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Posted: 8/16/2020 9:48:47 PM EDT
So in my area, WMU 2D, just from what I see around here, deer populations seem way up, hunter numbers seem way down, but it doesn't seem like the PGC data reflects that. PGC shows license sales down, though not nearly as much as I would expect. Harvest numbers don't appear down though.

I remember years ago, driving up this one state road the first Monday or either Saturday of deer firearms season, it would be a solid line of trucks the whole way, orange hats in every one of them. These days, driving up that same road, same times, it's like we have the whole thing to ourselves.

I'm seeing more deer than ever before. I'm dodging more deer on the roads than ever before. Frankly it feels like they need thinned out.

What's your view of things where you're at?
Link Posted: 8/17/2020 11:39:30 PM EDT
[#1]
Here in northern Lancaster County I am seeing more deer than usual. Haven't been to my cabin in Huntingdon but I am going this weekend.
Link Posted: 8/19/2020 2:11:36 PM EDT
[#2]
[double tap]
Link Posted: 8/19/2020 2:13:08 PM EDT
[#3]
Around home in 5C, population is booming... Unfortunately, access is becoming scarcer each year. If you don't have your own property large enough to hunt your back yard, or know someone who does, you're basically SOL.
The few gamelands are so overcrowded during the season, the deer all slip off and hole up on the surrounding posted parcels.

Now up at the 3C camp, the population is also quite healthy, steady increase I'd say, despite my groups increasing harvests... Plenty of land, food plots, and neighboring AG properties have given us permission going back 3 generations.
Hunter numbers are way down there as well. Good from the lower competition angle, but it's reaching a point where we can't get enough tags or eat enough venison to keep things in check.
If they don't make 3c concurrent and up the tag limit, we're going to start seeing more damage and browsing than the area can handle without a population crash.
Link Posted: 8/19/2020 11:48:36 PM EDT
[#4]
I'm less than 10 miles outside of Philly in Delco and there are deer everywhere here. Even in very suburban area with close houses we see deer often, much more than when I was growing up. Lot of people around here feed them which doesn't help.

Around these parts with all the liberals, hunters are generally seen as evil bambi killing monsters. Over population got so bad that some parks like Valley Forge had pros come in at night with suppressors and culled a bunch.

From the article, the program brought the density down to "31 to 35 deer per square mile, in contrast to the 2009 density of 241 deer per square mile".
Link Posted: 8/20/2020 8:43:32 AM EDT
[#5]
I live in NE Philly near Pennypack Park. 20 years ago the deer were so numerous they were destroying the park. For two consecutive years the city hired pro hunters to cull the herd. The first year they took 100 deer, the second year 125. They were butchered and the meat was donated to Philabundance.

Driving near the park prior to the first hunt these libtards were out protesting, blocking traffic. The lead libtard approached my car since I was blowing my horn for them to get the fuck out of the way. She had a clipboard, and asked me to sign her petition to stop the hunt. I told her I would not sign it. I told her we created the problem by removing their natural predators. She asked "Well their is contraception..." I told her you cannot regulate nature that way. She asked what I would do to solve the problem. I told her to introduce wolves and mountain lions to the park. They would quickly bring the deer population down to were it should be. She went all apoplectic on me, sputtering about the children, blah, blah, blah. Needless to say the hunts went on.
Link Posted: 8/20/2020 8:50:05 AM EDT
[#6]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
I'm less than 10 miles outside of Philly in Delco and there are deer everywhere here. Even in very suburban area with close houses we see deer often, much more than when I was growing up. Lot of people around here feed them which doesn't help.

Around these parts with all the liberals, hunters are generally seen as evil bambi killing monsters. Over population got so bad that some parks like Valley Forge had pros come in at night with suppressors and culled a bunch.

From the article, the program brought the density down to "31 to 35 deer per square mile, in contrast to the 2009 density of 241 deer per square mile".
View Quote


When they introduced wolves to Yellowstone park it completely transformed the ecology of the park. Trees grew near rivers where they hadn't in decades, more bees since there were more flowers. One simple act brought the deer under control and nature filled in the rest.
Link Posted: 8/21/2020 10:28:24 AM EDT
[#7]
Berks county.

Biggest issue around here are lack of places to hunt. Game lands get mobbed and the deer flee.

