And....The bad news!

i don't know that it's a "mistake" while archery hunting.....If it's within bow range, you can see how many pts it has....Rifle, that a different story...If it's running across the field at 150 or 200 yds..it may be harder to tell.....

My buddy found a 6pt laying just off the road last week less than a few miles from one of the areas we hunt. The buck had a bolt hanging out of it; the shot looked like a perfect double lunger. There is no way this deer ran more than 200 yards, my guess is he walked up and saw it wasn't legal so he left it lay. Yet another poor decision I have witnessed from an x-gunner.

This was in 2B where it is 4pts.

lot of poaching going on around my way. like said above. during archery you should have no trouble counting points. alot of these deer may be shot out of cars with crossbows at nite. i know thats what happening here.

""returns the crossbow regs to what they should be""

What does crossbow regs have to do with poaching deer or finding dead deer in a field or along a road  ????

Folks around here have used crossbows to poach deer with FOR YEARS, they do not go BANG in the middle of the night !!!!

A nearby camp got caught spotlighting with a loaded crossbow 8 years ago !!!!

Poaching is getting to be terrible around here the past 2 weeks and deer are getting hit by cars/trucks every night...


My boss got a 6 point last Wed and I had to slam on the brakes three different times on the way to the club this Wed..(2 does and a nice 8 pointer)

MY boss said her insurance adjuster told her he had done 5 other deer/car wrecks that happened that same Wed night as hers ...
 
I know where 2 got hit last night or early this morning only about a mile away !!!

No one really knows why the above dead deer were seen...  It's a shame ...  but it must be a sign of the times when fellow hunter blame other hunters even though they are not sure what killed the deer... except for the bolt right  

I echo Doc's sentiments.  Besides, in the original post the person never said what they died from.  What kind of holes did they have in them, hit by a car, etc.  Speculation at this point (but regardless never good to find dead ones like that)
 
 
 

Musky..
 
So are you saying you KNOW they were not poached and the holes were from arrows ??
 
How old were they ?? ...   in one weekend you found that many ??..  were they in different fileds ???
 
were they along a road ???   near a road ??
 
Just how do you know they were just shot and left "in a field" because they were non AR or are you saying that you found several dead bucks..   sounds like speculation to me...
 
if you read message boards very much there are still guys saying they hit a deer in archery season but could not find it, maybe some of them were those bucks ???
 
I know a couple guys said they lost muzzleloader hit deer too, but of course they would be does found dead by someone ..
 
I'll still put my money on poachers...

ORIGINAL: BenC

Hoepfully the PGC sees what a disaster this season was and returns the crossbow regs to what they should be.

 
Disaster??  I have seen lots of pics of mentored and junior hunters with their first deer.  Archery license sales are up a smidge from last year and far below the gloom and doom predictions from many.   I could go on but whats the point? 

As for the shoot and let lay ....

according to reports I have received from a couple WCOs, it appears some male 17-19 year olds are finding it fun and enjoyable to just shoot the deer like it were a video game and just drive off to the next field and do it again...
 
I have seen reports of up to 6 deer shot in a field and just left there to rot.....

Musky,
 
Your statement "found dead in the field" must have been a general statement..........I think I and others took it as you found them all in "one" field in a certain area not scattered around a couple county area.

Big difference and suddenly not as big of problem as first thought.  Disconcerning yes, but there will always be dead deer like that even in regular gun season.
 
 
 
.

ORIGINAL: BenC

A couple of the stories listed above qualify.

 
Those examples only happen with hunters using crossbows?

Been out with my 9 year old daughter with the crossbow many days. She had a buck coming in from 125 yards on friday and started shaking when it got about 70. Now that was enjoyable! Thanks PA for the regulation change on crossbows and THANKYOU for the AR! I see more BIG BUCKS now than ever before! Out of the 113 deer we seen while spotting a couple weeks ago in northern butler county, 10 had better than 18 inch inside spreads. (beyond there ears on the inside spread). I have seen nice buck which I think are only 3 1/2 years old. I don't think I've seen any over that. I can't imagine the 6 and 7 year old deer. We have alot of posted property which I have access to around my place which surely helps. The adults don't really shoot many doe just the kids. It sucks so many are wounded in archery season,  but it happens every year. I hear more guys saying they hit one than saying they killed one. The bottom line is alot of people don't have the desire to get on there knees and track a deer they took a bad shot at. I do, I wwould spend whatever time needed to find a deer I shot at. I have lost a couple which does happen. My guess is those deer were poached or just hunters that couldnt find them. I would doubt they were mistake kills in archery due to the close proximity while archery hunting.

ORIGINAL: CrossForkWookie

Musky,

Your statement "found dead in the field" must have been a general statement..........I think I and others took it as you found them all in "one" field in a certain area not scattered around a couple county area.

Big difference and suddenly not as big of problem as first thought.  Disconcerning yes, but there will always be dead deer like that even in regular gun season.



.

No pun intended but I think most guys know what "in the field" means.

I'm not hunting Pa this year but last year I found a six point in Mercer County, where I hunt, that was shot with a bow. Complete pass through the goodies........a blind man could have found it

I'm sure there alot of reasons why the non AR deer are found dead. and im sure if you think about it, everyone here can think of the reasons but i'll make a list, and maybe someone will come up with another one. these being in a random order.

REASON
1-They don't care.
2-They knew it was illegal, and couldn't find it.
3-They found it and thought about the risk of getting caught with it after they said they didn't care, and decided to say "ef-it"
4-Possibly a "younger"hunter that never got a buck, sees a buck, didnt look for the right amount of points, and just shot it thinking "it should have 4 (or 3 whereever they are) and walking up to it realized it did not and left it.
5-Now maybe an OLDER guy who cant see and the same attitude of the "screw it im shooting it"
6-NOW maybe just ANYONE thats had a "bad" year and shot it out of frustration...
7-"Too dark, look like it had a basket on top, shoulda been legal" (that quote going for any aged hunter)
8-??????????

i could i guess go on and on..but it all the reasons kinda lead back to Number one the "Don't care" factor.
there are alot of slobs that dont like to abide by the law thinking they know what is better...now that being said I still dont agree with AR's in some locations and what not, but im sure as **** not going to shoot an illegal deer.

As long as i've been hunting...when people say to me..."i thought it was a doe" (oh thats another list of reasons, the ears covered up the rack but it was grunting i thought it was a doe"......) i know they are lying, i know pretty much what im shooting at..if i dont know, i dont freaking shoot.

a good example of this would be when my brother was 14 he shot a half rack that only had 3 points. hit it far back didn't have snow and wasn't hardly any blood. we walked with in 40 yards of it and never found it. there was another hunter that watched it fall and never said nothing to us as we walked by him.  ended up finding it a couple days later when that guys buddy told me he watched a half rack die, so we went back there and i was able to at least find the deer and get him the antler few days later.  anyways, point being, illegal deer for us, not for my brother.

During Rifle season I normally do a lot of walking through a lot of ground...It's not just bucks that I find...I find quite a few doe's as well...I would say I find more does than bucks...Some were poor shots, some were good shots, just don't know why they didn't find them....Anyone ever shoot one without snow and put a excellent shot on it and not have blood for quite a while...I have, never lost one that way, but I think people just think that they didn't hit it and go back to where they were sittin and not walk any further...It might be a different story in archery when you can't find your arrow....