Here is a little known fact that you will never be revealed by the PGC. We are now harvesting a higher percentage of our buck as BB than ever before!

In 1999,before Alt was appointed, 18% of the male deer harvested were BB. In 2002 25% of the males harvested were BB and in 2003 it increased to 27%, even though we decreased the percentage of fawns in the anterless harvest from 46% to 39%. So, while AR increased the harvest of 2.5+ buck by 17%, it decreased the antlered buck harvest by 30% and increased the number of males harvested as BB by 9%.

Also, although the PGC has not released any current data ,prior to AR ,3 % of the anterless harvest were adult buck that had lost their racks. That stat was when the anterless harvest occurred after the antlered season and 80% of the antlered deer had been removed from the herd. Now that AR protects more buck , more of those buck will be harvested as anterless deer in the late ML season and in SRA counties where rifles can be used in the late season.

Those are some of the reasons why the 2003 harvest was much lower than expected and why future buck harvests will remain far below the harvests of 2000 and 2001.Back to top