The HuntingPA.com Outdoor Community banner

Are hunters aware of this?

14K views 158 replies 57 participants last post by  bohunr 
#1 ·
#98 ·
Yes, it is the topic. And $6 is NOTHING.


How many people on this site smoke and willingly pay $6 a pack? Or how many drink and pay over $6 for 2 beers? Go and do that no problem, yet come on here and cry wolf over $6 like it's the end of the world. For Pete's sake, I pay $6 for scratch off lottery tickets almost every time I'm in a convenience store and think nothing of it.


I have said it on here many times. All over this site and other sites people posting pics of their $1,000 crossbows, $4,000 rifles, $10,000 and more hunting trips, $60,000 pickup trucks, several hundred thousand dollar camps, etc, etc, etc. And the same people come on here and complain about the price of the license which is the cheapest part of the entire equation. Outdoorsmen have to be the biggest cheapskates going when it comes to licenses.
 
#106 ·
Without the PGC...there goes State game lands and wildlife management....


Without DCNR...there goes state forest and state parks.....


I think we better support them all we can.


Will everyone always be happy? No


I do think that the rules should be free though...We don't need an elaborate book, ...a simple white page with black print is all you need.
 
#108 ·
old reaybeard and bill11

If the employees of the PGC have it so great and you have it so bad; why didnt you get a job with the PGC? Who was it that forced you to work "in the real world"? The last I heard Pa. was a right to work state, so why did you stay at a job that had lower compensation then a state job? If you are not happy with your pay and benefits compared the those of the PGC employees; go get another job.

Good luck, Tony
 
#111 ·
Actually, PA is an at will state, not a right to work state. There is currently legislation to change it.

Fact of the matter. There are hundreds of qualified applicants for every single WCO position in PA which proves that PGC employees are more than fairly compensated.
 
#113 ·
its all about the benefits. as with any job, you have to look way down the road toward retirement and see what is going to happen and what you will be left with.

i spent 33 years working as a county correctional officer. some days it was nice and boring, everyone behaved. other days it was non stop trouble from one end of the building to the next. on those days i always felt we were worth more a lot more. the retirement and benefits made the stay worth it. if i wanted more money in the paycheck, i took the overtime when it there.

the inmates in the county prisons are the same ones the State institutions get, the county prisons get them first. we dealt with everything from bad checks to homicides, nice people that just made a simple mistake all the way to some extremely violent and evil characters. those are the men and women that made our day "fun".

no one forced me to stay. i just had the vision to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so i stayed.
 
#116 ·
So what's the big deal. Go to any 1 day venue and you'll pay $5 to park, buy a $6 hot dog and a $7 domestic beer, and a $4 program. $6 is what, the price of a pack of smokes for you guys? An imported draft? I'll buy the book. And I would think there would be more chatter about the $25 pheasant stamp.
 
#117 ·
So what's the big deal. Go to any 1 day venue and you'll pay $5 to park, buy a $6 hot dog and a $7 domestic beer, and a $4 program. $6 is what, the price of a pack of smokes for you guys? An imported draft? I'll buy the book. And I would think there would be more chatter about the $25 pheasant stamp.
Where are you watching your games? :D A Phillies or 76ers game will cost $20 to park. A beer is $11 for domestic and $13 for import. You may be right on the hot dog. I think smokes are like $8 or $9 these days.
 
#118 ·
you know what ? i was not going to buy the book simply because i thought and still think they should raise the advertising rates to cover the cost of printing and add to the PGC budget. maybe they did..i do not know.

after reading what has been posted here, i will buy the digest if i can find one. with the limited number being printed it may be hard in some areas. our local wal mart had a sign up saying they would not have any.
 
#120 ·
you know what ? i was not going to buy the book simply because i thought and still think they should raise the advertising rates to cover the cost of printing and add to the PGC budget. maybe they did..i do not know.

after reading what has been posted here, i will buy the digest if i can find one. with the limited number being printed it may be hard in some areas. our local wal mart had a sign up saying they would not have any.

At the time you purchase your 2017/18 license, you have to order the digest. They mail it to you.


I assume the added dollar is to cover the postage and handling.


Hopefully, the downloadable version will be downloadable. So far...it's been a dud. Maybe others have had luck?
 
#123 ·
That makes sense. Also can see where if they don't spend uncompensated time their job doesn't get done. Makes for a tough spot for them....they're not required to do it, but if they are personally invested in their work, they will.

