Oak Duke NY Outdoor News

[Lawdwaz]

Anybody else catch his column in the latest issue of NY Outdoor News regarding the state of deer hunting in PA?

He compared it to Allegheny County in NYS.

He hit the nail right on the head.  Kudos to OD.

[Lawdwaz]

What, everybody looking for a B&C buck that read it?

Hell, the B&C bucks have increased 500% in PA since the AR have been put in place.  BFD.

[G-Man]

sorry don't get the paper...need synopsis.

[Lawdwaz]

I tried to get a link to the article but my Google-FU couldn't find one.

Basically, he is saying that PA has monkeyed up the deer hunting for MOST people in the state.  In square miles, Allegany County NY (1,032 sq miles) is half the size of game management area 3A (approx. 2,000 sq miles) in Pennsylvania.  They share a common border and have very similar terrain etc. 

In 2010, PA hunters in 3A killed 3,800 bucks.  Allegany County NY hunters killed  4,202 bucks.  Unit 3A is TWICE the size of Allegany County!  In 3A that works out to less than 2 bucks killed per square mile.

Remember, these deer were killed, not harvested. 

This unit in PA has a lower ratio of bucks per square mile than most of the Adirondacks!

(All information is from the article in NY Outdoor News, 4/22/2011)

[G-Man]

My only question would be the hunter density in that unit in pa vs hunter density in allegehny county. I think that ar's and doe harvest were the pa's game deptarments only option to try to save their forest regrowth. I do not see a need for them in ny. Most hunters that are looking for trophy deer pass up buck vol. It seems those that want the ar's expect big bucks behind everytree! Mature deer are that mature they've learned to survive and are harder to kill period that is what makes a trophy not antlersize!                                                  I hear a lot of complaints about pa's deer herd from friends that hunt there. Seems a lot of nice deer are being taken but on private land. State land is overhunted and the population doesn't seem to be there anymore for the number of hunters hunting it to be sucessfull.

[Larry]

remember bio 101 killing does not will give you more bucks.If on your land you have 15 doe’s and 5 bucks (1.5 years and older) and you kill 10 doe’s and no bucks you still only have 5 bucks. What you have done is reduced the number of doe’s by 2/3’s. What you will see are more bucks sightings per doe sighting and you will see fewer fawns the next year.).  Remember Bio 101 an over abundance of males is detrimental to a species survival.  Also up to 2/3’s of the deer on any piece of land before hunting season are FAWNS!

. 

[Buckstopshere]

Thanks guys. Here is a link to the column:

http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/outdoors/x1146475392/Deer-tales-NY-and-Pa-two-side-by-side-management-plans

[Lawdwaz]

Oak-

Nice article.  Now, what are we going to do about PA?????

Do you think it will ever change?  I'm sure you and many others have hunted PA a lot longer than me but I've given them lots of scratch over the last 28 straight years.  I want to see deer and shoot spikers!  I liked the old days! 

I'd like to hear what others have to say. 

[YoungBucksTasteBetter]

I hunted PA for deer in 2008-2010 (when my son was between 8-10).  We hunted on a family friend's place in Susquehanna County and on public land in Pike County.  In spite of hunting (literally) every weekend that the deer season was open with both Firearm and Bow, we only saw a few deer and never any good bucks.  The folks we talked to in both counties are not happy with the results of the Pa AR scheme, and would like to see it changed back (they stated things much more strongly - let's just say that Gary Alt shouldn't travel too far into the backwoods in those areas).  It's a shame because they tell fantastic stories about what the deer hunting in Pa was like before the AR system came into place. 

[Meat Hunter]

PA program was and is a get rid of 1/2 the deer program.  Look at the doe harvest on their website--almost 3 does for every buck going back for a couple + years.  When you kill the does they can not reproduce bucks or does.  Less DEER

They started the AR program to improve the buck hunting so that hunter would not be as pissed about so many less deer.

[Lawdwaz]

I hunted PA for deer in 2008-2010 (when my son was between 8-10).  We hunted on a family friend's place in Susquehanna County and on public land in Pike County.  In spite of hunting (literally) every weekend that the deer season was open with both Firearm and Bow, we only saw a few deer and never any good bucks.  The folks we talked to in both counties are not happy with the results of the Pa AR scheme, and would like to see it changed back (they stated things much more strongly - let's just say that Gary Alt shouldn't travel too far into the backwoods in those areas).  It's a shame because they tell fantastic stories about what the deer hunting in Pa was like before the AR system came into place.

One incredibly huge problem with PA. hunting is the fact that a "weekend" of hunting consists of ONE (1) day.  If you could hunt on Sunday,  you could double your field time.