Two thingsabout state-mandated QDM (antler restrictions).

SLOB HUNTERS:

Since PA has implemented antler restrictions, I find no less than 4-6 deer per year (bucks) left to rot in the woods because they were "ground checked" and failed to meet the restriction criteria. Obviously, this is counter-productive.

Your hunters are the stewards of the program, and if you get one guy in every patch of woods just groundchecking every buck he sees - he might kill 2-3-4 bucks before he finds a legal one.

You also have lower success rates for the buck kill, which frustrates a lot of hunters, and causes them to whine a lot, or engage in "less than ethical" behavior to kill a deer. Your average schmuck is happy going out and hammering a spike. Mostguys have never had to pass up a buck. It doesn't sit well.

Honestly, I've never heard so much pathetic whining in my life, as I've heard from the PA hunting ranks over this antler law.

Personally, I think it's great - and have enjoyed the best 5-6 years of my hunting career since it began. Some people would look any gift horse in the mouth, I guess.

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Problem #2 - GREED

You'll never see posters go up so fast. Everybody starts this whole "my property, my deer" culture, where they think they have to horde "their" deer from everyone else, and really start tightening the clamps on who gets in there to hunt. Posters have gone up like wallpaper around here over the 5 years since AR's began. Exclusive leases popping up all over the place, too.

Of course, if you do your homework, and you're a decent person, you won't have a problem finding a place to hunt. It might not be the best spot in the world, but if you're good at what you do, you'll fill your tags.
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In my honest opinion, PA has 1 Million+ hunters, and they're packed like rats in an ever-shrinking huntable acreage. Our problem isn't with AR's so much as it is with the overpopulation of hunters and Hunter-Hunter conflicts. AR's would work great in an area where you have more room to breathe, and guys don't feel like they have to shoot the first buck they see, before somebody else does.