Hey Buck Magnet was it not you who invited me out to hunt last year?? You said you had a fair amount of doe yet. Whats your management unit.I can get any permit anytime I want because I am a disabled veteran.

I find it funny were are getting deer biology lessons from a youngin whom has one doe bow kill to his credit. Look sonny, you obviously got your opinon of AR'sin a magazine article from some one crying sour grapes. I live 20 minutes from PA and we have numerous monster bucks in my area. In case you didn't know the famous Hole in the horn came from a mere 20 minutes from the PA border. Western PA has the potential to produce the same world class deer as Oh, Il, Wi, IA, KS, etc...

AR's have greatly improved PA's deer herd. You wait and see I bet PA produces some great bucks this year being 4 years deep into AR's. Alot of those little spikes and fork horns are now 3.5 to 5.5 years old.

Since your game commission doesn't record what sex of deer your hunters are shooting then how do you know that those spikes and forkies survived at all ? It's entirely possible that they are still whacking and stacking them like they always have .

And God knows Deer hunting itsself is unacceptable without placing a high priority on the size of the horns the bucks are wearing huh ? I mean, going into the woods and hunting and killing a forkhorn is just a hideous thought and should be banned - right ?

I swear, that line of thought it killing Hunting, is seriously is. Hunting is much, MUCH more than the size of the horns on the bucks yet a large ammount of what I see now on this site is focusing on that. Killing little bucks has become something that ya'll look down on , belittle and speak out against. Its detrimental to Hunting overall - that line of thought is - because it takes away anything that IS the Hunt and places the emphasis on killing Horns instead.

Bad, bad, bad .................... I don't blame the anti-hunters for hating that concept in one least little bit. Ya'll have become Antler Whores and your lust for Horn Porn is killing Hunting. Congratulations []

I guess Data this mainly goes out to you....

It sort of sucks when someone tells you what specifically you can shoot and what you can't....thus AR. But what else does a state's DNR do when the hunters themselves can't police their own herd(keep it in check)? Sure AR builds bigger bucks....that's just a result of it, but what it also does is it makes people shoot more doe. Which everyone needs to do way more often than it happens. People must reduce most herds in most states. That's a proven fact! Why is it that there a lot of guys out there that are much more proud of a spike...fork...basket six than they are of shooting a doe? Because it's a tough animal to kill? Nope! That's a mentality that's been instilled from the older gentleman. That 2-3-4yr old doe is probably much harder to kill anyway. They keep passing doe after doe just to shoot an inferior buck. When hunters have this type of mentality, they MUST be told what to kill because they aren't smart enough to figure it out on their own. That might seem harsh, but it's not 1960 anymore. Older, more mature bucks in the herd is good for the herd. Is that some new concept that just hasn't caught on yet?

Yes, AR has antler restrictions. We also lost 40-60% of our deer herd in the years following the passing of that, which ultimately led to a reduction in deer tags in the past couple to try and bring back the deer herd numbers.


I agree - a smart old doe is harder to kill than a love sick, rutting buck.

Everyone doesn't hunt like that, and you know what ? Its not an exact science on how to manage a deer herd. Even when AR didn't have restrictions and our herds were strong yes, it was true we didn't have big antlered deer but we had deer numbers and most people were happy with that. Whats WRONG with that concpet anyway? if the doe numbers are so out of control give extra tags and plenty of people will step up and use them. The only exceptions would be private lands and you cannot regulate them nearly as well as public lands anyway

Good how ? Explain that one

If we have become Antler Whores because we like AR, then why would I rather shoot a doe than a 2 1/2 year old 6 point?

The real antler whores are the ones that need a set of antlers every year despite size because a doe isn't good enough or as desirable.

Because you feel likes its below yourself as a hunter to harvest a young buck ? Because your desire isn't to shoot a deer, rather than to shoot horns and if those horns aren't big enough that dammit you aint shooting and then telling someone else that your way is the right way, and them shooting little bucks is disgraceful and hey, we'll pass some laws where you CAN'T shoot little bucks.

I know I can't outdue the quote copying king, but I'll give it a shot.

That was the goal to reduce herd numbers. Whether it was a sucess or not isn't for me to decided. I'm not even close to where you live. I do see what your saying IN A WAY. Everytime I hear of a state trying reduce the deer numbers...everyone seems to say "How did they come up with those #'s?" Attempting to count a deer herd seems to be where everything goes wrong in every state. They only guess at what it is with some attempted effort in finding out and try to back it up with some scientific data.

I know plenty of hunters along with all my buddys(in my state) and I can count on one hand at the guys over the age of 45-50 that practice QDM. And we are talking a couple hundred. If it's got horns, they are shootin and are dang proud of it and then in fall b*tch about their crops being nailed and dead deer on the road. Do I need to explain further? In regards to your deer numbers. Did the carrying capacity of the land support those deer numbers? Was the deer herd healthy because of this? Were city folk complaining because they are hitting too many deer on the road? Insurance companies have more pull with the state than you think. Look at what is happening in Iowa now.
By giving out more doe tags to keep the herd in check...hunters don't step up. That's the problem. As I can only say of the people I know, even with the added doe tags...they STILL pass up on doe to wait for something with bone on it. And it doesn't matter how much. 1"-200"s, they are pulling the trigger.

Because to get older, more mature bucks in the herd...one must shoot more doe and let the little bucks walk. It reduces the herd, allows for a healthier herd, more doe are being bread with superior genes, doe have their fawns earlier in the spring because they had more to eat that winter because of the reduced herd and they are healthier when born, less still born fawns. I'm sure there are a couple that I'm missing.

That's thanks to Ohio's 2 restrictions. 1 buck with 3" or more horn. Sonny. According to your logic, Pa hunters need to hunt the Oh. border not the other way around. In the last season Pa took 70,000 less deer than they did 4 years ago. If Pa implemented it's policies because of deforestation and they are taking less deer, where's the logic in their plan? Get a few more years under your belt sonny, and you'll understand how things work. IT'S ABOUT MONEY. Some of the other states are already proving it. You don't think these guys just all of the sudden see how they can charge more for something. They plan these things for years.

Have you seen the new Star Wars movie. Some 25 year old thought he had all the answers and was used to push a destructive agenda. It's the way the world works and is done in schools and universities non stop. How is it they found cwd in 2 managed herds in NY.? Those deer should have been seed for the deer population that is getting so out of balanced. No, weight, we took record bucks here last year, but that won’t last, just you weight, you’ll see.

Push your fear some place else.