What I saw out of state this year TOTALLY changed my opinion on the myth that you need toblast the does to have good hunting........it's just not true, and in my opinion is actually counter productive.
Well Dr Kroll disagree
Ask yourselfthis...............if someone told you they would give you access to 500 acres of landthat had not seen a hunter for 10 years would you be happy or sad??
happy, and even happier if I got one pratice QDM for ten years
I was the first person EVER to hunt our farm with a bow in MI. Most hunters in MI went North in the 80's and 90's. I have seen first hand what over buck harvest can do to a prime area.
Works to control numbers...........has no effect on quality of hunting. I have seen the deer numbers in NY rise and fall (sometimes dramatic) over the past 20 years. You used to need 5 guys just to get one doetag..........now you can kill them by the truck load and hunting is no better.......in factit is likely worse in many areas.
Well go MI board guys in NLP have seen a big differnce. Being it's mostly public land the herd has been controlled. Any guesses on what their seeing? On average Bigger deer. One guy was amazed. Now you know as well as I there are two sides of the story. There are some who hate it now. Not seeing as many deer.
Quanity VS Quality fight we have the same one in MI.
How many more hunters are in MI??
200,000 more hunters, 500,000 more deer and way more I mean way more habitat.
Less hunting pressure..........short shotgun season vs long rifleseason
Could not agree more and better doe management
Once again..........you are falling victim to the "lottery" mentality......you are basing your view of PA on a few good deer shot in PA (most of which were on private land). This board is no where near a good sample of an entire state (either way). I was in PA this year and what I witnessed was a much less rosey picture.
2000 PA shot 20% bucks where 2.5 or older
2005 PA sjoy 50% bucks where 2.5 older
AR and doe management are the two big things they changed. Iowa kills more % of their herd than Minn. Data does not lie, all you have stated is opinion.
You have stated it your self, in the world of science opinion means diddle