chr103yod

I usually kill at least one doe a year and a buck if I'm lucky. The PGC has lost their minds. They allocated 38k doe tags for 3D and 4k DMAP tags. I don't think there are that many doe lefton state game lands. But you know what? If they want us to kill every freakin deer in PA I will do my best to help them out. This year I'm going to get as many doe tags for my son and I as legally possible. I'm hoping my son and I kill at least5 or 6doe and two buck.Then when all of the deer are gone I will complain there are no deer because the morons in charge told me it was the right thing to do."We need to regenerate the forest" what a bunch of crap.If the habitatwas so bad why did I used to see 20 deer a day, they weren't starving. Right now I'm lucky to see 1 deer. Let's kill every deer in PA and then hunt somewhere else. Screw the PGC.

DougE

Deerfly,this area doesn't have alot of agriculture,so in the summer,it's nothing to seelots deer in these fields.As soon as the acorns start dropping,they spread out.This area is within 3 miles of the biggest metroplolitan area in this part of the state and it's open to hunting.It recieves alot of pressure and herd reductions have been very successful in this part of the state.Most of the locals are complaining about no deer just as loud as the guys on this board.There's been several save the deer meetings in Dubois over the past two years.In fact,we were fortunate enough to have several clueless state reps hold a hearing about how few deer we have.

I don't think 80% of those bucks will be harvested in the fall.Several of them already survived a few seasons.I'm telling you,they won't be around bythe first day of archery season.I see the same thing happen every year although this year there's bigger bucks than usual.If you put a light in those fields around october,you'll be lucky to see a few deer each night.

chr103yod,Are you saying that we shouldn't try and help the habitat?If you don't think the deer impact the habitat,I'd be more than happy to show you in person how wrong you are.We're in the position that we aretoday because of hunter's greed.If you expect to see 20 deer a day,you're part of the problem.

ChuckS

I happened to have the data for 2000-2005 available.
I just double checked and it was 2005 and not 2004 I used.Sorry for the inconvenience.Difference between the two years (% button-1.5-2.5) is minimal.

2002 is not a good baseline year as that is when they started AR!!?? They also issue 1mm doe tags which could skew the button-buck %. Apples to oranges.





Using 2002 and 2005 years I get:
18.4 (2005) - 16.8 (2002) = 1.7 months or 1.7 / 16.8 = 10% increase
The numbers are not jiving with yours. I don’t think we are using the same base numbers...
...but still 1mo / 17mo = 6% which in my mind is still a big improvement (statistically).

ChuckS

chr103yod

DougE "hunters greed" are you kidding me? The state told us to kill the deer. They gave us the tags, the opened doe season during rifle season, they gave us DMAP tags, they opened muzzleloader season for does during bow season and it's our fault? 3D just allocated 38k doe tags and over 4k DMAP tags. I don't think there are that many doe left in 3D unless you hunt illegally in a community. What I was saying is if the forest could support 10X more deer in the past the habitat couldn't have been that bad. Every state that has a successful deer management plan does not have a 2 wk rifle season. The only thing AR's has done is increase the amount of button buck and 2 1/2 yr old buck being shot. They ruined hunting in PA.