Good Hunting PA Rifle Hunters

I’ll be heading to my stand shortly. I’m looking for a buck, a doe and a bear. Not necessarily in that order. Good luck to everyone heading out this morning.

Lugnut Glad to see you are on your way out .Good Luck and be safe .If you have any luck post a picture and a story of your success .I for the first time since I have been able to hunt will be siting this one out .Health reasons have slowed me down over the last several years. And I have enjoyed a life time of great hunting adventures .So now I will read and hear others stories .

Good luck, I'll be headed out Monday mornin.

Be safe. Wife smoked a doe before i even got into my stand. It was well after daylight since i didn't want to spook out her deer going in.

Have Much Fun

Young neighbor boy killed a big bodied buck early this morning .He left with his Dad about 6:30 AM and was back about 8:30 AM His Dad said we where barely in the woods .I always enjoy it when a young hunter has some success I think it is because the future of hunting always relies on new hunters joining the ranks .And also I clearly recall how much those beginning hunting days meant to me .Ans sharing that with todays generation help to pass it forward .

Lug, do ya see many bears over that way? Good luck!

I missed a huge one this morning……. I know I got excited and jerked the trigger instead of squeezing….It was tough watching him run off. Would have been my biggest buck to date.

I shot a buck this morning about 8:50. This evening a little bit before 4:00 I shot a doe within 10 feet of his gut pile.

Catch, there are good numbers of bears in the area I hunt in Potter County which is in north central Pennsylvania. I’m hoping the two gut piles are still there in the morning so I can sit and watch them. Hopefully a bear comes in because I’m tagged out as far as deer go.

Thanks and WTG with the deer. You had a great day! I ask about the bear because I'm going to try to get over your way next year to bear hunt, it's on my bucket list and I'm gonna get off my tail and do it.

Also, if you don't mind I'd like to PM you with another scrapple question. I'm gonna make a small batch, maybe 6 loaves and would appreciate your input. Good luck tomorrow bear hunting.

Lug, You should go with my kid. He's a bear magnet. Had a sow with a yearling come within 20 feet of him at 7 am before he finally stood up and said "Hey Bear." He said she about turned herself inside out trying to get away. The yearling came up and licked his boot and walked off.

Then at 4 pm he had a lone one come running by while he was eating a sandwich. He said if it came between getting mauled or giving up the sammie he was willing to fight for it. I think since archery started he's seen 8 or 9 bear within 30 yards of him.

I didn't see any deer this morning. It may have a little to do with me taking a nap from 6:30 to about 9. I only woke up because I had an annoying crow land in the tree above me and start squawking.

Friend in PA sent me this picture. It was shot sometime this morning

That’s a beauty Danny.

Elkaholic, The only time I’m a bear magnet is in spring turkey season. Hardly a season goes by where I don’t call in at least one and usually 3 to 4 bear while making hen calls.

Can’t find one to save my life in season.

Catch, feel free to PM or post on this thread.

Thanks Lug, I'll shoot ya a PM here soon! Hope ya get a bear.

Catch, I'll give you a couple pieces of advice for hunting PA bears.

If you're doing it alone.... Hunt uphill from your vehicle. You don't want to be dragging a 300-400 lb bear up some of these hills alone. Some archeologist will find your bones in 1000 years and wonder why ancient men would leash a bear and walk it through the woods.

Driving for bear is HUGE in PA. Drive jumping is also big. Just don't expect to jump a drive, shoot a bear, and then get help getting out of the woods from those guys. They may complain a lot about you, but be happy for you, but they aren't going to help you get it out of the woods.

All bear must be checked at check station. It may be a fire station, a PGC building, and sometimes they're in a church parking lot. It's like black friday shopping for people to go and watch them process your bear. Depending on how busy the check station is, it can take anywhere from an hour to 4 hours to get through it. Plan your time accordingly. The check stations all over the place so it won't be too hard to find one.

They used to require you to leave the genitals intact so they could get the sex of the bear. Male bear genitalia aren't really that obvious on some. Not sure if they still require it or not.

They will take a tooth for aging. Unless you shoot a cub it's not and option to not take one. You will get a report on the history, if any the bear has including the age.

A lot of our bears have ear tags, for various reasons. They are legal to shoot. You'll get a report, sometimes before you leave the check station, on where it was capture/released. Age and weight at capture/release.

