PA Long Range Season

[Joel Russo]

I figured it looked familiar.

 

[YZEATER]

Nice setups and glassing areas guys. I'm from down near Pittsburgh and hunt north of there. Our long range places only go out to around 500. We wouldn't know what to do with those areas.

 

[longrangebo]

We have been longrange hunting the Jersey mills area for about 40 years, have 3 nice spots , only got 1 ling range this year. Used to hunt up on a big rock at browns run.

 

[drags]

We have been longrange hunting the Jersey mills area for about 40 years, have 3 nice spots , only got 1 ling range this year. Used to hunt up on a big rock at browns run.View attachment 85481 View attachment 85482

Hi Longrangegebo, you fellas have a nice setup there. How far can you shoot there and could you give us some details on your rifles (what calibers) your viewing glass ect.

drags

 

[longrangebo]

We have been longrange hunting the Jersey mills area for about 40 years, have 3 nice spots , only got 1 ling range this year. Used to hunt up on a big rock at browns run.View attachment 85481 View attachment 85482

At the first place we can go from 5 to about 1800 yds, the second place is about 7 to 17-1800 yds The gun on the bench is a 338-408 and the other one is 338-378 the binos are toyko battleship made in japan the other is Baush lomb american battleship all hyped to 27 power The smaller pair are miyauchis

 

[yobuck]

Check your glasses Bo, they appear to be all fogged up to me. lol
Anyway Lowell is alive and well as can be expected. He was on his old lookout this year near Leetonia and coached/coaxed? 4 guys into 4 nice bucks. We drove by and blew the horn at him on the first day.
After that he came over to Driftwood and visited George and I for a few days and showed us the video which also included 5 different bear on the first day of buck.
George and I did a lot of driving around this year since were still able to at least do that. We drove from Liberty to Slate Run and found at least 90% of the camps to be empty on the first day of buck season.
We saw very few cars parked along the roads and didn't see a dead deer anywhere. Not a single l/r hunter at the Bradley Wales vista on the first day. There was a group at the Blackwell lookout but they were playing cards.
The old guys are dying off and the young guys would apparently rather play video games.

 

[longrangebo]

Check your glasses Bo, they appear to be all fogged up to me. lol
Anyway Lowell is alive and well as can be expected. He was on his old lookout this year near Leetonia and coached/coaxed? 4 guys into 4 nice bucks. We drove by and blew the horn at him on the first day.
After that he came over to Driftwood and visited George and I for a few days and showed us the video which also included 5 different bear on the first day of buck.
George and I did a lot of driving around this year since were still able to at least do that. We drove from Liberty to Slate Run and found at least 90% of the camps to be empty on the first day of buck season.
We saw very few cars parked along the roads and didn't see a dead deer anywhere. Not a single l/r hunter at the Bradley Wales vista on the first day. There was a group at the Blackwell lookout but they were playing cards.
The old guys are dying off and the young guys would apparently rather play video games.

Nice to hear from you buddy, we had a bad year, only one buck long range and another from a tree stand, your right no hunters. The commission did it handing out doe permits, the hunters are the ones killing them though! What kid would rather go hunting and see nothing for 4-5 days or play games? We are a dying breed and it wont come back soon, but I love longrange hunting HaHaHa You should go back south and warm up!

 

[yobuck]

I am back south Bo, got out of there as soon as it was over.
Batteries are being charged as I type this and I plan on bending a rod before the week is over.
I agree to a point about the deer situation, but only to a point.
Go out spotting and you see lots of them, but during the day maybe none. Could it be that deer mentality and habits have changed, but ours haven't?
There is a group of hunters having several camps in Sinnemahoning who work very hard driving those steep sidehills.
I'm told by a reliable source they killed 19 legal bucks the first week.
How many small ones were passed over in order for them to do that?

 

[Kevin Cram]

I hunt mainly around the Sinnemahoning area. We saw lots of deer if your willing to pack in for them. Almost everyone in our camp got a buck this year. Took a ride up Nanny run this year and there were groups of guys sitting on every location. Had to be 20 guys all glassing the same hill The road spots are way over hunted and rarely do you see good bucks in them. Most of our spots are at least a mile back off any driveable road and you better have eaten your wheaties to get the deer out.

This is last years deer I took at 840 yards with my 338-408 Chey-Tac.

 

[yobuck]

Way to go Kevin, being young (and good), does have its perks.
Fact is though that on the first day of the season there was just one of those Nanny run lookouts occupied and that was by my oldest son and granddaughter. The others were empty apparently including Jakes over in the hollow.
They were hunted harder after some of the tailgate bunch was thrown out of the trailer park.
You are absolutely correct in your assessment of the energy level of many l/r hunters however.
In the 70s and 80s you could arrive at one of those lookouts at 5 am
and have 75 to 100 cars pass by daylite on the first day heading into Quehanna.
Today you could almost lay on the road with no fear of being run over, and be lucky to count 100 cars in a week.
All of which means way less hunter pressure moving deer so guys like us can see them.

