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Thread: 2017-2018 season success

  1. #11
    Senior Member mrbb's Avatar
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    congrats to you Nomad
    nice buck!

    haven't seen many hunters in pa this yr with any luck, seems many guys just ain't putting much effort in around me, all complain about low deer numbers and not wishing to waste time sitting in the woods, rather do other things
    Hunting traditions in PA I think are really dropping, as to just a few yrs back sadly!

  2. #12
    Senior Member zachc's Avatar
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    Congrats nomad! That's a good buck.

    I think I've seen the same as you as far as the rut goes. I spent a fair amount of time in the stand the first 2 weeks of November and didn't see much of any movement and the trail camera's haven't even been that active. Have some deer on them but nothing different from any other time of the season really. Talked to my brother and buddy a few days ago and same with them, no one is really seeing to many deer around here in daylight. I'm really glad I filled my buck tag before the Orange army hits in a couple weeks. Now it's time to try for a couple slick heads....
    I live life at full draw....

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by zachc View Post
    Congrats nomad! That's a good buck.

    I think I've seen the same as you as far as the rut goes. I spent a fair amount of time in the stand the first 2 weeks of November and didn't see much of any movement and the trail camera's haven't even been that active. Have some deer on them but nothing different from any other time of the season really. Talked to my brother and buddy a few days ago and same with them, no one is really seeing to many deer around here in daylight. I'm really glad I filled my buck tag before the Orange army hits in a couple weeks. Now it's time to try for a couple slick heads....
    zach - I'm not done. Have 6 days of rifle doe season scheduled off work to maybe put another one or two in the freezer. OK two will be a stretch and really tough to do. But I will try anyway.
    “I don't partake in assembly-line convenience. I don't say that killing things is bad while I hire people to kill things for me.” ~ Ted Nugent

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by mrbb View Post
    congrats to you Nomad
    nice buck!

    haven't seen many hunters in pa this yr with any luck, seems many guys just ain't putting much effort in around me, all complain about low deer numbers and not wishing to waste time sitting in the woods, rather do other things
    Hunting traditions in PA I think are really dropping, as to just a few yrs back sadly!
    Stan, we saw about the same number of hunters as usual which wasn't much considering the amount of woods available up at camp. What was mind boggling was the fact that no one was hunting any of the leased timber company land. No one was hunting any of it. Must be opening day only guys I guess. Now that we went back to split seasons in 99% of the state, this is the first season I have had to sit out the opening week of the season. Thats a great problem to have. As for the low deer numbers in the mountains.... I dont know that its as bad as everyone is saying. I didn't see many deer but the sign tells me there is deer, they just weren't moving. I looked in some new woods and saw the best sign I have seen up there in 15 years. So they deer are slowly coming back in the northern tier. Hunting just isn't as easy as it was 20 years ago.
    “I don't partake in assembly-line convenience. I don't say that killing things is bad while I hire people to kill things for me.” ~ Ted Nugent

  5. #15
    Senior Member mrbb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by nomad_archer View Post
    Stan, we saw about the same number of hunters as usual which wasn't much considering the amount of woods available up at camp. What was mind boggling was the fact that no one was hunting any of the leased timber company land. No one was hunting any of it. Must be opening day only guys I guess. Now that we went back to split seasons in 99% of the state, this is the first season I have had to sit out the opening week of the season. Thats a great problem to have. As for the low deer numbers in the mountains.... I dont know that its as bad as everyone is saying. I didn't see many deer but the sign tells me there is deer, they just weren't moving. I looked in some new woods and saw the best sign I have seen up there in 15 years. So they deer are slowly coming back in the northern tier. Hunting just isn't as easy as it was 20 years ago.
    I am sure some deer numbers are bouncing back due to lower hunter numbers if nothing else, but the big issue that will still remain is poor food quality in the big woods, there just is way too much mature timber that prevent new growth, which is what feed the numbers of deer we had back in the 70-80's, even into 90's, then things got stagnant, and quality food slipped and well, a deer needs to eat good food yr round, and being browsers by nature, lack of good browse(young growth), tends to prevent a lot of numbers of deer and will till forest get timbered more and new food become abundant in more places IMO

    there will always be some that live there, but will never get back what we once had in numbers due to just lack of food, add in we lost well over 60% of farms in the past 20 yrs in PA, you start to see a LOT of food gone deer once had to live on!

