[kenton6]

This morning I posted a blog at the Black Bear Blog about the complaint of Pennsylvania hunters not having enough deer to hunt making it not worth their while to hunt for.
The article deals with three elements that changes how and why a hunter hunts for deer differently no matter what the deer density is. Maine and Northern New England is used as comparatives in how hunters completely enjoy themselves while hunting is some of the sparsest deer densities anywhere.
It's worth the read. Here's the link to the blog.
http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/?p=449

 

[bigbuck200]

Interesting article! PA does seem to have a portion of the hunting pop. that is complaining a lot about the deer. I've been hunting here 25 years and I am NOT one of them. In the last 2 years the PGC estimated our deer pop at about 1.6 million. We have instituted antler restrictions within the last 3 years...best thing ever. The doe permits have been dramatically increased to balance the herd and reduce the depradation of the forests.

Be advised, many of these complaining hunters hunt on public gamelands which is very little of the total land mass here. If they would timber these gamelands, the habitat would greatly improve. Yes, I think maybe there fewer deer now, and I'm ok with that. Our numbers in my region of 2 1/2 yr old bucks harvested have gone up which is a good thing for hunters. There is a ton of private lands here with very good deer numbers. This creates a problem for those that don't have access to some of them.

Like the road hunters that I here about and have seen in Maine, PA also has a "number" of, how do I put it, less dedicated?, opening day only deer hunters. 90% of the buck harvest is taken on the 1st day by an est. 1 million hunters that go out. The remainder of the 2 week season has very light pressure in the areas I hunt, public and private, and has been this way for many years.

It's not that we don't have the deer for hunters to see, the pop. is just not evenly distributed. Many deer from public land are pushed onto private land to take refuge in not so heavily hunted areas.

I would personally hunt in Maine any day over PA simply because of the opportunity at a trophy, however small the chance may be. I love the big woods hunting in Maine and feel that you Mainers are fortunate to have it. There are many guys I know in PA that would never last a week in Maine because they simply just don't have the patience and determination!

OK, I'm done rambling now. Hope I didn't offend anyone!

 

[John Porter]

Sounds like your speaking your opinion. Nothing wrong with that and you were far from rambling. I enjoy hearing about other areas and how people go about harvesting animals.

 

[stweedie]

I just read an article in American Hunter about whitetail management. PA and VT were the main States talked about. Gary Alt who was PA's game commissioner was forced to resign because when he attempted to balance the state's deer herd (mainly to thin the herd in the high density areas) for a better quality herd the Unified Sportsmen of PA filed a lawsuit against the state for inadequate deer managment. Now I'm not biased because I don't live there or know anything about the deer hunting there, but the article was quite interesting.