Originally Posted by
rritchey sr.
Here in Pa. buck season dictates that a buck have at least three points on one side and some areas it is four points on one side. There are some exceptions for jrs and srs. I will admit that I was opposed to the restrictions when they first were imposed, but now some years later we are seeing more mature heavily antlered bucks. One area where we did do major damage was allowing doe season to run concurrently with buck season ( two weeks). There is an alarmingly small number of deer in alot of areas and they are almost nonexistant on alot of state gamelands.
With these types of restrictions, passing on small bucks is not only required, but you are insured that even on public land the buck will live to maturity.
When I hunt public land by us, I will shoot ANY deer if I have the tag. If I don't, someone else will. On my own land it is a different story. I like to have the options as we do in our state.