Thats the best report ive heard yet congrads to you ...It shur is special to have your boy with you on the hunt, I had mine out In the rain and he didnt want to leave I was wet and cold no deer but he had fun.

We found 0 dead bucks in the woods after 6 days of driving deer. We also got no antlered deer. We saw 2 sub legal bucks, one slammer in the headlights after hours. We ended up getting 6. One of which was a buck that had dropped his horns already. (small bases) and one button buck the rest were nice size nannys.

Still tons of deer out there left including alot of nice bucks. I dont think any of the bucks I saw in archery were taken (small 6's etc). I heard less shooting on the opening am. My guess is about 1/2 of normal. There were times on the opening day that I never even heard a shot for over an hour!

ilbback, i did thesame first day shot what i thought was a huge doe at 162 yards with a perfect heart shot from my 30 06 and upon getting to it found it was a buck that had already lost it's horns. the one base was already callised over and the other was still red. first time i have heard of them losing horns so soon?!? our camp we had 6 hunters and in two days we had 6 does and two bucks. the one buck was a 150" 8 pt. and mine. i think the restrictions are good and can't wait to bowhunt next year.....

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SJ..What County do you hunt? I have talked to alot of hunters and thus far I have only heard of one being left in the woods? Are you in western PA or eastern?

I asked Alt at one of his seminars about bucks loosing their horns early. According to him it has to do with the Buck to doe ratio being so out of whack. According to him in areas with high doe to buck ratios (such as the area we hunt in bradford county) Bucks tend to loose their horns earlier beacuse they are running around chasing so many does for so long that the level of nutrition (fat reserves)in their bodies declines so badly that this caused their testosterone level to drop which causes the horns to fall off early.....Made sense to me as my area the buck to doe ratio is way out of whack. We have been hunting the 2nd week for the last 8 years and have had trouble with killing a number of anterless bucks and bucks whose horns fell off after hitting the ground. We have even found some fresh sheds in the woods!! Hopefully this will get better with time.

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Bucks shed their antlers according to their testosterone level,when it decreases normaly their antlers drop.It has nothing to do with buck/doe ratios. I've seen bucks in March with their antlers still intact.I also think that nutrition,& weather play a role in it.Severe weather they'll drop earlier.

Edited by - Turd Fergusen on 12/14/2002 20:03:39

SJHunter, I believe I read last year that the peak breeding is the last week of Oct and the beginning 2 weeks of Nov. They back dated fetuses from road kills and what ever does they could get to when they were shot. Hope this helps.

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Pinmaster GREAT report. NOW that is what hunting is about. Congrats to ya and your son. Great memories that will be with ya forever.

Brian