sproulman

here in pa. the antler restriction is workingIF the hunters dont shoot little bucks..we are seeing more bigger racks this year but do to the pgc/dcnr doe killing, very few deer..

we stopped killing doe but most hunters still are..THATS what is ruining the hunting..

first, 3 point to side should have been rule here in pa for ALL..shooting little bucks is hurting..

i saw only 3 fawns this year all summer..old doe here in pa are gone..that was your fawn breeders..deer is luckly to make it to age 3 now..30 years ago, that was NORMALL..you have lots of fawns..

hunters today will shoot a fawn, they dont care..

we are ones pulling trigger on doe..personely, i see hunting for deer getting a LOT worst than it is here in pa also..hunters have no respect for doe or they would not shoot one ..statements i hear, BROWN ITS DOWN, I NEED FREEZER MEAT AND FAWNS ARE GOOD,I HAVE TO SHOOT DOE OR OTHERS WILL,MY WIFE WONT LET ME HUNT UNLESS I BRING DOE HOME,KIDS MAKE FUN OF ME IF I DONT BRIONG DOE HOME,I HAVE TOI GET MY MONEY BACK ON MY LICENSE COST,DEER WILL STARVE UNLESS I SHOOT 3 DOE..on and on..

we are most disgusted group of hunters i have seen in the 42 years i have been out there..where is respect for doe/fawns..i remember when you never told a person you shot a doe, it was not something that was great thing..

you did it because deer in your area needed thin out a LITTLE..you never shot fawn..

now deer are less and are still being killed off..go out to wisconsin and ask them about doe killing, they started way before ny/pa put in this doe killing program..its hard to even SEE a deer in wisconsin..

i remember when that state was great deer hunting state..

there is only 1 way out of this mess, doe hunting must be stopped and only 1 deer and your done..none of this crazy 3 or 4 deer per season..

lead poisoner

I agree they need to stop the doe killing.But where's the revenue for the PGC goanna come from?The PGC is screwed one way or another.They are screwing us to keep their monies comming in. We got 8 doe tags between 4 of us.I plan on useing them to this year. Four got filled allready.Call me what you want,But if they gave us the tags I am goanna use them. But they better think of something there at the PGC,You can bet they are goanna catch hell next year from the hunters about no dear and a major decrease in sales. PGC has screwed them selves big time and the hunters they took down with them also.Poor management all for the mighty dollar and the insurance companies.

jgbennett6

well, i have to disagree with some of you, The first 2 days of deer season (gun), i saw few deer, but then again i was sitting, i changed my strategy to stalking and still hunting, saw 10-12 deer a day.....the deer are not moving right now ... but I am tagged out in both bow and firearm. I think a lot of the deer sightings are down b/c 1- not as many deer hunters moving the deer around 2- people need to change hunting methods during this hot weather.

NoKnees

In the southern tier I hunt4A in montgomery county, Mostly on state land.I agree the last two years the deer numbers are way down. In addition I would guess that maybe 25-40% of the deer are shot in the bow season. Its certainly my best season.

At firstI was agianst the low deer numbers. In years past I would see multiple deer most days I hunted. Last year I hunted hard for 7 straight days to fill 2 gun season tags. This year I filled the two gun seasontags on friday for 6 days of very hard hunting.

This year was complicated by the warm weather and lots of hunters. Maybe itsbecause I am a little older (my 30th season this year) but I am alot happier when I judge my hunting success by the experience rather than the number of deer seen or taken. I still love hunting the big country up in hamilton county even though you can go years between shots on legal deer. As long as I can still hunt I am going to be happy about it.

Now If we could get some snow for the season over in Mass.

