Information provided in a recent article by DR. Kroll , indicates that due to AR, the racks on our 2.5 buck ,on average , will be smaller than the average 2.5 buck pre-AR. Note, I am not saying that there won"™t be more 2.5 buck or that the percentage of bigger bucks in the harvest will not be higher, I am simply saying that the average 2.5 will be smaller because the spikes that are saved by AR take two years to catch up with the 1.5 ,6 & 8 pts. that will be harvested. Prior to AR over 80% of the spikes were harvested ,but with AR most will survive. On the other hand the harvest rate for 6 & 8 pt. 1.5"™s increased as it did for 2.5+ buck when AR was implemented ,so very few 6 & 8 pt. 1.5 buck will survive. Therefore , the percentage of 2.5"™s that were spikes as 1.5"™s will increase significantly and they will ,on average have smaller racks , than the average 2.5 buck prior to AR.
Here is what Dr. Kroll had to say about the results of three years of his study on wild ,free ranging deer.
"œFrom our data, if you plot the number of antler points bucks had as yearlings against the average number of points those same bucks had the next year you will see that the yearlings with the fewest antler points still had fewer points as 2-year-olds. Yearlings with two or three points on their first set of antlers averaged about eight points as 2-year-olds. On the other end of the spectrum, yearlings with eight or nine points on their first set of antlers were 10-pointers on average the next year. "œ
One should also note that prior to AR ,18% of our 2.5+ buck weren"™t AR legal and 44% had 8 or more points. Therefore, since due to AR the average 2.5+ buck will be smaller the percentage of non-AR legal 2.5+ buck will increase and the percentage of 8+ pts. 2.5 buck will decrease..
While that may be a no brainer for you , 61K hunters didn't have the opportunity to make that choice since they didn't get a buck due to AR and they just might disagree with you . Furthermore , since the PGC didn't publish a breakdown of the harvest by points ,we don't know how many additional 8 pts. were added by AR. But, we do know it only increased the 2.5+ harvest by 9.4 K.
Remember , the deer in the study had supplemental feed , but our deer don't ,so our average 2.5 buck will not be an 8 pt. IMHO, 60% of our 2.5 buck will be less than 8 pts. since the most buck are saved by AR in the poorest habitat.
DJ Deaddeer back on the weels spinning it again. Where's Bill Oriely when you need Him[:'(]
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"If guns kill people then I can blame my pencil on mispelled words" Larry The Cable Guy
PA Game Commisssion Bowhunter Education Instructor
United Bowhunters of PA
www.enigmacamo.com
http://www.camospace.com/pahardwoods
"That's why it's called hunting-if they want easy meat-go to the grocery store."
[:@]Because those 61k hunters might become fed up and not buy licenses anymore, and most certainly their children won't. And when the anti's pass around petitions to stop or limit hunting, they might say "screw it, there ain't no deer anyway". What most of those 61k hunters want is a reasonable chance to harvest a deer, and they ain't getting it.
Instead of taking cheap shots ,why don't you post a study or report that shows the size of the average 2.5 buck increased due to AR. If you can't do that ,explain why restrictions were tried and dropped in Calif., Oregon, Colo. , Nev. and Utah . BTW, Oregon found that AR reduced the average age of their buck herd.
There are still plenty of deer and good bucks. Those so called hunters that are complaining canned hunts are just for you. You can Gauranteed you deer.
I never went on a canned hunt and never will. I will be satisfied to hunt for doe and BB and leave the big bucks to the trophy hunters who want to spent the time and effort to harvest a trophy.
Smaller 2.5 Buucks
