When it comes to hunting, the first day of buck season remains the main event for Pennsylvania sportsmen.

Statewide rifle season runs from Monday to Dec. 8 and although the number of hunters is not what they once were in Pennsyl­vania, hundreds of thousands of hunters will head into the woods tomorrow and over the next two weeks in search of the elusive whitetail buck.

“It’s a lot of tradition,” said 46-year-old Darin Hand of Tyrone, who started hunting when he was 12 and now hunts with his 13-year-old son and 21-year-old stepson.

“The kill isn’t even the fun of it, at this point,” Hand said, noting the chance to spend time in the outdoors and enjoy “the peace and quiet” is the big draw.

“You never know what you’re going to see,” Hand said.

Statewide, the number of bucks harvested during the two-week rifle season has increased each of the past three years, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

In that same time, more than a million deer were taken by hunters, and the first day remains the biggest day for bagging a buck, as 45 percent of the 2017 rifle season bucks were shot on opening day.

Hunters are restricted to antlered deer for the first five days, and then antlerless deer can also be shot starting on the first Saturday of the two-week season.

Last year was also the first year that more deer were taken on the first Saturday than on opening day, according to the Game Commission.

Bobby Theys Jr., of Portage describes himself as an avid hunter who has fond memories of hunting since he was 12 with his late grandfather, his father and his uncles.

“It’s tradition,” he said of why he hunts, although this year he has to take a break because of health problems.

Theys echoed other hunters when he said as far as the deer, it all depends on where you live and hunt.

Herds good in some areas

“My opinion on the herd is, at least in my area, the herd is doing good,” Theys said. “I see more and more each year and then when I go to other areas, I see way less.”

The 28-year-old said he sees deer throughout the year in his part of Cambria County when he is out hunting and fishing, or just walking in the woods, but if he is at his camp in the Hopewell area of Bedford County, he said it’s “hit or miss” as far as seeing deer.

As for Chronic Wasting Disease, he said his trail camera in Bedford has taken pictures of a few deer that looked sickly, but in his area of Cambria County, he hasn’t seen any deer that appear to be infected.

Chronic Wasting Disease continues to be a top concern for the Game Commission and officials are working to curtail the spread of the disease, first found in Penn­sylvania in 2012.

The disease, which affects cervids such as deer, elk and moose, is in 25 states and three Canadian provinces and continues to spread. The Game Commission has designated three Disease Management Areas that do impact hunting in Blair, Bedford, Cambria, Clearfield and Fulton counties.

“We don’t want to scare hunters away from hunting and tradition in Pennsylvania,” said Bert Einod­shofer, spokesman for the Game Commission’s Huntingdon-based South Central Region. Still, hunting in the DMAs bring with it special regulations aimed at slowing the spread of the disease.

While there is no evidence the disease, caused by an abnormal protein, is transferable to humans, it is contagious in deer and spread by body fluids. It’s found concentrated in certain parts of the animal — the brain, lymph nodes under the jaw and spinal column — and is always fatal as it attacks the animal’s central nervous system.

“You can’t diagnose it on the hoof,” Einodshofer said, pointing out that it can take one to four years for the infection to manifest itself with visible end-stage symptoms such as extreme loss of weight, listlessness, repetitive walking patterns and excessive thirst and urination.

CWD is spread through both deer-to-deer contact as well as soil and food contamination, so the regulations are geared toward eliminating the risk that contaminated body parts could be taken to new areas or disposed of where uninfected herds could be exposed.

Control of CWD

Deer shot in a DMA have to be processed and taken to a local taxidermist to control how and where the high-risk parts of the deer are disposed.

Einodshofer pointed out that special head collection boxes have been placed throughout the areas affected by CWD so hunters can take advantage of free testing.

“It’s paramount that hunters take advantage of those free boxes and give us as many heads to test as possible,” Einodshofer said.

It’s a matter of choice for the hunter as to whether to eat a deer infected by CWD, but the data collected will help the Game Com­mission track the disease, as well as let the hunter know if their animal is infected. Einodshofer said the results take four to six weeks and suggested hunters package deer separately so if one of the animals comes back positive and the wish to dispose of the meat, they can do so easily.