    the biggest saver IMO is actually lower hunter numbers , its helping numbers climb, but holding point will always be back to food, too many deer will again over eat what food they have and prevent forest from ever recovering!
    dam state needs to timber more, more controlled fires too!
    just sitting on massive amounts of land, doesn';t save wildlife! its destroying habitat not saving it, letting it over mature and then get over browsed, bad and bad management which IS and has been the biggest issue in PA! IMO!
    they seem to just think things will fix them self, then take WAY too long to react when they finally see things going wrong, the past record of there misses are massive, from pheasant to deer to forest damage!

  6. #16
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    There is a reason I dont hunt the ANF which is out our back door at camp. Its like central park. wide open. The places I do hunt have been timbered, have had selective cuts in the last 10 years or my favorite spot is timber company land and they have been doing clear cuts and selective cuts all around where I hunt. I could hear the saws running and tree's falling when I shot my buck. That coupled with lower hunter pressure has resulted in mores sign and more deer even if I didnt see them. The state forests, national forests could go for some timber cutting. It would do the deer heard and other wild life wonders. The latest decline is in the grouse populations. The state bird is taking a beating.
    “I don't partake in assembly-line convenience. I don't say that killing things is bad while I hire people to kill things for me.” ~ Ted Nugent

  7. #17
    Senior Member mrbb's Avatar
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    HAHA< grouse, used ot have hundreds of them in my back yard and beyond, nothing to flush 25-50 an hour back in the 80-90's, NOW if I even see one its rare, I'd be scared to shoot it too, or at least feel bad,
    as it might be the last one left here , and wouldn;'t want to be the one that killed it
    LOL
    lands here are mostlyu gun club lands and they do a lot of food plots(about a 150 acres on 2,000 acres of the one's clubs land)
    but that doesn;t do crap for grouse
    timbering and well, FIRE is whats needed on grouse habitat IMO< and that would again benefit ALL wildlife, accept Maybe coyotes, think lands make hunting harder on them IMO
    all this open land we have now and smaller patches of woods in more rural area'
    s just makes easier picking for them on game and what not's

    forest fires when I was kid , were an every summer like deal, thousands of acres would burn up every summer, leaving behind lots of potash and that grew many things, from blue berry's to new growth , it just make things grow
    NOW a days, a fire even starts to spark and its a race of Blue light trucks and cars to go put it out before it burns a few sq feet!
    its a tool mother nature had, that we don't use any more, and its NOT helping wildlife or our forested lands at all IMO

    too many folks scared of law suits to do controled burns, including the sate game dept!
    one of there tools they used for yrs and yrs, and NOW< like so many other game animals, its missing in how often you seen it happen!

  8. #18
    Senior Member zachc's Avatar
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    Not a bow harvest but I was able to put some doe meat in the freezer Monday morning. Had 3 does and a button buck roll though at 8:00.
    I live life at full draw....

  9. #19
    Senior Member mrbb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zachc View Post
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    Not a bow harvest but I was able to put some doe meat in the freezer Monday morning. Had 3 does and a button buck roll though at 8:00.
    well congrats to you, still a kill for the season!

    and its been very quiet up here , very little shooting for a PA gun season going on?
    and very few hunters been driving past my place(big gun club down the road from me<
    sure seems like hunter numbers are dropping, or in my area for sure

  10. #20
    Senior Member zachc's Avatar
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    Mrbb it's been quiet here also this season. I talk to a lot of guys who bow and gun hunt and not a lot of action this year so far. No one I talk to has shot a buck yet and only a few guys have taken does, deer movement seems to be pretty slow this year for some reason ?? Not sure what's going on?
    I live life at full draw....

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