White-tailed deer firearms season opens Monday
About half a million hunters expected to be in the woods tomorrow for the most anticipated day of hunting in Pennsylvania.
Monday is the first day of the 12-day, statewide firearms white-tailed deer season and Pennsylvania Game Commission officers say the deer population is healthy.
Most of the archery hunters that Wildlife Conservation Officer Andrew Harvey encountered reported seeing deer every time they were in their stands despite the warm weather during the archery season.
Some archers told him they chose not to shoot smaller bucks they saw in hopes of seeing a larger one, but a few archers reported not seeing many deer, said Harvey, who patrols Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
He said he has seen a good population of deer this year.
“I’ve personally seen very good numbers of deer — a large population. Most hunters are seeing a lot. Some say they’re not seeing very many,” Harvey said. “I’ve seen a couple nice ones around (game lands) 51.”
A big buck was found dead near game lands 51 in Dunbar Township appeared to have had a rough and tumble time before it died during the archery season.
“I found one extremely large buck,” Harvey said. “It was injured by a bow and hit by a car. It was a large 10-point — heavy rack, tall, heavy body.”
An infected arrow wound was the likely cause of death, but the deer also had a broken leg it probably suffered in a vehicle accident and was blind in one eye from an injury it probably suffered fighting with another buck, he said.
Acorns, which are a primary food source for deer, are abundant in some areas and scarce in others, he said. Hunters should focus their attention on areas with acorns and other food sources such as unharvested crops, he said.
The deer population in WCO Shawn Barron’s district in Fayette and Somerset counties is the highest he has seen in his four years on the job, he said.
“We’re definitely swinging back from where we were 10-15 years ago when we began the deer reduction program,” Barron said.
He said he saw some bucks of “substantial” size harvested during the archery season and he sees them while patrolling.
Charges were filed against some archers for hunting with bait after they killed large bucks, Barron said.
The acorn crop is the largest he said he has ever seen and hunters should try to locate areas where deer are feeding.
In most of the state’s wildlife management units including 2C, which includes the western half of Fayette County, hunters can only shoot bucks from Monday through Friday. On Saturday and from Dec. 5-10, bucks and does are fair game. A general hunting license is needed to harvest a buck and a separate permit is required for does.
Last year, hunters in wildlife management unit 2C killed 9,100 bucks, 8,490 does including 1,190 does killed by hunters using Deer Management Assistance Program permits. Bow hunters accounted for 4,817 of those bucks and 3,130 of those doe.
The overall deer harvest in 2C increased from 16,029 in the 2014-15 season to 17,590 during the 2015-16 season.
Participation in the firearms deer season has been trending downward in recent years as the archery deer season has become more popular with hunters, and more deer are taken in the archery season, before the firearms deer season begins.
Archery license sales have increased annually since 2007. And in the 2015-16 seasons, deer harvested during archery seasons accounted for 31 percent of the overall deer harvest, according to the game commission.
However, 27 percent of the total deer harvest — and 47 percent of the buck harvest — occurred on opening day last season. The game commission said 59 percent of the bucks harvested in the 2015-16 seasons were 2½ years old or older – the highest percentage recorded in decades. In 2002, only 20 percent of the bucks harvested were 2½ years old or older.
About 550,000 hunters statewide are expected to be in the woods Monday.
The game commission increased the number of Deer Hunter Focus Areas on state game lands statewide this year.
These areas, which are posted with signs that identify them to hunters, have undergone recent timber harvests or other habitat projects, creating new forest growth that could be causing deer to concentrate there because young forest is an important deer food source.
An interactive map of Deer Hunter Focus Areas and a list of state game lands containing Deer Hunter Focus Areas is available at the Game Commission’s website.
All hunters are required to wear a minimum of 250 square inches of fluorescent orange material on their head, chest and back combined at all times. An orange hat and vest will satisfy the requirement.
Non-hunters who might be afield during the deer season and other hunting seasons should consider wearing orange as well for safety, the game commission said.