Wayne and Pike County hunters bagged big bucks on opening weekend of the season
HONESDALE — The Commonwealth's 2021 deer rifle season started with the proverbial “Bang!” this past weekend as local hunters staked out Penn's Woods looking for that always-elusive trophy buck.
This year's campaign officially got underway at dawn on Saturday and continued with another rare opportunity for Sunday hunting, just the third of the calendar year.
By Saturday evening, photos of Wayne and Pike County hunters were starting to flood into the TCI Sports Desk.
And, while we no longer sponsor a Big Buck Contest as such, we're happy to publish photos of your legally-harvested deer in print and on our website.
Please email your high resolution photos to Sports Editor Kevin Edwards at kevsports7@gmail.com.
Photos received will be published in the order they are received.
By the Numbers
According to the PA Game Commission, this year's deer rifle season features abundant whitetails and increased flexibility in when and where hunters can harvest them.
Hunters harvested an estimated 435,180 deer in the 2020-21 seasons. That was 12 percent higher than the 2019-20 harvest of 389,431 and the highest harvest in 15 years.
Antlered deer were a large part of that. Hunters took 174,780 bucks last year. That was up from 163,240 in 2019-20 and 147,750 in 2018-19, and the most ever in the antler restrictions era.
No other state in the Northeast can match those numbers, not even when taking land mass into account.
According to the National Deer Association, in 2019 (the most recent year for which full statistics are available) Pennsylvania ranked second in the nation in buck harvest per square mile, trailing only Michigan.
It produced almost three times as many bucks per square mile as any other state in the Northeast.
Two-thirds of those bucks were mature animals at least 2.5 years old, too.
Hunters also did well on antlerless deer. PA ranked second nationally in 2019 in doe harvest per square mile, behind only Delaware. It produced two times as many does per square mile as any other Northeast state.
Yet, for all that, deer populations remain stable across most of the state’s 23 Wildlife Management Units (WMUs).
The 14-day 2021 statewide firearms season is designed to maximize flexibility, in three ways.
First, it begins on Saturday, Nov. 27, and continues on Sunday, Nov. 28, providing hunters a full weekend to be afield.
Deer season then runs through Dec. 11, closing only on Sunday, Dec. 5.
Second, hunters with the proper licenses can harvest either an antlered or antlerless deer at any time throughout the season anywhere in the state.
That’s a change from last year, when just 10 WMUs allowed concurrent buck and doe hunting.
Flexibility
That won’t necessarily lead to more antlerless deer taken overall.
The number of antlerless tags available this season was reduced in many WMUs compared to last to account for the additional days of antlerless hunting.
Even where tag numbers are up, the increase in tags is smaller than it would have been had seven days of concurrent hunting remained in place.
Additionally, the Game Commission this year made it possible for hunters willing to use antlerless tags to get more of them if the allocation hasn’t been sold out. It adopted a regulation change allowing hunters to hold up to six antlerless licenses at a time.
That’s up from three previously, which is designed to give hunters desiring to take deer the opportunity to do so.
“It truly is an exciting time to be a Pennsylvania deer hunter,” said Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans.
“Hunters have the opportunity to pursue large-racked bucks in numbers unlike anything we’ve seen in more than a century. Plus, they’ve got more flexibility when it comes to deciding when and where to take antlerless deer.
“We know that’s important. Hunters busy with family, work and school commitments consistently list lack of time as the biggest obstacle to getting into the woods.
“These changes address that and set the stage for folks to make some wonderful memories.”
Big Bucks!
The Tri-County Independent building on 8th Street in Honesdale has been closed to the public since the start of the pandemic.
That fact, unfortunately. led to the cancellation of our nearly four-decade tradition of sponsoring a contest. But, while we can't hold the contest this year, we will once again publish your Big Buck photos!
The first picture to arrive this season features Western Wayne teacher and coach Tim Hess.
The veteran outdoorsman bagged a beautiful 8-pointer while patrolling the woods in and around the Welcome Lake Rod & Gun Club.
Next up is a terrific picture showing Brody Patrisso with a nice 8-pointer of his own. Brody is 13-years-old and bagged the beast while hunting near Damascus Township.
Finally, we have the father-son duo of Matt and Ethan Corso. Ethan is 12 and harvested a massive 10-pointer. He was also hunting at the Welcome Lake Rod & Gun Club.
This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Deer rifle season hunting Wayne County
