Pennsylvania Game News - August 2022 - 12

That's not to say sport and personal
subsistence hunting didn't also play a
role in depleting game. They did. Modern
hunting - regulated by seasons, bag
limits, tools and methods of harvest - is
central to wildlife conservation, but that
relationship wasn't then well understood.
What's more, for most of the Commonwealth's
history, even regulated
hunting was incredibly liberal, with deer
season long running from Aug. 1 through
Dec. 1. There were no limits on the
number of deer a hunter could take and,
outside of local law enforcement, no one
to enforce restrictions.
Still, the legendary Deerslayers were
good hunters and prolific ones, hugely
successful at taking game, with lessons
in woodsmanship to offer 21st century
hunters.
But more important than replicating
even a portion of their achievements is
avoiding their failures, for the same triumphs
that made them so famous nearly
ended deer hunting in Pennsylvania
forever.
UNFAIR CHASE
If there's anything that seems foreign
today, it's just how the Deerslayers
killed whitetails in the 19th century.
They weren't chasing antlers, passing
on some whitetails while holding out for
a particular buck they'd followed over
months if not seasons. Fair chase wasn't
a consideration either.
Instead, efficiency trumped sport.
To spend a day tracking one animal,
with the very real possibility of being
unsuccessful in the pursuit, was viewed
as a waste of time. Better was to kill the
greatest number of deer possible in the
12
shortest amount of time, thereby maximizing
profits. That led the Deerslayers
to adopt methods that today seem brutal
and abhorrent.
One common technique then employed
was a precursor to the modern deer drive,
carried out on a grand scale. Early Pennsylvania
hunters would encircle a parcel
of land 10 to 30 miles across with armed
drivers. They would march forward and
inward, gradually closing the circle and
driving game toward its center. In the
process they would fire on every deer, elk,
bear or lion fleeing the tightening noose.
That produced stunning harvests.
One such drive along Mahantongo
Creek between Juniata and Snyder counties
reported 198 deer killed; another in
Bradford County tallied 150.
Another technique often employed -
mostly by solo hunters or those working
in small bands - involved hunting from
scaffolds or platforms in trees, usually at
one of Pennsylvania's countless natural
salt licks, where deer and other game
regularly consumed vital minerals such
as sodium, calcium, zinc and magnesium.
Native Americans had been employing
the same tactics for centuries. But
the advent of modern firearms made the
strategy mercilessly effective.
The most devastating means of taking
large numbers of deer, though - particularly
popular in Susquehanna, Pike, and
Wayne counties - was " jacking. " Also
known as jacklighting or lamping, it was
the 19th century equivalent of spotlighting.
The
idea of it is basic. Two or three
hunters would paddle along in a canoe at
night with a lantern or torch attached to the
front of the boat. The light was directed
into the face of animals grazing along the
Pennsylvania Game News - August 2022

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