Deer season a bust hurting local economy

[Pabooger]

Well There is a big article in the Bradford Era today about how the lack of deer has hurt the local economy. All of the local gunshops are reporting sales are way down this year. Many of the motels and places of lodging are really hurting, many hunters who normaly spend the whole week here hunting went home early because there are hardly any deer! Bars and restaurants looking forward to these two weeks to boost there profits are reporting dismal sales. Many camps are going up for sale, with disappointed hunters complaining about the failure of the game commissions and Mr. Alts deer management plan.
A local gun shop owner says that he can't believe the number of complaints from hunters not seeing deer! Many out of State hunters have made the comment that they are no longer coming back to Pa. to hunt!

Heres some comments from Jim Slinsky Outdoor writer. From all indications the buck season has been a dismal failure.Stories of low deer sighting are prominant throughout the state. Butcher shops are reporting a 50 to 75 percent reduction in incoming carcasses this year.Mr Slinsky states that we have all long realized that Dr Gary Alts plan was never about improving the deer herd, it was always about deer reduction!
Here are his predictions of the future, after the complete bust of deer season hunters will pressure legislators to close doe season next year. The Pgc will not willingly do this and will continue to claim we have a deer epidemic. Hearings willbe held, the weather will be blamed. Even if the PGC comprimises and dramatically cuts doe licenses there will be the loss of Millions of dollars for the PGC. With all this unfolding the PGC will try to slip a license increase thru legislation to bail it's self out!
At the PGC's weakest moment merger talks will resurface, to join the PGC with the DCNR. Actually, our commisioners have been the larger dismal failure for allowing this scenario to arrive at this point. We need to now involve our legislators to get politics out of Penna deer management.

Jim Slinsky is the host and producer of the sportsmans connection a nationally syndicated, Outdoor talk radio program.

[sluggermn]

I dont think it is just penna. that is having this problem. here in mn the numbers of tagged deer are way down and the D.N.R. is entertaining the idea of opening a bonus season to get the #'s up where they should be.
our dismal season was due to the weather. warmer than usual, too much moisture, the cpr where we hunt was almost all under water and few of the farmers could get at the fields to harvest the corn, or any other crop for that matter.
pa did mr alt succeed in dropping the actual herd #'s so there are less deer to hunt or what is going on that is making it hard to even see deer?

[josh]

Well when you have nazi stormtroopers for game wardens it turns off a lot of people.
I have heard the same complaints here in clarion county but I still have deer in every field between my house and work at night and in my yard. In my opinion the weather had a lot to do with this yeasrs season sucking. hard to see a brown deer in a dead brown grass and mud landscape. beside that there wasnt anyone moving them around here.
But back to the game wardens 1 by the last name of bimber is writing people up for the slightest thing. Drop an empty shell casing in the woods it is littering.
When we had a district justice with some common sense and some balls he threw out an amazing amount of officer bimbers cases.

[sluggermn]

I know what you mean Josh my father in law has a game warden that hunts on the neighbors property that has been caught red handed trespassing the week before opener on his land, scareing the deer across the river to his hunting area. he (the game warden) also was caught shooting beaver on my fil's land and then leaving the carcasses (3 of them) there to rot in the water!! the crooked bas@%&*.
my F.I.L. has threatened to have him arrested if he is caught near his property again, and the whole county knows it!!
its a sad state of affairs when the "law" dosn't even follow the rules

[IShootBack]

We got the opposite problem down here. Far too many deer overpopulate and do not leave enough food for good growth. We have runt deer. A real big one is 130 pounds. Average at our hunt club this year is around 94 pounds. As big as my dog.....

The nit-wits at my club refuse to shoot does. But will shoot anything withhorns. the State Game biologist asked us to harvest 2 to 1 (doe-to-bucks) to imrove our herd. The nit-wits refuse.

[TrinityScrimshaw]

So where are all the large QDM racks we have been told are going to be harvested in PA?

I am afraid NY State will soon try and go the route PA went with their restrictions on buck harvest. I for one am not a trophy hunter, and I could care less how large a rack the deer sports on top of his head. All my family wants is a little venison to munch on during the winter.

The deer kill in NY's Southern Tier where I hunt has been down for the past several years also. But, it seems like there is as much of problem with fewer hunters than there is with fewer deer.

It is our numbers that are drastically declining, and have been for several years now. Ask any insurance company and they will tell you that the rates of car deer accidents are going up, not down.

Trinity +++

[Gunpaq]

Big business runs the government and it is no difference with the PA Game Commission. The car insurance companies want the deer population to be dramatically decreased to reduce their losses in claims.

Same story in Sullivan/Bradford County, a low deer harvest and poor business for the local merchants who depend on the hunters dollars.