The urban metropolis of Philadelphia may seem like an improbable place to introduce people to deer hunting, but for three years the area has served as a well-suited classroom for many beginners.
Since 2019, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has partnered with several organizations to hold mentored deer hunts at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, a 1,000-acre natural mecca flanked by I-95 and the Philadelphia International Airport. While big city life bustles just a few miles away, the refuge has been busy this fall introducing 40 participants to deer hunting, complete with crossbows, ground blinds and a few filled tags. Eighty people applied for one of four hunts held on the refuge, and 12 deer were harvested by first-time hunters.
Participants, many of whom are from Philadelphia, obtain a mentored hunting permit and go through a day-long course, learning about everything from safety to the basics of how to hunt deer with a crossbow.
In the field, the experience is real as each hunter is paired with a mentor and assigned a ground blind placed in an area of the refuge where deer activity is high.
“They actually become a part of the deer hunting community,” said Derek Stoner, hunting program coordinator for the Game Commission. “These are all people who were curious to try hunting and they came out and did it. Since this started, some participants have really gotten into it and became full-fledged hunters.
“If they didn’t have this opportunity, that might not have ever happened.”
The refuge is divided into three hunting zones and ground blinds are erected in places with plenty of deer sign or food sources. The four hunts – each are three days in length – are held in October, November and December, and 12 hunters are taken out each day.
Garrett White, biologist and hunt coordinator for the refuge, said the harvests during the hunts over the last three years are helping to keep the deer population in check. A survey conducted last January revealed the refuge had 20 to 25 deer per square mile, and White said they’d like to get it down to eight to 10.
Just as important as managing the deer population is the outreach component of introducing those to hunting that otherwise would probably never have such an opportunity. The abundant deer population at the refuge helps that cause.
“We want people to at least see a deer, and experience that thrill and excitement. That’s step one,” White said. “The fact that they’re doing this and hunting just a few miles away from downtown Philadelphia is a weird juxtaposition, but it works.”
The hunts aren’t easy, however. White said the deer in the refuge aren’t tame by any means and it takes patience and skill to make a harvest. For those lucky enough to take a shot, the learning process continues with tracking the deer, field dressing and processing.
Hunters are advised by their mentors to only take shots at close range, Stoner said, and every deer that was shot in this years’ hunt was recovered.
“They passed up shots that were just a bit too far or in the wrong position, and we’re proud of that. That’s part of hunting,” he said. “Shot selection is paramount, and the average recovery distance this year was 50 to 60 yards.”
Pete Sussenbach, director for the PGC’s Southeast Region, said the mentored hunts have a ripple effect in that participants may get other friends and family members involved in the sport as well.
“That’s how you can increase the outreach and as we market this more, I see the demand for this increasing,” Sussenbach said. “We have participants that arrive for a hunt in an Uber and that’s how they take their deer home. This doesn’t have to be done in the historical big woods deer areas of the north. There’s good deer hunting right here in the city.”
Sussenbach would like to see more mentored hunts added on the refuge and in other places around the Philadelphia area. The demand is there, he said, it’s just a matter of creating more partnerships to generate enough volunteers and mentors to make additional hunts feasible.
White said there is room on the refuge to add more hunting days and continue to reach a segment that typically is not exposed to the sport.
“We’ll look into anything that provides more opportunities and breaks down the barriers for hunting access,” he said.
Stoner added that expansion is possible not only in the southeast, but in the urban areas of the southwest region as well.
“Those two places are options – places where gun hunting just isn’t practical but there’s a large population,” he said. “We have plenty of people interested, it’s just a matter of logistics to offer more opportunities.”
- This story originally appeared in PA Outdoor News
- Photo credit: Derek Stoner/Pennsylvania Game Commission
- Cutline: Philadelphia resident Raymone Moore, right, with the buck he harvested this year during a mentored hunt at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge with his mentor, John Walls of Hockessin, Delaware. Walls and Moore rattled the buck to within 12 yards during the last 10 minutes of his hunt. Twelve deer were harvested at the refuge this year by mentored hunters.
