Is the 3 point rule helping?

[Brick]

Today I took my shotgun and stumbled around the woods a bit looking for Grouse or pheasant that might have wandered into my place from the game lands. Anyhow, as I was taking a break a I heard a larger animal moving through the woods and decided to stay still and see what appeared. It was a buck, the dummy walked up to within 50' and didn't tumble to my presence until I waved at him. But, the curious thing was the bucks "rack" or should I say lack thereof. This guy had two spikes, with no curve they just went straight up above his brow about 8" tall, no fork, nothing! The buck looked to be in good condition probably a middle weight. But, I just couldn't help but wonder if the 3 point rule is doing more than good.

Anyone have any opinions? What do you think?

[knight0334]

I don't think anything is helping in 2F and 2D where I'm at.

There are less dead deer along the roads and less live deer in the fields/woods than I've ever seen in my entire life. Usually this time of year the roads are just painted red with dead deer, or deer chunks, everywhere. ...I've counted (3) dead deer in all of my travels between Brookville, Clearfield, Johnstown, and Somerset, and all of the surrounding areas of those towns.

I gave up deer hunting 4-5 years ago because numbers are so low around here. The last buck I saw while hunting I took in 2004, and I think I can count the number of bucks I've seen since on both hands. ...and that includes during all the driving and field work I do in the western half of Pennsylvania.

Numbers are so low around here that neighboring farms are abandoning the gentlemens agreements that our respective families had with each other for shared hunting rights. Now, most are posting their lands, even against neighbors, so that they have a chance at a deer.

[Gunsnwater]

They are all down here stumbling around my back yard. I think they figured out we can't shoot the close to houses.

[dk99358]

Went from Somerset to Hollidaysburg on Thursday, saw 2 roadkills. Went to DuBois last weekend, saw 3 live ones in a field on the way up, 3 more walked across my Dad's driveway in front of me and we saw nearly 30 while out with the spotlight including 2 decent bucks. Oh yeah, 6 turkeys at the just south of Carroltown on 219 too. A buddy of mine passed on several small but legal bucks in archery.

I'm all for the antler restrictions going away, I think they did what they needed to (increase the number of bucks in the herd) now it's time to get rid of them.

My 2 biggest gripes are that there is virtually no way to remove genetically inferior deer anymore and if you hunt by pushing brush or still hunting, you often lose the shot because you have to count the damn points.

Dale

[tollster]

I am see bigger racks than I ever have living here since 73, I think we are finally able to see the genes of mature deer.

As for the deer count, plenty of deer in the country, you still have to hunt them though.
You don't want to drive my roads after 4PM over 40 this time of year, and you may as well stay home if your on two wheels after dark!

[A-5]

Here are some pics from the last 2-3 years I personally think they are a little bigger than years ago. 4 out of the 5 were shot around the bucks county erea. We have had a terrible archery cant see monsters all the time.

[thefirstndsecond]

Well I would say yes it is helping. In the three years I have been hunting in western pa/ I have seen more racks than my entire time hunting since I was 12. I am now. 38.

A few of us spot at night before season and I like what I see.

And my friends do well every year.

[Lycanthrope]

I don't think so. I've seen the same amount of bucks, but a tenth of the deer I did 20 years ago. The racks are also worse since we have a bad gene that's been passed on. Tonight I had a 18" 6 point on the game cam and in the last few years I've seen more than one forkhorn at close to 20".

It works if the area isn't hunted hard. It's a horrible bane if it is since the illegal bucks live to breed all the does.

Lycansaddaysthrope

[Qtrborecrazy]

When it comes to size of bucks yeah. We just had a young man arrow a 160 class buck. I know of 2 more that are huge running around here. As for the number of deer, stop shooting the does, no does no baby deer.

[Pilot321]

The deer seem to be plentiful in the areas where you can't hunt them. My backyard for instance. I've counted over twenty deer at one time on my property. When I've gone into the woods were I can hunt them, I don't see any.