Deer Season Starts Monday

HARRISBURG – Whether you settle into your stand while it’s still dark, or wait until first light to head out. Whether you pack a sandwich and stay all day, or head back in for a hot lunch and to warm up. Whether you’re young or old, expert or inexperienced, focused on filling a tag or on just having fun, the buck of a lifetime could be just moments away.
This is the firearms deer season in Pennsylvania – a proud tradition that, once again this year, figures to see 750,000 hunters making new memories in fields and woodlots statewide.

This Monday is the opening day of the 12-day firearms deer season. With the countdown on, Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director R. Matthew Hough said thousands of the state’s hunters will experience their best days afield in the season to come.

“Living out those moments after a trophy buck appears; getting that chance and doing what you can to make the most of it – that’s what every deer hunter lives for,” Hough said. “Some of what makes the firearms deer so magical is the endless possibility a hunter’s ‘buck of a lifetime’ is just a moment away. But there’s more to it than that.

“For most hunters, opening day is as much about enjoying the company of family and friends and carrying on a rich tradition as it is about harvesting a deer, and that speaks volumes about why so many Pennsylvanians love to hunt,” Hough said. “And countless hunters are sure to get everything they want, and more, out of their deer seasons.

Statewide season

The statewide general firearms season runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12. In some parts of the state, properly licensed hunters may take either antlered or antler-less deer at any time during the season. In other areas, hunters may take only antlered deer during the season’s first five days, with the antler-less and antlered seasons then running concurrently from the first Saturday, Dec. 5, to the season’s close.

Hunters who plan to hunt within Wildlife Management Units 1A, 1B, 3A and 3D should note there has been a change in the season’s format this year. WMUs 1A, 1B, 3A and 3D now are among those management units where only antlered deer can be taken from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4.

Concurrent seasons for antlered and antler-less deer remain in place in WMUs 2B, 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D.

Rules regarding the number of points a legal buck must have on one antler also are different in different parts of the state, and young hunters statewide follow separate guidelines.

For a complete breakdown of antler restrictions, WMU boundaries and other regulations, consult the 2015-16 Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest, which is issued to hunters at the time they purchase their licenses. The digest also is available online at the Game Commission’s website, www.pgc.state.pa.us.

One very important regulation that applies statewide is the requirement for all hunters to wear a minimum of 250 square inches of fluorescent orange material on their head, chest and back combined. An orange hat and vest will satisfy the requirement. And for safety’s sake, it’s a good idea for non-hunters who might be afield during the deer season and other hunting seasons to consider wearing orange as well.

Deer forecast

While deer populations are being tracked as stable or increasing in each of the state’s 23 wildlife management units, many other factors, such as food availability, influence local deer movements and deer hunting, said Christopher Rosenberry, who supervises the Game Commission’s Deer and Elk Section.

Mast crops are particularly spotty this year, said Dave Gustafson, the Game Commission’s chief forester. While production of acorns, beechnuts and soft mast crops such as apples, berries and grapes, is more consistent in western and southern portions of the state, in much of Pennsylvania finding mast is hit and miss, Gustafson said.

“Acorns or apples might be present on one ridge top or slope, then you might not find another like it for miles,” Gustafson said. “In some areas, there are pockets where mast production is good, and then a sizeable surrounding area where mast doesn’t appear to be available. It’s one of those years where hunters might have to look hard to find those food sources that are important to deer.”

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing for hunters, Rosenberry said. In fact, research shows that deer harvests tend to drop in years when mast is especially abundant. When there’s food everywhere, deer can be harder to find. When food is less abundant, deer tend to concentrate in the areas where it’s available.

“So finding food is a key to finding deer,” Rosenberry said. The chances to take a trophy buck in Pennsylvania might be better than ever. Rosenberry said 57 percent of the bucks harvested in the 2014-15 seasons were 2 1/2 years old or older – the highest percentage recorded in decades. “Most years, the buck harvest is split evenly between yearling and adult bucks,” Rosenberry said. “We don’t know if last year’s result was an anomaly or the beginning of a trend, but older bucks were well represented in the harvest.”