ORIGINAL: bluebird2
The fact that you want the 3 inch spike rules back combined with the fact that you admitted that you have a hard time seeing deer these days certainly supports the notion that your agenda is purely personal
That is just pure nonsense. I have stated over and over again that i don't need to kill another deer and that I often hunt without carrying a weapon. I also stated I saw 6 buck in two days of hunting during archery so your mindless cheap shots are an out right lie.
The fact is the PGC biologists were wrong about the B/D ratio, the cause of late breeding and the need for ARs and I was right and the deer and the PGC stats prove I was right. On the other hand you and RSB have yet to be right about anything.
No the biologists were not wrong and I know the results of the resent management are an improvement in this area over what was occurring before antler restrictions. It is you who is wrong about the need for antler restrictions, just as you are wrong about the how deer should be managed in relation to their habitat.
Before the affects of antler restrictions the five year average adult buck/adult doe ratio the volunteer survey teams were seeing 1 adult buck per 3.80 adult does and the average since has been 1 adult buck per 2.72 adult does.
The adult doe breeding rates, from the highway killed deer I have checked, for the same time five year time periods have also shown a great improvement of 84.4% adult doe being bred before antler restrictions to 98.0% being bred since. Also before antler restrictions it took over five months to get those adult does bred, but since antler restrictions that breeding window has declined to six weeks and even included the few juvenile doe that were bred.
The fawn recruitment rates in this area have also improved since antler restrictions, based on the number of fawns per adult doe the volunteer survey teams have seen. Before antler restrictions the five year average was .54 fawns per adult doe and has increased to .63 fawns per adult doe since antler restrictions.
That is an improvement in all of the things that the professional deer managers said they expected to achieve with the antler restrictions. I know darn well it is working because I get to see the affects of it doing exactly as it was intended. Now everyone else can also see that it is working in this area. If antler restrictions and the current deer management is working that well in this area I am also sure it is working in most other areas of the state too.
At least it is working for the benefit of better deer management. I agree though that it might not be working as well for those that just wanted to shoot the first piece of antler they saw so they could get their hunting over with as quickly as possible. But then, unlike some hunters, I tend to believe professional deer managers should manage for the betterment of the resource instead of just hunter appeasement.
R.S. Bodenhorn