Wildlife Game Masters

"THIS IS STRICTLY "MY" OPINION!!!" I am very very confused, Who is it that pays the GAME COMM. wages??? yes your right, "WE DO" with every license purchaced we "SUPPORT" the Game Comm. laws and seasons. We also are the one who purchace doe license, and multiple ones if we can. I for one have not purchaced a doe license for approx. 10 years, and haven't used a doe tag in I would say 15 years. I don't believe in it . WE all complain and **** and moan about "There's No Deer Out There" but what do you plan to do about it???The Game Comm. gave the hunters enough rope, and we hung ourselves. right?? so if everyone would pull together, we would reverse what the Game Comm. plans to do, Eliminate more of the herd. We have more seasons and time available to hunt now then we ever have. More time equals more kills. Plain and simple.Pull together folks. take the time now to do without a deer for a year or two and "OUR" herd will come back.

well stated.  I have said that a number of times in herd numers conversation. The PGC never pulled the trigger on a single deer.  I could go on, but for now I am heading to the NWTF banquet.

I however disagree, a little bit. You do make a great point that hunters and sportsman need to stick together, I agree whole hearted with that. However, I don't think that the deer herd is in as bad of shape as some may say. I read an article in my local news paper last week that summed it up great; some hunters need to change tactics. I will try to find the paper and get some more quotes for this thread. As for buying and using doe tags, I buy one every year, some years two, and I don't use it unless I fail to kill a buck and sometimes not then. If somebody does think that the heard is in danger and somebody wants to help, think about this. (I know people who do this) The PGC sells X amount of doe licenses, correct? If I buy one and don't use it, in theory that is one less doe that will be killed, correct? So if I think the herd is in danger but I refuse to buy a license, well then somebody else will buy that license and kill a doe, correct? So if I was truly concerned with the deer herd, I would buy a doe tag and as many bonus tags as possible then not use them, therefore keeping somebody else from killing those deer. Just something to ponder.........

your right..... kinda. my theory is not to purchace therefore not to support. but you are right, they sell out every single year. i hunt public land, not SGL. and have seen so many less deer in the past 10 years its depressing. let me ask you this though, have you yourself seen the quantity of deer as you have in the past?? (be honest) doe season needs cut down in many different ways less license, less time available to kill, less all around. LESS DOES! LESS DEER! plain and simple. 

You covered some of what I was going to say pres. thanks for that.  I don't have to type as much.  To answer your question CH2223, No I have not seen the numbers of deer that I have in the past.  That being said, I started tagging along with my father and grandfather in the late 70's.  We dairy farmed, so therefor the crops we planted drew deer from everywhere.  Those days are gone, the dairy farms are gone.  The food sources are less than they were then and therefore cannot support the deer we once did.  We would sometimes see a hundred deer on the first day of deer season, if you were lucky you may see a spike or 4 pt.   Now I may seeonly 10-15 deer (alot of thimes less) but I know that I have a better chance at a buck.  I agree with pres also that hunters need to change tactics.  There are alot of guys who sit in a hunting shanty all day and complain they are not seeing deer.  Well why in the world would anyone else want to go out and bust their hump chasing deer to them?  We are hunting a totally different animal than we have in the past.  The deer are older and smarter.  There are less in most areas which means you have to hunt harder.  I will say this, the past archery season had one of the most intense ruts I have ever seen.  You hit the grunt or bleat and a buck was there.  I like that alot better than sitting in a stand and having deer ignore the calls.  I will say this, I will take quality over quantity any day.  Give me the opportunity to see one good buck over 20 doe and I'll take the buck everytime and I think most hunters will.  Don't get me wrong, I think the PGC has made a pile of mistakes and I some of there explainations were just plain idiotic, but overall I think they are on the right track, but it is up to hunters to take part.  We do need checks and balances and to just go out and kill every deer you see because you have a doe tag in your pocket is not doing anything to help the cause or the hunters position on deer numbers. 

YES.. Quality of Quanity!!  Well put gamemaster.  I would like to add the fact that as a State we hunters are ignorant of how good we have it to live and hunt in pa.   Has anyone ever seen a County by County map of the whole country in terms of the amount of deer per sq mile?  Pa has one of the highest deer densties in the country and is in the top 3 states as far as the total deer heard.   As soon as you go over to ohio and farther west the map is completely different.   You should already know why.  They have less deer yet so many people kill big bucks and over there,,,, they are happy as hell about it.  Pennsylvanians do not realize that seeing 10 a day is like seeing 50 in kansas.  Yet just as stated before, you have to change they way you hunt.  Just for a fact i saw  over 100 deer the first week of deer season and i only hunted for 3 1/2 days even though some might have been ones that i had already seen but still!!

I ment to say      Quality over Quantity

To answer ch223's question of me, in some places yes there are alot less deer than before at least I see alot less deer than before. EXMP: when I was a kid an teenager we hunted a farm owned by family friends, on one side of these fields we had what is called Dairy Hollow (honey hole) on the other side we had what was called Spudic Hallow (another good spot) and both places were owned by locals and open to hunt. Both places were full of hunters, too. We could just sit and watch the fields and see deer cross back and fourth across the fields ALL DAY!!! Dozens and dozens of them. WE don't hunt there anymore, because you can set there all week now and see 3 deer. However, parts of Dairy Hollow are posted now and others are so grown up that you can't hunt it. All of Spudic Hallow is owned by mup-heres and is all posted from one end to the other. This equales no hunters in the woods to get the deer moving. I know the deer are still there because if you drive out to that same farm at night , right now (when there is all this snow) and you can see 25 deer or more around the corn cribs. Like I said we need to change tactics.

Buy the way mup-here means " We comup-here from Pittsburgh and bought this land to hunt , just like Bill Jordan and the monster buck crew. I'm gonna post it all up and build a box shanty right smack dab in the middle and then I'll be shottn' 160 class bucks every year." lol

I will say this much, ch223 is absolutly right about sportsmen sticking together, I'll explain what I mean later.....I gotta get ready to leave for class.

They deer are there. due to the amount of posted ground.(allot more than 10-15 years ago) and the million dollar hunting houses(that keep the great hunter warm) id say thats why your not seeing the deer. I can still go out spotting and see the same ammount of deer that i did back younder. But what i am seeing is bigger buck and that works for me.

TIMMAAA