Hunted two different areas; one was the state park where I harvested the doe in early mizzleloader season and state game land 211. Heard a lot of shooting,saw lots of squirrells but no deer. Our party of three saw only one yearling and im glad my buddy let him go by.

I still have my own thoughts about the deer population even though I got a deer a doe (or an anterless deer as the PGC calls them) this year already. ( You can do alot of thought processing while sitting in your tree stand for 12 hours ) I do see the forrest floor growing with green life, the acorn mass was plentifull, the squirrells, and turkey also were abound.
Now the doubting part of me is coming out. I dont see the darktrails and paths that the deer use to make in the woods, all of there paths and tracks are lightly in-dented into the soil, the leaves give clues that deer were there if you look closely.

Do we have to go back to the 50's and 60 tactics and put on drives?? Is the early muzzleloader season educating the deer to move at night and bed during the day earler than what they would normally? Or is it a numbers $$$$ game with the counties when it comes to allocating doe licenses??

If a county issued 2000 AL tags $6.00 each = $12000 for the county. If 1800 were returned to the PGC Why can't they allot only 1800 for next year and have the county loose that revenue.
Why in other states you are allowed 6 deer starting with a mandatory doe tag kill a doe then shoot a buck. These states can give you accurate stats of the number of deer in the woods, how many have been killed and which counties need adjustments in allocating more or less tags.

Why can't the PGC get this same system, it cant be hard, we do have educated men and women in the PGC that could go to other states and learn the system and adopt it to our state. We really should start asking ourselves are we killing the remains of the deer in Pa.

Please these are my thoughts, I will be writing a letter to my reps regarding our deer count; yes I do have another doe tag and back tag for buck that I hope to fill matbe next year I may change my mind.

This is just my opinon, I am not looking to start an argument, or ruffle the feathers of our friends on this board;

I have always thought that we need to give this current plan 10 years before we need to decide if it is the way to go.  We are in the 6th year I believe.  I am willing to give it a few more.

Overall hunter satisfaction is low.  There is alot of infighting among us sportsmen.  The PGC is lacking funds.  Hunter numbers are slowly decling.  All bad news for the short term I believe.

I would like the PGC to lower allocations slightly but raise the price to $10 a tag and keep AR's in place.  

Also, Pa has too large of a harvest to have check stations.  No manpower or resources to staff them. The lines would be huge.

With the PGC moving to a POS system it would be easy to require all license buyers to submit a harvest report either via the internet or toll free phone for every tag that is issued.  Successful or not, before another years license is issued.  The technology is there that when you apply for a license using the POS system, it would deny access until the survey is submitted.

Just my thoughts..

I like your idea of submitting your used or un-used tag before you can apply for a new hunting license.

That would eliminate the need for check stations. This also could get a better handle on buck to doe harvests in all WMUS and maybe even make the PGC have a better summary report for the publicand the sports man and woman.

Technology is a wonderful thing.  The PGC should use it.

A simple 10 question survey via the internet or phone with your back tag # as the user ID, successful or not.  

You would have from Febuary till July to complete them before you apply for your license via POS. If you do not do the survey you would be denied access until the survey is completed. Someone with just a little computer savey could set that up easily.

With the move to technology it would be a shame if the PGC does not take advantage of it in many ways.  

Dpms:  I think you are right on the money when you say we should wait ten years before evaluating the deer situation.  

I was able to tag a doe Sat morning across from my camp on gl#54.  I saw 3-4 deer earlier in the morning that were pushed out by two hunters coming from the road.  The doe I shot was the lead doe.  It was with at least 4 other dear.  I had to shoot when it started to spook and go the other way, but there were quite a few other tail after I shot.    dd

agree ... hunter morale lower than even when alt was running the show. many too tired of rhetoic to ague anymore... most giving up.

Many shooting first deer that comes along. problem with this is that it continues to reduce the population. We have not yet bottomed out ...

Just hope things turn around as my boy is just 8. I have only 4 more years before the impact is irreversible.