LUNAR ECLIPSE

Probably nothing. It takes more than one odd  day to alter a yearly trend. You always see some early activity about now but not much happens for a couple  more weeks

Iv'e read several articles stating they rut is activated by this full moon, and that the deer use the xtra light to do their courting and boinking.
 
 
 
 

I think it will be back to a normal pattern.. halloween kicks it off

Just wish I could get time to get out in the woods.  Soccer practice tonight, football tomorrow.  Soccer and football games on Saturday..
Might use a couple hrs vacation to hunt tomorrow AM and Friday AM.
Good luck fellas.
 
PS - woke the kids up around 6 this AM to view the eclipse.  They got a kick out of it. 
 

Do you find deer feeding earlier in the day when the moon is in the sky during daylight hours; regardless of the moon size?

Well said BTDT. The stage in my life of sitting in bleachers, coaching, shuttling to and fro practices, etc. is nearing its end. Like you, many days I longed to be in woods, on the water or had time to keep beagles. 
 
PT2

Buddy got a real big 9 this.morning.

Ditto on the saw nothing. Saw one rub myself but, no scrapes.

Hunting north central 1-A right now. Be interesting to hear what's happening, rut wise, in other sections of the great state of PA. Home of the future trophy 'deer mecca' of America.

Sorry............ got a little excited..... don't-cha know!!

Saw a brief report on another post about 2-B producing some wall hangers. Fact or fiction; I don't know, that remains 2-B seen........ sorry........ (snicker).

Keep the reports coming folks.

I gotta go......

Always been big bucks in PA...... Way before antler restrictions...

One only needed to attend the outdoor sports shops running buck pools or taxidermy shops; to see what was roaming the hills, valleys, woods and, fields of the great state of PA. You suprise me; being a business man and, your unaware of the new industry overtaking PA. Not me trying to make PA. anymore then it ever was.

Just a quick question regarding the size of PA. and the ease at which photographs can be posted on web sights. Just two pictures of nice racks?

Son, I posted a picture of three (3) nice bucks, in my back yard alone, on this board early this year.

Appreciate you not wanting to butt heads. Hunt Safely......

There are a few more good bucks around than before 2000 because of AR, more landowners posting as a result of herd reduction, hunters leasing and controlling the kill, the food plot industry, etc. ALL of this would have happened without herd reduction. There are not near as many as some think but it looks that way because the percentage of older bucks in a smaller herd is greater. Remember we had over 20% of a 200,000 kill that were 2yo or older before HR. We now have under 50% of a 120,000 kill that are 2yo or older. 
 
Think of what we would have had were it not for herd reduction and if Alt would have just removed 100,000 doe from the herd to make room for the extra 100,000 bucks AR was going to save like he told us he was going to do.
 
Of my top ten PA bucks 8 are still prior to AR.
 
The last I added them all up in 2012, the year "BEFORE" the start of AR/HR was still the all time high for both buck kill and bucks making the Pa record book. Not bad for all the starving runts the PGC said we had.

There is no doubt Iowa puts out some great bucks and PA doesn't come close to comparing, but there is a very simple reason as to why the disparity is so great.  That being Iowa has around 4 hunters per square mile and PA has closer to 20 per square mile.  Environmental factors will prevent PA from ever being a top giant buck producer, but if hunter density drastically decreased there is little doubt that PA would be putting out more B&C bucks. 
 
Also, don't think for a second that Iowa (or any other state for that matter) doesn't kill small (young) bucks.  40-50% of Iowa's antlered harvest is comprised of yearling bucks.  I think being from PA you're much more likely to only see the big deer killed in Iowa. 
 
 

And then there are 8 points in other states.
 

Never needed the internet or antler restriction to see wall hangers killed (sorry) harvested in PA. Visits to local sporting stores revealed pictures of nice deer. Especially the stores and/or clubs running buck pools. I seem to recall being told by the educators from the PGC that, antlers were results of diet and the right minerals.. But, that was back in the day when the PGC concentrated on education and enforcement. Come to think of it; that's when local sporting stores existed too. Imagine that!!

I totally DIS-agree with BTDT's above post .
 
I am sure that the PGC knows that the majority of Pa buck hunters want to kill a buck ...period... a legal buck  ...
 
I know S-10 and Dars have killed big bucks before, but the average guy even back when there was "big" bucks hunted public lands ... Private property IMHO always draws the "trophy hunters"  and I just would LOVE to know how many of those trophy bucks  in the books) were killed on private, posted ground....
 
I know local guys that kill record book bucks for the past 4 years of working at the hardware and seen the bucks... they could care less about record books.. they just like the bragging rights of their trophy kills on their private, posted, food plotted, and patrolled grounds...
 
those kills mean nothing to me and I do little in the way of congratulations other than to say .. "nice deer".....
 
sorry I take what I can get on my SGL and state forests..
and besides I don't eat the antlers and would not want to put one in any record book....
 
in fact I doubt there would be 2 out of a hundred hunters (I know) that could tell you a single thing about any record book entries ... first, last, biggest, smallest .. NOTHING ...
 
heck I have never even seen one of the record books nor would I know where to go to see one ...   or even the difference between a 120 or a 180 score and have no desire to even know how to score... but to each his own ...........

Easy to tell the difference between a 120 and 180 Doc, If you see a 120 you will shake so hard you will drop the bow. If you see a 180 you will have another heart attack.  They don't eat nearly as well as a young doe either. That's the price you pay for hunting antlers.