Check my post above.

Simple AR promote the shooting of does, and if one is following QDM to a tee, it's going to be a mature doe. This last fact is left out a lot. But the guys practing QDM target mature does also

We have been condition to shoot bucks.

Bruce,

In the last few years, PA's deer heard has been thinning in a hurry. The idea for AR's is to allow bucks to mature, giving you more buck who will expand and reproduce. I understand the point that as you know from my posts, that people are using this as an excuse and wacking away at the doe population. Which in years past was to great. We had few bucks, to many doe. Now we are creating more buck, but thinning the doe. If you are from PA in every game news issue or your local game news in different areas especially upstate in the big woods areas, you can read a dozen articles in a month about what is happening. That is why the Game commission is catching so much heat right now. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

You are right, just having AR's does not create for a bigger population while you are giving unlimited doe tags or huge numbers of doe tags. But its a start....... which hopefully PA continues to iron out and get right.

im in PA and been a resident for 21.5yrs and a hunter for 9 years...

IMO im all for antler restrictions...AND i do believe that herd reduction was needed.

our herd has the genetics and food...we just had a HORRIBLE buck to do ratio and lacked age classes...still need to work on the age classes which ARs can help with.

some of the state is doing well...others, well...we need everyone to play by the rules...and need the doe hunters to stop pulling the trigger on the ONLY doe they seen in the season...

NY is pretty similar to the OLD PA from what i understand...

now its to the point that i see as many backs as i do does...its pretty even with me and my hunting party...PA can become a great state to hunt if the hunters would wise up...

got guys shooting illegal bucks...others shooting the ONLY doe they seen all season and complaing theres no deer...illegal buck harvest takes place almost regular on some private land areas....i hear it on the radio a couple times a season but can never pinpoint the slobs...find the dead ones laying in the woods with perfect kill shots on them...just need everyone to cooperate...PA got some awesome habitat from suburbs to farmland to crp land to rolling hills to the hemlock mountains etc...it can be a wonderful place to hunt...

ARs are definently helping...and HR has done its part to get the buck to doe ratio more in balance...now we just need some age class....

We've been asking for years now how healthy a dead doe herd is?
Because in PA the only good doe is a dead one .And as of today the shame commission starts selling enough tags to guarantee another slaughterfor this coming fall.[:@]

Yes it IS a great question.

Someone remind me.....which age class bucks do the majority of the breeding?

100% against for central and western NY.
Management needs to be done on a far smaller level then statewide.
I shoot a bunch of does every year and let the younger bucks walk BY CHOICE because I like watching them.
You want more bucks then make it mandatory to use a buck tag on ALL button bucks.
Statewide average is 30% !!! of the antlerless kill is BB's!!!!!!!
Stop this and you will save far more then any misguided AR program.

Steve

I don't see how this makes a healthier herd. Does can have twins or even triplets so, if you shoot a Doe, you have potentially taken out 3-4 deer. You shoot a buck and the Does will still get bred by other bucks, just not bucks with "huge" racks .

So, you're saying that states that implement AR's are follow QDM to a tee a targeting mature Does? Somehow I'm not believing that LOL.

Ill play the game. Answer is 3-5yr olds. or 2-4yr olds in PA. But without AR's how do we get to that age? Did I miss the meeting where all hunters get together and decide who and how many spikes and 4pointers we are going to take?

C'mon bawanajim, you know that a healthy herd consists of 3 times as many "huge" racked bucks as it has Does