I certainly agree with battle buck on this one. I for one have not seen any increase in big racked bucks throughout the state in the last two years. I hunt a very large tract of private ground that we manage for big bucks. We routinely take some 140-150 class deer off the property. However, I don't include my personal hunting into this assumption.

Yes, there are some nice bucks taken in western PA every year, but that has always been the case. Remember, Ohio is right next door and this area of the state shares many of the same charactoristics of Ohio. We also occasionally get some nice bucks from other areas of the state as well. But, that has been going on long before AR and HR were in effect.

I like the antler restrictions. But I think we all set ourselves up on this one. We expected to see big bucks all over the place and I have yet to see a drastic increase in the so called "mature" 3 1/2 year old 8 points Dr. Alt said we'd see more of. Many areas of the state don't have the nutrition found in the western part of the state. Thus, many bucks that do see their 3rd year may only be 6 pointers at best. Guess what happens to them in deer season?

The thing I find very intresting is this so called over browsing of the forest. Well, get a logging company in there and thin out the old growth trees. Some of the best hunting anywhere can be found a year or two after a logging company cuts an area. More browse draws the deer in like magnets. The Comish puts up fences to prove their so called point. Its ridiculous to think that an old growth stand will get much better being fenced in. These trees are blocking the sunlight and smothering anything underneath.

My uncle (a timber company owner) had a really good point about the forest state in PA. Look back through history and you'll learn a lot. Back in the late 1800's we had the chestnut, the chestnut slowly died off and gave way to the oak. Now, the oak is slowly dieing off. Northern states are reporting this. Some form of a disease is slowly taking hold and killing off the oaks. And, has anyone ever noticed what the predominant tree species is when we cut an area? Mostly Maple. That is what nature wants.

I have mixed opinions on the herd reduction. I think we needed to get the population down, but not this drastically. Every mature doe we kill in gun season, we are most likely killing 3 deer. With the sudden increase in license sales and deer harvest, its no wonder the population in many areas has been decemated. Not to mention that some of those fawns are bucks.

Another big factor in this state is sheer hunter numbers. We have over 800,000 guys hitting the woods during season. If even half of those guys take both a buck and a doe, well, another big hit to the herd.

I personally don't ever see this state being even close to what Dr. Alt led us all to believe. I am fortunate in being able to hunt our private ground. The comish seems to be forcing deer to live in private ground.