Originally Posted by
vapahunter
So that is a great deer. Could it have been there without antler restriction? No way of knowing is there? I bet there are hundreds of hunters who were in the woods at the same time he was complaining about the lack of deer and not seeing anything they could shot due to the restrictions. How many in these economic times could have used the meat and could care less about the antler size.
Again it is a great deer and congratulate your buddy but one deer does not make the proof of the program statewide.
So penalizing hunters for taking deer you do not want them to is your way of encouraging more hunters. Sorry but that is not the way to manage a herd. You are managing for antler growth and not for quantity or quality of HERD. Being an antler hunter only means you are killing the 5% of the herd that got that large. How many of thos eimature bucks will get to the 10 or 12 point size? Probably only 5% yet you would penalize anyone taking something other than that. Sorry but that is wrong and PA will continue to have a deer population problem for many years to come. Meaning no deer of any quality or quantity. Continue to decimate your herd.
Bingo. I cannot see how taking a buck tag from someone would be the "right thing to do." "Right", as defined by people who just hunt for big horns. Don't get me wrong, I'd be as excited as the next guy to take a monster buck, but that isn't why I hunt...not by a long shot. I would have zero tolerance for an action by the STATE to pass laws just so more horn-hungry hunters can be satiated.
"QDM" (I always have to laugh at that term) laws or not, there will always be big bruisers in the woods to find, if that's your quarry. They may not be in abundance, but isn't that the way it's supposed to be? Isn't that what makes them special?
Manage for overall quality of the HERD, not the horns.