Fall/winter hunt suggestions

[Tree sleeper]

Here's some science from the PGC themselves:

Archery hunters annually account for 11% of the fall turkey harvest, according to the PGC own 2018-2027 wild turkey management plan.

If the PGC is scientifically convinced of the strongest statistical correlation between weapon choice and fall turkey harvest success, prompting them to act immediately, well, why not also ban crossbows and compounds too? Scientific data shows archers harvest about 1,100 fall turkeys in PA every year. Is 1,100 every year scientifically acceptable?

But, no, the PGC chose to only ban single projective weapons, which included handguns and muzzleloaders, all to scientifically save birds. Scientifically speaking, in that same PGC management plan, handguns and flintlocks combined accounted for 0.5% of the average annual fall harvest in PA. Let me fill in the blank here, 0.5% was 54 turkeys harvested in the fall of 2016, the last year of data collected.

So 1,100 is OK, but 54 is scientifically unacceptable? Think politics might factor in here...?

Put 54 in context. Did you ever ponder how many turkeys are run over on the turnpike, I99, and I80 every spring as winter flocks disperse? Think more than 54?

Data is data, and PGC published its '18-'27 management plan with agency goals, none of which in 2018 argued for a single projectile ban. Yet, in 2021 / 2022, the PGC reversed agency course, decided to conveniently set aside their scientific data, and ban all single projectile weapons to save the turkeys.

So why the ban on guns, but not crossbows and compounds? That is the scientific question. Someone somewhere wanted rifles gone in the fall as a policy, and the PGC elected to go against its own scientific data and bend their knee to that outside interest.

Its just science. Or maybe its just politics. Maybe someone in Harrisburg got a kickback to advance a policy goal over a scientific goal. We'll never know.

Go to the meetings like I do. It's just like having inlines in the after Christmas late season. I'm not wild about that. I do not mind flintlocks in fall turkey with a projectile, I said I do not want rifles shooting 3000 fps that's not what flinters do.

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[paboxcall]

Go to the meetings like I do. It's just like having inlines in the after Christmas late season. I'm not wild about that. I do not mind flintlocks in fall turkey with a projectile, I said I do not want rifles shooting 3000 fps that's not what flinters do.

I've sent the equivalent of the above data to the commissioners. Falls on deaf ears. I don't think my pockets are as deep as the NWTF, who's policy agenda, coincidentally or not, aligns with the PGC decision on single projectiles.

That is why this decision wasn't science based.

So if the PGC is wholly susceptible to 3rd party lobbying influence...what other decisions are they making which are policy driven rather than science driven....policy over science is a slippery slope, and not just in wildlife management.

[Tree sleeper]

Go to the meetings like I do. It's just like having inlines in the after Christmas late season. I'm not wild about that. I do not mind flintlocks in fall turkey with a projectile, I said I do not want rifles shooting 3000 fps that's not what flinters do.

I've sent the equivalent of the above data to the commissioners. Falls on deaf ears. I don't think my pockets are as deep as the NWTF, who's policy agenda, coincidentally or not, aligns with the PGC decision on single projectiles.

That is why this decision wasn't science based.

So if the PGC is wholly susceptible to 3rd party lobbying influence...what other decisions are they making which are policy driven rather than science driven....policy over science is a slippery slope, and not just in wildlife management.

I know they're useless. Right now, it's all about the opening Monday of buck season.

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[eggshell]

This happens all around the country. Sadly the NWTF's money has a lot of influence and it's not all good for us hunters. They are driven by southern management philosophies that aren't as applicable in the north.

[paboxcall]

...I said I do not want rifles shooting 3000 fps that's not what flinters do.

Regarding rifles and fall hunter safety. PGC cites, in their own 2018-2027 turkey management plan, more shooting accidents happen in the spring than the fall season.

According to data collected by the PGC, shotguns provide no additional safety factor in the field. During spring seasons, there were <2 hunting shooting related incidents per 100,000 hunters, while fall season with rifles in the mix, there were <0.5 shooting related incidents per 100,000 hunters (p. ix, 19).

So safety could not have been the driver behind PGC banning single projectile firearms, either. Again, when policy drives decision making, instead of science, down the steep and slippery slope we all go.

Like I said before, with three highly favorable weather patterns during the past three hatches in the northern tier, the PGC will claim the single projectile ban a total success. In fact, scientifically speaking, their point will be nothing more than a spurious correlation between flocks and prohibition of a particular type of firearm, when in fact its a third variable problem. That third variable, weather, the PGC commissioners will conveniently ignore in order to further and permanently advance a policy objective.

Link to the 2018-2027 wild turkey management plan:

PGC Wild Turkey Management 2018-2027