I was just thinking maybe Gary Alts theory about having an all firearms for doe in early Oct is not as effective as having a week for doe including 2 sat. starting around the second week of Dec.If he figures that not all the doe get breed in their first cycle and alot of younger bucks do some of the breeding because of this why not have the later season for doe.Alot of the smaller bucks will already be shot usually the first to go in buck season and then the doe who come back in estrus around the end of Dec will more then likely get breed by the smarter bigger bucks which is what I hear he wants any way.Also like this year and last year here in Pa the snow always seems to hit right after deer season is over.It is alot easier to hunt deer with snow on the ground not only for tracking but easier to see and less wounded animals lost.I just think that having the doe season later would eliminate trying to hunt in early Oct making alot of archery hunters mad and it will be alot tougher to score at that time anyway.I am not saying it is a cure all just something to think about.

I think the idea is to take the does out before the bucks wear themselves out trying to breed all of them. I think is would be easier to take a deer in October than in December. Although the snow helps out, the deer are easier to pattern in October. Hunters know that they will get a shot if they hunt a field edge in the late afternoon. Plus, they wouldn't be as spooked and nocturnal as they are later in the year.

Scott Meier
White Oak Lodge

...I have to agree with Scott on this one <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

Hunt Safe!

Jack

I am with Scott too on this one.

Brian

The other reason to take out the does as early as possible is to minimize the amount of damage they do to the food base (and crops and saplings, etc)... in other words, if you take a doe out six weeks early, that is six weeks of food for another deer (ideally a big buck).

I understand the theory behind the early doe season but I still think the first week or two of November would probably be the most ideal time....with the last week of October close behind. There is less foliage on the trees, it is still prior to the main part of the rut......and it would still give bowhunters a large amount of time to hunt the deer in a less disturbed environment....which is essential for hunting heavily pressured public land with a bow.

I'd go for the third week in Oct for purely selfish reasons as a bowhunter. A few weeks of undisturbed bowhunting as PaBH suggested followed by a little time for the deer ro settle down so the rut activity is not all nocturnal. Better yet, start archery in mid sept, then the gun doe in early oct as proposed. And a male deer tag not an antlered tag. A button buck costs you that tag.

I can see that the early doe season should be earlier, than mid Dec, when a lot of already bread does are getting shot, but I HOPE the Game Commission learned a few things this year!.......But I doubt it!!!!!

Yes, it was exceptionally warm, even in early Dec, but the season NEEDS to be a bit later (than early Oct), so the weather &quot;HOPEFULLY&quot; is cool enough to let the deer hang.

We butcher ALL our deer ourselves, and I DID NOT shoot an early doe this year, because I AM NOT GOING TO PAY FOR A COOLER FOR A DOE!!!

I have a refrig that we can get 2 quartered deer in, and cool/age them, but I kept that space for our bucks. We hunt both PA, and MD, and had a legal potential to kill 50 deer each this year, if we bought all the bonus tags we were allowed in both states!

I killed 5, and still hope for a flint lock doe or 2 here in PA, now that the weather has cooled, at last.

If PA wants to reduce their herd, they need to do as MD and some other states. You buy your liscence, you are allowed &quot;so many deer&quot; in each management zone. You buy an archery liscence, you are allowed that many more deer. You buy a muzzleloader liscence, and your limit tripples.

Here in PA with its outdated regs, you buy a liscence, bow lisc, and muzzleloader lisc, than by the time rifle season comes in, you have no tags left. I could have filled my PA tags the first week of archery season, had it not been so warm, and had &quot;the right buck showed up! As it was I had to wait till the end of archery to get the right buck, than it still was not the one I wanted.

Only an armed nation (state) is a free state! <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> The people of a disarmed nation (state) are SUBJECTS, NOT FREE CITIZANS!![<img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle>