Pennsylvania DMAP Tags

[DouglasSpear]

As some of you DHC regulars may know, I'm an Ohio hunter who hunts the rifle season in PA since we have a family cabin with some land butting right up to state game lands. As some of you may also recall, I have had some really bad experience as of late with the hunting in PA due to the doe tag allocation for non-residents in the WMU that I hunt in. They are always out in my WMU by the time non-residents get the chance to order them. We finally found a way around not being able to manage all the does in our area (which is why we aren't seeing bucks - they don't have to move to find a doe). We have managed to get 2 DMAP (Deer Management Assistance Program) tags. We have 4 hunters who hunt at our cabin and we will alternate who gets the DMAP tags each year. So I have the chance to get a buck, doe, or both this year in PA. Let's just hope the weather holds for the 3 days that I will be hunting there. Anyone else participate in a similar program?

[NYBuckhunter]

Yeah they have a similar program in NY. The doe permits are allocated by WMU based on the DEC count and reported kills per unit each year. Some years we get plenty of them, other years they are tough to come by. I have had 4 doe permits for the last 3 or 4 years.

[DouglasSpear]

Yeah they have a similar program in NY. The doe permits are allocated by WMU based on the DEC count and reported kills per unit each year. Some years we get plenty of them, other years they are tough to come by. I have had 4 doe permits for the last 3 or 4 years.

That's good. We've just recently been able to get DMAP tags. The real problem is with the PA Game Commission corruption and the lack of proper deer management (PA is using a deer management program developed by the National Audubon Society). Plus, they used to have a separate doe season from the buck season, which was awesome. For the past X amount of years they merged them both together and made it near impossible for the non-residents in our area to get a doe tag and the does heavily outweigh the bucks, totally ruining deer hunting around us. Luckily we can start doing something about it.