Hunters successful this fall, but violations weighed down game wardens, too

From super successful reports about opening day of rifle deer season to following up on hunting violations, state game wardens have had a busy autumn.

Four wardens with the Pennsylvania Game Commission have shared their experiences from across the four corners of Pennsylvania.

Northwest: More deer processors closing

The fall turkey season is short in the northwest, Oct. 29 to Nov. 5, and it gets overshadowed by those hunting deer.

“The fall turkey season up here is hit or miss. There are certainly plenty of turkey up here, but I wouldn’t say they are overly abundant,” said Andrew Hueser, state game warden in northern Erie County. When the deer archery season and turkey hunting overlap, the birds take second place.

“Deer are king in Pennsylvania,” Hueser said. The two-week rifle deer season allowed hunters to kill bucks and does. “The harvest on opening day up here was probably the busiest and most successful with the most hunters I have ever seen in my career."

The weather cooperated. "Just a gorgeous day," he said. The weather in Erie can change quickly. The second day of the season, brought gale force winds and a half an inch of rain.

The high success of the hunters did overwhelm some of the deer processors who had to turn hunters away because they didn’t have the capacity for butchering all of it.

“It’s a concerning trend that more and more of these deer processors are No. 1, getting overwhelmed and No. 2, closing. There are fewer every year, it seems,” he said.

One solution is for hunters to learn how to butcher their own deer. YouTube videos show hunters exactly what to do to break down a deer, and it saves money.

“You’re with it from start to finish and you know that the meat was handled correctly,” he said.

For black bear season, hunters shot 20 in Erie County.

“It was about an average take,” he said noting that hunters were finding success in the early archery, muzzleloader and special rifle bear hunting opportunities.

Deer hunters are getting black bear licenses in case they happen to see a bear while waiting for deer, and that’s been working out for them.

It was a good fall for hunting.

“It was a really safe season up here and game law violations were about what you would expect with your typical tagging violations, a handful of orange (clothing) violations, very little trespass (calls) this year," he said.

Stockings continue beyond Christmas:More pheasants stocked in PA than last year, despite a snowstorm snafu

Mid season report:Pennsylvania hunters find more than 2,400 bears in the woods — so far

Southwestern: Unusual number of mistaken kills

Turkeys were abundant in the southwestern area of Pennsylvania this year.

During state Game Warden Brian Witherite's patrols with a cadet, they saw a lot of birds.

“I did have an unfortunate incident where I came across a couple road hunters who shot multiple turkeys from the road,” said Witherite of Somerset County. Charges were filed because fall hunters are permitted only one bird.

Deer season was busy.

“Deer season went well, and first of all it was a safe season for Somerset County. But it was busy with the traditional violations like hunting over bait, loaded firearms, a few illegal deer and tagging violations, that type of stuff and trespassing concerns," he said.

He did check on a few hunters who shot trophy-sized animals, like a 14-point buck killed just outside of Windber and a 10-pointer shot near Dividing Ridge. He said: “It was a big-bodied deer, a beautiful deer, and the antlers had some mass. They were pretty tickled about it.”

On the other hand, there was unusual number of deer killed by mistake, such as shooting a buck without enough points or mistaking a small buck for a doe.

“It didn’t matter the age range of the hunter, I had it all,” he said about at least a dozen reports from hunters wanting to turn in a deer harvest that was a mistake.

In addition, he responded to more calls than usual about hunters getting a deer that was spoiled from an injury. “Poor shot placement in archery season,” he said accounted for some of the deer being unfit to eat when killed during the later rifle season. In those cases, wardens issued a new tag for the hunters to pursue another deer.

He did respond to two shooting related incidents. In Forbes State Forest an October muzzleloader hunter was struck by a shotgun blast from a grouse hunter. “He was fine,” Witherite said about his injuries. In neighboring Cambria County, Witherite responded to a call where a predator hunter’s .223 caliber rifle accidentally discharged into his foot. “He had a couple surgeries, but he’s fine,” he said.

During bear season, about 62 bears were killed in his county; two were deemed illegal kills. One bear was shot after hunting hours, and his fellow warden, Andrew Harvey, investigated someone killing a bear over bait.

“The bear season is not what it used to be,” Witherite said. In recent years, hunters have had more opportunities to hunt bears than just in the four-day rifle season. Hunters are getting bears in an early archery and muzzleloader season as well as during the overlap of bear and rifle deer season. “We had a couple nice bears come in, one during the week of deer season extension."

One killed outside Berlin was 495 pounds; another weighed 619 pounds, taken in northwestern Somerset County.

