They can't prevent the 20 to 24% of antlered deer being shot with the antlerless harvest. No state has, the more emphasis ya' put on antlerless harvest the more antlered deer you take in the form of BB or mature buck that have lost thier antlers in the latest part of the season.

Just a fact of deer hunting. You can pretend it won't happen, you can close your eyes and wish for no BB to get whacked, but it will happen a percentage of the time. And it is showing in pa's last few dropping buck harvests. Of course this was known up front by biologists and was studied in many states before pa ever dreamed up its mediocre plan to reduce the herd. Ok, Ok.... lousy plan.

For a state that was supposedly on the verge of a habitat collapse (?) it sure seems funny our deer plan by our esteemed deer team has done nothing to reduce the herd one bit. A failure on habitat restoration.

And dropping buck harvests, as well as doe, means its failing to meet up to what was promised with 'more and bigger bucks' also.

Take those two failures and stack on top the fact that DCNR and the PGC have misled hunters on the use of DMAP and you have a deer management agenda that has not met up to expectations.

I think it will truly hit a new low when the PGC proposes to placate DCNR with a new rifle season in archery and muzzleloader in state forests. That will really cap a 5 year period that will define a new low for deer management in pa.