The Game Commission also will continue its random sampling from deer processors, he said. The special regulations also include more Anterless permits for the DMAs as part of the Game Commission’s deer management program.

“Obviously, we’re not going to keep deer from moving on their own,” Einodshofer said, noting that the restrictions are ways to help keep CWD from spreading farther from the areas where it is already known to exist.

Disease causes restrictions

The disease also has meant restrictions on urine-based scents in DMAs because of the risk that the urine used to make the scent is infected. It has also made it so salt blocks are not allowed in the DMAs. The Game Commission is also urging people to stop feeding deer to help eliminate the spread of CWD.

Also, deer carcasses and high-risk parts cannot be brought back from other states, including neighboring states such as Maryland.

“It’s very concerning to us,” Einodshofer said of CWD, especially in relation to the Game Commission’s efforts to grow the elk population. He said elk are especially susceptible to the disease, and among white-tailed deer, every year sees an increase in infections.

“We’re at more positives before rifle season this year than last year,” Einodshofer said, noting the number of known deer with CWD has doubled each year since 2012.

“We’re not trying to make hunters’ lives more difficult,” Einodshofer said, admitting that traditions and habits are difficult to change. Also difficult to change is the trend of fewer hunters, especially among youth.

Even with the traditions of hunting getting passed down to a new generation, the number of rifle season licenses sold each year in Pennsylvania is on the decline, according to the Game Commission.

In 2006, 681,880 adult resident licenses were sold compared to 629,805 in 2016. Junior resident license sales have dropped more dramatically, from 45,818 in 2006 to just 28,111 in 2016 — although junior combination licenses that include archery and muzzleloader seasons have actually increased from 52,345 in 2006 to 54,115 in 2016.

“It’s been declining, but not as much as other states,” Einod­s­hofer said.

Mentor hunting program

Einodshofer pointed out that the hunting population is getting older, and in the next 10 years, there won’t be the numbers of younger hunters coming up to replace them. To address the issue, the Game Commission implemented the mentor hunting program in 2009 so that kids between 7 and 11 years old can hunt with an adult under specific guidelines.

“I don’t know how much more sportsmen — or the Game Commission — can do for youth hunters,” Ron Ayers Jr., secretary of the Tyrone Sportsmen’s Asso­cia­tion, said at the club’s meeting last week. About a dozen of the club’s members gathered for their monthly meeting and shared some of their insights and concerns about the state of hunting in 2018.

Those concerns include the closing of access roads as the Game Commission acquires lands, something that can make it difficult for older hunters who have been used to driving into their hunting areas and now are forced to make difficult or impossible walks to those areas.

Sunday hunting and the allowance of crossbows earlier in the fall also worry hunters who fear too many bucks will be taken and too early, before they can breed. The hunting pressure on white-tailed deer comes also with a worry that efforts to get people to hunt will ultimately hurt the sport.

Ayers pointed out that the Game Commission has expanded hunting to younger and younger kids through its mentoring program and added special hunting days for them, along with seniors, disabled hunters and junior hunters between the ages of 12 and 18.

He worries about the impact more hunting, especially if Sunday hunting is implemented, will have on the herd, as well as the size and quality of the bucks still in the woods by the time rifle season starts in late November.

Many of the members wonder if the issue isn’t more about revenue than the herd and said if hunting is important to people, they’ll make the time and take the effort without extra incentives.

“I don’t think hunting is as important as it used to be,” said Ayers, who recalled years gone by when the parking lot of the club on Baughman Cemetery Road in Snyder Township was lined with hunters and their bucks for the club’s big buck contest on the first day.

“It was a big deal,” Ayers said. “It’s still important to some guys.”

More information on Chronic Wasting Disease and the Game Commission’s DMAs can be found at https://www.pgc.pa.govWildlifeWildlife-RelatedDiseases/Pages/ChronicWastingDisease.aspx#WhatIsCWD

Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.