Am i the only one who thinks deer hunting in PA is a racket?
Anonymous No.1653427 View ViewReport Quoted By:
I grew up in very rural Pennsylvania. I turn 30 this month, and ended up becoming a very accomplished hunter -- hunting all around the country, getting all sorts of wild game on public land. But to this day, I've never shot a deer.
After going on a hunt with my girlfriend's family who "have been hunting for years." It became really obvious to me that my lack of luck wasn't because I doing anything wrong, but the game commission just does things really weird in this state. This year:
> You have to shoot a deer that is "3 up," meaning it has at least 3 horns on an antler
>..but that's only if you're in one of the 5 or 6 WMUs that have that law. Otherwise it's "2 up" on one antler.
>....but that's only if they have at least one horn on the brine, which is different from the rest of the horns.
>......but that's only if that horn on the brine is at least an inch.
>...but only if it's NOT a Sunday, because you can't hunt deer on Sundays.
>....which we're changing, but only on one Sunday per this coming deer season, which is to be announced next year.
By the way, those WMUs change constantly and the boundaries aren't clearly marked. I did some digging and according to the game commission's numbers, in 2017 (which was one of the most deer harvested in 10 years), 23 of every 100 hunter got a deer. That includes junior hunters who have less restrictions and disabled hunters that can shoot from vehicles. Moreover, 2/3rds of all hunting occurs on private land.
We have less hunters than ever before in our state, so last year the game commission combated this by raising the price of the license and not printing the rule book. We now also have a gross overpopulation of deer and major incidents Chronic Wasting Disease (mad cow disease for deer).
Does anyone else think this sounds stupid? I took today off and hunted for maybe 4 hours and just felt like I was wasting my fucking day off. Am I just lacking perspective or is this really lousy?
