A new service, Drone Deer Recovery, is being offered in 15 states, mainly in the Midwest, utilizes hi-tech drones to find deer. It’s an interesting and effective approach, and it makes a lot of sense. 

Tracking a wounded deer on the ground, especially in thick vegetation, can be difficult, the view from the sky offers a cleaner perspective and increases the odds for recovery.

When it comes to finding a downed deer, it takes more than the basic drone. The people at Drone Deer Recovery use an ariel vehicle (a fancy name for a drone) with some pretty advanced features. 

The drones are equipped with a 200-power zoom, night vision, spotlight and a thermal camera. The drones can identify individual deer from 400 ft, which is high enough to avoid spooking wildlife or causing a wounded deer to get up and run. 

A hunter in Ohio hit a buck deer during archery season, found a slight blood trail and then backed off, not wanting to get the deer to start running. He called the Drone Deer Recovery, and after dark the buck was found, only it was feeding in a field and walking normal. Turns out, the shot wasn’t fatal, or even crippling, and even though the hunter didn’t get the buck, the drone gave him closure.

Now the Ohio hunter has peace of mind that the trophy buck may die and never be recovered. Thanks to the drone, the hunter now knows the buck would live another day, and he has a chance to hunt for it again.  

It comes to recovering wounded game, let’s face it, we’re not all expert trackers with a special sixth sense. We lose blood trails, have difficulty finding tracks and as much as we may know the terrain, there’s no guarantee a wounded animal traveled where we expect it to. I would think that most hunters would appreciate a licensed Drone Deer Recovery agency in our area, maybe it will materialize.

PA’s Firearms Deer Season!

Pennsylvania’s firearms deer hunting season started on November 25 and runs through Saturday, December 9. The opening day of the firearms deer season is the busiest single day on the hunting calendar by far. It annually causes about half a million people to do whatever they can to get into the woods.

The National Deer Association (NDA) ranks Pennsylvania tops in the country for hunter density. It says there were 14.4 hunters per square mile in 2021. Only three other states, New York (12), Wisconsin (11.4) and New Jersey (10.5) hit double digits. 

PA’s Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans said, “We’ve got lots of deer and lots of hunters pursuing them, some from camps far from home, others in woodlots and fields near where they live. But all shared the same passion for wildlife, hunting and conservation. That’s something special.”

Game Commission Deer and Elk Section Supervisor David Stainbrook said, “We are in a very productive part of the country for deer, and we have a lot of deer out there. Last season hunters harvested an estimated 422,960 whitetail deer, an estimated 164,190 bucks and 258,770 antlerless deer. Thanks to antler point restrictions, the average Pennsylvania buck harvested is older and usually bigger than those of yesteryear. But every deer harvested, regardless of whether it’s got antlers or not, provides healthy venison for the table.”

Good luck to all deer hunters!