Whitetail: Seeking Eastern Adventure, by Rokslide Member Torin Miller

[farmerboy1381]

In all honesty I have never understood why PA does not get more love from the out of state crowd. Non resident licenses are as cheap as they come you can combine a black bear archery hunt with rutting whitetail in a state that regularly produces 500 + lb bears. And with no offense meant to anybody since the antler restrictions the 8 point in the kill shot is not a shooter buck in my opinion or most of the guys I hunt with. Just checked nonresident tags are 101 dollars and I believe archery tags are 30. All this in a state that has over 3.5 million acres of public land available to hunt.

 

[Michael54]

In all honesty I have never understood why PA does not get more love from the out of state crowd. Non resident licenses are as cheap as they come you can combine a black bear archery hunt with rutting whitetail in a state that regularly produces 500 + lb bears. And with no offense meant to anybody since the antler restrictions the 8 point in the kill shot is not a shooter buck in my opinion or most of the guys I hunt with. Just checked nonresident tags are 101 dollars and I believe archery tags are 30. All this in a state that has over 3.5 million acres of public land available to hunt.

When you look at the average amount of hunters first day compared to land i think i read somewhere that its close to 55 hunters per square mile. Most people from out of state arent used to or dont want that type of congestion. I tend to stay on our private property farm during deer season to avoid it. Add in its a totally different type of hunting. If you can accomplish a spot and stalk in pa you are one bad man or woman. Still hunting works great if you want meat in the freezer but its a lot of tag soup if you are looking for a trophy. Most pa deer hunters dont even leave their county to hunt unless they have a camp somewhere.

 

[lyle_destroys]

Nice article, cool to check in here and see a fellow Pennsyltuckian writing about the awesome hunting adventure we have here in Central PA! Not much beats trying to outmaneuver an old wiley mountain laurel buck during the rut. It pisses me off how whitetail hunting gets so misrepresented and misconstrued by the Outdoor TV industry. It may be all food plots and private land in the Midwest, but we have massive amounts of public land with some pretty badass yet very difficult hunting here and all through the Appalachians.

I second that, those old bucks that lived on acorns and hiding in laurel their whole life are seriously hard to outsmart.

 

[lyle_destroys]

And this is exactly why I started backpack hunting deer in pa. Most of the time I could hike to where I was going g to hunt from the truck but canoeing across a river and camping on the bank in December is a much better adventure than walking in and extra half mile from the truck on the other side.

 

[Lucci]

Backcountry hunting the East has what I’ve come to love every fall. I hit the high peaks of the ADKs, backpacking 5-7 miles back. It has taught me a lot and there is something special about hunting deer that have never laid eyes upon a human. The thought of walking a straight line and not hitting a road for another 13 miles in the state of NY is a cool thought as well.

 

[Kperricone]

Really appreciate this post. Whitetail hunting on public land will always be criticized because it is the most hunted animal in North America. People call it easy because of what they see on television and with the abudance of outfitters in the Midwest there’s plenty of opportunity for novice hunters to see deer that most don’t. I don’t think that’s a bad thing but just like any animal hunting them in different settings will greatly change your understanding and appreciation of what it entails. I hunt strictly public land in CT and NY. Both states are not known for big bucks but I spend countless hours scouting public land for ways to consistently see mature deer. It doesn’t always work as planned but when it does it is a lasting satisfaction.

 

[Pawvbow]

Great read. Here’s my West Virginia buck taken in National Forest this year. It takes a hour and 15 minutes to get to the top of the mountain where I shot him, but there’s no place I’d rather be to watch the sun come up on a cold November morning.

 

[Brettmufc7]

Thanks for the article highlighting backcountry whitetails. We use the two-man mountain drive as well.

Same here. There's more than a million acres of state-designated wilderness lands (in addition to 3 million acres of other land use categories) in the Adirondacks. Hunting the ADKs is tough work and I've eaten a lot of buck tags, but you're also rewarded with a wilderness hunt for old bucks that have rarely (if at all) seen a human. The ADKs have three things in abundance: rocks, trees, and water. Unfortunately, there aren't dense herds of deer and bear hunting is basically stumbling into one. The forests are so thick with growth that visibility is often 50 yards or less and whitetails appear and disappear like ghosts.

However, I think that if there were a lot of deer (or giants), I wouldn't have the woods to myself considering that something like 1/4 of the population of North America lives within a 6-hour drive.

Must be tough with 50 yard visibility !

 

[scottprice]

love hunting the great state of PA

 

[scottprice]

Must be tough with 50 yard visibility !

You should see what we bear hunt in.... 10 feet is good visibility for the pushers

 

[tam9492]

You should see what we bear hunt in.... 10 feet is good visibility for the pushers

Exactly what I was thinking...