Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
New twists, turns come Saturday as deer time begins
For Pennsylvania deer hunters, one long standing opening day tradition may have been tossed out the window but another is set to begin this Saturday and Sunday. For decades, opening day of the state’s firearms deer season took place on the Monday following Thanksgiving. Members of the state’s “orange army” would head out to their upstate cabins on Friday, set up deer camp and hunt small game or turkey on Saturday, sight in their deer rifle sand socialize on Sunday, then take to the woods in quest of venison on Monday. As of last year, these traditional rhythms of deer camp were disrupted when the folks at the Pennsylvania Game Commission ( PGC) made some major changes in the timeline, and a lot of old timers were not happy about it.
But time marches on. Motivation for many of these changes to our traditional deer season was with an eye on hunter recruitment and retention. With opening day on a Saturday and with the first Sunday now in play, more hunting opportunities are available to entice hunters to purchase or renew their hunting licenses. These more generous PGC deer seasons ( coupled with incentive to find something safe to do in the shadow of Covid- 19) have resulted in an uptick in the sales of Pennsylvania hunting licenses this year, but for many diehard traditionalists, deer camp will never be the same.
Nonetheless, last year the Pennsylvania Game Commission ( PGC) moved the opener to the Saturday after Turkey Day. This year, for the first time in the PGA’s history, deer hunters will have a SaturdaySunday opening weekend. Hunters in 10 Wildlife Management Units also will have concurrent antlered/ antlerless hunting throughout the 14- day firearms deer season.
The firearms season also packs another new twist that’s geared to generate excitement afield. It’s a regulatory change that allows hunters to attempt to harvest a second deer before tagging the first, so long as they have the appropriate harvest tags for the deer they attempt to harvest, and no attempt is made to move a deer before it’s tagged.
Pennsylvania hunters in 2019 racked up the highest overall deer harvest in 15 years when they took 389,431 deer during the state’s 2019- 20 hunting seasons. It topped the 2018- 19 harvest by about 4 percent. The last time the total deer harvest exceeded this season’s total was in 2004- 05, when 409,320 whitetails were taken. The 2019- 20 statewide buck harvest saw a generous bump of 10 percent, coming in at 163,240. In the 2018- 19 seasons, 147,750 bucks were taken.
“The size and quality of bucks running in Penn’s Woods right now, probably hasn’t been duplicated in the Commonwealth in over 150 years,” noted PGC Executive Director Bryan Burhans. “The number of record- book bucks being taken is incredible. In fact, it’s beginning to look like no rack sitting atop record- book listings is unapproachable.”
“If you haven’t hunted whitetails in some time, now’s the time to get back into it,” Burhans emphasized. “You won’t believe what’s running around in Penn’s Woods!”
Deer hunters continue to experience antlered- buckharvestsuccess levels comparable to historic highs in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In recent years, about 22 percent of all hunters have harvested an antlered deer, and we look for this trend to continue.
The 2019- 20 antlerless deer harvest was 226,191, which included 10,461 taken with chronic wasting disease Deer Management Assistance Program permits, was similar to the 2018- 19 overall antlerless deer harvest of 226,940. In 2017- 18 seasons, the antlerless harvest was 203,409.
Pennsylvania’s firearms season historically has drawn the biggest crowds of all hunting seasons and consequently has been the state’s principal deer- management tool for more than a century and is widely anticipated by hunters.
“Every deer hunter wants to be afield for the opener,” noted Burhans. “They spend days and days scouting, checking their gear and getting their packs ready.
“When they’re sitting in the dark, waiting for daylight and hoping for a big buck to come, most deer hunters couldn’t be happier, particularly if their son or granddaughter is joining them. It’s a fulfilling experience, regardless of what happens.”
ARCHERY SEASON STILL IN PLAY HERE
While deer throughout most of the state got a one week reprieve from hunting activity when the statewide archery season closed on Nov. 20, bucks and does here in WMUs 5C and 5D still need to be on guard against bowhunters since our extended archery season doesn’t end until Nov. 27, bookending it with the firearms deer season which opens the next day on Nov. 28.