Old PA hunting-no more

Before covid I would hunt with some pretty big hunting parties. Mostly 10-30 guys, usually close to 20 guys.
That lasted for me 30 years, now I can't find guys to hunt. This year, the game commission is allowing modern rifles to be used after one week of flintlock. So flintlock and rifle combined. I don't think that will help flinters, but I don't know. Anyway it is now a different season. I'll probably hunt a tree stand for a couple cold hours, then walk that off for a couple hours before soup and a nap.
I think hunter license are down 50% from the heyday, And surprisingly there is less deer in many areas, especially the more isolated areas. I walk my lab everyday in the forest trails for an hour, and their are less deer tracks that is for sure.
I never thought it would change.

Deer will naturally gravitate into areas where hunting is not allowed, AND where there are tasty foods. All that spells "suburbs". Give a whitetail the choice between pine forest, vs. soybeans adjacent to a neighborhood with landscaping and parks, and they will move away from the hunting pressure and into the neighborhoods.

ADD to that 18-24 months of basically little to no human movement due to COVID, and voila, wild animal encroachment on human areas, not just deer but other stuff too. Heck the Spring of 2021 I was taking a short-cut through a residential neighborhood on the way to my station, and a hen turkey with 6 poults was walking between the houses.

In Maryland, just South of you, we had a large chunk of the state open only to shotgun, bow, and muzzleloader. Then the state got desperate, and decided to try to increase the harvest, so authorized modern rifles with "straight wall cartridges". The restriction in the past was due to worries about folks tossing a modern projectile "out of safe" from the public hunting lands into the neighborhoods. (Well the first "hole" in the armor was years ago allowing the "unmentionable" muzzleloaders with their modern projectiles. ) So you'd think that now meant "Pistol" cartridge rifles, but NO, any very high powered straight walled cartridge, so it's only a matter of time before somebody tosses a round into a building and causes a ruckus.

NOW they also opened up a "primitive only" season for sidelock rifles the first three days of February., so that was nice. Our "muzzleloader season" first opens early for 10 days in October, but that's a little early. The next ML season is the last two weeks of December, and BOTH ML seasons include them INfernal rifles that we do not discuss here. Quite frankly the first three days of the "gun season" should be primitive only (imho), followed by the lads with the modern stuff, and then followed by the "any muzzleloader" season, and then three more days of "primitive only". BUT nobody in Annapolis has asked me to correct the hunting laws down here yet <heavy sigh> .

LD

seems the deer are learning that they are safer near houses. here on long island we have tons of deer.the d.e.c. shortened the distance from 500 feet to 150 feet from houses for bow hunters for that reason . most of the large [ very large] bucks are taken right up close to houses. dont believe we have monster bucks?? google it up . youll be shocked

TerryK said:

Before covid I would hunt with some pretty big hunting parties. Mostly 10-30 guys, usually close to 20 guys.
That lasted for me 30 years, now I can't find guys to hunt. This year, the game commission is allowing modern rifles to be used after one week of flintlock. So flintlock and rifle combined. I don't think that will help flinters, but I don't know. Anyway it is now a different season. I'll probably hunt a tree stand for a couple cold hours, then walk that off for a couple hours before soup and a nap.
I think hunter license are down 50% from the heyday, And surprisingly there is less deer in many areas, especially the more isolated areas. I walk my lab everyday in the forest trails for an hour, and their are less deer tracks that is for sure.
I never thought it would change.

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I think the extended firearms season is only in WMU’s 2B, 5C, and 5D. It’s not statewide

@TerryK
Can you point me to the change in the primitive season, I have not heard this.
Thanks

Thanks Chuck Wagon, we wrote are the same time

A mature forest is a virtual desert for deer and many other animals. The leaves of the overstory harvest the bulk of the sunlight (plant food) leaving the floor relatively barren. If you want game leave the deep woods. Find areas where fire, weather, logging etc have created clearings. The younger, tender plants there are deer magnets.
When I was active in the Ruffed Grouse Society we would erect deer fence around plots we were planting for grouse and other small game.

When I lived in town I had a 8 point buck and his does clean my bird feeders every morning, and the guy acrost the street had the flower pots in front of his house ate up. seen more deer in town than I have out in the country where I live now. Always wanted to take one of my bows and shoot one but it most likely would run and die in a yard of a non hunter. A couple of years after I moved to the country they opened parts of the city to bow hunting.

Terry.........Somewhere around the early 1990's , the geniuses at the Pa. Blame Comm. decided to join a United Nation's program called , "Going Greener". The program was managed from Austria. To gain access to a UN consortium designed to sell only Going Greener timber products to market places world wide through the consortium , the Blame Comm. had to make a sacrifice to the UN program , ie , reduce the Pa. deer herd. Hunting in general has took a nose dive ever since , and also , massive clear cutting of timber in central and northern Pa. has resulted. The DCNR controlled state forests , and State Game Lands have been sacrificed due to clear cutting destruction , and will not come back to their former beauty in several lifetimes. Many older hunters have quit the ranks of the hunting public , and with them , their children , aren't learning how to hunt. The commie UN has won. What a waste of American heritage. Where did the money go???

PGC Seasons

Extended Regular Firearms Antlerless:
Doe only and center fire rifles are only allowed in 2B, 4A, 5A and parts of 5C and 5D. No center fire in Chester County and bow/crossbow only in Philadelphia County.

(WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D): Dec. 26-Jan. 25, 2025.

(WMUs 4A, 4D, and 5A): Jan. 2, 2025-Jan. 20, 2025.


Flintlock/late-archery

WMUs 1A, 1B, 2A, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G, 2H, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E, 5A and 5B with required muzzleloading license: Dec. 26-Jan. 20, 2025

(WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D) with required muzzleloading license: Dec. 26-Jan. 25, 2025.

oldwood said:

Terry.........Somewhere around the early 1990's , the geniuses at the Pa. Blame Comm. decided to join a United Nation's program called , "Going Greener". The program was managed from Austria. To gain access to a UN consortium designed to sell only Going Greener timber products to market places world wide through the consortium , the Blame Comm. had to make a sacrifice to the UN program , ie , reduce the Pa. deer herd. Hunting in general has took a nose dive ever since , and also , massive clear cutting of timber in central and northern Pa. has resulted. The DCNR controlled state forests , and State Game Lands have been sacrificed due to clear cutting destruction , and will not come back to their former beauty in several lifetimes. Many older hunters have quit the ranks of the hunting public , and with them , their children , aren't learning how to hunt. The commie UN has won. What a waste of American heritage. Where did the money go???

Click to expand...

OMG. Really? The fact I read that twice and my brain hurts from the absolute crazy in that, Example of the dumb-ing down of 'murica.

Thanks Ditt44 for the screenshot. I'm in 4D , so after the first week, rifles will be legal.

I saw some other inclusions, but I did not understand the area limitations. There was a section that discussed late season Dmap, but I don't know if the DMAP had to be in the WMUs listed above. Usually DMAP is a forest, and not really WMU boundaries. Maybe you can use DMAP in the WMUs listed, and that is my guess.

But for me, the world is 4D and 4A, so new rifle season here for does.

Hey I don't know, but game commission makes some limited season, like Sunday hunts, then it becomes standard.

When I was a pup, seasons were pretty set. Now it is hard to track all the exceptions.
Personally I am pretty respectful of tradition, but realistically I can't get anyone to hunt in a gang anyway. So tradition is gone.