Yes we did have very deep snow that year and it did have a heavy crust.Lack of mobility was probably a prime reason for the poor health of the deer that winter but the lack of browse was also a huge factor.Most of the dead deer I found where in areas with terrible habitat.In fact we did a browse impact survey in the onearea and found that 75% of the area had no regeneration despite being recently logged.Of the regen that was present,59% of it was beech which was severly browsed.This area is an extreme example because it's private property that hasn't been hunted in over 40 years.We found five dead deer in one 77 acre patch of woods and they all died from starvation.We had biologists with us from PSU that day.The situation was similar in other areas I surveyed that winter and it shows that that winter had a profound impact on our remaining deer and on recruitment.I never bought into that theory until I saw it with my own two eyes.That year it was very rare to see a doe with twins in this areaand I saw way less fawns than usual.

The 12 dpsm you refrenced about 2G was from the 2003 annual report.If you read it closely,you'll notice that the 12 dpsm figure is the lowest over winter deer density for 2G.In other words the worst areas of 2G overwintered 12 deer that.It doesn't say that 2G averaged 12 dpsm.

I never said 2G can't over winter 10 dpsm.I can also guarantee you that the areas whereI hunt on public land have no where near 10 dpsm.I saw 15 deer the week before spring gobbler on SGL 93.My buddy saw over 40 in one group about a month ago on SGL 77.A week after that, I saw a group of 12 on a different area of those same game lands.I sawa group of twenty onthe last day of rifle season in Sinnemahoning.They did a FLIR this year on some of the dmap properties where I hunt.These are the areas that I consider poor hunting and I bet they find well over 10 dpsm there.In fact,I bet it's closer to 20 dpsm.

Despite what ever statistics you have,we still have plenty of deer around here.Why would I lieabout that?What would I have to gain?I had 15 different opportunities to kill deer that were well within range this year.Some daysI didn't see a thing but that's the way it's always been.Why would I complain about that?If I can have that many opportunities,andI only hunt saturdays and one or two afternoons a week,how can other people go weeks without seeing a deer?