Buckshot, dont take it personal, Im just using your logic to illustrate a point...with that line of thinking, the next thing they should do after that is ban leaving any crops standing beyond harvest
I have pretty thick skin Bill, and you made some good points. However a food plot and a feeder are 2 different things. Alot of feeders have the deer eating right out of a small tray, that the corn spills out on. Having deer after deer stick their noses into this small area is perfect mechanism for spreading an infectious disease.
Many folks in here are in there teens or twenties, and couldnt possibly know how many deer we have now compared to the '60s and early '70s. The best action would be to simply harvest deer according to land capacity, REGARDLESS of what hunting groups and landowners say. What they want vs what trained biologists know are often very different numbers. Its not a fun topic, but its dead on accurate.
You are correct, the above statement is right on the money.
While Ive only been hunting WV for the last 10 years, I have hunted Potter Co. Pa since 78. During those early years it was common to see 30-40 deer a day, however the deer were small and for the most part a typical buck was a spike or a spindly forkhorn. Come the late 80s the PGC instituted bonus tags for anterless deer, as the DPSM was reduced the deer started putting on weight and the antlers increased in size. As is stands right now, a good portion of Potter is within the PGCs DPSM model and while there are much less deer than when I was a kid, the animals now are in superb health and sporting some very impressive racks.
Fewer animals makes a herd healthier
While I agree with that, a feeder can and will draw deer from a wide area and cause an over crowding of that specific area, leaving the surronding area relativly deviod of deer. Anytime you create a situation where deer are artifically packed into a small area you are making it easier for the disease to spread.
Oh and just so you understand where Im coming from, I have 2 feeders that I keep stocked with corn from septemeber till january. From the looks of things I wont be filling them this year.
