There’s no question about it, when it comes to hunting in Pennsylvania the whitetail deer is king. No other hunting in our state garners as much attention as deer hunting does and I wouldn’t be surprised it’s the same for most other states. In spite of what some may say, deer are still readily available, and today there are opportunities to legally take more than one deer in Pennsylvania. Seasons have been expanded and added, so today’s hunters have many additional opportunities to hunt deer, making it even more enticing for those of us who still pursue hunting.

While deer hunting remains supreme, it’s probably fair to say that turkey and bear hunting follow closely. I’m guessing that more people hunt turkeys than bears, but they both have a good following. Bears number around 20,000 in Pennsylvania and they are spreading to areas where they weren’t found before. Turkeys may be down a bit in some parts of the state, but in some areas like around here, I’m seeing and hearing of good numbers of birds. If you are into hunting, the allure of taking one of the “big three” — deer, turkey or bear is high on the agenda. While nailing a rabbit or squirrel may be fun hunting, it hardly calls for any serious picture taking ceremonies.

While small game hunting may lack some of the appeal of hunting big game, some other things may be contributing to a lower participation rate. Let’s face it; hunting wild pheasants is pretty much a thing of the past. There are some stocked birds available, but there’s a lot of competition in some locations for the few birds that are out there. Even grouse hunters are having a bad time of it since the grouse population is suffering from losses in recent years. While rabbit populations seem to be stable in most locations, there are still fewer people hunting them. The annual Game Commission survey shows that in the early 1990s more than 350,000 people hunted rabbits, but by 2014 that number had dropped to around 75,000. I’m sure there are far fewer people hunting squirrels as well; to be honest, I don’t know of anybody who actively pursues squirrels on a regular basis these days.

While hunting numbers, in general, are declining, there is a significant shift in hunter interest. In the 70s and 80s Pennsylvania boasted putting over a million hunters afield each year but only 25 percent of them bought an archery tag. Today of the 700,000 that buy licenses over half of them purchase an archery tag. I suspect that legalizing the crossbow, which turns archery hunting into a much easier, no-practice-needed situation has brought a lot of the additional hunters into the archery hunting world.

While hunting the “big three” has remained a top priority for most Pennsylvania hunters hunting numbers overall continue to decline — not just in Pennsylvania, but in most other states as well. There’s a lot of talk about why numbers are declining, and that would be another story or two just listing the probable reasons for the decline. People are too busy, the anti-hunting movement, kids are more interested in their RDs (RD-“rectangular device” that’s always in their hands) or they are too involved in other sporting activities to take time to hunt. All of this may be a part of the decline; in the meantime, it might be a good idea to encourage or even take a youngster out hunting. A squirrel hunt would be a good start; they’re abundant, and it’s a pretty safe bet you could pull off a successful hunt and a good meal to go with it.