ORIGINAL: RSB

ORIGINAL: deerfly

To come up with an accurate estimate of the pre-season deer population you need to use fawn recruitment rates instead of the number of fawns produced. Studies indicate that only about 50% of the fawns in unit 2G survive to their first fall and even that is probably high for many years.

The 1.1 fawns/ doe is the average number of fawns recruited per adult doe. It is not the number of fawns that are born in the spring.

If there were 20-23 DPSM in 2G then the harvests would not be keeping the herd stable. However,the PGC said the 2008 harvest reduced the herd in 2G by 40%, so once again you are obviously wrong.

You are once again full of bologna.
 
The following was taken from the 2009 annual report. 
 
Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) personnel examined 1,307 females during the 2009 pre-fawning season. Seven hundred and sixty-six were pregnant. Twenty percent of the fawns, and 89% of the adults were pregnant or lactating. Pregnant fawns averaged 1.18 embryos/female. Pregnant adults averaged 1.81 embryos/female. The average reproductive rates for pregnant and barren fawns and adults were 0.23 and 1.60 embryos/female, respectively. The average reproductive rate for all females was 1.01 embryos/doe (Table 1).
 
The annual report clearly states that statewide the number of fawns per doe was only 1.01. It is considerably lower than that in unit 2G. Combine that with the fact that the fawn mortality study showed fawn mortality at or above 50% in unit 2G and you end up with fawn recruitment of less than .50 fawns per doe just as I said.
 
I don’t believe the present harvests are keeping the population in 2G stable. The deer population currently appears to be increasing in unit 2G. I doubt that last year’s hunters harvested much more than 10% of the 2G deer population, based on the evidence of both the harvest data and the percent of marked deer harvested in the unit, which would put it right in line with the 20-23 preseason deer per square mile I estimated it to have been.  
 
R.S. Bodenhorn

ORIGINAL: deerfly

IMHO every hunter is morally and ethically obligated to harvest a crippled deer whether he wants that deer or not, if he can do solegally. I can't think of anything else that contributes to the negative image non-hunters have of hunters than seeing deer crippled by hunters and not harvested.

ORIGINAL: Ironhed

ORIGINAL: deerfly

IMHO every hunter is morally and ethically obligated to harvest a crippled deer whether he wants that deer or not, if he can do solegally. I can't think of anything else that contributes to the negative image non-hunters have of hunters than seeing deer crippled by hunters and not harvested.

I agree 1000%.

If that deer wasn't crippled, would the hunter have shot it?

Ironhed

ORIGINAL: deerfly

ORIGINAL: Ironhed

ORIGINAL: deerfly

IMHO every hunter is morally and ethically obligated to harvest a crippled deer whether he wants that deer or not, if he can do solegally. I can't think of anything else that contributes to the negative image non-hunters have of hunters than seeing deer crippled by hunters and not harvested.

I agree 1000%.

If that deer wasn't crippled, would the hunter have shot it?

Ironhed

Yes the hunter would have shot it because the hunter was my 13 yr. old niece who had passed on smaller deer earlier in the season and it was her first deer. And, since we are going to called hypocritical for letting her shoot a doe , we have decided to admit that not harvesting a doe for five years did nothing to improve the herd so we might as well join the slaughter and take what we can while there are still a few deer left. As dedicated ,responsible hunters we will be doing what the PGC says is best for the herd, the forests and the future of deer hunting in the state.

Yes the hunter would have shot it because the hunter was my 13 yr. old niece who had passed on smaller deer earlier in the season and it was her first deer. And, since we are going to called hypocritical for letting her shoot a doe , we have decided to admit that not harvesting a doe for five years did nothing to improve the herd so we might as well join the slaughter and take what we can while there are still a few deer left. As dedicated ,responsible hunters we will be doing what the PGC says is best for the herd, the forests and the future of deer hunting in the state.

"Do you tell your niece that the pa game comm has screwed up pa hunting and that because she struggles to see deer is because there are none ?

If you do, please share the following with her. Then ask her to check out the link and compare her WMU with the rest of the state. "