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Just beware that there are other seasons open concurrently with Pa's early muzzleloader season. I normally skip the early season simply because at that time of year Id rather small game hunt.

You will be sharing the woods with squirrel hunters, grouse hunters, and archery hunters, maybe not in that order or number but you will not be alone for sure.
 
PA Game Commission issues some strange laws. they state that you must dispose of the skin, and other parts of the deer in the garbage when you finish butchering them . I was told that it becomes household refuse! I had to call the Game commission on this one, I aske what happens if you dispose of the deer parts in the woods? I was told that I could be fined. So I had to ask what they did to the deer that died in the woods of natural causes and couldn't get themselves to a garbage can. The poor fellow actually tried to answer me! This and their explanation as to why they limited the taking of small game to 40 cal or below, " people were shooting squirrels with 50 caibers" caused me to lose faith in our game department.
I asked them the same question. They hung up on me.
 
I asked them the same question. They hung up on me.
PA Game commission grew tired of receiving calls about IDIOTS leaving skeletons/parts of skeletons of deer along road sides and in people's yards etc. It is now considered litter, same as a beer can Hey if you don't want a couple bucks for your hide that's your business. But the skulls, bones and other parts aren't supposed to be just dumped on other folks's property and some find such refuse offensive. There are probably a few concerned citizens every year that think a cannibal has done in a neighbor. To me it is a dumb stupid thing to do. If you own the property and want it to go back to the earth, so be it. so long as it is on your property. Guy down the road from me, called in a complaint about a hunter that kept parking in his yard and then walking into the woods on the other side of the road. He woke up one morning to find deer parts scattered all over his yard and entrails strung on his laundry lines. I know who it was, reported him for violations I saw until he lost his hunting privileges in PA for life.
 
I believe there is an early bear season in Pa. a couple of days during the early flint season.
There is no "early flintlock season. An early muzzle loader season in October and the Flint season that lasts 3 weeks after Christmas You gonna go after that Bear sighted over near Fredericksville. That's only about 8 miles from you right? I spent a lot of time over your way when I was in high school and college and family still owns some hunting ground over at 5 points.
 
Heck, there was a bear roaming around in Topton not to long ago! There's alot of good hunting ground around here but all you see is Posted, Posted, Posted.
 
Heck, there was a bear roaming around in Topton not to long ago! There's alot of good hunting ground around here but all you see is Posted, Posted, Posted.
My grandfather would go out to some family property in November and set up a tent for 2 weeks and go small game hunting, help relatives with harvest etc. He grew up a few miles SW of Fredericksville. My Grandmother was one of the many Biebers from near Mertztown. Half my family tree is buried at the Churches in Dryville and New Jerusalem. One of her great grandfathers was Jacob Angstadt, one of the Angstadt gunsmiths that made long rifles in New Jerusalem and later Kutztown. .
 
I have been thinking about the devastating fires out West, and the wildlife kill-off. How many deer, bear, and all the rest have been killed is anybody's guess, but it must be massive. Maybe people in those states should consider not hunting for a bit: give the creatures a chance to rebound, if that is possible at all. Tragic...
 
I am actually an Angstadt myself. My grandfather was Nelson Angstadt from Brookdale near Alburtis.
Hi cousin! As I recall, the original Anstadt and his wife came to Pa from a little Town of Gumbrechtshoffen in Alsace-Lorraine. A German speaking area of what is now France. He set up a gun shop on the Lobachsville Pike just on the south side of New Jerusalem in the 1730's. A few of his children were older and had to finish service in the army before they could come over to Pennsylvania, so they came over several years later.
 
RB, the game kill from those fires isn't massive. Most of the healthy critters figure out how to get out of the way. The sick and the very young have the highest mortality. I'm just back from a couple of the western fires (I'm a Pennsylvanian); the Red Salmon Complex in Northern California and the Theilson Fire in Southern Oregon and have been working fires outside of Pennsylvania since 2002 and inside Pa since I was 16. The green-up that occurs shortly after the fire passes through is very nutrient rich and often leads to higher birthrates for a few years. If you normally hunt an area that has had a hot fire pass through wait a year or two before you re-hunt that area, not because you will be putting unneeded stress on the animals but because trees that have had their roots burned off will still be falling. Hunt an area outside the burned area and hire a local guide, they need your support.
 
PA Game Commission issues some strange laws. they state that you must dispose of the skin, and other parts of the deer in the garbage when you finish butchering them . I was told that it becomes household refuse! I had to call the Game commission on this one, I aske what happens if you dispose of the deer parts in the woods? I was told that I could be fined. So I had to ask what they did to the deer that died in the woods of natural causes and couldn't get themselves to a garbage can. The poor fellow actually tried to answer me! This and their explanation as to why they limited the taking of small game to 40 cal or below, " people were shooting squirrels with 50 caibers" caused me to lose faith in our game department.
I used to hunt a game lands that had a phone tower service road that lead to it. There was a large trench dug there that the road kill brigade used to dump carcasses in. We'd always stop by it to see if any nice deer had neen dumped there. Once in a while youd see a nice buck in there. Sometimes youd see evidence where somebody would help themselves to the antlers. Nobody ever complained about the deer being dumped there because it was on game lands. And No, I never helped myself to any antlers. The stench was terrible. You couldnt get within ten feet of the hole.
 
I used to hunt a game lands that had a phone tower service road that lead to it. There was a large trench dug there that the road kill brigade used to dump carcasses in. We'd always stop by it to see if any nice deer had neen dumped there. Once in a while youd see a nice buck in there. Sometimes youd see evidence where somebody would help themselves to the antlers. Nobody ever complained about the deer being dumped there because it was on game lands. And No, I never helped myself to any antlers. The stench was terrible. You couldnt get within ten feet of the hole.


Back in the 1960's my father was a state Game Protector (warden) in SE PA and was part of the crew of game commission people who would pick up road kills. In the northern end of the county they went into a sanitary landfill on a military base. Anything to the south went to a special field in a game refuge. I tagged along with my father on occasion. That field in the south end in the refuge, would be plowed once a year. The ground was full of bleached bones. When I read an account of the Russians killing off Indians by forcing them off a cliff onto the rocky coast below and read that the bones still litter the beach, I sort of already had the picture in my mind.
 

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