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A Million Hunters Hit The Woods

It’s a Pennsylvania tradition: the state says one million hunters are in the woods hunting for deer. Pennsylvania’s two-week rifle deer season began...
Rifle_Deer_Season

It's a Pennsylvania tradition: the state says one million hunters are in the woods hunting for deer.

Pennsylvania's two-week rifle deer season began early Monday morning. The weather conditions are almost ideal for hunters who are out in the woods. Not only are the temperatures on the mild side, for the first time in a long time, they have snow on the ground to help with the hunt.

It didn't take Eric Papiercavich of Avoca long to get what he wanted. He shot a button buck when the 2014 rifle deer season was just a half hour old.

"This guy just happened to stop broadside and I got a beautiful shot at it. First shot, went right down," Papiercavich said.

He adds, with temperatures in the forties, warm for this time of year, the hardest part was dragging the deer out of the woods near Thornhurst to his pickup truck.

It appears our camera had better luck than some of the hunters. We spotted a buck and some does running through the woods near Francis E. Walter Dam, just outside of Bear Creek.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission says rifle deer season pumps a lot of money in to the economy, and a lot of that money is here in our area. We found people who traveled quite a distance to get here

Brothers Tony and Tim Verbich drove here from the Philadelphia area to hunt the area around the dam. They were optimistic because this year, they're getting a hand from nature.

"Just a little bit of snow on the ground, see the deer, see the woods a little bit further," Tony Verbich said.

It was easier to track the prey, and there was no shortage of hoof prints in the snow in this part of Luzerne County.

"When its brown out, you don't see much. Little bit of snow, you see a little bit more," said Tim Verbich.

The state says the deer's food supply is up, and that means the population is up. The game commission expects about 350,000 deer to be killed this year.

Rifle deer season in Pennsylvania wraps up in two weeks, on December 13.

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