tped



The bucks in the picture are not mine, they belong to friends of mine and were taken this year... But I wish they were Mine I did take a nice 2 year old 9 point this year...but not a monster, I was limitted on time and wanted to concentrate on getting my 12 year old daughter a buck in rifle season so I took the 9 in archery. My daugter took a buck and a doe on PUBLIC land opening morning of rifle. I tok a doe. We saw TONS of deer and NO OTHER HUNTERS! They were all no more than 100 yards from the trail. We hiked in about a half mile.



There were lots of big bucks in PA this year. More than in the past. My best buck from here to date is a 155 class 11 point.







I have passed on smaller bucks for the past 10 years. Letting the young ones walk. It is amazing how many bucks, including BIG bucks you will see if you do not shoot the first one that walks by.



As I sated previously, I am all for the new regulations. Any one that is a true hunter will always find deer. No matter if we have more than 1.5 million deer like now......or 700,000 deer. I read an interesting statistic in the Pittsburgh Tribune review yesterday. It talked about a Penn State study that showed that 75% of ALL HUNTERS NEVER GO FARTHER THAN 1/3 MILE FROM WHERE THEY PARK!!! It also stated that there are large tracts of woods in the North Central part of the state that never even see a hunter through out the entire season. The deer are unhunted. I talked to a local in Venango County who said that deer up by him are dying of old age.....no one is going deep enough into the woods to get them. He showed me several mounts from the past few seasons. All were over 140 B&C....his biggest was a 160 class 12 point that was over 24" wide So the bucks are there for people who want to earn them.



The fact of the matter is that the herd must be balanced with the enviroment. And the taking of does is a big part of the equasion to balane the herd. We DO NOT have a problem in this state where we need more deer. "not shooting the Mamas" is what stated the mess our herd has been in for years. It was missmanaged. Hunters wanted to roll out of bed after drinking all night, walk 100 yards from the trail, sit on a log and watch 100 deer run by, 90- does, 8 -spikes and 2-4 points. That IS NOT hunting. It is target shooting. Thank God for GAry Alt.........And the current regulations we are hunting under. The hunting in PA will be better than ever for thoe who want to hunt. It will be REAL TOUGH for "target shooters" who do not know enough about deer to fing them.



I believe that most of the people who are whining about their being no deer are part one of those 75% hunters that are just not dedicated or knowledgeable enough to find the deer. The "Alpha" hunters will be able to enjoy the benefits of the new system. The "Omega" hunters can switch to fishing.......or better yet, video game hunting. That way they do not have to leave the comforts of home.



Go out and HUNT........earn that deer

Cold Bore, from a biological standpoint, what does AR do for a herd?

Those are real nice bucks! I too have practiced letting small ones slide. I've shot enough scrub racks in my life. That's a point I made in my first post, the first year AR was instituted we (Pennsylvanians) took more bucks than the previous year even though the pGC said there would be a 40% decline in the buck harvest. Hunter's were rewarded for not shooting the first buck down the trail. The racks have always been there, patience is the key.

Your right Cold Bore, Slinsky could put a spin on something unlike the PGC & Alt whose word is now Gospel because everybody going to shoot a trophy! I don't care for Alt (I'll try and be more politically correct). I went to his meeting's in Center Township, he was an obnoxious,rude,my way or the highway guy. Remember this us sportsmen pay his salery, half of his meetings weren't even on AR (which played freatly into his hand) You want to talk about spin? During the course of his meeting somebody would question him about bear, elk,or anything else & he'd smile & let them ramble. Anybody that got up to the microphine & dis agreed with him were answered in a smart-alec I'm a Dr. & your not way. I know I was one of them. If you got up & stroked his ego & nodded your head like cattle, you got to stay there & talk with the good Dr. So Cold Bore what your saying is the results of the study done in Mississippi were wrong? Alt's numberers are right & you agree with everything he says?

Here's a little more info from someone other than Slinsky_
http://www.usp.cc/purpose.htm
This is from the Unified Sportsmen Of Pennsylvania's site, scroll down & read some more info about AR & Alt.
By the way supporting AR or not there is a survey on the home page of the Unified Sportsmen, set aside your differences over AR & take a minute to fill it out.

Don Vito wrote

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A little long but...here's my take on AR in Pa. You have to pass on small bucks, no problem with that. Now according to AR's in Pa. a buck must have 4 points to a side with a point at least an inch long in my area.

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Actually, its only part of PA where there is a 4 point on one side (one side only, not both). The rest of the state is 3 points (on one side only, not both).

JJWEN, thanks for pointing that out, I was talking about my area of the state. 4 points on one side at least an 1" long

Well then every other state/outfitter that tries that is wrong? Being selective on bucks DOES work as well as reducing the buck to doe ratio. those pictures of deer shot in PA are most impressive to say the least, but the fact remain that in all states/areas where antlers are taken into account the ratio of trophy bucks taken increases. PA is on the right track. Stop shooting every deer you see and be selective and you'll see the results. BTW, it works in africa also. jorge