I Personnally saw more nicer bucks this year than I ever have. Without a doubt that is directly related to AR. THe number of deer in our area both private and public seems to be rather plentiful.
And if you heard any of Alt's lectures the goal was to reduce the deer herd for the first few years and try and better the habitat before going back to a higher deer populations.
Hey ilbback, how ya doing?
Truely glad you saw nicer bucks this year. I have
nothing against AR's, but your quote about plentiful deer on public land just doesn't wash.
There have been way too many posts, and not just from me, about the lack of deer on our sgl's and state forests. Please don't infer that we must all be lousy hunters either. If you've got a good place to hunt, good for you, I hope it remains that way. I talked to a guy from the forestry assoc at the Sportsmen Show. He also said we have too many deer (surprise, surprise!), but he hunts Somerset county in SW PA, which, if you look at deer density maps, is high in deer population. I asked him about acid rain and it's affect on our forests. He agreed it was as serious a problem as deer overbrowsing. He also stated he felt the hemlock was doomed due to insect parasites. There is so much more to this problem than just kill the deer. We've had acid rain polution from the Ohio Valley steelplants for lots of decades, but it's only the last few years that the deer herd has declined, coinciding with a sharp increase in doe tags.
PAhunter:
"If you've been to huntingpa.com, I'm sure you noticed all the anti-Alt/PGC posts. It gets annoying after a while."
I went to their site and saw many posts that approve of Dr Alt's programs.