Just a point of correction, his proposal said the junior license was either sex WITHOUT restrictions. I read that to mean antler restrictions.

I agree that this year was very tough but I think that there are other factors that come into play than hunting regulations. If it were just the regulations that made this year so tough, why wasn't last year just as hard. These rules have been around for a while now. There have been plenty of deer in the past years, but this year they all went away because of the rules? I don't think so. My personal thoughts are a combination of a very hard winter last year caused a lot of winter kill, a very wet spring/summer/fall changed their feeding habits, and the fields being so wet that the farmers had to wait until now in some cases to chop the corn giving the deer a different place to hide has made this year hard. I also believe that a pretty big percentage of hunters don't call in their harvest causing the DEC numbers to be wrong. I am a fan of the idea of antler restrictions but I don't like the idea of 8-10 point restrictions. That is too drastic. I would be all in favor of 6 pt. and bigger though. As far as early muzzleloader season goes, I have mixed feelings. I don't bow hunt so that part of me makes me say 'heck yeah! I all for early muzzleloader season", but I also would hate to be a bow hunter and have a bunch of guns going off in the middle of my season. I guess I fall more on the "no" side of this issue just out of respect for the bow hunters. My personal preference would be to do an early muzzleloader season the week preceding open season. That way the bow hunters get an un-interupted season without guns scaring the deer off, and the muzzleloader hunters get an early season before all the shotgunners get out there. Yeah the bow hunters lose a week but as it is now, the muzzleloaders get the shaft. (no pun intended!) I just don't understand the thinking of splitting up the bow season right in the middle to let muzzleloader hunters have a week. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

It's funny though, compared to where I used to hunt (public lands in CO) it is nice to actually see deer when I hunt! I went a lot of years without ever even seeing a deer let alone shooting one! To me even this year being as tough as it has been would have been a banner year only 5 years ago in CO!