Finding them shouldn't take too much time, but getting close enough for a shot with a bow may be a different story. Whitetails are, after all, the state's premier big game animal. Reports from across the state indicate excitement is building for the 2000 bow season, which runs from Sept. 30 to Nov. 11 for antlerless deer. The antlered deer season for bowhunters runs Sept. 30 to Oct. 20, and Oct. 25 to Nov. 11. But that's pretty common at this time of year.
Hunters love to talk about the prospects for the upcoming season, and good news travels fast.
The anticipation is similar to that before a big Friday night high school football game. Hunters have every reason to be excited about their prospects heading into the fall archery deer season. Interestingly, those Philadelphia and Pittsburgh area counties are typically where some of the state's largest county deer archery harvests have come from in recent years. Bowhunters, who comprise about one-third of the total number of deer hunters, also took another 20 percent of the antlerless harvest in Pennsylvania. Archers aren't dependent on other hunters to move deer, like during the rifle seasons.