Is deer hunting with a rifle being phased out?
I guess it depends on your interest in deer hunting and if hunting is your hobby or your passion. This story is of a more serious nature. Not my usual storytelling and gun talk.
A pamphlet was written by the Pennsylvania Game Commission awhile back asking this question: Why does Pennsylvania not hunt during the rut? The answer it gave was from a biologist who studied deer: you should not hunt or disturb deer during the breeding season. Now I am no biologist, and clearly times they have changed as weapons change and land availability changes.
I loved archery when I hunted it. I have many good memories and stories from that time of my life. Though I can no longer participate in this sport, I still love it. It is an outdoor sport and I love all the outdoor sports. The question is not one of archery itself but fairness overall and the ethics of hunting deer in the rut. I am sure today’s deer herd is not the same as the herd of the past so let’s look at some facts.
Back in the infancy of archery, a bow was just a stick strung, capable of propelling an arrow at a speed high enough to penetrate game. Today, there are crossbows that hardly resemble a bow and are capable of grouping arrows into three inches at 100 yards. That’s not far behind the ballistics of a 30-30 rifle. Archers today use scents, both masking and attracting. Range finders help, as do scope sights that angle up or down. When the new bow is looked at, overall archery has become far easier for the modern archer. Technology has made great advances in archery hunting.
Then we add the increases in season. Deer archery antlered and antlerless statewide is now Oct 3-Nov. 14, Sunday, Nov. 15, Nov. 16-20 and Dec. 26-Jan. 18, 2021. Now I look up on the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s website the timing, according to them, of the rut. “Over 6,000 does were examined over this period. What did those unlucky ones (road killed) tell us? Nine out of 10 does were bred from mid-October to mid-December. And the peak of the rut occurred in mid-November.” Type in deer hunting during the rut and you will get a lot of serious advice on bow hunting during the rut.
My point is that today 49% of all bucks taken during the hunting season are taken by the bow, before the rifle hunter even gets into the woods. I bet the number might be higher. I remember when those antler restrictions went into place to encourage hunters to let bucks grow up into trophy bucks. Now, I say, trophy bucks during rifle season are few and far between as they are gone by then – taken during the rut during the time when deer are so vulnerable and unable to resist the urge to breed that they step right out in front of those greatly improved bows. And then the long season advantage.
It seems to this old hunter that deer hunting with a rifle is being phased out by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Why?
Not so long ago, John and I were hunting a good piece of ground that we had written permission to be on, and at that time we were on it a lot. It was a great fall day in bow season. John and I split up at the edge of the field, with John going left and I going right. We each had a favorite spot back then and we were heading to them. I got to mine and was just settling into a nice tree I liked to stand against with my bow when I heard a voice. Now this was not a nice voice, and it wasn’t a talking deer.
Kevin Costner movies aside, I didn’t hear voices in my field before, so I started looking around. I realized it was coming from up above me. Straight up above my head, so either the tree was talking and swearing, or someone was in it. I looked up and sure enough there was an irate hunter in my tree. He didn’t like the idea of me coming in and plunking my back against his new hunting spot. After he climbed down, he let me know that he was going to clean the forest with me. He was 6-2 and 235 pounds, and I was 5-8, 150 pounds.
Fortunately, John heard the commotion, what with all the yelling at me and crashing about he came along to see, or I probably would have gotten beaten up that day.
As it was, we explained to the guy whose property it was, and that we were allowed on it and he wasn’t. Another good reason to not hunt alone, and it helps if your partner is a big guy. The next day, I had to measure a deer for an unknown person and who turns up at my door? You guessed it – the same guy. Boy, were we both surprised.
With me, I guess hunting has always been a passion.