anzomcik
Ok so saying a "labor intensive management practice" is factual? You dont know that to be factual, its an assumption. You dont even know me or where i live how can that be true?
 
saying everyone experieced my season back in the day is also an assumption, you dont have a clue what the different areas of PA had going.
 
Seeing 253 deer with 23 bucks did not happen back in the day, you cherry picked the total number but dropped the number of antlered deer to fit your narrative. 
 
Also back in the day 12 hunters on two properties did not shoot 10 buck with 9 being 2.5 YO or older and of those 3 over 120".
 
The picture you paint from hunting 47 years ago sounds incredible, if it was so great why did it change? With all the praise of the old time I wish it would go back to then as well, it was the utopia of deer hunting. 

If you were passing on this and not doing that, you were intensely managing. No cherry pick.

And yes over 200 deer and 20 bucks did happen regularly. Heck, I recall shooting the seventh buck I saw on the opening day, when it hit the ground, another I hadn’t seen jumped over it, and I saw the ninth while dressing the one I shot. And it was almost 9:00 AM. So, it was a utopia compared to what is available now.

You are correct, however, on two points, I don’t know what it was like all over the state (just as you don’t ) and I doubt that many 2.5 year old bucks were killed as well (that is a function of AR not permitting 1.5 year olds from being harvest, for the most part, or more of them would be killed, perhaps not by you or your cohorts, but by many others). Back then killing a 2.5 year old wasn’t even a thought because it was deemed the minimum standard by TV shows, archery was in its infancy and only two weeks long (nowhere near the rut), and unless one fancied themselves a “trophy” hunter, and those were few an far between.

I did know what the hunting was like in Cambria, Bedford, Blair, Clearfield, Centre, and Huntingon counties and it is as described. I knew those that had camps in most areas of the northern tier areas and the story was the same there as well.

I wish you could have experienced it as well.

As for why did it change — great question. I have my opinion, but that is all it is (with a little info from inside the PGC), but it probably isn’t of any interest.

Enjoy what you have.

In the meantime, I spent hundreds of hours cutting brush, planting and caring for 18 fruit trees (buying, planting, fencing, fertilizing, pruning, spraying), planting food plots, mowing red clover, etc. in the hopes of regaining what once was had by simply going hunting.

Have to agree with you BTDT ... to me anymore it is all about being out enjoying time in the woods , if I fill my tag then that is great. It is awesome to get time with my son and grandkids being able to see the joy on their face if they get to take a deer or just getting a chance . Yes the camera’s have been a big help but scouting your area early is the best. As far as years ago times have changed , the days of seeing a heard of 20 or more deer running past you are over where I hunt anyhow. I have hunted the same property now for 28 years which is my relative. I started hunting it with my son when he turned 13 , he just turned 41 also hunted it with my dad until he passed in 2005 .. we have taken some nice bucks but more doe over the years ... son ( 10pt) .. me ( 9 pt & two 8pt) which are on my wall. Several smaller bucks which horns are on my garage wall.... lol. ... with my son’s doe this year that made 50 deer in 28 years ...now that being said I think when they opened doe season for the 2 weeks of buck season also that we hurt the doe population ... BIG TIME ! but have to admit we were part of the problem. Now the doe my son got this year was on opening Saturday we saw (3) doe in almost 10 hours 2 were small and finally the last one was ok so he took it......I didn’t Go back out after that ... ok that is my take on things ...

I said many time in the past, I do not think that the results of AR are the same across the state. I don’t pretend to know what others experience. I am enjoying what I am experiencing and not taking it for granted.

It isn’t worth nit picking over a couple choices of words in internet posts. I can see the frustration of some people as much as the joy of others on this topic. I don’t have the answers, only what I see. My posts were to off set the negatives and add light to those who are reading but not posting. My experiences are 100% truthfull.

I think if we ever meet and talked we would find a lot more in common than differences. It seems those differences is what people focus on. You love your good old days, I think this is the golden age of whitetail in pa. Neither are right or wrong, things are definitely different from those eras. So different that they are hard to objectively and fairly compare. Technology (weapons, scouting, cameras, clothing, phones...),average age of hunters and impacts of that, how we hunt, where we hunt, food plots, social media, free time...

I get it, it might be me in 20+ Year’s talking how good these years I’m living now are.

  Almost time again.......
 
