Change Opening Day of Deer Season?

[ar15jules]

I log at least 30 days hunting deer a year. PA and NY archery and rifle. Add flintlock and muzzleloader in NY and it grows even higher. I dont care what day PA rifle starts. It would only eliminate a day I was normally in NY.

[Manxdriver]

You want to know what killed hunting in PA? Buy a license, and, oh you want a doe license? Well, how many would you l8ke? 9? A dozen? Well, shit yeah! Five bucks a piece and you can play ‘decimate the herd’!

You want people to hunt? You have to have deer available to be taken, on land available to the hunting public. Mismanaged herds, mismanaged game lands= fewer hunters.

[Bang]

How does one boycott current PA hunting, when the lifetime license was purchased 16 years ago?

Not sure about the herd being decimated. They may have just moved. To Levittown. (PA). Drive thru at prime times and you might get "lucky".

[Gunplummer]

Absolutely, Manxdriver. I used to live in Lehigh County near the Bucks County line. I had a power line behind the house and small woodlots scattered through the area with active and farms. The doe kill was high. Gun Clubs used to drive the farms. You are going to think I am B/Sing you, but it got to the point where there were way more bucks running around my area than does. I worked nights and could keep track of what was there. So much for balancing the herd. You can walk around in a fresh snow up here at Hickory Run and be lucky to cut two sets of tracks in a day.

Think about this: If almost nobody hunts the big wooded areas here for the last ten years, why are the deer not repopulating? These are areas that have old rubs on trees from 20 years ago. Now you see almost nothing.

[MSY06]

I hunt in Tioga Co. South of RT 6. I would like to keep it opening day on Monday. We enjoy hunting turkey on Friday and Saturday before we hunt deer on Monday. If any change I would like to see bear and deer hunting together the first day of deer. It's tough for working people to take off 2 weeks in a row.

[Boo Vuccla]

There sure hasn't been any shortage of deer around here in the last 5 years, I've hit at least one every fall. If anything they should move it to the Monday BEFORE Thanksgiving, the rut is damn near over by the time rifle season opens anymore.

Really?? Around Mill Hall??????? Really??????? Slow down near that private ground or corn field Mr. G! On public ground in the mountains where I hunt, (north and south of Mill Hall), the deer numbers are down for rifle season and have been down for over 10 years. I have deer in my development! I have deer behind the schools! I have deer in the cornfields but that is private ground and either off limits or in safety zones as they should be. Hunter numbers are down for various reasons including the liberalization of our children and the hectic life we need to live to make ends meet while fulfilling family obligations. The more the hunter numbers drop, the more the PGC will increase license allotments to make up the difference which continues to drive down the deer numbers in the Big Woods and public hunting spaces. A Saturday opening will increase the amount of hunters on opening day but won't really fix the issue. Kids don't traditionally hunt like they used to. Social media and some educators in the elementary and middle/senior schools bash guns equating violence they create and not the sports we all enjoyed afield with them. Then when you do get the kids involved, they can go a couple seasons without ever experiencing the heart pounding excitement of hearing an approaching deer, getting it in the sights/scope and distinguishing a buck from a doe, the body size and the points if applicable.
I don't need to kill anything when I go out. But I miss seeing deer. Two years in a row at my camp without seeing a tail. (Stand hunting and small drives). Why stay at camp when you have to drive to private ground to have a chance of seeing a deer with a rifle after youth hunts and the black-powder and archery hunters all had their turns for weeks. (Not knocking you guys! I just don't muzzle-load or archery hunt and don't have the time to do it "right").
It isn't the habitat either. I hunt in Oak and Beech woods with other mixed hardwoods and thick Laurel patches with water nearby. I see plenty of browse and seedlings left untouched. The mast crops have been there but the deer numbers are not there! These are the spaces the traditional herds occupied. Not anymore! And you wonder why the hunter numbers are disappearing! End of rant!

[Bang]

Without breaking it into paragraphs, it is a rant.

There may be another part to the story. I sense that today's youth are in make things happen now mode. They are not comfortable with patiently tolerating long periods of nothing happening. That applies to fishing, big game hunting, and marriage.

[God's Country]

It's about adapting. To be a successful hunter you need to be able to adapt and not be stuck in a familiar, traditional mindset. Hunting with semi's and starting firearm deer season on Saturday is all part of it. Every other season begins on a Saturday. It doesn't even have to be the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The season should start when it's appropriate, not moving it around all the time because Thanksgiving is early, or late. It actually messes with archery season, and all other hunting seasons. Not to mention that is it starts on Saturday maybe we can finally move away from the no Sunday hunting crap.

[unclejumbo]

Having hunted public and private land, the difference is amazing. Even back in the "glory days" of 200 doe for every buck, I spent many a full day in the Game Lands not seeing anything. In 2002 I bought my little slice of heaven here in Perry County. My first 3 or 4 years, I took a deer every year. It actually loses some of the appeal when it gets so easy. I actually haven't hunted since the PGC played games with semi-autos for big game. I toyed with idea of it this year. I have a nice 8 point running around and I don't think there's been a single day since summer I haven't seen deer on the property.

I like the idea of moving the opening day, as stated. But it may increase interest more to make sure the rifle hunters get some benefit of the rut.

[Gunowner99]

Not if favor. I go to my daughters for Thanksgiving, come home to Somerset on Saturday and drive to Clearfield County on Sunday for the Monday opener. With a Saturday opener, what do I do, leave right after dinner on Thanksgiving?


Dale

No, stay at your Daughters and hunt Monday but why can't I hunt with my son during rifle season? He heads off to school that Sunday so literally I have 0 chance to hunt rifle with him without the change. This whole debate makes no sense to me. Why does it bother so many people to have it that Saturday? If your Thanksgiving is so important to you then enjoy it but that shouldn't prevent me from enjoying a Saturday opener.

I guess I'll just wait for you all to digest before I can hunt.

That was not specifically directed at you but instead of the argument that so many present for not changing. Tradition, not spending time with family, etc. It's so nonsensical, no wonder why people don't hunt anymore. Frustrates me as you can tell.