Testosterone levels dropping is the key to antlers dropping. After the rut, bucks in good health do indeed carry their headgear longer.
Why then are we seeing so many dropping their antlers early? Are they all in poor physical shape from running down the tremendously large doe herd you all talk of??? Or are we simply seeing more buck being killed as doe simply because there are a lot less doe than you all think. On my mountain where I hunt archery season and early muzzel loader I saw only 2 doe and 6 different buck. I took a doe with the bow and didnt see a doe during the 4 days I hunted with the in-line. I saw the same 6 protected buck on several occasions. I firmly believe that there are less deer because of the larger yearly limit of doe. The PGC has you all believing their lies. They are interested only in less deer. Do you realize howmany protected buck with dropped horns will be shot with the flintlock?
You cant raise trophy buck without protecting the button bucks.

Here is what I see in 3 years...
You shoot the trophy buck
If you shoot the button buck that would grow into the future years protected buck then there are no buck left to breed with the does.

This is elementary Biology people...
Dont buy into the PGC's plan. It will not work.
Oh yeah, someone said that there is twice as many deer today as there were 20 years ago. Do you honestly believe that bulls$#$. Where did they get their numbers from, the PGC???
I've been hunting for 32 years and can easily say that each year it gets worse.
14 guys in our camp in the Poconos and we got 1 seven pointer and 3 doe and NO misses. Pretty sad if you ask me.
Oh by the way dont be surprised if the PGC ask you to buy a turkey stamp soon. They'll tell you its to thin the trememdously large herd that are destroying crops. They may even let you take 2 in each season. Arent they nice? (check out the increase of insurance claims filed because of turkeys hitting winshields and you'll see the real reason for their kindness)
Someone here said that I may be eating crow in a few years for thinking this way and maybe I will since that is probably the only thing that will be left to harvest

Edited by - mr.d on 12/23/2002 19:41:47