HUNTING PA. 2014-15 How do you feel?

Thought I'd post this thread just to see who, what, where, why, etc., feels about the big game hunting in PA.
 
So many other threads are fast becoming a 'scratching post' with regard to this subject....  Let's hear about your feelings.

Archery was slow for me. Rut was slow for me as well. Not a lot of chasing where I was at the first two weeks of November. Rifle season was a bust in these parts. Horrible weather and little pressure. I talked to a WCO recently and he said pressure was down again this year. Even less than last year. Spotlighting shows deer numbers are fair to good where I hunt. Not as high as 10 years ago, but higher than 4-5 years ago when they seemed to bottom out here. 
 
Hunters are getting more disgruntled every year. Some more infighting instead of directing it at the commissioners and deer team that lowered the populations to the point where predators can impact them much more than previously. Speaking of predators. Our game commission still overprotects predators. Every year we hear of record bear populations yet we fail to get a harvest to control their growth. Coyote, fisher, otter, bobcat populations are rising. 
 
Turkeys are way down in SW Pa. I think increasing predators and changing habitat is causing this and not hunting pressure. 

Well hmm.   Archery for me was pretty slow also, did bite the bullet and lower standards so I didn't have to take the bow again during rifle season, and punched my buck tag for some bologna and jerky meat towards the end.    Saw low numbers per day in stand by historical standards, but fairly close to the last few years.   Put ALOT of tree time in.   Predators increasing to crazy levels.  Never in a million years if asked 20 years ago if I thought bobcat and yotes would be this numerous in UNIT @2A!! would I have said yes.
 
Rifle was slow according to my tag along observations and hearing from others.   Plenty of hunters out in areas hunted especially during rifle, but did see some in archery also, many toting crossbows.   Amount of shooting in rifle was low.
 
Spotting and many long drives in evenings show the herd is down in many areas, not just this year but for several now.  Pockets here and there on off limits lands, where you can count on seeing deer in field or three nightly, without fail, evening or spotting.    But with many many empty fields covering a number of miles in between.
 
Don't think any of this pertains to previous threads/scratching posts where Ive discussed many of the deer management issues.   Comparing Ohio to Pa when Ohios "reduction" was brought up is a pretty obvious comparison to make.    And bringing up "fewer deer" when asked for reasons DEER camps are in decline is only obvious.     Then we have the "news" pgc keeps making which has been brought up fairly recently....   3 notable high ranking staff members no longer at the agency, two for sure didn't leave voluntarily with a heck of a lot of controversy surrounding.    I don't think anyone needs to have an agenda of "hate" to mention this big news or to look at it negatively.  
 
 At any rate, my part in these recent past conversations don't have much to do with what I did or didn't see in 2014.  
 
I expect a somewhat better 2015.    Why?   Because I think the weather might have helped a few more bucks "make it" and put another year on compared to most recent seasons, and we had an incredible mast crop that have the deer nice and fat and sassy, and will keep the deer in good shape without them having to rely on totally browse for the entire winter.   I strongly believe that both of these factors were lacking last year when we had pretty much zero mast in our area, and had a long winter that was uncharacteristic for this area in the very lower than usual temps and snowfall that laid long.   We actually had weird weather pattern where most of the winter ours was actually worse than the areas north and east, which are usually by far much worse and had an effect on rack quality judging by my sightings those of others and quite a few trail cams.
 
 

I hunt mostly southern 1B.  Saw the fewest number of deer ever In both archery season and rifle. Was out most of rifle with grandkids as I did luck into a decent 8 the fifth week of archery. Saw 3 buck for every doe and could only have killed an adult doe twice in over 50 sits. I do believe I spent too much time in the apples with so much hard mast available but my oak stand sits were not very productive either.
 
Turkeys have been down for four years due to some cold wet springs and predators (not hunters) but came back a bit this year. Hunting pressure is very light on both turkeys and deer compared to a decade ago.
 
Bear numbers have greatly increased and between them, the yotes, the hawks, racoons and the fishers, the game animals and birds don't have much of a chance in this area.
 
One thing I am finding out from some groups that spent a lot of time driving the clearcuts is they shot a high percentage of drop horns thinking they were doe.
 
I believe as Wayne does we should see some better racked deer and perhaps a few more bucks next season due to the heavy mast crop and lack of pressure. The lack of doe  concerns me for the future of the sport. The current policies of the PGC do not favor the hunters. 
 
 
 

Overall deer sightings were down a smidge, but this year was fairly typical for me compared to about the last 4 seasons.  Between the time I spent in the woods and trail cams, it did seem like the number of "good" bucks was down a bit this year in the areas I hunt.  Even the yearlings this year looked scrappier than normal, which I'm guessing is mainly due to no mast in 2013 combined with a pretty harsh winter.   
 
Coyotes numbers are way up in my area and I found two dead fawns back in early fall which I'm going to assume were yote kills.  Seems like the coyotes have now become residents, rather than transients.  I might try to dedicate some time this winter to see if I can kill one (or more). 
 
Hunting pressure in my area was down a bit, likely due to terrible weather for most of the gun season.  I did find a dead spike shot on the last Saturday, so it appears that at least some of the slobs still ventured out this year.
 
Lastly, it ain't over yet.  I still have a buck tag and I'm hoping to connect on my first ever late season archery buck this year.         

Not the best year for deer numbers did see 9bucks 6 does in the rut Nov 12 th 14th and shot a decent 8 with a 17 inch spread and 8 inch G2s.Gun hunted Ohio shot the a small 8pts at 10am and saw 3 does before that.Saw few does this year.
Pa.deer herd is in trouble and it may be to late. PGC is not going to change the HR or reduce the tags money hungry so it's up to the hunters to buy every tag and not use them.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Oh