Dec 12, 2015 3 min read

With the rifle portion of deer season now completed, the majority of the deer harvest in Pennsylvania is in the books.

But it will take months before we find out just how good – or bad – things were this season.

Compare that to our neighboring states of West Virginia and Ohio.

Both already released their harvest numbers this week, with West Virginia claiming a 77 percent increase in buck harvest over 2014 and Ohio posting a 9 percent increase.

How do they already know?

Because, unlike Pennsylvania, both of those states get better reporting rates on their deer harvest from hunters.

West Virginia no longer has check stations, but requires successful hunters to report their kills via internet or phone. Requires.

Ohio, meanwhile, still has check stations in place, which also gives the state an immediate feedback on how many deer are killed each year.

As for Pennsylvania, the Game Commission requires that deer harvests are reported, but doesn’t really expect it to happen.

The commission uses a formula to figure out exactly how many deer were killed because it knows that not all hunters report their success. The commission estimates that fewer than 40 percent of successful hunters report their kill.

Judging from the low number of deer kill reports I have received and having been afield and talked to some local deer processors, the harvest, at least locally, doesn’t seem all that great.

I have heard of some large bucks being taken – and have seen some photos — but it doesn’t appear that it was a good year. But we won’t know for sure for several months because we live in a state that isn’t adamant about finding out how many deer were killed.

The commission and Legilslature recently tried to tackle this issue but those appear to be at a standstill at this time. Until that happens, we’ll still rely on the commission estimates of the deer harvest, which apparently take months to figure out.

• The Pittsburgh and Suburban Rifle League again looks like a two-team race as Frazier-Simplex and Dormton-Mt. Lebanon stand with just one loss through the first portion of the schedule.

Dormont-Mt. Lebanon upended Frazier-Simplex a few weeks ago, 1,486-1,473 as Dean Trew and Tom Benedict each shot 298, Amy Smith and Matt Piatt 297 and Dan Francis 296.

Zac Szabo, Jim Mounts, Zachary Nicolella and Jim Husk shot 295 for Frazier, which also got a 293 from Wade Richards.

Last week, both teams moved to 5-1, with Frazier-Simplex taking down Green Valley, 1,482-1,395 and Dormont-Mt. Lebanon beating Murraysville, 1,472-1,462.

John Husk fired his first 300 of the season for Frazier-Simplex, while Szabo shot 299 and Doug Wilcox carded a 295, Wade Richards Tom Morley 294 each.

Jeff Charles shot a 298 for Green Valley.

Tom Gerner and Trew led the way for Dormont-Mt. Lebanon against Murraysville, with posting 296. Miles Ford had a 294, Frtiz Hempelmann 293 and Rick Janoski 292.

John Funk had a 295 for Murraysville.

Outdoors Editor F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.