BTBowhunter

Hunters we can all afford to lose:

The guy who goes to camp, drinks all night, stumbles out into the woods for a couple of hours and spends the next year complaining that he didnt see any deer.

The hunter, who, even though he knows he's being tracked by a gps for a study, who never gets more than 100 yards from a road the entire time and then spends the rest of the year complaining he saw no deer.

The hunter who monopolizes a public forum with rants and raves over and over with anything he can come up with to agitate his fellow hunters.
The guy who really doesnt believe in anything except causing trouble. Oh, and spending his entire year complaining that he saw no deer.

deaddeer

I could make a long list of disparaging comments about archers who only wnat to harvest trophy buck or rifle hunters that refuse to harvest doe and we could accumulate a class of several hundred thousand hunters that wouldn't be missed by the hunters that remain. But, would the remaining hunters be willing to harvest enough doe to control the herd or would a higher percebtage of the remaining hunters be trophy hunters ,who have no desire to control the herd?

wvdeer4u

I think that most trophy hunters know that they need a low density, well balanced herd to produce those trophies so I think that they would control the herd or they would no longer be able to kill trophies.

chickory

That is part of why Michigan is not shooting does, many many of htier doe tags go unsold. They have learned what increased pressure on does means over time to the herd and are not biting.

Pa soon will have a whole new flock of hunters (abeit smaller) that are going to be turned off to overharvest.

Then a "real" problem may actually arise.

wvdeer4u

One of the main reasons PA wants to get a grip on their deer pop. is because in 20 years when PA loses half of its hunters to old age they want to have a pop. that the reduced hunters can work with. Recruitment isn't keeping up with the fallout that is going to happen in the next 20 years. Maybe the PGC should reduce the doe tags for adults but not for 12-18 yr old hunters. Kids aren't going to stay if they aren't allowed to kill any deer. If there is only a 15-20 % success rate for PA buck hunters that means only 1-2 kids out of 10 are going to kill a buck each year and then you don't want them to kill any does. They won't stay in the sport long .

chickory

I know it sounds good and is politically correct to say only the kids are important, but if Uncle Pete gets disgusted and quits then 14 year old nephew billy is probably done too. Just like when we closed our camp last year, once the adults move on to new areas the kids do not enjoy it as much as when they could hunt out of camp. This year we split up and hunted separate farms and the kids did not like it at all. After the first day my coworkers son called it quits and went back to school so he could make basketball practice.

You have to make it decent for kids and for the adults who are the grunt power of the sport to make it all work. With Adults walking away, the kids lose thier connection. Adults are facilitators and important too...

wvdeer4u

Understood, and maybe if the PGC caves in this year, to the presure, maybe they can find a way to still let the youth hunters obtain 1-3 does tags and just cut back on the tags for adults. Kids have to be with a parent or a very close friend if they are going to continue hunting, like you said, but they shouldn't be restricted in what they can kill. Kids are smart enough these days they will know if they want to shoot a spike or an 8 point or if they want to take a doe or to. They just have to be given the chance to by the pgc. and lately they've been allowed. Hopefully it will continue even if adults are restricted.

Rem1100

ABSOLUTELT TRUE!!! yet it's the "adults" who are making the terrible management decisions that's causing all the trouble.........Hmmmmmm

ulysses

kids never had a problem staying in the sport before all this "new deer management practice" did they. Wasn't that many years ago in some counties it was near impossible to get a doe tag unless you knew the county treas. yet another reason to scrap the plan an go with smaller WMU reduced anterless tags
HR YUKKKKKK

BTBowhunter

The remarkably disturbing drop in youth hunting license sales started before AR/HR.
There are many contributing factors.

Here's a few that come to mind:

Lack of the traditional upland game that many of of us grew up hunting

Those damned video/ computer games!

A drifting away by too many parents. I know way too many hunting parents who just dont interrupt their hunting time to take their kids (this is the worst of all, IMHO)

The unprecedented time demands on kids from other activities IE: organized sports, youth groups, band, school, scouts, etc etc etc

Heres my 12 year olds schedule during the fall....
Monday- Band. Tuesday- Football practice, Wednesday- alternates between bowling club and chess club, Thursday- Scouts, Saturday Morning- Football games

That left us Friday after school and Saturday afternoon for hunting. We need Sunday hunting NOW!

How about an extra youth doe license for that early season. Helps the doe kill when most needed and gets the kids out when the weather is more moderate. And, what the heck, let em shoot their buck if they see one then (after they shhot their doe)!



Here was my