But yet I passed on legal bucks, knowing and accepting that they very well may be taken by other hunters,

ORIGINAL: bluebird2

You passed on those legal bucks simply because you thought they did not meet your high standards and you wouldn't be able to brag about them to your buddies. You did not do it for the good of the herd or the future of the sport of hunting.

I'm going hunting now,and when I return I will check into how manytimes you can fit blah..blah into a rambling senseless responce how only you and your merry men can save the PA spike from eventual extermination.

ORIGINAL: livbucks



That could be your problem right there. You are locked in on old ways of stump sitting and letting others force the unnatural movement of deer past you. I have finally put together your anger issue with the GC. Less deer means less effective (fun) stump sitting. And now there are less hunters as well. This is really throwing a monkey wrench into your way of taking advantage of other hunters and an overpopulated herd. The new improved way requires hunting now. That means you need to get up and go find deer. That is very uncomfortablefor you, isn't it? Like anybody that has been receiving entitlements, when it is taken away, the result is extreme unconsolable anger.

That could be your problem right there. You are locked in on old ways of stump sitting and letting others force the unnatural movement of deer past you. I have finally put together your anger issue with the GC. Less deer means less effective (fun) stump sitting

ORIGINAL: bluebird2

That is pretty funny when you consider that I have been the designated driver for our group for over 30 years. I would much rather walk to locate game and try to out smart rather than sit 20 ft. up in a tree to try to ambush one. The definition of hunting is the pursuit of game, not waiting for the game to come to you.

Age can also effect a buck’s antlers. Whitetailed deer do not achieve maturity until they are 5 to 8 years of age. Studies have demonstrated the average buck achieves only about 10 percent of his potential antler development by age 1.5 years (when he completes his first set of antlers as an 18-month-old buck).

It has also been able to demonstrate that there is little relationship between the first year antlers and the antler development a buck will have when he reaches the mature age classes of 5 years or older. This means a spike-antlered buck has a good chance of becoming a trophy-quality adult buck. By the time a buck has completed his second set of antlers he still only has achieved only 25-35 percent of his potential antler development.

At 3 years of age (few bucks live longer than this in Pennsylvania because of the amount of hunters that hunt in this state). A buck still only has achieved about 50 percent of his potential antler quality. It is not until 5 years of age that most bucks approach their full antler potential, and often, antlers don’t reach their maximum size until 7 or 8 years of age (for captive deer raised under ideal conditions).

Probably less than 1 out 5,000 bucks would survive to the 6-year-old age class with the hunters that hunt in Pennsylvania. It is no wonder we don’t see the quality of bucks that existed when my grandfather hunted the exact same woods, when hunting pressure was very low compared to today. Two other factors that effect a buck’s antler development are injury and disease.
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