NY ARCHER

NoKnees.. i agree totally... It's not about how many you shoot or how many you see. Just the idea that your in the wood with nature and out of the everyday hussle and bussle and not listen to phones ring etc. People forget the reason that they hunt, and only think about it when there sitting there in the early morning in the clean crisp air and there like wow this is Great. That's what we have to remember... it's hard to think that 3 days into it when you haven't seen anything, but it is the truth.. MY2CENTS

lead poisoner

If you didn't care about seeing deer then why waite till hunting season to go out and sit in the woods? I am not out in the woods to sit there and breath the crisp air in.I am out there to bag an animal.Just think,all the deer are allmost rare and 3 days a year you get to go sit in the woods cause it's fun to do. Now,that's funny. I spend alot of time in the outdoors fishing and hunting.I want to see something.That's like going to a large 5 acre fish pond with one fish in it.That's so much fun fishing for that one fish year after year after year.I get to breath the crisp air in.I want action and I wanna see the animal I am after. I don't care if it is a tail.I want to see the animal I am hunting to reassure me they are here. That is so lame of an excuse for hunting and not seeing animals.I like the air and quietness.You can do this any time of the year.What about the ones who hunt hard and come up with nothing?They are the ones who want to see the animals.People on here say hunt hard,Well,many of us do,And we still come up empty handed.What is the purpose to hunt hard and not bag an animal?All this to breath the crisp air.Don't tell meor the others who hunt hard the main reasonis the crisp air and quietness.It is90% about the prey.

Fletch NY

I hunt for a lot of reasons. One being out in the woods is up there high on the list, and I do go out and watch all year around. I do like the fall best, no bugs, cooler weather, leaves down to see better. But I also hope to get the freezer stocked. I hunt CNY pretty exclusively for 24 years now. For the past 19 years I have taken at least one deer 16 of those 2 or more deer. With my comparisons of sightings over the years, and I can only speak for where I am hunting, the deer numbers seem to be about the same as usual in 7f and better in 7m than the past few years. I also have not seen a deer in 8 days now but the heat has been bad and I do not feel like walking up my spots and screwing them up when the woods are so noisy. I am hoping the big front coming Friday will improve all our success and the straight week of 20 to 30 degree weather next week.

I also fear where we will be able to hunt in the future. As I was on stand last night one of my neighbors whose land I have permission to hunt is clearing another lot, 2 this year, to build another house. I think this will be my last year on that property. My only hope and dreamis to save up and buy 50 to 100 acres to make my own deer paradise to share with my kids,and till then hunt public land.

nyhunter863

You are very correct. One don't need to wait for hunting season to breath fresh air! There are tons of hiking trails in NYS that one can walk if they just wanted to be outdoors and breath fresh air. They are ALL free of charge and you won't get all the hassles that hunters get from all the slob hunters out there! When one goes hunting it is in hope of seeing and maybe killing some game.

NoKnees

I think that maybe we live in a world of rising expectations, maybe its caused by all the hunting shows and vidieos where everyone bags a 160 class deer after hunting for 2-3 days

When I started hunting in the late 1970's a hunter who took a deer in the Northern zone in NYS was doing well. The group I went hunting with as a kid had guys that spent 10-15 days hunting a year and hadn't got a buck in 2 or 3 years, that was normal but it didn't keep those folks from comming out year after year. In those years there would be cars parked up and down half the roads in the adirondacks every weekend in November, you don't see those numbers of hunters anymore. There are just as many deer up there and just as much land to hunt them on.

This year I saw more hunters in the Southern Tier than any time in the last 10 years.that was week one. Maybe it was the warm weather. Ill bet that by the muzzloader season and some cold miserable weatherI will be all alone on state land again.I think lots of the hunters are just soft..they don't want to walk 10 miles a day up north and after 4-5 days down south they either have thier deer and quit or they give up as "there aren't any deer".

ABarOfSoap

i agree the age needs to be lowerd, im 17 and ive been dying to hunt since i was alot younger, this rule is really stupid, and im not going to lie, i shot a deer when i was 15, my dad was right next to me and he handed me the gun, i made a perfect shot on him, he went 10 yards, and i know many other cases where people have done this.
i think it should be age 12-15 accompined with an adultnext tooyou, if not younger.