Comparing total harvest data is not a valid method of comparing the quality of hunting in various states. For, example the same herd that produced a harvest of 379K in 1999 produced a much larger harvest of 505K in 2001 and an even larger harvest of 518 K in 2003. But , in 2001 we harvested 203K buck and in 2003 we only harvested 142K. So ,based on the total harvest one might conclude that the herd was increasing and hunting was improving when the exact opposite was occurring. Therefore, the buck harvest is the most valid criteria for determining the quality of hunting in various states.

One also has to know if the harvest data is the actual reported harvest or the calculated harvest and how the deer densities were determined. If they were calculated based on the reported harvest versus the calculated harvests the densities could be much lower than if they were based on harvest estimates. One also has to know if the densities are all PSDDs or OWDDs and if they are based on total land area or just suitable deer habitat.

The 2008 PA buck harvest equates to 2.71 buck PSM which is less than the 2.9 buck PSM harvested in 2F ,which had a PSDD of around 17 DPSM. In 2007 we only harvested 2.42 buck PSM which is pathetic when compared to the 2001 harvest of 4.51 buck PSM.