I think the deer herd is awesome. Saw Plenty of deer and nice bucks before the season and during archery season and plenty of Really nice bucks (more than I ever have). We did not see alot of buck in rifle season, but we did well on some nice does.


Funny how some of you guys state that there are no or few deer yet most or all of you filled your tags????????? HOW MANY DEER DO YOU HAVE TO SEE BEFORE YOU ARE SATISFIED??

IF you were that concerned about the amount of deer that were just not there, maybe you should have not pulled the trigger on the ones you did see??

I had 3 tags (1 buck and 2 doe) and only took 1 doe, Not that I wouldnt have filled them if i had the opportunity. I saved the doe lic for Muzzy season and never got to get out due to work. And I did not see any bucks worthy of pulling the trigger in rifle. Saw some Dandys during the rut with a bow but they were all too far or behind brush. AWESOME YEAR CANT WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR!!!

CattNY- many of the guys in my hunting group have the same views as you and this is why I can't be very optimistic that in 5 or 10 years, we'll be much better off than we are now. After a lot of flack and resistance, I convinced everybody to pass up spikes during the 2002 season, which we all did. Last year, the same "rule" was in place, but some of us have now increased our minimum size to a 6 point. Everyone wants to kill a wall hanger but many people in our group have trigger fingers that are too itchy to pass up young bucks.
Maybe you just started hunting and killing little bucks excites you. Perhaps you have hunted for 40 years and that's just what you like to do- I don't know but either case is fine. One thing is for sure though. Passing up does to kill small, young bucks doesn't make you a man or a knight in shining armor. Instead, it keeps the buck to doe ratio where it is, and if you're in my area, that's somewhere in the realm of 1 buck to every 10 or 12 does. NOT GOOD! [:'(]

This might not be true for all hunters and this is just an opinion of mine. But I think that people that only hunted the first few days of rifle season may have seen less deer for one reason - the weather was dreadful. From what I remember, most of the state had high winds through the first two days of the season. Deer don't like to move as much in high wind. Therefore, you may have not seen as many deer because of this. []

I don't want to beat a dead horse. There appears to be more pros than cons to ARs. But, it pissed me off when my last buck I shot was in 1997 and then, this past year I had easy shots at 3 sub legal bucks (which would've been legal 2 yrs ago) and I couldn't shoot one. Talk about dumb ass luck.

If anyone puts in enough time and effort to scout,do there homework,and put the hours in the woods they shouldn't go 6 years between buck,especially any old or should I say young buck.Those 3 sub legal bucks will be looking pretty good next year,won't they!But I guess if a 10pt and 4 pt where runnning together you would shoot the 4pt cause it tastes better!

I was going to stop posting to the subject of ARs. but this ******* pissed me off. I would shoot the buck (4ptr or 10ptr) that offered the best opportunity and clean kill. I would prefer the 10 ptr but any buck is a trophy to me. Does aren't trophies because I've bagged many. I've hunted deer for over 40 years. I've shot at least 2 does every year but only was able to bag 7 bucks in those years and I hunt 2 states. I tell you what, this past year I took the big doe of a group of 3 and while field dressing the doe (which Alt says to always take the bigger doe), I had to scare the 2 fawns away 3 times. This did not make me feel like a good person. I never had to scare fawns away after shooting one of my bucks.

The guy that disagreed with you is not an a## hole . He is entitled to his opinion just like you, That person is probably one of the best hunters and best people on this board, I guarantee he will not attack you even after you called him a name. Now I saw more good bucks in Pa this year than I have seen in awhile, I wasnt able to get a shot except an 8 pt and wasnt sure what was behind him so I didnt shoot. I think we have to trust Alt, look what he did for Bear hunting in Pa.

Filled my freezer with doe meat, passed several legal bucks including 3 the last day of late archery/ML season. Purely a personal choice not to shoot any buck that wasn't a monster. Purely for the good of our herd that I support A/R's (the intent of which is NOT necessarily to produce trophy bucks but to balance the buck/doe ratio and the deer habitat ratio)

BTW saw a total of 52 deer the last day along with those 3 legal bucks, half on private land closed to public and half on private land that is WIDE OPEN to the public.

They're out there! Adapt! Find em! Thats huntin!

You probably saw these three illegal bucks because other hunters had to pass them up too. Maybe it makes complete sense!?!? [8D]

i have just GOT to laugh at all you crybabies, on both sides of the AR issue. first you knew going into this whole management deal in PA that your herd would have to be reduced, so why complain about not seeing deer? if you didn't know, them you need to become more involved in the process. second, and this comes from not knowing what regs catt has, or what is allowed, shooting a four point will not hurt your herd, if you believe that, bend over so i can give ya a kick! you will not harvest as many bucks, ever again like you did 3 years ago, them's the rules of qdm. your doe harvest will increase, they will need to be brought down to a manageable level, generally at least 10-25%. with fewer bucks being killed, more doe will need to be harvested to offset the decline in order to keeep the deer within their carryiung capacity. has anyone asked catt just how many doe he could shoot, before jumping on him for shooting a smaller buck? maybe he does not have anything other than a doe tag and a buck tag to work on. does it really matter if you see a few more younger bucks in the woods, if you can't shoot? do a dead deer search, tell me how many are mature bucks versus 1.5er's. more pressure=more stress on an already stressed, older class deer. try hunting in the real world guys, where many of us are lucky to see one buck per season, like in maine, n.h., or vt, throw in just a few doe seen, and tell me that should pass up a spike. that's the way it is in these area's up here. as for stroking his ego by shooting a small buckAR's are customed made for those who stroke off, because in the long run, all you really care about by using ar's are antler size, you know, whose got the bigger d.... size don't matter, they all work. a ten tastes the same as a spike as a doe.