Thanks elk! I did a lot of research a few years ago about everything I could think of. I got advice from several PA guys on where my best chances to go would be and about the WMA's. Then I had some health issues and can't find the maps and stuff I received from the DNR over there.

So I won't be starting from scratch again, but close lol. It's a dream hunt for me and also to get a PA deer. I haven't had a real adventure in a long time. Hopefully I can get a plan and can actually go next year. Thanks again for the tips.

Elkaholic, I was reading somewhere, maybe the last or second last issue of the Pennsylvania Game News, that they had changed the system somewhat due to all the extended bear seasons now. They were saying that it is a real drain on personnel, or it would be, to man check stations throughout the early archery, regular bear and extended bear seasons. They were saying you can now contact the PGC and arrange to meet somewhere or even have a warden or other qualified person come and check your bear at your location.

Beautiful buck

Nice buck KKS, what rifle is that?

Lugnut, PGC operated check stations on the first Saturday and Sunday of rifle bear, none on Monday and Tuesday. Outside of opening weekend they want you to call them and make an arrangement to meet with one of their staff.

Yeah, that’s what I was reading. I didn’t realize that they didn’t even keep the check stations open all of rifle bear though. Thanks for confirming.

1955 Winchester Model 88. .308

Sweet rifle and nice buck
I got a case of eye strain from staring into wet brush lol.
It aint over yet.

Elkaholic, I was reading somewhere, maybe the last or second last issue of the Pennsylvania Game News, that they had changed the system somewhat due to all the extended bear seasons now. They were saying that it is a real drain on personnel, or it would be, to man check stations throughout the early archery, regular bear and extended bear seasons. They were saying you can now contact the PGC and arrange to meet somewhere or even have a warden or other qualified person come and check your bear at your location.
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Yes.
And you can just bring the head & hide if ya want. The whole body is not a necessity

SWEET

Thanks, I would have never figured that one out.

Good info patrapperbuster.

Nice deer fellas!

I shot a doe the first day, didn't hunt the next because I just don't think its right, nothing seen yesterday and only 1 doe seen this morning I passed on. Lots of shooting this year compared to recent years and more hunters out in my area than recent years. I hunt game lands and hope the increase in hunters isn't due to them losing their regular spots, but more hunters taking it up!

Dads got one of those (don't know the year) --- took my first deer and my first elk with it -- quite a few other deer with it until I bought my 700 in 30-06. He just dropped a 5x6 bull with it a couple weeks ago (he is 80).

Very dependable rifle. I have had many people try to buy it.

I guess I won’t ask you how much you want for it then.

Ugly day today, I didn't go.

Yeah, me and my newest camp member stayed in camp and processed my two deer today. Everything is packaged and I even saved the bones for scrapple, had room in the new freezer I just bought Monday because the old one died.

It was really windy this morning. Our lights flickered a bunch of times. I was really hoping the electricity didn’t go out. Right now potter county is the only area in the state with snow and ice coming down. LOL

Good stuff Lug, you have a nice camp!

Had a great season so far with my two daughters (18 and 21), we all have seen buck so far just haven’t gotten the opportunity to put a legal buck on the ground. That’s the good-the bad is we have seen 6 buck so far but only 1 doe, doesn’t lend itself to population increase next year.
The ugly- lost all respect for PGC last year when some cabin folk below our ground shot a bear on Sunday of archery(60 deg) and nobody could come out to check it in until Monday. We tried to coerce them into letting us help them process it so it didn’t go to waste, but to no avail and all meat was lost.
Catch22- if a recipe refers to ponhaus in loaves, cut the cornmeal by at least 50%, lol, your making mush- bread comes in loaves!

Thanks Fred.

KKS, after all these years I never knew that model existed!

A popular rifle around here. I've been trying to pry one of two away from my cousin, both chambered in .284.

A couple guys at camp had .308's.

That was a good day for that job. I made bologna from my Deer that day.

This morning’s stand. After tagging out in potter county I need to make some room in my freezer but it was too nice not to sit out. I didn’t see anything.



This evening’s stand. I saw a decent size deer up there behind that tall grass (circled). It was about 125 yards. I had a good shot on it but couldn’t get a good look at its head. I watched it for about 45 minutes and couldn’t be sure. I’m thinking it was probably a spike buck. I left it walk.



I have three 5C tags and five weeks after Christmas to fill at least one of them.