 

[gunsmith1012]

Good to see you on here kevin. Nice buck you got. I hope you picked out some of your work on my photos. Montour County Rifle is represented in the valley of the pines by me for sure. You are right about packing in to the spots, half of mine are way back in and my easy spots are off dcnr roads or pipelines. The lack of hunting pressure is really killing a lot of the old spots in my area. I waited for years to get some of my spots and by the time i got them they where hunted out.

 

[yobuck]

Lets be honest here guys, packing in in PA still means you are not very far from a road. Fact is you might be closer to one after packing in, than the distance you walked from your vehicle. And we wont count the many many miles of pipelines and power lines which in many cases can also be driven on.
This was my 70th season hunting that part of the state, and the only real change is all the gates which now close off access by vehicle to some of the areas. That and over 300 camps that used to exist before the area we now know as Quehanna existed, including our old one.
Yes some places can pose issues as for retrieving a dead animal, but that's a choice we make, and there are ways of addressing that.
What it takes is young people who have the interest in pursuing that activity. And not very many are doing that as compared to past years.
As for the bigger bucks being confined to the more remote areas, that's just not so. They are where you find them and in many cases that's where we live also. The whole area is remote, even the towns are shrinking away as compared to 50 years ago. 20 miles to the nearest store or gas station. 50 years ago there were 4 gas stations and 2 stores just in Sinnemahoning. Even the sportsmans club is having problems existing.
The nicest buck ive seen taken in all my years there was taken this year right along a well traveled road at about 80 yds by a long range hunter friend on his way to a spot he hunts. 12 very nice points with a very heavy 22" rack. First 12 pointer ive ever seen shot.
Yet the fact is that today, unlike in years past you might ride around the back roads all season and not see a deer.
Areas that produced well for long rangers in past years aren't producing as well today for one reason. And that reason is far less woods hunters moving deer off the tops where its easy hunting, and onto the sidehills where guys like us can see them.
Take a look at (archery) buck kill numbers today as compared to 10 years ago and that's also an indicator of why we have a lower hunter turnout in rifle season.
So in summation, its still my opinion that scouting out the food and signs is important, but otherwise it really has little to do with being or doing anything unique, other than putting in the time at any of the many good long range locations thruout the north central part of the state, and be both lucky and good.

 

[longrangebo]

Lets be honest here guys, packing in in PA still means you are not very far from a road. Fact is you might be closer to one after packing in, than the distance you walked from your vehicle. And we wont count the many many miles of pipelines and power lines which in many cases can also be driven on.
This was my 70th season hunting that part of the state, and the only real change is all the gates which now close off access by vehicle to some of the areas. That and over 300 camps that used to exist before the area we now know as Quehanna existed, including our old one.
Yes some places can pose issues as for retrieving a dead animal, but that's a choice we make, and there are ways of addressing that.
What it takes is young people who have the interest in pursuing that activity. And not very many are doing that as compared to past years.
As for the bigger bucks being confined to the more remote areas, that's just not so. They are where you find them and in many cases that's where we live also. The whole area is remote, even the towns are shrinking away as compared to 50 years ago. 20 miles to the nearest store or gas station. 50 years ago there were 4 gas stations and 2 stores just in Sinnemahoning. Even the sportsmans club is having problems existing.
The nicest buck ive seen taken in all my years there was taken this year right along a well traveled road at about 80 yds by a long range hunter friend on his way to a spot he hunts. 12 very nice points with a very heavy 22" rack. First 12 pointer ive ever seen shot.
Yet the fact is that today, unlike in years past you might ride around the back roads all season and not see a deer.
Areas that produced well for long rangers in past years aren't producing as well today for one reason. And that reason is far less woods hunters moving deer off the tops where its easy hunting, and onto the sidehills where guys like us can see them.
Take a look at (archery) buck kill numbers today as compared to 10 years ago and that's also an indicator of why we have a lower hunter turnout in rifle season.
So in summation, its still my opinion that scouting out the food and signs is important, but otherwise it really has little to do with being or doing anything unique, other than putting in the time at any of the many good long range locations thruout the north central part of the state, and be both lucky and good.

Very well said , young fellow !

 

[Buck Buster]

Fellow hunters: You can only go in halfway, after that your coming out the other side. Granted there are some places yet that have multiple mountains lined up with no roads, but they are few. And when they are over hunted, then what? Also there are more and more roads, shopping malls, housing developments, and just plain houses being built every day that are eating up the available habitat, they call this injustice progress. Good luck hunting and be safe