Food sources abundant for archery season opener

Hunters will find excellent food conditions when they head afield for Saturday's opening of the archery deer season.

The best bet for meeting up with a good whitetail buck the first several weeks of archery season will be to hunt the areas where they are feeding, or to hunt a travel route between feeding and bedding areas.

If the buck is an old, wise trophy, he probably will go nocturnal when he senses hunting pressure. But there is always a chance of meeting up with him right at dusk or dawn.

Through much of Cameron and Potter counties, the white oak acorn crop this year is abundant. Early in the archery season, before the rut begins to kick in, deer patterns will focus on feeding upon this plentiful supply.

Some portions of northern Potter County do not have as many oaks in their forests. In these areas, hunters will find deer feeding on apples, farm fields and clover.

In years of such widespread acorn mast, deer are much more spread out. Hunting regions that don't have many oak trees may actually work to a hunter's advantage. When he does encounter an oak with abundant acorns, there is a much higher probability that deer will be concentrating their feeding in this area.

WIth antler restrictions in place five years now, bucks like this one are supposed to be more common in Pennsylvania woods.

Hunters heading afield during the early part of archery season do not need to wear any fluorescent orange. However, during the overlap with the early special antlerless season (Oct. 13-20), archery hunters will need to wear 250 sq. in. of orange while moving. This can be removed while on stand, provided a 100-sq.-in. band is placed on a tree within 15 feet of the hunter.

During the overlap with fall turkey season, hunters must wear a hat of 100 sq. in. of orange while moving. This can be removed while on stand, but a 100 sq. in. band of orange must be placed on a tree within 15 feet of the stand location.

Archery season will last six weeks, through Nov. 10. Good luck to all who head afield.

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Legal shooting hours have been extended to one-half hour past sunset. On page 18 of the Hunting and Trapping Digest, the sunrise and sunset times are listed. Hunters need to add the time difference from the 75 meridian and then tack on a half-hour to determine when the legal shooting hours end.

In Cameron and western Potter County, this would mean adding 12 minutes for the meridian difference and then 30 minutes to the sunset time. For the start of legal shooting hours, hunters need to subtract 30 minutes from the sunrise times listed and then add 12 minutes for our meridian difference.

For the first week of archery season, legal shooting hours begin at 6:42 a.m. and end at 7:17 p.m. A year ago legal shooting time ended at 6:47 p.m.

Personally, in previous years of hunting, I had often thought that it was still light enough to safely shoot for about 15 minutes after the close of legal hunting hours. Conversely, I felt that often there was not enough light to safely shoot until about 10 or 15 minutes after the start of hunting hours.

It is good to see that an extension has been made in the closing times, though a halfhour extension may be pushing things a little too far.

This extension will especially help archery hunters who don't need quite as much light to safely shoot, since they are dealing with deer at close distances.