ORIGINAL: Cornelius08

Ben, thats actually a very good question and not one that I have yet addressed, so would be happy to do so now.

.....I agree bb, and it only stands to reason that 900,000 hunters now hunting for many fewer buck(only those that meet requirements) are gonna harvest as high a percentage or more.

Thats my opinion.

Here are the facts from the pgc website:

"The second piece of crucial data to our study is recorded during the hunting season. We were particularly interested in determining whether or not hunters were indiscriminately shooting bucks without first seeing whether or not they were legal. About 50 percent of the yearlings available at the beginning of the hunting season were alive when the late deer season closed in January. Bucks two years old or older were usually not protected by antler point restriction regulations. As a consequence, only about 20 percent of the older bucks survived the hunting seasons. However, under the previous buck hunting regulations, only about 20 percent of all antlered deer in the state survived the hunting season."

.......................

Sounds like at the very least OVER 80% harvest of legal buck to me. I say very least because it only stands to reason a higher percentage of the legal yearlings would have been taken than the 80% of the 2.5 + age class.

Also remember not ALL of the 2.5 year old or older bucks are legal, yet 80% of ALL of them did not survive hunting season. That means MORE than 80% of the LEGAL bucks were harvested in the study.

Dont know why you find that so hard to believe... Our continued overall lack of quality in our state pretty much tells the tale.