The good and bad !!!
Pennsylvania
The bad!!! Over the last 5 or 6 years here in my area I have seen a very big drop in the number of hunters.. I'm guessing over 60%.. Now Saturday I didn't get out, I've been so busy I had no stands up. So I worked Saturday early morning and then went for a ride (9:30) to my local game lands, as it's only a few minutes away. Just to see how many car where there. To my surprise there was zero, none.. It was not because it not a good gamelands. It's a good GL. I don't do much hunting on it, mostly in the late season with some friends, making drive with the muzzle loaders.. It's got good habitat all around. Funny, I've hiked it, just to go for walks than I have hunted it. Also on my ride I didn't see one guy driving in car or parked anywhere else that would of looked like they were hunting.
So that afternoon I got out put 3 stands up, but not on that G-L I talked about above.. I got done about a hour before dark.. So I went for another ride up to that same G-L's ,,, one car was parked at it. Last years first Saturday of late season me a some friends got together to make drives. We saw no other hunters. This is just not a issue on G-L's I just don't see anyone hunting anymore, be it with gun or bows. Is it like this in other area's?????
Now the good if you can call it good.. Maybe I'm being selfish here, is that I'm seeing lot's of deer.. I know some don't like spot lighting but the number of deer I'm seeing is alot and the size of the deer are the best I'm ever seen for my area. I remember when I would see a 130 plus deer every few years.. Now I see 5 or 6 130 deer a year and got pic's sent to me this year of a few local deer that top 150. One of them 150's I just found out about and where he is last night, so I'm going to see if I can see it spot lighting this week..
Bear number's are way up in my part also.. Now I didn't see as many bear this summer as last, for I think 2 reasons.. First I didn't get out much to the areas I saw them in last year and second the area's soft & hard and berries crops, with I guess all the rain is just great. Ed
Same thing here. I was out hunting mushrooms and saw very few folks hunting. It's early yet though. LOTS of deer sign... relatively speaking.
No sense hunting anymore with all the yuppie folks out there looking for mushrooms and scaring all the deer away.
So Rc, that one car I saw was probably just a yuppie pick mushrooms to smoke.
Jeff I've lived by this G-L's for 23 years. I would drive by if back 10-15 years ago and on opening day of archery I would see 3 or 4 cars at each parking area. It does get busier for small game opener. But with the new pheasant stamp I hear that there's a 80% drop off of small game hunters. That I was told by my local WCO this summer when I was trying to get them to come get rid of the Beavers at my pond. So I may take a drive to it on open day of pheasant season. This place is stocked early for the kids pheasant season and then again for the adult pheasant season. But most of the pheasant hunting is done on one section of the game lands, pretty much one road and just off the road. It's an old Township Road that's not maintained gets very little traffic.
So Rc, that one car I saw was probably just a yuppie pick mushrooms to smoke.
Ya he prolly got all smoked up and lost his spotlight last night and was looken for it:)
Ed, same thing here. Participation has waned the last decade or so compared to when I used to hunt rabbits and pheasants with a shotgun, but they still go, just in smaller numbers. I have purposely stayed away from the game lands during those 'busy times', but this year I'll try to at least cruse through there. It's less than a mile away. I can tell you this... I used to see quite a few pheasants, male and female, throughout the year on the game lands in my misadventures... but so far this year... I haven't seen a single one.
How in the world can you say that people were just using kids as an excuse to get Sunday hunting? Yes, there will be a lot of adult the benefit from the time to be able to hunt on Sundays but if you’re saying that there aren’t a lot of kids that would not benefit tremendously from that opportunity, then you ARE just plain wrong. Just because you see kids playing sports on Sundays down the road from your house does not mean that that’s what every kid is doing. And just as huntinelk asked in the Sunday thread a week ago before his post got zapped, How many kids would it take to benefit from that for you to say that you think it’s a good thing? What is that number? 1, 10, 100?
BTW, Artist formally known as stick n string here…
Phil, please private message me…
Welcome back, stick....Justin....Jibber!! :-). Please behave now....we like having you around!! Lol!
Justin, I can’t start a PM. I can only respond to ones I receive.
Quote from Josh... Welcome back, stick....Justin....Jibber!! :-). Please behave now....we like having you around!!
Have you totally lost your mind?
LOL
Glad to see you’re back Justin! Just have to get used to the new handle now. ;-)
So phil, you cant click on my name an initiate a PM? I will start one with you, thays no problem. Sure seems silly that you can zap posts/threads but cant initiate a PM tho. Talk about the good and the bad.....
I thought Phil already had PMS?
Saw 1 bow hunter all year, kinda like hunting some public land all by my self every once in a while, hard to tell when you are working or not hunting that day if any one is there, but it's not like it use to be alot less hunters, just think in 15 years what it could be like, alot of kids are not taking up the sport.
