Pat, it is tempting to want to blame hunters. They as a group are an easy target, as they are not often unified. But you cannot.

Any individual hunter can pass on shooting does in his area, but he does not control the 40 other hunters who decide they should. It is the "system" the Game Commission created with large WMU's (with little to no control over where tags are filled) and thier desire to see deer numbers radically reduced (not mildly reduced) that has caused the inequity we are seeing right now in deer numbers.

It is not the hunters of pa who manage the deer herd. The PGC sets the seasons and bag limits and sets the direction of deer management, so although you want to blame it on hunters as a group, that is not a rational argument. Its like blaming car drivers for high gas prices, because after all they are the ones buying it........? (Or substitute any nonmandatory service or product like Milk or prices at Disney World).

It would be different if we hunters were not following the plan, but we are just doing what they asked. Can't fault us for that.


Buckshot - maybe you should just be like Fox News. You report, we'll decide.

Our current plan is not producing any larger bucks. It IS producing a smaller herd, which Dr. Alt wants to protect the forest. Trees in Pa are more valuable than deer for the time being. Correct that Dr. Alt does know that the herd can be reduced with concurrent seasons and over a million doe tags, and he has designed a plan where the reductions will continue even though some small portion of the population reject the need in some counties to reduce the population down to 5 dpsm.

Not all of Pa is devastated habitat, yet with big bloated wmus' the statewide reduction is treated nearly the same everywhere. They say WMU's and DMAP are to 'focus' hunters, but that is a farce.

Herd reductions are taking a slow toll. Less bucks overall with a smaller herd, and no one has shown much evidence the less bucks are any bigger.

I hope the smaller herd is worth it to appease the conservationists cause it ain't better hunting. No matter how you try and spin it.