doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com No Grousmas in PA this year?

I am no great grouse hunter though they are the only game I am really interested in hunting. This year has been especially poor for me, discouraging, to say the least.

As far a the PGC goes, they are a curious bunch in their current form. They don't really hire game protectors anymore, but police officers instead and there is an obvious attitude that hunters are the enemy. It also seems everything they try to do goes wrong. There use to be pheasants to hunt. Now they spend 5 million a year on them and readily admit there is no natural reproduction in the state. "Extirpated" was their word. I use to hunt doves with enthusiasm then the PGC decided they needed to study them so we got an extra license. Now the only birds I see in good numbers are gone before the September 1st season. They are permitting successful turkey hunters an additional stamp for a second bird ($) so I expect turkeys to start disappearing. The only things they have been unable to screw up are deer and resident geese. They would prefer to eradicate both but so far both are holding their own.

The PGC has told us we need to get rid of the deer so the oak trees can get large enough to sustain more deer. How many years does it take to grow a large oak. The head of the agency was asked about windmills on game lands, his reply was "we have gas wells why not windmills?"!!! In a correspondence, I had with them on the issue of ticks and Lyme disease their recommended the solution "controlled burning".

It is my opinion they are just holding out till they can get their funding from the General Fund, then they can forget about the pain in the butt hunters. They refuse to require a license for bikers, hikers and others who use the game lands using the excuse these people will want a say in the land management. If they have to buy a hunting license to ride their bike on the game land how does that give them a say? Now if they issue a bike permit then I see the point.

PA has allowed 2 Ruffed grouse and two Woodcock per day for as long as I can remember. I have been hunting for 52 years in this state. We have good populations of crows still so I am looking for a good recipe and expecting a stamp soon. Oh! We can only hunt crows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.