Pennsylvania had an excellent 2016-2017 season, with increased numbers of bucks and does harvested throughout the state.
Hunters took about 333,254 deer this past season, which was a marked increase from the 2015-2016 hunting season, with impressive hunting numbers for both antlered and antlerless deer.
Bowhunters harvested a remarkable 33 percent of these deer, with around 109,250 taken, and muzzleloaders accounted for another 20,409 deer with the remaining shot by rifle or shotgun.
The buck harvest was up another nine percent and the overall take of antlered and antlerless deer increased six percent in 2016-2017 over the previous year.
Many of the bucks taken were older animals, at 56 percent of the harvest, being two and half years or older.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director, R. Matthew Hough, congratulated hunters and had this to say about the past deer season:
"This has been quite a year for Pennsylvania deer hunting. Not only was there an increased deer harvest and a significantly higher buck harvest, I saw hundreds of photos from hunters who took their buck-of-a-lifetime this past season. Among them was a hunter whose Clearfield County harvest shattered the state record for nontypical bucks taken with archery tackle.
"To all of those hunters, and to everybody who made memories afield during the 2016-17 deer seasons, congratulations," Hough said. "I couldn't be happier for you and wish you the best of luck in the 2017-18 seasons, when hundreds more bucks-of-a-lifetime will be taken."
With harvest numbers trending upwards the coming deer season looks to be a good one for resident and visiting hunters to the Keystone state.
NEXT: HUNTERS AND PREPPERS, DO YOU NEED A TOMAHAWK?
https://rumble.com/embed/u7gve.v3tr93/
