Pa. deer harvest DOWN 13% from last year!
- Thread starter TheGlovStillRules
- Start date
Interesting numbers. Anecdotally, my family’s 1000 acre farm in southern York county normally harvests 6-7 buck with about half being young (3.5 and younger). This year they killed 12 with 9 being mature (4.5 and older). Compared to last year (down year) only killing 4.
I wonder if this reflects fewer deer, fewer hunters (or less skilled hunters), or if it is meaningless statistical scatter. A 13% difference isn't huge.
Fewer hunters...PGC said 500k hunters out on opening day of rifle. Used to be a million. I hate the Saturday opener as do a ton of business people I associate with near my hunting property. Probably won't go next year...PSU home game. Hopefully I will tag out in archery.
I hunted state game lands and forest hard for two weeks and saw three deer. Two the first day and one on the last day. 30 years ago it was not all that remarkable to see 30-40 deer on the first day of buck. I don't have money to buy land to hunt on, so I've been considering selling the guns and finding a new outlet.
Also, tough to get kids to hunt when you're out there getting cold and seeing nothing for days at a time.
And, read an article last week that more than 90% of trophy deer killed in Pa the last several years were on private land. It has become the sport of 'kings'.
Also, tough to get kids to hunt when you're out there getting cold and seeing nothing for days at a time.
And, read an article last week that more than 90% of trophy deer killed in Pa the last several years were on private land. It has become the sport of 'kings'.
Deer hunting is facing a grave risk. If CWD ever jumps to a human deer will become nuisance animals like groundhogs and coyotes.
Deer are already nuisance animals due to the amount of crop damage they do for farmers and damage to vehicles
I don’t hunt but will offer this. We used to have 100 acres in Schuylkill county bordering on State Game lands in a valley with lots of other properties of similar size. Over time, ours was posted as were all the others as more often than not a Hunter would not respect a boundary. I allowed my neighbors in the valley ( who didn’t have 100 acres ) and friends to hunt the property in a regulated fashion, several allowed per day, and had a neighbor help manage the rotation.
This worked out very well as a decent number of folks were able to hunt safely, kids had an opportunity as well as a couple of Veterans. We also ensured very few hunters from the Game lands wandered very far into our property and when they did they got a quick explanation as to where the boundaries were. When our family had acquired the land very little posting was the norm. By the time we sold it a few years ago the entire valley ( 10 miles ) had been posted up. I used to have a steady flow of folks stopping by asking if they could hunt, explaining how they used to hunt in the valley etc. etc. While I understood their plight, private property being posted when in the “ old” days it was not, it was easier to not worry about who and how many folks were wandering around at any point in time.
There were many large deer with big racks shot on the property over the years. I assume many had been chased down from the game lands but many also just hung around between our property and the properties to the east and west due to cover, fields, corn, creek, etc.
My family, cousins, uncles...are big time hunters they all said that they saw fewer deer than past years. I told them they should hunt closer to I83 since I see a lot along the side of the road...dead.
30 years ago a LOT of the fields and wood lots where deer could hold were still there. Now they're housing developments and massive warehouses. People complain about them in their yards, eating their fancy flowering shrubs. Well honey, you built a house on top of where this deer and his/her ancestors roamed for 100 millennia. You're the intruder.
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