After you kill 60 bucks maybe you can speak about your limited time left to hunt. Good day RICHARD.

Big Tuna
Thank you PGC for the opportunity to bag monster bucks and get in on the wiener measuring content.

Big Tuna
After you kill 60 bucks maybe you can speak about your limited time left to hunt. Good day RICHARD.

I get it, if it’s inches on a rack it’s a “Wiener measuring contest” but if it’s number of deer dead it’s a standard to speak. Hmmm very convenient to over look one but honor the other. I thought people back then didn’t care about numbers... it must be since AR hunters learned how to count you know to count points before shooting

Captain one of the few things I enjoyed while driving for a living, was seeing the massive jaw dropping bucks while running I80/90 across the Buckeye.  The racks were massive on those deer and it wasn't uncommon to see half a dozen buck feeding in a field, that would have the Drury Bros. drooling. 
 
Drove I80 at night, across the Keystone for ten years, and you could bet your bottom dollar on seeing many deer feeding along the shoulder, in the same area along the highway every night.   Clearfield and Union County were areas where numbers of deer would be seen every trip, including hunting season.  The entrance to the EB road rest at mile post 195,  just before Union County, was always active with deer. 
 
 
What was interesting, upwards of six rigs would leave West Middlesex at the same time every night, East bound with freight, headed to various parts of the Eastern US.  Three of those trucks were piloted by drivers that lived and hunted the Buckeye and the other three drivers were from PA so hunting or fishing was usually discussed and of course, reports of "Bambi" having dinner along the highway was always passed along the airwaves.
 
As PA hunting rules changed and time passed, the numbers of deer dwindled to a point where few if any were being seen in the once popular spots thereby turning the conversation to, where have all the deer gone?  The reduction in the deer herd was so noticeable there was far less roadkill to be seen.
 
Speaking of the Buckeye anybody ever hunt "The Triangle"?

Numbers VS area, definitely true with deer/hunter population as well as acres of land posted.  You may recall me ranting about both over the past several years and you may even remember my original Avatar was a "POSTED" sign, bringing about the handle BeenThereDoneThat because I have and would post all the land around me, if I only owned it.   The first five years living in my area, it was nothing to watch a dozen or better White Tails feeding in our fields.  I have pictures of fawns playing 20 yards off my front porch, deer eating grass beside my swimming pool than the past 6 years a sudden influx of large Amish family's and just as sudden a drastic drop in the deer herd.  Welllll alrighty then.. just what the PGC biologist wanted, less doe with more buck over the age of 1.5 years to breed those fewer doe thereby, producing the... producing,  ummmm what was that we were suppose to be seeing.... oh yeah, a mass reduction in the deer population.
 
As for tracks in the snow, definitely a way to scout for deer and yes one deer can make a lot of tracks but following a fresh trail should reveal several sets of tracks, if in fact several deer are on a given trail.  Where I hunt, there are beaten trails and there is no need for snow to see the trails are active.  However, it becomes depressing when it does snow because the fresh tracks displayed, are nowhere the numbers there once was.  My neighbor and I have been hunting the same area the past 11 years and just this year my neighbor shot a legal buck.  As for me, I may have allowed my first to pass by, as the sun sank behind the hills the last day of firearms.  The buck was better than 150 yds and I don't have one of them $1000.00 scopes to get a good look see at brow tines but, it was a buck.  Heck, maybe I'll get em next year!!
 
Did I mention my field cams, of which two are active year round and so far, I have one picture of a legal buck (in five years) that I must say, he was a dandy.  That was three years ago and I doubt he had many seasons to "pass on his genes",  the deer was "harvested" about 1/2 mile (as the crow fly's) from my place, on posted property.  I still have that picture and though taken at night, he was just so damed cute!!
 
I'd be willing to bet that picture could tell two entirely different stories.  One, I say it's the only big buck seen in a given area over five year period, bolstering my feelings toward ARs.  Two, the PGC will take that picture and publish it around the state under the caption ARs are working.   Priceless!

BeenThereDoneThat.
Speaking of the Buckeye anybody ever hunt "The Triangle"?

Muskingum, Licking, Knox Counties? Why yes I have. About 4 years ago. Didn't get a buck but saw some great deer and a lot of deer. The agriculture there is jaw dropping compared to what we see in Pennsylvania.

BeenThereDoneThat.
DPMS the agriculture/food supply in the "Triangle" certainly is different.  Having hunted that area yourself, would you recommend the "triangle" to a person looking for a place to hunt in Ohio?

 
Yes, if you have a place to hunt. Mostly all private ground and a lot of it is leased up by hunters or outfitters. I was one a outfitted hunt and hunted 4 different farms there in a week. 
 

Not being a biologist (and only seeing the difference over the years) I need ask, might the difference in food supply be responsible for such a difference, seen between the Ohio and PA deer.

Food is better. Soil is better. Age class of the bucks is better. Less hunters. And the average hunter, especially archery hunters which there are more of in Ohio than rifle hunters, are more selective than the average hunter in Pa. 

BeenThereDoneThat.
There's an idea, if lack of rifles can be attributed for deer getting older, bigger and sport massive racks on the bucks, perhaps PA could change the rules to no rifles for buck.   Bet that would go over well.

I don't think that shotgun only would make much difference here in Pa as most rifle shots are under 100 yards anyways. 

Yea I remember when they called a bow a primitive weapon .
 
Most of Ohio is just too flat and open for rifle shooting, but they have had crossbows for ever. Don't think they've ever had a million hunters either. Western NY is almost like Ohio, shotguns only, not many bucks or deer period compared to Pa., but they too produce some monster bucks also.
 
Less hunters , private land , no rifles, shorter seasons or restrictions = bigger rack mature bucks . Gradually takes all the hunting competition away too, just like the pros have on TV.
 
Won't be long for Pa. we got 3 out of 4.  

BeenThereDoneThat. 
Good luck if you are still out and about.

 
Thanks. I will need it. Everything the past couple of weeks has been on the wrong side of my stand on my evening hunts. Tracks in the snow are telling me they have been all around my stand when I am not there. 
 
Next hunt will be Friday afternoon. 

Female fawns in good condition will be coming into heat this time of the year. It can be a good time to catch a buck if one still has a antlered tag. 

Big Tuna
dmps,I know that been hunting a while. No disrespect but......

I think you mistook took my post as somehow trying to "school" you. I din't intend that but was making a general comment about this time of the year after reading your post.