bluebird2

If the deer have been destroying all the clearcuts by over browsing , how is it possible to have great grouse habitat with lots of grouse?
Someone is lowing smoke again!!!

bawanajim

If I had to guess I would say we see more bear sign than deer sign when we are grouse hunting. The only places you will find grouse is where the cover is thick enough to prevent avian predators, the hawks are hell on grouse.

Spring gobbler season is a blast!

But what about goose hunting? The the September season is fantastic. We have plenty of wood ducks too.

Just to many predators for rabbits and pheasants to prosper.[:@]
Any of you think of coon trapping to give our ground nesting birds a chance?

BTBowhunter

The purchase of a hunting license grants the individual the OPPORTUNITY to harvest various game animals but not the guarantee of success.

It's called hunting not killing. If a guarantee is what you require, there are plenty of high fence operations for big game and plenty of preserves for small game. You don't even have to buy a license. Have fun!

For most hunters, opportunity is all they need or want. Those who don't wish to dedicate the effort or lack the talent to capitalize on the opportunities we have here may be happier at a preserve. You've complained about not having enough time. Successful hunters make the time. Before I retired, I managed to work a 70 hour workweek and still harvest 5-10 deer a year with a good portion (around 40%) coming from public land.

Hunting in PA is simply what you make of it. Your success at harvesting or seeing game, or a lack of it, is a direct product of your own dedication and talents.

DougE

Hunting in Pa is far better today than it was when I started hunting in 1980.back then,you were done when you killed one deer and your chance of seeing a legal buck after 10:00am on the first day was slim to none because the vast majority of them were dead.In 2007 on the last day of rifle season,I passed on the largest buck I've ever seen because i killed a 9 point with my bow.This yearI had to pass on several bucks,three of which I would have mounted,because my buck tag was already filled,three of those bucks were on public land as was the one the year before.I didn't hunt bear this year but I've been on hand 4 out of 6 years when guys in our group have killed bear.Four years ago,we killed four bears on the first two drives of the season.Up until six years aho,I've never seen a dead bear in the woods and Ihunted bear every year,I kill a gobbler ever spring and usually call in several more for other people.I don't specifically hunt them in the fall but I've killed a couple in the last five yerars as incidental kills while bowhunting.The bear and turkey hunting has never been better.the deer hunting is also better in my opinion.There's certainly less deer out there but the opportunities to hunt are far greater than they used to be and yes,the bucks are getting bigger.I would have to say the small game populations have taken a nose dive but that has more to do with the habitat than anything else.Bag limits have not increased and participation is down so the habitat has to be the reason.Still,in areas with better small game habitat,I am seeing decent numbers or grouse and even some rabbits.

Maverick 1

The purchase of a hunting license grants the individual the OPPORTUNITY to harvest various game animals but not the guarantee of success.

It's called hunting not killing. If a guarantee is what you require, there are plenty of high fence operations for big game and plenty of preserves for small game. You don't even have to buy a license. Have fun!


You could fish in a lake that only has one fish in it, and you would have an opportunity for success.

Maverick 1

Hunting in Pa is far better today than it was when I started hunting in 1980

Don't know about you Doug but I would be tickled pink if things were like they were in 1980. No doubt in my mind that we had good hunting then. Today, our hunting is terrible.

BTBowhunter

Yep. And just like with hunting, even if the lake is chock full of fish, some won't catch any while some will catch plenty. On April 18 there will be holes in trout streams positively loaded with fish and yet some will walk away empty handed.

Opportunity is all we are entitled to. After that it's up to us.

DougE

Mav,I wouldn't fish in a lake that had one fish and I wouldn't hunt in an area that had no game.I don't know why people continue to hunt where they claim there's no game.Some of my old spots have changed for the worse and some have gotten better.In fact,alot of different variable constantly change so no one spot is consistantly successful for me.

In 1980,I killed a small spike at 8:15 in the morning.That was the seventeenth deer I saw that morning.The next year,I never saw a deer until the last day of the season and only saw 2 that day.The next year,I got my first ever doe tag and killed a doe late in the afternoon on the first day of doe season.I hunted all private land back then and saw about the same number of deer as I do today on public land in 2G.Things did change around the late 80's and into the late 90's in that area and seeing 30+ deer a day was expected.I can't say that make the hunting better however.This year I saw one single deer on the first day in Moshannon state forest.It was an 8 point with at least a 17-18 inch spread.it bedded less than 30 yards from me and Icouldn't shoot it because my tag was already filled.There was a fair amount of tracks in the snow so it did surprise me that I only saw one deer that day.I went back to the same spot onthe first saturday and filled a dmap tag.I also saw a nice high 6 point that I could have easily killed.I think I saw 8 deer that day before leaving the woods at 10:00am.the next saturday I hunted public land in Cameron county and once again had to pass up a small but legal buck.I saw a group of 8 more doe but couldn't get a decent shot and thenstill hunted up on a bedded doe and killed her in her bed.As I was dragging her back to my truck,Isaw another doe that would have offered me an easy shot.once again,I was back to my truck with a deer by 11:00am and I saw 11 deer,including a legal buck.How is that bad?Any other hunter in the state has the same right to hunt these areas as I do.I still have days when I get skunked like I always have but my opportunities toaday are better than they've ever been.

blkpowder

Pa. hunting? Well I will first start with Turkey, even though we have been getting late cold spells along with cold rains at the wrong time as for the turkey hatches the past few years,I'll still rate it good. Comparing what we have today in the southwest region back to when I first started turkey hunting 25 yrs. ago. Squirrel hunting,excellent. Grouse,poor to fair. But this mostly due to how the habitat changed due to when we had higher deer numbers. Since bringing the deer numbers down,grouse and woodcock have been rebounding in some spots. Water Fowl, good to excellent. Deer, Good.Lower numbers,better quality. Some spots could hold a few more deer,some could use more thinned out. Pheasants and Rabbits. Compared to what I had to hunt over when I first started in the late 60's, I rate it poor. My family's farms had so many wild Ringnecks.it was heaven. The area of our farms even made publication in Outdoor Life back in the early 70's as for best spots in the East for Pheasants. But again, it was loss of Habitat that did in the Wild Pheasants. My grandfather and Uncles would always leave some standing corn for the birds. We had 3 to 5 acre Blackberry plots scattered all over to produce for pies and jams, that gave Pheasants excellent winter cover. Grown up hedge rows. Never took the first cut of hay until mid June. All of this has changed because of the demands on the farmers nowadays. But overall, I would still rate Pa. GOOD to Very GOOD for hunting.[/align]

Cornelius08

"It's called hunting not killing. If a guarantee is what you require, there are plenty of high fence operations for big game and plenty of preserves for small game. You don't even have to buy a license. "

It also called "hunting" not killing in other states. Yet theirs in most cases is much better. I know in some cases and to some extent there are uncontrollable reasons, but I also know there are a helluva lot that CAN be controlled which arent. I see zero reason why should we expect so muchless??? Cut the pgc to audubon/ecofools umbilical cord, have pgc make hunting a priority, and good things will follow. Till then...Not so much.[:'(]