bawanajim

Any word on what the year produced?

First day rain had to hurt some but deer #'s in area is also to blame.[:-]

WillCz

MY WMU 4C will have to be a lot lower than other years. I spent most of the morning at very large parking lot and only saw 2 dead deer. A fawn and a buck. Past years I have seen 10 times that many just walking the trails out.

I did see about 3 different set of deer tracks on a snowy 7 mile walk last month. They didn't get them all yet in my area.

I am sure the PGC will extrapolate those 2 kills into a larger than normal harvest and a need to stay the course on deer management in 4c. After all there are still a few left.

bawanajim

I got this from the general meeting .But no break down.
Anyone got the final #'s?

The 2006-07 deer harvest was approximately 361,560 including 135, 290 bucks and 226,270 antlerless deer. Deer hunting continues to be a challenge in some areas, but reports are that deer are larger and antler restrictions are working.

WillCz

Those are last years #'s. I am sure we will be a lot closer to 300,000 than 360,000 for 2007-2008.

I spoke to 3 different butcher shops in my WMU and they were down at least 80% versus 2005-2006.

hatchet jack

I would bet down!!!

WillCz

With such low reporting I don't trust their numbers at all. They have a great incentive to report that things are great. They would have to admit failure to everyone if they reported that on many of the public lands in PA that deer have been intentionally exterminated down to levels that are rediculous with the number of hunters trying to use the land.

BTBowhunter

Numbers are out:

Release #029-08

GAME COMMISSION RELEASES 2007-08 DEER HARVEST ESTIMATES
The Pennsylvania Game Commission today reported that hunters harvested an
estimated 323,070 deer in the state's 2007-08 seasons. That's down 11 percent
from the previous seasons' harvest.

Hunters took 109,200 antlered deer in the 2007-08 seasons, down 19 percent from
the previous license year's harvest of 135,290. Also, hunters harvested 213,870
antlerless deer in 2007-08, a five percent drop from the 226,270 antlerless deer
taken in 2006-07.

"What stands out most when looking over the harvest data is the difference in
the opening day deer kill of the two-week firearms season," said Dr. Christopher
Rosenberry, Game Commission Deer Section Supervisor. "Report cards sent in by
hunters show the antlered deer harvest on the opening day, Nov. 26, dropped more
than 50 percent from 2006. Daily harvests for the rest of the two-week season,
Nov. 27-Dec. 8, were similar to 2006.

"The firearms season's opening day antlerless deer harvest also dropped nearly 50 percent from 2006. However, the antlerless
harvest throughout the remainder of the two-week season increased and, in due
course, erased some of the opening day's harvest shortfall."

Based on past year's results, Rosenberry noted that it wasn't surprising that
the drop in opening day harvests had a larger effect on the antlered harvest
than the antlerless harvest.

"Historically, a majority of the antlered deer harvest occurs on opening day,
whereas the antlerless harvest is typically more evenly distributed across the
entire two weeks," Rosenberry said.

For more information, please visit the Pennsylvania Game Commission - State
Wildlife Management Agency website:
http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=11&Q=173862

WillCz

How could a 19% drop in buck harvest be the goal and they are going to stay the course.

OMG. The totals are down about 50% versus 6 years ago. How could this be making our sport better. Tell me please.

WillCz

Here are the 2002 results

Hunters took 486,014 deer during Pennsylvania's 2001-2002 hunting seasons, according to figures released by the Pennsylvania Game Commission today. In the 2000-2001 deer hunting seasons, hunters harvested 504,600 deer.
The 2001-2002 antlered (buck) deer harvest was 203,247, compared to 203,221 during the 2000-2001 deer hunting seasons. The 2001-2002 antlerless (doe) deer harvest was 282,767, compared to the 2000-2001 deer harvest of 301,379.

2002 -203,247 bucks versus 109,200 now (with 2001 203,221)
2002 - 213,870 does versus 282,767( with 2001 being 301,379)

We are just about done killing deer. Past years it was about a 50% chance of a deer, now it is 25%. How could this be the goal. The doe kill is still going strong. They have to keep it this way to keep the numbers going down. Shooting a buck in PA is going to be near impossible soon. I assume these numbers mean the herd is down at least 60% since 2002. If not how could higher allocations be producing less kills. OMG this is scary. Glad my daughters are not hunters, that will give me something to talk about when they try to remember seeing deer as kids.

Illinois & Ohio here I come. This plan is great for tourism for other states.

lost horn

I would guesstimate the real total harvest numbers were more like 163,000.