So, being one who will be partaking in the upcoming festivities and dressed like a tree, I should like to ask the 'smoke poler's' to aim carefully as the life they save, may be mine. 
 
Past two weeks I been moving deer stands and cutting shooting lanes in hopes of killing, with a stick, those very same sub legal bucks I couldn't kill with a gun during firearms.  The difference being, I may not have a set of antlers to hang on the walls of my outbuilding.  Outbuilding as in garage, I do have indoor plumbing but never the less, the chances grow slimmer everyday, in killing an elusive trophy  antlered PA. White Tailed Deer, this time of year. 
 
In addition, the better half has reaffirmed, the same law stands as has for many... many years; there shall not be deer head(s) in any shape or form,  drying on the sides of outbuildings, regardless the use of said outbuilding.  So I guess no Euro-Mount and the only record of killing a elusive PA White Tailed Deer will be one of memory unless of course, one of those elusive deer happens to have an antler with 3  or more points, not counting the brow tine, still attached to it's stupid head.
 
Stay tuned, I'm on my way to check my field cams to see what lurks and awaits harvesting, with a stick. 

Well alllllrighty then......
 
Few boys hanging around yet with one being a maybe but would be just as well if he lost the stupid antlers.
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I don't think this is the same deer as above but I'll stand corrected. Still needs to lose the stupid antlers.
 
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There was this button buck too but I have no idea where the hell that picture ended up??????
 
 
Then there's always the one picture that makes one wonder what might be lurking in one's back yard.
 
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Go get it done there BTDT ... my stick shooter is put away in attic , cameras are in my gun case , guns are cleaned and my neighbor is keeping me in Bologna and hot sticks .... lol , still have a few bags of fish in freezer so i’m Good .... good luck when ya hit the woods again ... nice pictures , only saw one coyote this year . No foxes 😜

Awwww c'mon Mopars, where's that sense of adventure it will be a great time, it's only gonna be in the teens next week.  Be great to finally go swing my feet in a tree, I got some catchin' up to do.  Be using the cross bow this season, just not enough time to practice with the compound and get it up to full draw.  First couple of times cocking the cross bow was a bit guarded but after the first few shots I was good to go.  Now if I can hit the target so I don't have to chase the dam arrows over a hundred yards, to get em back.
 
I been looking for a new scope too, one of them that lights up so I can see the cross hairs and maybe that will help with better shooting.  Found one on OpticsPlanet and they have one of those policies where they will price match so I found one that's out of stock on Amazon that's much cheaper.  Will be interesting to see how that works out and the gooder part, no shipping, no taxes and, battery included.
 
I'm so excited, Christmas Monday, hunting Tuesday, New Years Eve Sunday and I can now buy fireworks legally in PA.   Priceless!!!

Well your not alone BTDT I too will be out I never even filled my doe tag work limited my time during gun season.Now work is back to normal and I can hunt but not to happy with the forcast tues-thurs might wait til Friday.Still a bunch of does around and I got a vid of a monster during gun season at night 12 pts 3 of them being kickers huge deer I doubt I will ever see him but the thought of him will get me out a few times.
Gud luck Stay warm...WCW

WCW I know what you are saying,
always exciting when seeing a legal buck in the area especially when one still has a buck tag, during late season!!

As they say in the old country "it's the thought that counts".

Good luck to you and we'll certainly look forward to seeing the pictures and hearing a great hunting adventure.

Even if, your luck is like mine and, you don't get a shot at a stupid deer.

 About 50 years back I used to hunt 'out home' around Sugar Grove Pa- just over the line from Jamestown NY.
Used to say- if ya didn't see 2 dozen deer a day ya weren't out there very long.
From what I read it isn't like that anymore- back then it was bucks only and ya could pretty much hunt wherever ya wanted with no one being upset about it.
Doe season was a 2 day event after the buck season and bow hunting was minimal.
I firmly believe that large doe kills- predator increases- maturing of forest and far less farming-and posted properties have decreased the quality of deer hunting and number of deer all over- not just Pa.
Here in Ct ya must have and carry written permission  to hunt a property and most of my friends and I hunt small places commonly- generally surrounded by NO areas.
No walking the woods and still hunting like days of old--sad stuff.
Now its take a stand and sit there all day.
Generaly we have no deer being pushed and hunt natural movement only- that part I like.