T_in_PA2

Another thing to consider is that archers have more access to land that is unhuntable by a gun.

Jason N

I am a bowhunter. I also enjoy other types of deer hunting....I shot a doe with a rifle and my buck with a bow. OH MY GOD, what have I done, what have I done? I have always tried to take a doe in the first week of archery season so that I could focus on my buck hunting and have meat in the freezer. This is the first year that it didn't work that way....I missed a doe on the first day and didn't have any opportunities at mature animals the rest of the season. I killed a large adult doe on the first Friday of rifle season. Now, tell me why it's okay for rifle hunters to shoot only buck, but archers should be only shooting doe or at least shooting more doe. Tell me why so many nimrods in rifle season don't have a doe tag on their back? Is it because most guys that get doe tags try to get multiple doe tags and the others don't get one and don't have to 'help out'?

juniorpc

DD, I do agree that all hunters need to be responsible for thier harvest of does. It really doesn't matter what season they are harvested in though. While the earlier the better in terms of each animals effect on the available food, habitat, breeding, etc it's what each hunter harvests each year that really matters. Where it does matter is when archers lobby for longer seasons, no early muzzleloader season, etc, etc. As a group they are not doing thier part. Before anyone gets in a huff, I do archery hunt and folks should know that noone loves harvesting a doe more than me!! I do think that different factors contribute to the harvest figures, many archers wait to harvest does in the other, later seasons, again with some impact on the available food source and a bunch more impact on thier validity as a lobbying group when seasons are being made, changed, etc. DD, now the archers are bad folks. Gosh your angry at everyone. Juniorpc.

deaddeer

Now show me where I said or implied that it was okay for rifle hunters to shoot only buck. Rifle hunters harvestes 2.6 doe for every buck while archers harvested 1.1 doe for every buck. Are you implying rifle hunters aren't doing their part? All I am saying is that many archers intentionally delay harvesting a doe or multiple doe during archery season and as a result the archery anterless harvest is much lower than it could be . At the same time many archers support Alt's call for an early anterless season to save a few weeks worth of food.


I personally don't care when any one harvests the deer of their choice as long as their actions are consistent with their support of Alt's plan. In other words they should practice what they preach. Those that oppose Alt's plan are also free to harvest or not harvest what they want when they want,but they too should be consistent. I favor herd reduction in the area where I hunt so we shot the first legal deer worth butchering. Since I don't support AR it didn't matter if a was a doe or a BB,as long as it was legal.

Bob H in NH

I am all for the restrictions already in place in PA, and I only hunt it one week in October for archery!! It will take several years to see its true effect.

However, a 5 pt restriction seems a bit overboard. That means that the "small" deer would be a 9-10 ptr, come on now a bit silly if you ask me.

Leave it as is for a few years, see what happens, then up it to 4 pt statewide if you want, but 5 is going a bit far.

Just a non-resident opinion, but still....

--Bob

Jason N

You didn't say it was okay for rifle only hunters to shoot only bucks. You implied that archers only want bucks and that's not true.

I never said rifle hunters weren't doing there part. What I'm alluding to is this: there are ~1M hunters in this state. ~300k are archers. There are ~900k doe tags(2003). I see more guys in rifle season than I do in archery(statistically correct), but of the bowhunters I see most have doe tags. I haven't done any number running, but I'm willing to bet that about 1 in 5 (just an estimate from memory) has at least one doe tag. Now, I reallize that this is a very, very small portion of hunters in either case, but I think that rifle hunters need to apply for more doe doe tags. There isn't a good reason that WMU's don't sell out on the first round.....I believe those second round tags are going to the guys that already drew a first round tag. I do reallize that this isn't going to be the case for every tag, but it seems logical. What I'm saying is it seems that a small portion of rifle hunters are doing the job for the rest. I reread my post and reallized that I came off a little pi$$y for lack of a better term. I didn't mean to imply that rifle hunter aren't doing the job. I wanted to stress the fact that rifle hunters aren't doing all of the job and not all rifle hunters are diong all of the job.

T_in_PA2

Also, there are no proposals or discussions going on relating to a 5pt restrictions at the PGC.

Next thing we'll hear is that the restrictions will be 4 pts on both sides and nothing less. Not 3x5 or 2x6 but only 4x4.

Deer902

It is alot harder to harvest a doe in archery than it is in rifle season. I didn't have the chance to harvest any doe during last archery season, but I took 3 during the gun season. I did pass on 3 buck during archery season and they were all legal. Does this mean I'm not doing my part as an archer because I didn't harvest a doe?

BTBowhunter

T_in_PA2, re read the first post by painless. this started as an April fool.

Of course our year round fool here has managed to spin it into a rifle hunter vs archer dispute

deaddeer

If you didn't have the opportunity to harvest a doe during archery,no one should hold that against you. I had the same problem so I know how you feel. But, there is no question that that archers could harvest more anterless deer if they choose to do so. Actually I don't blame the archers in the least, I blame Alt for implementing AR before we even started to reduce the herd.