As a side note, I was in the bow shop last night getting my Bowtech set up for a hog hunt, and I saw two Stryker crossbows go out the door. My bud said they are going so fast they can't keep the xbows in stock. Get ready for a crowded October boys and girls.

Do any of you own the private land you hunt on?

And if so will you allow x bow hunters to hunt? Or even friends whom want use an X-Bow?

And yes our local shop can't keep up with the demand right now.[:'(]

I wouldn't call you a friend if you didn't allowone to hunt your land with a legal weapon.[:'(]

A fair portion of Westmoreland County is within the 2B WMU and crossbows have been legal to all for a while now.


Is that deer that big purely because of AR's? Probably not. Does that deer represent the norm? Of course not. Did we have deer that big before AR? Yes of course. But do some 1.5 fork horns have the potential to grow this big? You betcha!


Have you read the research that concludes the opposite?

[quote ]A close friend has been raising large, captive deer for years, and his largest bucks...who incidentally scored very close to that monster non typical, always sported exceptional antlers (110"+) as yearlings, and began demostrating their non typical characteristics by age 2.5. [/quote]

Captive deer arent always a good indicator but since you brought them up, take a day and visit Double Diamond deer ranch on Rt 36 south of Cook Forest in Clarion County and look at the rack history of their deer. They have the sheds from each year of 20+ bucks in order on a wall. Some of them lived well past their prime years. Many of the truly exceptional bucks sported terribly small junk antlers their first year or even two and the yearlings that started with impressive racks didn't necessarily carry them through. A visit there is well worth the trip.


Pa will never be like Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconson or even Ohio. But we have improved the age structure and as a result, our average antler quality

Our AR system could be better. With 900,000 hunters it will always be a far less than perfect situation.We could make it better. No doubt. I'd support a spread restriction over a point count. What would you suggest we do statewide in PA?

Quit buying a hunting license. Why? Because it doesn't matter what you want in PA. From the way you said you got screwed on the Xbow vote that the majority didn't want, It still ended up being passed. How do you think any suggestion is going to help change PA when your suggestions doesn't matter?I suggest stop buying a license.

All in favor of EJ not buying a PA license this year say Aye


AYE!!!

I allready said I wasn't, But if you want I will vote with you and say Aye also. That is 2 that voted I shouldn't buy a license.

I was just thinking R.S.B.is likelyheart broken over just the thought.

I knew if we tried, we'd find some common ground

Here are no studies that conclude the exact opposite. What they conclude is that there is no reason to cull 1.5 spikes. They also conclude that spikes are inferior for the rate of antler development and therefore they are concluding that protecting 1.5 spikes while harvesting the better buck will result in high grading and smaller average rack size.
Eliminate ARs!!!