Bagging The Big One: 5 Spots Local Hunters May Get Lucky

Deer hunting season in Pennsylvania begins Nov. 26.

According to the Pennsylvania Hunting and Game Commission, in the 2006-07 season hunters harvested an estimated 361,560 deer, a total similar to the 2005-06 estimated harvest of 354,390.

Hunters took 135,290 antlered deer in the 2006-07 seasons, compared to the previous year's harvest of 120,500.

Also, hunters harvested 226,270 antlerless deer in 2006-07, compared to 233,890 in 2005-06.

So where are your chances of finding deer? Rob Hilliard, a wildlife journalist, said Western Pennsylvania’s hills are major considerations for hunters to keep in mind.

“The deer don't like walking up and down these hills any more than we do, so you want to find places where there are breaks in the hills, breaks in the ridges. We refer to these as funnels," Hilliard said. "The deer are going to naturally gravitate toward those areas to avoid walking up the steep side of the hill and if you can set up a spot that overlooks one of those funnels you'll have an excellent spot for opening day.”

Hilliard also said: "This is an excellent year for mass crop. That means acorns, which is a primary food source for deer particularly since we had a cold, wet spring and we don’t have much soft mass like apples."

One place where you can find a lot of oak mass this year is in State Game Land 95, which is in the northern part of Butler County.

In particular one area of the game land referred to as the glade is an excellent location for buck.

According to Hilliard, State Game Land 117 near Burgettstown is also a terrific location and is made up of thousands of acres. It does get a fair amount of pressure, but it is big enough that you can find some spots out of the way to get away from some of the other hunters.

Another excellent location that tends to get overlooked for deer hunting in Western Pennsylvania is Laurel Hanna reservoir Westmoreland County basically located between Route 30 and Route 22 just east of Latrobe.

Hilliard said it doesn’t get lot of hunting pressure and has a lot of big deer especially as you get near the reservoir. Game Land 302 is in the western part of Greene County near the Washington County West Virginia border.

According to Hilliard, “It's going to be a really good location if you want to get away from some of the other hunters and still have a chance to hunt on public land.”

Another public hunting location that you can try out this year is Raccoon Creek State Park in Beaver County.

Hilliard said it's an excellent location in between Route 18 and Route 30 in the southern part of the county.

Previous Stories: November 21, 2007: Hunters Debate: Sit Or Move While Hunting November 20, 2007: Windy Days Present Challenge For Deer Hunters