BarnesX.308

Saturday was PA opener and I was going to bow hunt public land in Montgomery County. When I got there I counted 38 cars[] between the two parking areas accessing a tract of about 100 acres. I decided to leave the bow in the truck and grab the shotgun. Guys were heading into the bush well before shooting hours started and the shooting began when I felt it was still too dark to see. At one point I counted 13 hunters and several dogs in one field at the same time. I managed to get one pheasant depite the crowds and my having no dog. I guess I got lucky. It sure was different than hunting the big woods up north. I can' t wait to see what that place looks like on opening day of buck season.

PABowhntr

Probably worse if you can believe that.... That bit of public land sounds like where I hunt in Lehigh County....absolutely loaded with small game hunters.

JeramyK

I skipped the opener this year. Actually my wife' s baby shower made me skip it. I really want to do some pheasant hunting this season though.

BarnesX.308

I got rained on a few times by pellets. I was thinking - " I' m glad they' re #6 shot and not slugs. I would think that there would be a lot less shooting but who knows. I was wondering if a lot of hunters head north or to private property for the gun opener. The fact that this area was stocked with pheasants might have drawn quite a crowd. I got to see someone shoot a pheasant on the ground at about 50 yards, crippling it, on a baseball field in front of about 20 people. Everyone was in the parking area when a pheasant was walking across a baseball field (park). This guy grabs his shotgun, runs out a few yards and pops the bird. It then starts trying to fly away as he' s chasing it down trying to catch it. I was disgusted. I' m not sure what the safety zone rule for the baseball field but it was an ethically questionable act at best.

PAbearman

I personally have a problem with the way people hunt these stocked birds. A few years back we happened to be on a game lands in York county when the stocking truck backed into the field. We walked up and let the dogs watch and talked to the guys, as soon as the first bird took flight, guys were coming out the the woodwork, and then the pellets started flying, hell they peppered the stocking truck 3 times, one guy actually was out in the open, shooting towards us at birds were let loose. Game commission guy just stood there and shook his head. We snuck up on that guy, while he was searching for a wounded bird and reemed him a new one. Then 2 weeks later my buddy was at the smae game lands, his lab put up a bird, someone on the other side of the fencerow shot the bird, being a good dog it went to retrieve the bird and the other guy shot and killed the dog, for trying the pick up the bird, then he and his friends just walked off.

I' d walk to South Dakota before hunting the game lands for stocked birds again.

JeramyK

That' s just sick ! [:@] I can' t believe someone would shoot a dog like that. I' d have gone after the person to get his tag # or license plate #.

BarnesX.308

It reminded me of opening day of trout. Guys who only fish one day a year will fight over a spot near the stream. Some guys will even try to foul hook the palominos. All for an 8 inch fish that looks just like the other 1000 that they put in the day before. I fished a lake on the day that the stocking truck was coming. Nobody was even fishing prior to the truck arriving. What a joke. It' s not hunting or fishing, it' s more like shopping.

White Oak Lodge

PABowhntr

A perfect comparison in my opinion.

Now, don' t get me wrong as I enjoy pheasant hunting as much as the next guy but does anyone see a problem with expanding a season for an animal that we have to stock in order to hunt as opposed to not expanding a season for an animal that is largely overpopulated through a good portion of the state??

A.K.A eastwood

you have got to be kidding me? i would have broke that mother %$#@&%@ neck. shot and killed someones pet over a damn bird? i swear to god, if i had witnessed that, that person would have dissapeard.

Grizzlybear

PABearman- Jeez! If I saw somebody do that, you can be guaran-dam-teed that I wouldn' t stop at taking a tag number.

I made the same " mistake" this weekend as well. I took my girlfriend out to some gamelands outside Harrisburg, and saw the parking area filled and the field dotted with orange. We just kept driving. Ended up back at her family' s land to hunt squirrels in peace. I absolutely love bird hunting, but will not endure crowds like that. There really needs to be an aptitude test for hunting licenses.