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magshooter
01-09-2006, 09:40 AM
Where's all the small game that used be to be around in Pennsylvania. I took my Brittany out Saturday morning early, walked all of 4 1/2 hours and couldn't find a pheasant or rabbit.

The only game my Brittany found was an old dead robin. We were walking along an edge of a grass field, when he came to point, I sent him in to the brush and within 10 feet he found and retrieved to hand the dead robin.

When I returned to my truck a young guy and his German Shorthair pointer came walking into the parking lot, we talked about how bad small game hunting has become in the last ten years. He told me that he doesn't even bother taking a gun along with him, at this point he just wants to run his dog.

What a shame, our children and grandchildren will never experience what fun it is to small game hunt. That night I went home and looked on the computer for some PA Pheasant Hunting Preserves, what a joke they are. I called several, the first told me I could book a 1/2 day hunt for $98.00 and for that price I would would get a couple of acres to hunt on and could take 2 cock birds and 2 hens. WAsn't interested so I called another, this place said they could get me in for a 2 hour hunt for $88.00 and I could take 4 cock birds, I declined.

Both preserves were asked about planting birds prior to my hunt and said yes they plant the birds about 45 minutes prior.
I asked about long tail, they said most tails were worn short, due to being in the pens.

What is happening to hunting in general, the deer are becoming less, small game is just about all but gone, hunting preserves are popping up all over the State. We pay more and more for our hunting licesences and get less. I am finding myself getting very bitter about the whole thing. Oh, another thing that gets me going, is no matter where you look anymore, you see posted property.

Where is all our money going?

KampKool
01-09-2006, 05:02 PM
I know there is some game in the woods...I didn't see many deer but I saw squirrels every day I hunted, even this past Sat when is was around 12 degrees. Lot's of Turkey sign...had fun doing that.

I don't think we can go back to the golden days of small game. I remember in the 60's & 70's, we would buy pins & a book of raffle tickets...the pins were the ticket to hunt any farm in the area & the raffle paid for the stocked phesants...It's all houses for Jersey commuters now...But I remember my father & grandfather complaining about loosing other hunting areas the same way in the 50's & 60's so it's been a huge cycle of making the final fatal farm crop...suburbs; where the deer eat the shrubs during hunting season. :mad:

Havegundotravel
01-10-2006, 06:42 AM
Sadly those days are gone, eaten up by housing developments and posted lands. Pa has too many hunters and too little available land accessible to hunters. I too remember back in the 50's through 70's when we returned to the car at lunch to not only replenish our stomachs but are shell jackets which were nearly depleted. Heck, look at my forum handle. I now travel to where the game is, while it is still there! Feel badly for those who don't have the financial means to do so. Pa was great for small game, deer, turkey and bear. Now it is still great for turkey, but small game is nonexistent, deer populations are depleted, and bear , especially if the PGC keeps ending the season into deer season in the Northeast anyway, could be declining in quantity. Quote the raven,"Nevermore."

twillis
01-11-2006, 10:00 AM
Where's all the small game that used be to be around in Pennsylvania
I expect the increase in Coyote numbers have had a lot to do with this.

JAGG
01-14-2006, 01:15 PM
Hawks ,Buzzards ,Coyotes and crooked game officers who stock their freezers as well as their friends freezers ! They get caught once in a while ! Don't die in the woods areas or the Buzzards will pick your bones clean in 2 hours ! Stupid people bring these things back again ! Why do they thing we shot then all in the first place ? JAGG

CowboyGunNut
02-19-2006, 10:11 AM
For the first time ever, my dad and I both limited out on pheasants the first day. Granted these were stocked birds on state gamelands, but it was still a great day!

A month or so ago, I was amazed to see seven squirrels running around in my back yard at the same time. We also get a lot of rabbits. It's a shame I can't just hunt them from my deck!

Steelbanger
02-20-2006, 11:56 AM
I didn't hunt rabbits until after flintlock season ended. I have a dual personality beagle - snoozing house pet/rabbit machine. This year he is three years old and although he has never run with any other hounds he is developing into a great hunter. We have lots of multiflora rose & greenbrier thickets and
Bailey just crawls under that thorny stuff & rabbits appear out the other side. In two hunts of about three hours each he probably put 10-12 rabbits out (I shot 2). On the last day he put out & chased the only 4 I saw that day but each of them came around on the chase and I got to see them for the second time.

On the down side, my beagle is easily sidetracked by deer. No problems this year but I watch where I take him. And, this mild winter is surprising in another way. I found two ticks on him one day (Feb. 4) and the temp was about 39 or 40ยบ.