At the rate we are losing hunters and the way most people practice their own AR, I don't think it is necessary to have it anywhere in the state anymore. Won't be overly long until the whole state is a CWD area either.
AR was not put in to make them magical 140 plus bucks it just was a way to get the hunters to shoot doe.
When a mistake kill is 500$ fine that makes most ppl scared to pull the trigger on a buck.
The whole thing was HR and still is. Aloght of guys would shoot that spike or fork horn and b done plus b happy about it now we just target the doe the baby makers to keep the numbers liw on deer population
Just think about it u don't stop population growth by letting bucks live u take away the doe. For years PA kept saying too many deer gave more tags more time it didn't work so HR was done with a great salesman gary. Kill the big doe and save the buck and u will have this he held up a rack from the double diamond ranch
Just think how many bucks there would be if we didn't shoot a button buck at all for one season . So what is are actually doing for the Hunter nothing it just created antler worship along with the TV shows
I am sure Dick can chime in here as well, but there has never been a fine levied at $500.00 for a mistake kill that was immediately turned into PGC.
Now, if someone decided not to immediately notify the PGC and sat on it for a period of time then it could be seen as something else thus the higher fine.
If you have some facts to back up this statement I am very curious to hear what the facts are. Not just hearsay.............
At the rate we are losing hunters and the way most people practice their own AR, I don't think it is necessary to have it anywhere in the state anymore. Won't be overly long until the whole state is a CWD area either.
No there shouldn't. And Kudu raises a good point. If half the hunters that claim they only shoot mature trophy buck's really do, then AR is unnecessary.
I praise GOD that CWD has not spread down here yet, but I have to once again agree that the time for AR is passed, and from all I am reading today, has done more harm than good, from increasing the amount of "protected" deer which likely will never be anything but, to potentially stunting the growth of adding new hunters to our ranks.
It never really mattered to me if I shot a buck with a big rack, as the old saying goes ya can't eat the horns anyway. But yeah if a nice racked buck came my way I wouldn't pass it up either.
And if ya want to get kids into deer hunting changing the AR would be a good idea cause I'm pretty sure a kid just wants to get a deer.
Oh okay, guess I should of checked that out. But like I said I hunt for meat,, antlers don't really matter to me and
I sure wouldn't pass up a nice racked buck.
It should be up to the individual what they shoot not everyone is chasing the rack.
I have 3 from 140 to 160 all with a bow would I have shot smaller if presented with a shot yes and have there all trophies to most.
AR just breads greed and worship. It divides the hunting ranks. I brought my boy up to shoot what makes u happy no regrets if it's not pope& young material
Is your logic far to all. It's what u want so u practice what u want and others should b Abel to practice what they wan
frank1969, not true, at age 16 a youth hunter needs an adult license and is subject to AR, unless they purchased a Jr license while they were 15 years old and turned 16 after they legally purchase the Jr license, then they are subject to AR with the next license they purchase.
With them comments I'd love to show ppl my man room. I have small and large antler sets in there most even p&y stuff just scull capped there all in a pile for the most part and there all great hunts.
Best day ever was when dad, pap my brother and me all shot bucks on the first day. Paps last hunt with us to. 2 spikes a 4 pt and a half rack y buck
A trophy or nothing you will never hear that from me or the guys I hunt with.
We have the opposite thinking shoot any legal buck and let a big doe walk
Exactly.My desire to kill anything has decreased substantially since my son started to hunt.It concerns me that I'll never get that desire back.I rarely even go unless he can go with me.
A yearling 6 point is hardly a "trophy" or "mature" deer and they're legal. Nobody is forced to hold out for a trophy, just to allow a few more yearlings to live another year, when they will then most likely be legal. I really don't get what all the fuss is about?
Probably 90% of the hunters I know will shoot any legal buck. The others don't shoot unless it's a nice one, they really don't care if they get one or not.
Overall, most hunters are pretty happy with a 2 year old, 15" wide eight point and theres far more of them now than ever before. Even the "can't eat the horns" crowd seems happier with those bucks than the spikes and folkies of yesteryear.
Exactly! You and many other hunters would be. Which is precisely why we would be right back to not having enough bucks to get the correct breeding results within just a few years of removing the antler restrictions.
As the number of adult bucks continued to decline year after year ever more and more hunters would be right back to shooting the first deer they saw with even a hint of an antler. Deer management would just once again being backwards instead of in the right direction for the best possible future for deer or deer hunters.
What the difference if they die there first antler year or second
Y protect them really y just to get a bigger set of antlers and have guys shoot a doe. There is no logic to just move the target age to 2.5 years old o sorry yes shoot a doe and shoot a big mature one so u kill 3 with that shot
The majority of bucks that get harvested in any given year are taken out AFTER they have passed on their genes. Also, genetics doesn't change with age. Even if 18 month old deer are doing some of the breeding, their genes are the same as when they would be older.
That only tells you a small part of the story. It only shows the mean conception date didn't change. The fact that the mean date, which is really just the central date of all the breeding dates, didn't chance is no surprise to anyone who really understands what that means. The mean conception date shouldn't change even when the window narrows since the peek is always going to be about the same time every year.
There was also a major shift in where the majority of the conception data was coming from before antler restrictions to after antler restrictions, which places a degree of bias in the data, slight as it might be.
The fact is antler restrictions has helped in providing a better deer management program in the state.
Dick Bodenhorn
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