Photo by Billkenney.com

While many Keystone State hunters claim to be unhappy about reductions in deer numbers of late, there are relatively few complaints about the quality of bucks that are being harvested. Many experienced hunters have taken their best bucks since antler restrictions were imposed. In fact, there has never been a better time for trophy-buck hunting during the lifetimes of most Pennsylvania deer hunters.

It is impossible to apply a measurement to buck "quality" because the Pennsylvania Game Commission has not conducted a trophy measuring session for several years. With the current budget crunch, there is no measuring session scheduled for the future, either. But it does not take a quantitative measurement to see what is happening.

In general, hunters are taking fewer bucks. This has been partly because of antler restrictions and partly because we had fewer deer in most parts of the state last season. Pennsylvania hunters took 124,410 bucks during the 2004-05 hunting seasons. That was nearly a 13 percent decline from the previous season, continuing a three-year trend. Following the harvest of 203,247 bucks in 2001-02, antler restrictions led to a 19 percent reduction in 2002-03 and then a 14 percent reduction the next year. Overall, since antler restrictions began, the buck harvest has dropped 39 percent, and, remember, one of the primary goals of the antler restrictions was to reduce the buck harvest.

WHAT'S GOING ON?
Antler restrictions have been the most popular of the newer deer hunting regulations. Random surveys suggest 70 percent to 80 percent approval among hunters.

"Results of our hunter surveys over the last three years also indicate support for antler restrictions. Pennsylvania hunters have done a good job of adapting to antler restrictions and we expect to have them for the foreseeable future," stated Dr. Christopher Rosenberry, new head of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's deer management section.

A great deal of the minority that disapprove of antler restrictions base their argument on a misunderstanding.

"Antler restrictions were never about trophy buck management," said Calvin DuBrock, the Game Commission's director of wildlife management. "The idea with antler restrictions was to let the bucks grow a year older," DuBrock explained.

Certainly antler restrictions have improved the likelihood of taking trophy bucks, but the reasoning behind antler restrictions was to benefit the health of the deer herd, to restore it to a more natural condition.

Antler restrictions are working. The Game Commission has conducted extensive research to determine that about 88 percent of the bucks that get through hunting season survive until the following hunting season.

According to Rosenberry, current research activities include collection of breeding timing-embryo count data each spring, CWD surveillance in wild deer and tracking surviving bucks from the buck study.

New research activities are focused on female deer in WMUs 2G and 4B. The focus of this research is on survival and response to hunting activities in female deer.

THE HARD FACTS
Pennsylvania's deer population is declining. This, combined with fewer antlerless deer license allocations, almost certainly means that hunters will take fewer deer this fall. Predicting the buck harvest is less certain, though, because other factors enter into the number of legal bucks that are available this fall. The number of bucks might actually be increasing. But whether or not the number of legal bucks has increased can depend heavily on the mast crop last fall, which will affect the condition of bucks and the growth of antlers. Unfortunately, mast crops have been poor across much of the Commonwealth since antler restrictions began. This has somewhat masked the results of the antler restrictions.

SOUTHEAST REGION OUTLOOK
Hunters took 20,440 antlered bucks from the Southeast Region last year, third highest among the six regions. This was a 9 percent dip from the year before. In a distinct change, York County led the region with a harvest of 3,800 bucks, which ranked fourth in the Commonwealth. That was a slight increase from last year, one of the few counties to do so. Berks County, which typically leads the region, was next with 3,100 bucks, ranking 11th in the state.