Father in law has enough land to hunt on, and is approached all the time by relatives, friends, and others asking to hunt.
Link Posted: 8/21/2020 9:51:47 PM EDT
[#8]
Chester County.  Insane growth in the herd.  Lots of big bucks... biggest buck I have seen in real life was in my backyard 2 years ago.  Private property does a lot to prevent hunting from having a big impact.  I quit deer hunting more than a decade ago.
Link Posted: 8/21/2020 10:00:44 PM EDT
[#9]
I've never doe hunted before. I've been half considering starting just to help thin things out a little around here.
Link Posted: 8/21/2020 10:41:17 PM EDT
[#10]
I shot as many doe as I have tags for in 5D and 5C.
Link Posted: 8/25/2020 2:38:08 AM EDT
[#11]
I hunt in 2E. Last year I saw very few hunters out on the first day during my drive to that area from Altoona. I usually see all kinds of vehicles parked along Route 36 and travelling between my house and the farm where I hunt. Very few seemed to be out. Because of weather I did not get out much last year, compared to the prior year. Deer are all over the place though. I snagged two doe tags for that WMU.
Link Posted: 8/25/2020 7:34:58 AM EDT
[#12]
I normally hunt in 2A on SGL.  I would regularly get decent deer on trail cams, but would rarely see any during the season.
Link Posted: 8/25/2020 5:49:03 PM EDT
[#13]
I hunt in Wayne county....Deer are everywhere here.
Link Posted: 8/25/2020 10:35:42 PM EDT
[#14]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
I hunt in Wayne county....Deer are everywhere here.
View Quote


Yup. We were shocked 3C wasn't one of the WMU's to go concurrent for Rifle season.
Raising tag allocations each year isn't cutting it. Way too many deer and too few hunters in the parts I hunt.
Way too much crop damage too.
Link Posted: 8/27/2020 3:42:39 PM EDT
[#15]
Northern westmoreland county - a section near beaver run - not many deer this year. Pretty much extreme south western edge of 2D


I don’t feed them as much/regularly as I used to
But not seen many does and not as many with fawns
One with twins.  Most just one.   Previous several years was always one or two local does with triplets
Had some die off over last couple years from blue toungue.

I did see one decent looking buck a week or two ago eating corn I threw on the driveway.   But he ran off before I could get a picture of him.  

Maybe as it cools off, more does will group together
And then get a better idea of what the local population is.   For the most part I don’t think the roam too far.   Generally enough food for them
Link Posted: 8/29/2020 12:39:38 PM EDT
[#16]
2F on SGL for the past 23ish years.  Nowhere near as many guys in the woods anymore.   Also not seeing as many deer as 15+ years ago, but the bucks getting killed are HUGE compared to back then too.  

Definitely seeing much more natural deer movement and not just deer running around like maniacs because they are getting shot at wherever they go.  I watched a buck checking does on the second day of gun season last year.  I can't ever remember seeing that during gun season.
Link Posted: 8/29/2020 6:41:50 PM EDT
[#17]
Just after I say no triplets this year, out comes a doe with three fawns
Now they might not all be hers but no other doe came out

Attachment Attached File



A few years ago there was a big doe that had been around a few years.  I think she had had triplets a couple times.   She was either just old and worn out later that summer, or she was sick.   She almost died in the yard , right by the back porch/deck. But She got up when I came out and she tried to run away.  She fell or slid on the driveway and scraped up he legs on the asphalt. She went over the hill and may have died in a neighbors yard, or they had the game commision come out to put her out of her misery.  
She and a couple others back then weren’t quite tame, but they would stand maybe ten feet away while I would throw some corn on the ground for them.
After she died, maybe it was one of her offspring from the previous year seemed to take in the three fawns.  They were used to eating corn already so they weren’t going to starve.
Link Posted: 9/6/2020 11:44:55 AM EDT
[#18]
I hunt 2B.  Same number of hunters as the last  20 years.  Same number of deer  (Tons) IMHO.
  Usually there are 30,000 unsold doe tags.
Link Posted: 9/11/2020 11:06:42 AM EDT
[#19]
I'm south of OP, hunt in 2C, we are infested with deer down here.  Especially Three Mile hill area, and down by Dunbar, those are local to me.  There are some nice bucks running on either side of TP on Three Mile Hill.  The side I hunt on is all private land. Got two doe tags for 2C already.
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