I see it in my dept staff I supervise. I try to keep an eye on them and provide some measure of latitude, but sometimes I do have to direct them not to work over their hours, or if it needs to be done, I document it and provide trade/comp time. Not all places have that kind of latitude in the work environment, though.
 
#124 ·
heres a possible conundrum. if a WCO is volunteering time or donating time, basically working unpaid hours and gets injured to the point they are off work for a few weeks or even months.

Will the insurance or workmans comp pay with out contesting it, seeing as how they were not on paid time ?
 
#131 ·
That is why a prudent WCO will keep a few hours in their approved bank of over time right to the end of that segment and the new bank of approved hours becomes available. Since the time report, for paid hours, is done after the fact (every two weeks) if you were volunteering time and got injured or had any other major incident then you just included that time as hours being worked out of your approved bank of overtime hours.

Those banked hours basically work like an insurance policy. You hope you never need to use it but if you do it is there. I would never do field work outside of my scheduled shift unless I had hours in my bank of overtime.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
#134 · (Edited)
yes :)

not really. its the fact that i believe that advertising rates were not raised, or raised high enough to cover the costs of printing and adding to the budget.

if any of that is true its just poor management and poor business practices. if rates were raised high enough, why not do a full printing like they used to ?
 
#136 ·
Different perspective:

I never use the book. I couldn't find this year's book if my life depended on it. I can get what I need on my phone or computer in a minute or less. So why should I, as part of my license fees, be paying to print a book I don't use?

I use the online access methods to get to the digest/info, so I don't really need or want a printed book. If someone needs/wants the printed book, they can choose to buy it. It sure ain't the first time something went from print to digital and a cost was levied for keeping access to the print format in our society.

Different spin on the issue....

:)
 
#137 ·
I tear out the hunting hours page and post it over my work bench for a handy reference. I keep the book around for the doe tag application and the orange requirements, because I can't remember them. Is all that online? Sure, but I don't have to navigate a website, nor print anything else. It's really inconsequential if you buy it or not. I mean really, $6, and we're all flustered about that? Wish we would get this upset over the lack of harvest reporting.
 
#138 · (Edited)
since you mention the doe application. what about the pink envelopes ? are they still being handed out when you buy your license ?

i think someone mentioned that, but i forgot what the outcome was.

AND

someone mentioned the cost of printing the licenses. aren't the licenses printed using the PALS system at the store ? if the PGC pays .90 cents to the PALS system for reporting your harvest, what percentage of license sales goes to the PALS system ?
 
#140 ·
Each license or privilege you purchase with the license has a 90 cent transaction fee with it that goes to PALS. There is also a $1.00 fee for each license or privilege that goes to the issuing agent. Hence just a general hunting license costs you $21.90. $20.00 goes to the Game Commission, $1.00 to the issuing agency and $0.90 goes to PALS.

You will still get the pink envelopes when you purchase our license at no charge.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
#142 ·
I would guess that the cost of managing that system would likely nullify any savings, which is why we've been blessed with PALS in the first place.

I am curious what other systems are out there, and what the cost comparisons are. I've hunted a few different states in the last few years, and it seems that they all have a different system.
 
#143 ·
Such a system is not self-sustaining from a technical sense. You'd need staffing to handle it. It sounds like a million bucks would go a long way, but think about a few employees, storage/server capacity to ensure an ability to handle demand efficiently, associated security, etc. That doesn't include cost of system development. It's not as simple as standing up a Weebly webpage. This is a pretty involved database as well as e-commerce system and web design front end.

A million a year would dry up pretty fast.
 
#147 ·
Don't kid yourself that it's only young people. All power is all power. Lighting, air conditioning/heating, hot water or even any water at all in rural areas serviced by private wells (which means toilets can't be flushed), refrigeration, cooking (if an electric stove and no wood or gas fired stoves are in place), etc.

LIFE grinds to a halt without electricity. Younger folks have issues with things older folks might not, such as loss of ability to use mobile devices if/once batteries die, but we all face the same basic issues, that our entire mechanism of addressing our needs for shelter, food, etc are predicated on electrical power.

Generators are great, till fuel runs out. Prolonged outages over wide-spread areas mean fuel for generators will start to get hammered, too.

Loss of electrical power is more than an inconvenience in modern society. Very few can truly do much without it for sustained periods of time.
 
#151 ·
I just got an email from the comm saying so, but what I cant understand is if they give out a pocket guide why would I need to pay for the big book....I like the little book that just has the regs in it and not all the ads in it??....I think this will be short lived and they will go back to the pocket guide we had years ago....
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top