Rosenberry noted that hunting conditions on key days during the season can have a huge impact on the deer harvest. Nasty weather on opening day of the firearms season, or on the first Saturday, will create a drop in the harvest because fewer hunters venture out when the weather is bad.

In fact, only WMU 5A showed an increase (of 9 percent) in its antlered deer harvest. But that's a unit with a small buck harvest overall, and that 9 percent represented only 200 bucks.

WHY MEASURE THE BUCK HARVEST?
The buck harvest is probably the best indicator of trends in a deer population, so a harvest drop of 19 percent would seem to indicate a serious decline in Pennsylvania's deer population.

But aside from lower deer numbers, there might have been a couple of good reasons for the drop in buck kill. One possible culprit was the weather on opening day. This sounds like the same old excuse, but it's valid.

"Generally, the buck kill is one of the best indications of trends in the deer population," Rosenberry said.

"However, there are factors that can throw off any indicators. And last year, the weather was at least one of the factors. In many parts of the commonwealth, rainy weather discouraged hunter participation, and so the traditionally high opening-day harvest was down."

If we accept that hunting pressure on opening day is higher and therefore, results in more deer killed, then unfavorable weather conditions on that day could certainly skew any season's numbers.

And if Rosenberry's theory is true, it could mean good news for buck hunters this fall -- particularly for trophy buck hunters.

"Since it appears that some of the reduction in last season's buck harvest was due to a lower deer kill on opening day, those whitetails that weren't harvested will be a year older," Rosenberry said. "Therefore, I suspect that there's a good chance that 2008 could be a pretty good season. There will be more older bucks out there with larger antlers."

DISEASE A FACTOR?
Another reason for fewer bucks being taken last year --in the Southwest Region specifically -- was the unexpectedly high outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD).

This is particularly significant because the Southwest is the commonwealth's top deer-hunting region. And so, those losses will have a greater impact on Pennsylvania's total deer harvest.

This deadly cervid disease is borne by insects and is much more widespread in southern states.

Last year's prolonged southerly winds and other conditions carried the disease farther north, affecting record numbers of deer.

Do not confuse EHD with chronic wasting disease (CWD). Though fatal, EHD does not pose the same threat to the deer population as CWD does. Cold weather kills the insects that carry EHD, and the disease dies out with them. It is not passed from deer to deer, nor can it be spread on the ground. Nonetheless, it had a noteworthy impact on hunter behavior and deer harvest numbers during the 2007-08 hunting seasons.

According to Rosenberry, EHD discouraged a significant number of hunters from venturing into the area of the outbreak. It also discouraged some of those who did hunt there from harvesting deer.

Might this mean that a few more deer survived the hunting season?

Perhaps last year's bit of bad luck will lead to a better season this year. And since it happened in the Southwest Region -- always the state's top producer of trophy bucks -- 2008 may produce an unusually good harvest of exceptional whitetails.

BEST YEAR YET?
For everyone but that minuscule percentage of Pennsylvania hunters who hunted the state back before World War II, 2008 might offer the best chance ever to tag a trophy buck.

As always, hunters who do their scouting early will best stand the best chances of tagging a trophy.

Whitetails will always be whitetails, and they have never been "easy" to harvest. Hunters who make the effort to acquire maps, walk public land boundaries and find fresh signs of deer activity will have the best "luck" this season.