A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

During gun season, my friends and I were discussing the results of the changes PA has made to the regs...antler restrictions and doe tags came up.

So what's the deal? Have the results been positive or negative? Are the total numbers up or down over the last few years? Are bigger bucks starting to be more commonplace because of the newer antler restrictions? Are "too many" does being taken and causing the herd numbers to suffer?

I no longer hunt PA, but I'm curious to hear what others say and think.

RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

As far as regarding does, depends on what area of the state you are refering to as to wether or not the numbers are up or down. As far as antler restrictions, there is no doubt in my mind that antler size and increasing age of bucks are occuring. Anyone telling you differently doesn't have a clue. One needs only to go to local taxidermist shops to hear them say they have never seen it so good.

RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

From the looks of the board, this season........I'd say PA was doing SOMETHING right;)

RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

I would say the bucks are looking better! The doe situation varys upon where your at in the state and if you got private land to hunt!

RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

Yea what they said.

The biggest thing I've had people argue is whether the herd needed lowering. I'm on the side of, yes it needed lowering, but more land needs timbered too.

As far as AR's BEST thing to ever happen. They should be 4 pts statewide and those guys would really see nice bucks.

RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

This wasa frustrating archeryseason for me and not for the reasons you might think.;)The frustration came from seeing so many shooters and not being able to capitalize on it !!!! I know -I know, poor me :D. I hope to remedy that as I just took offthis Thursday and Friday and with the chance of some snow on the ground Thursday. YESSSSSS the antler restriction work.

RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

I'm going to have to say that I'm not really sure how the herd is statewide. I do know that I live in an area with a lot of hunters and not much public land. In these areas there just aren't many deer. On the private land that's another thing. A good many deer but you can't hunt it. Then these property owners complain to the PGC that the deer are destroying their gardens, shrubbery, etc.
My friend and I hunted about 10 days in archery season and so far, 4 days in rifle season on public land and saw a total of6 deer (4 archery and 2 rifle). Of these,4 were doe and2 were a non-legal buck. We covered a lot of ground and made pushes for each other in areas where we normally saw deer in the past. We even tried areas we never tried before, like small brush clumps in fields that were big enough to hide a deer, just hoping we could see something worth shooting.
We'll keep plugging along. We got a week left and late ML season.

RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

The antler restrictions are working great! I now see so many bucks with age and size. I live in Beaver County and around here i still see a ton of doe as well as all the good bucks i have been talking about. BUT i do have a camp in WMU 2F (in Forest county) and though i am seing bigger bucks there now when we do even see deer. but we sat all day for 3 days the last 2 years and only seen about 10 deer both years combined. I think up there they have to cut back a little bit on the doe hunting up there. Now i understand that some people complain about how "they used to see 50 or 60 deer in one herd at a time and now the killed all the deer, have to quit hunting doe all together for a few years now and its all for insurance money bla bla bla" but those are them same people that dont understand that seing 49 doe and a spike all the time is not good. there were way to many doe and the bucks were not maturing to breed. Though now it seems they may have taken to many doe up there. I dont think they should stop doe hunting up there all together but they have to change something.

RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

AR's are working great the herd reduction is a mess. In areas where hunters have unlimited access they have reduced the herd to a pittance. In areas where there is limited access they have plenty of deer as the deer have sanctuaries.Limited access has packed hunters on to available land causing crowds that no one wants to see.

Like every thing the government tries the one size fits all method of deer management has done little more than pit hunters against hunters and land owners against the concrete dwellers in the end we all have lost.

RE: A friendly deer camp debate...about PA regs
 

Vermont went the same way as Pa with AR a couple of years ago and it shows with the buck results. Previously the amount of yearling bucks taken was between 60 and 80 percent of the total kill. Now 2 1/2 year old bucks are coming into the check stations in greater numbers than I have seen in years. I hope we start to get more holdover mature deer in the next couple of years.