer.

I can stay home and see bucks and doe deer running through my 1 acre yard and into the woods and scrub at the N.E. corner of my property. The ONLY problem is... ya can't hunt in this area anymore, too many houses have been built in the past 20 years or so.

I guess it's like they say, "Sometimes you're the DOG... and sometimes you're the hydrant!"


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

I can't believe you idiots believe that Alt is responsible for the low population of deer. The insurance companies and paper mills force the game commissions to import coyotes from Michigan and Minn. Wake up !!!!! He did a fantastic job on the bear population,,,Pa. has one of the largest number of bears in USA,,and they are amoung the largest in weight,,

One thing is for sure. You have to adapt to an older age class of bucks. I am happy with a nicer buck every two or three years than all of the spikes and forkhorns we used to kill. Mr. Alt did a great job with our bears. We have many more opportunities to hunt them than we did 30-40 years ago. As far as the deer go, we still see plenty of roadkills so they must be out there.

i agree with the poster's sentiment. however, at the rate the DHS is buying ammo, and the scarcity of it for the common man, we are seriously out-ammo'd. a gun ain't no good without the ammo. i got enough for me and my boys to keep the hoards at bay for a while, but most folks don't.

Paper Mills in Pennsylvania????? I've lived in Pennsylvania all my life and only know of one. They must be very powerful if they can force the Game Commission to kill off all the deer.

As for the Insurance companies....I called my insurance agent for an appointment last week and he he can't see me till June....He's too busy hauling coyotes in from out west...

Could be worse. In northern Wisconsin the tree huggers managed to reintroduce wolves. The whitetail population has been decimated. A couple of years ago I spent a day hunting with a friend that owns a section (640 acres). The whole day all we saw was deer sign headed south with wolf tracks right behind the deer sign. There was a reason that wolves were eradicated.

The paper mills are on a downward trend. The deer are all in your backyard or on the roadside eating grass. There was hardly any food in the woods this year. Deer have gone from being a revered sporting animal to a pest. The last one I shot was eating my pumpkins.

Ther are more deer killed on Pa. roads than any state in the U.S. There are more deer kill on Pa. roads than most states during their deer season... You dont think the insurance companies have anything to say about that?? Who do who think plants all those little sapling trees in the woods to grow up and be timbered later??? The deer eat these like crazy.... My friend was a truck driver in the 1990-91. He told me the Pa. Game comm. hired him to transport coyotes from Mich or Minn. to Pa. I used to hunt in all over the northern part of Pa. We used to see 7 to 18 deer at a time, and over 100 per day.. if you see five per day ,your real luckie.. I had a group of 6 hunters that hunted 5 days and only see 11 deer total all week???

Whether it is true, or not, Gary Alt's name will be forever associated with the decline in the Pa. deer herd.

I agree on the bear issue but I don't think Alt can be held harmless for the Pa. Deer Wars.

JMHO. donsm70

I remember those days of seeing one hundred or more deer in a days hunting. Usually you were lucky to spot one spike or forkhorn amongst them. One thing that has hurt is the number of dairy farms that are out of business now. They fed alot of deer with their crops. Now you see field after field that is weeds that used to grow corn and other crops. Much of the woodland in my area cannot support any more deer than we have.