Wayne and Pike County hunters bagging trophy bucks

Kevin Edwards
·4 min read
Brody Walsh bagged this huge 8-pointer at the Swago Hunting Club in Damascus. The 11-year-old was out with his Dad and used a .243 to make the kill from a distance of about 120 yards.
Brody Walsh bagged this huge 8-pointer at the Swago Hunting Club in Damascus. The 11-year-old was out with his Dad and used a .243 to make the kill from a distance of about 120 yards.

HONESDALE — The Commonwealth's 2021 rifle deer season got underway this past weekend as local hunters headed out into Penn's Woods in near-record numbers.

This year's campaign officially kicked-off at dawn on Saturday and continued with another rare opportunity for Sunday hunting, just the third of the calendar year.

Not surprisingly, photos of Wayne and Pike County hunters have been pouring in to the TCI Sports Desk since Day One.

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.

More: Wayne and Pike County hunters bagged big bucks on opening weekend of the season

More: Clarence "Juney" Rickard is a Wayne County legend

More: Local hunters harvest Big Bucks in 2020

Breakin' It Down

According to the PA Game Commission, hunters harvested 435,180 deer in the 2020-21 seasons.

That number was 12 percent higher than the 2019-20 harvest of 389,431 and the highest harvest in 15 years.

Antlered deer comprised a large part of that total.

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.

According to the National Deer Association, in 2019 (the most recent year for which full statistics are available) PA 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.

Pennsylvania 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 began Saturday, Nov. 27, and continued on Sunday, Nov. 28, providing hunters a full weekend to be afield.

Deer season runs through Dec. 11, with the exception of 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.

Jamie Crum celebrated buck season by harvesting this massive 10-pointer in the woods near Honesdale.
Jamie Crum celebrated buck season by harvesting this massive 10-pointer in the woods near Honesdale.

Pros & Cons

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.”

Shane Ellis of Honesdale harvested this nice 8-pointer while patrolling Penn's Woods in Texas Township.
Shane Ellis of Honesdale harvested this nice 8-pointer while patrolling Penn's Woods in Texas Township.

Big Bucks!

Sadly, the Tri-County Independent offices on 8th Street in Honesdale have been closed to the public since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

That fact led to the cancellation of our nearly four-decade tradition of sponsoring a contest. However, while we can't hold the contest, we will once again publish your Big Buck photos!

Today's story features three pictures of successful hunters from all over our readership area.

First up is Brody Walsh, an 11-year-old who hunts with his Dad. Brody bagged a beautiful 8-pointer at the Swago Hunting Club in Damascus. He used a .243 to make the kill from a distance of 120 yards.

Jamie Crum also shared a great photo with us. The veteran Wayne County hunter harvested a huge 10-pointer while patrolling Penn's Woods near the Honesdale Borough.

Our third and final photo comes to us courtesy of Taylor Rickard. Her fiance, Shane Ellis, brought home a nice 8-pointer he bagged while hunting in Texas Township.

This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: Outdoors rifle deer season Wayne and Pike County hunting big bucks