OK let me say that I am far from an elitist and DO NOT trophy hunt. My biggest buck is a 9 pt with a 9" spread. I always shot the 1st buck by me until recently when I slightly upped the ante to "a racked buck" to make it more difficult. I have never looked down upon a person willing to shoot a small buck as I have done it, and know it is still rewarding. I was against all this AR thing when it started, but as I LEARNED more and thought about it I have figured out it is a good start. I am not praying for PA to turn into a big buck state. I don't feel that the particular guidlines of AR will do that, I think it takes much sticter AR rules and management to truly do that. What I do think will happen is make a little better distribution of sizes of bucks across the state. Everyone acts like another buck will never be shot in the mountains of PA. It will be bad one year, after that the majority will grow to be over the AR limit and things will be fine. If someone is happy with shooting a spike or 4 pt then fine, they will also be happy shooting an 8 pt. There will only be one year when the odds of seeing a legal buck will be slim, after that most the 2.5 will be over the AR and the odds go back up.

Now as to questioning my decision to start this topic.....This stuff goes on. It goes on more than people think. If you down play it or pretend it doesn't exist you are lying to yourselves. The behavior has turned me off to rifle hunting, I still do but it's not with quite the same intensity. If enough hunters can talk to "fellow hunters" and try to get them out of that mentality then maybe things can change. Other than the most remote sections of the state or some private land, rifle hunting in PA isn't hunting. It is setting up to play where the other people will push the deer, plain and simple. There may be no way around that with the sheer numbers of hunters. I feel that if less pressure is put on getting that buck then less people will succumb to slobish behavior. So much has been placed on getting that buck that people panic and do bad things. Hope this has shed a little more light on the situation.