Free: Contests & Raffles.
The biggest argument I have heard against this is that some young deer are 8 points. That seems like pretty lame argument. Wonder how many 1.5-2.5 year old deer have 4 points on one side. If it's not 100%, then are you not saving deer?The 2nd argument was gene pool. Why would you kill all the older bucks.Even sillier. Bucks get smarter as they get older, meaning the chances of you killing him are smaller. Secondly, how does that even make sense. With such a wide variety of hunters gene selection is mute. The same as deer at 1.5-2.5 years old being killed, gene selection is mute.Then the newest argument. Wdfw stats?What stats? The ones that list all the locals loving the new restrictions. The ones that list year in and out population. How bout the one that lists less people hunting it, making the number of bucks being killed lower. That didn't seem to get mentioned. I feel like it's such a shame to do this experiment for an unserviceable amount of time, only to have thousands more hunters come in and take over 700 bucks 3 point or less in gmu 121. What a shame and disservice to conservation. Killing a buck is not your right. It's a privelage. If no sacrifice is ever made, quality of hunts will continue to suffer. Its just shocking to me the amount of people who want to kill a baby deer. Make no fuss about it. A deer 1.5 years old is a baby. Possibly the end of a blood line.
Here would be my perfect plan. Allow youth and seniors to shoot any deer. Everyone else 3 point not counting eyeguards. I cannot fathom why people wouldn't support this. I have yet to talk to a local hunter ( and I talk to many, many of them ) who didn't support the APR. But hey let's just keep slaughtering future giants when they are fork horns!
Quote from: buglebrush on May 12, 2016, 02:22:30 PMHere would be my perfect plan. Allow youth and seniors to shoot any deer. Everyone else 3 point not counting eyeguards. I cannot fathom why people wouldn't support this. I have yet to talk to a local hunter ( and I talk to many, many of them ) who didn't support the APR. But hey let's just keep slaughtering future giants when they are fork horns! I agree with this. I simply do not support killing young deer. Its a personal preference. Give the little guys a chance to live, get to breeding age.They're generally to stupid to get out of the way. So yes, let the young hunters, disabled, elderly have a chance at them. But if you are an able bodied man or women and just want to take the fastest kill then you aren't really out there for the experience of hunting. You want to "slaughter" something, anything. I just don't get it. Maybe because I've been hunting longer then most people. There's never been a year in my life where I couldn't of harvested a younger deer. Yet success rates are atrocious relatively. My advice to the spike killers of the world. Start learning the woods, learning to hunt, and quit looking to just slaughter. I hope this ruffles some feathers, because while I understand someone has differing opinions, the opinion to kill young animals disgusts me.
Here is another good read on the subject. Go down to page 22 to read about predicting future antler size by the size of the antler as a yearling. Forked or better spikes definitely grow larger antlers in succeeding years than spikes do.http://texnat.tamu.edu/files/2010/09/TheRoleofGeneticsinWhitetailedDeerManagement2ndEdition.pdf
A while back I had tried to find this message I received back from a Pennsylvania Game Commission member, I just happened to stumble upon it and thought I would post it.Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2011 5:38 AMTo: Bearpaw OutfittersSubject: Re: 4pt ruleDale,PA implemented antler restriction in 2003. The goal was to get a more balanced age-class of bucks. Prior to AR Pa hunters killed 85% of all bucks before they reached 2 years old. Remember, PA has one-million hunters in the field on the first day of deer season. In most of the state the AR rules required a minimum of 3-points on one side. In western PA where the habitat was so good a 1-1/2 year old deer might carry a 6-8 point rack (we count both sides), so the AR rules were raised to a minimum 4-points on one side. We are now considering modifying the 4-point area to a 3-on top or 3-up rule, where the brow tine doesn't count. We found that since 8-point racks are the common configuration for mature bucks, hunters were seeing these bucks during hunting season, but couldn't pull the trigger because it was so difficult to see a brow tine. Our records show that 88% of 8-points have brow tines. So this change will only result in an additional 12% of bucks being removed from the age class distribution. We do not feel this will adversely affect the age-class distribution.Obviously not all hunters like antler restrictions, but after a few years it reached a 68% approval rate.I hope this helps.-Commissioner R. Martone