Hunters find trophy bucks:Tales from PA's deer stands: Big bucks, wide racks and long shots

Late season:'Smoke pole' deer season soon begins across Pennsylvania

Southeastern: Bears entered Philadelphia

Jerrold Czech Jr., state game warden for Philadelphia and counties south of it, covers a heavily populated residential area, but hunters still find success.

In Philadelphia, the hunting area is limited, but he encountered a hunter who shot a turkey with a crossbow.

“It’s kind of rare as there are not too many pockets that are holding birds," he said.

He's even had a couple of bears enter the city. The staff trapped and transferred them. In northern Montgomery County and Bucks County there are a few bears, but the area is not known for a significant bear population.

His region does have waterfowl hunters leaving from the boat ramps on the Delaware River. “We can check 15, 20 waterfowlers on a Saturday,” he said depending on the timing.

Deer hunting in his region with a large population of people is limited to archery gear. In some areas, short range guns like shotguns, muzzleloaders and straight-walled rifle cartridges are permitted.

“We’ve always had some nice bucks living here. They tend to live a little longer as the hunting pressure is not as bad. There are definitely some real nice antlered deer in the suburbs and in the city. And with antler (point) restrictions, it’s gotten even better," he said.

At one point, Czech saw people in a pontoon boat in the Schuylkill River near King of Prussia, wearing orange gear. It turned out they were using the boat to access wooded areas to hunt,, and they had a doe on board. He said the style of the pontoon boat allowed them to get close to shore and into their secluded hunting areas.

Mild weather helped hunters explore the woods.

“For the two weeks of rifle season, we’ve had some very mild weather down here. Some days were in the 50s, 55 degrees. I think there were only two days that it really rained,” he said.

Hunters find ways to safely hunt in residential areas.

“A lot people are complaining about vehicle collisions (with deer), and property owners are talking about (the deer) eating all of their flowers. The only thing that really kills the deer down here are a few predators, automobiles and the few hunters who do get permission or are allowed to get into spots and help remove the deer,” Czech said.

With hunters using archery gear from tree stands, it’s a safe way to reduce the deer population in residential areas. “They are shooting toward the ground,” he said about people using bows and crossbows to harvest deer.

Deer colliding with vehicles:Ever hit an animal on the road? Pennsylvania ranks high for animal collisions

Where to hunt:Hunters share their tips for bagging deer on state game lands

Northeastern: On the lookout for one bear

“We still have a lot of birds up here,” Jonathan Bowman, state game warden for southern Susquehanna County, said about wild turkeys. In his Wildlife Management Unit 3C, he said, “I’m seeing them everywhere but there's not a lot of hunting pressure.”

The fall is slow, but there are a significant number of hunters who chase spring gobblers, he said.

“We’re slammed. There are guys out all over the place. It’s kind of odd we’re not seeing (hunters) in the fall,” he said.

Like other areas of the state, the deer kills have reached high numbers.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people successful from archery season up until the last day of the rifle deer season. I saw more trophy, good looking 8-point, 10-point, 6-point deer and a lot of kids (hunting), too," he said. "I never saw more successful hunters in a season than I did this year.”

The hunters were finding deer near farmers’ crop fields as they didn’t have a strong mast crop yield of acorns. The mild weather helped hunters stay on their stands as it wasn't too warm or too cold. “I think there were a lot of guys out and the way the weather was, there was just a lot of opportunity and good days to be out.”

In the northeastern part of the state, hunters killed more than 400 bears in the early seasons, which is 30 to 40 more than last year.

“It was a great early season,” he said. Hunters found bears feeding in corn and soybean fields.

He expected hunters to do well on farms as their regions received complaints over the summer and early fall about bears causing crop damage. He's aware of one bear that appears to have made it through the seasons.

“He’s every bit of 550 to 600 pounds plus. He’s still running around,” he said noting that a bear that size hasn’t appeared on any of the area’s harvest reports. “He’s a big boar.”

One of the challenges he faces in the rural county involves poaching of deer. “We definitely dealt with a lot of calls like that,” he said about people finding dead deer that were shot with a gun or bow at night. “It’s as bad, maybe worse than it’s ever been.”

The officers have been working on a variety of incidents to file charges. They have cases where people were hunting on Sundays that were closed to hunting and they also encountered hunters who purchased their license online but didn’t have their harvest tags that are mailed to the hunters. When big game hunting, you are required to have your tags with your license.

Hunting guide:Pennsylvania Hunting: What you need to know about the 2022-23 rules and dates

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Game wardens 'slammed' with hunters this fall for turkey, bear, deer