Originally Posted by
rem700man
Virginia 2008-2009 Deer Kill Summary
During the past deer season 253,678 deer were reported killed by hunters in Virginia. This total included 111,863 antlered bucks, 22,291 button bucks, and 119,524 does (47.3%). This represents a 4% increase from the 242,792 deer reported killed last year. It is also 16% higher than the last 10 year average of 212,780. Across the state, deer kill levels were up in all regions including in the Northern Mountains (2%), Northern Piedmont (3%), Southern Mountains (1%), Southern Piedmont (4%), and Tidewater (8%).
Archers, not including crossbow hunters, killed 17,881 deer. The bow kill comprised 7% of the total deer kill.
Crossbows resulted in a deer kill of 9,597 deer or 4% of the total deer kill.
Windwalker:
Theres a few #'s for ya from last year,,,most importantly,,,the last sentence,,,im not trying to prove anything to you or anyone else,,,like i've said before,,,im not a x-bow user,,,but i see nothing anywhere that makes me believe that x-bows are the end all to your traditional hunting opportunities.
You should be allowed to hunt with your AK as far as im concerned,,as a matter of fact if i can find one that will shoot the way i demand a rifle to shoot,,,,im gonna buy it and next year i will be burnin up some doe tags with it here in Va.
Got any numbers on how many archery hunters you have there in VA? What about total licenses sold there?
I'm going to gamble that PA has a lot more archery hunters and feel that we will see a bigger impact with xbow use here.
I think what you non res. don't understand is how many hunters we have here in PA.
I hunted for 16 years in my neighboring state of WV and there is a big difference in hunting pressure between the two states.
As for DougE's comment about the bucks being killed with a rifle later on anyway, is probably true.
If they are killed during archery there is a better chance that those bigger bucks with better genes, may not get the chance to pass those genes on, if they are killed earlier in archery season as opposed to getting killed in rifle season.
The PGC has always used the excuse that big bucks will pass on their genes before they are killed in rifle season and us guys that worry about bucks being "high graded" really have nothing to worry about. Seems the PGC's excuse carrys no weight now.
If there is an increase in buck kills during archery season, I would think the PGC would want to shorten the archery season in the following years to prevenrt overharvest. Then again, knowing how they think, probably not.
This whole situation would be similar to the PGC opening bear season, statewide, right with the rifle deer season. What would happen?
I should probably keep my mouth shut. I'm just giving the PGC more ideas. Heck, they could make more money on the bear license sales by implementing this.