I play by the rules but in my area a buck like this is hard to pass up. Where I hunt this buck is illegal but some times I wish

he could be taken out of the gene pool.

You must be in Western Pennsylvania and that buck is a 6-point counting his browtines. Yep, not legal here. Every year I have to pass up a few nice bucks because of the antler restrictions in Western Pennsylvania.

Why take him out of the gene pool? Looks to me like a fairly young fella with time to grow and establish a larger rack of antlers. He looks pretty healthy too.

George X2!

In my area a six-point buck like this one would not be legal. "LOL"

Yea if you take him out of the Gene pool he won't get bigger next year. Patience. For what it is worth the good old boys here would not pass that buck up. Restrictions or not. Just the way it is.

A buddy of mine here in western Pa shot the biggest forkhorn you've ever seen. He got it mounted. It's huge and heavy and symmetrical. That was before antler restrictions. Now it would be illegal to take him, he would just pass on his genes until he died of old age.

Last week I too played by the rules, at 3:45 a buck came by and I shot it, at 4:11 another buck came and hung around for 20 minutes. The whole time I was thinking my granddaughter was at my house she had a tag to fill but my conscience just wouldn't let take him. I just watched him walk away.

Ive tried cooking them horns but could never get them palatable.

They have antlers not horns. :) "LOL"

Say what you want we all like Antlers. I still call em horns too. Probably always will.

I'm in the yellow and had 7 bucks in range this season. Two of them were legal 8-pointers and I shot the first one but would have been happy with any of them. Just as I would be happy with that deer up top.

I would be happy with it too, but it's not a legal buck, so it gets a pass. Pa. just upped

the fine this year to $ 1500. if you shot it, did't report it and was caught.

Wow! Look at the antlers on that cow!

yea would be in the freezer in WV too. They have really raised the fines which is a great thing. I hate poachers

My wife (Graduate nursing research professor at Georgetown University in DC) just returned from Africa where she is preparing to take graduate nursing students. In the area where she was, if you are caught poaching the first time, there is a huge fine and you are put in prison for LIFE ,,,period ....and your family is still responsible for paying the fine !!!!! If only we could have serious punishments like that in Pennsylvania !!!!!!!!!! I believe poaching activities would reduce quickly......

Nobody is suggesting poaching is fine but wishing it were legal should be no issue. Folks hunt for different reasons and under different conditions. Access and time constraints play into that, so it's not always about the size of the rack for everyone but more about opportunities presented.

I started hunting in western Pa. in 1962. Back then a long enough spike was legal game, and my family clan shot them if we had the opportunity. Back then meat was the first priority. 9 in the family ,and tough times. Fast forward, and new rules. Now with a rifle you have to look hard first. Then shoot it if it is legal. Puts more pressure on the hunter if you want to call it that for the hunter who plays it straight, but since they have changed the laws I have shot some of my nicest racked bucks. It was all good to me when I still hunted.

I hunt in the same wildlife management unit as Nemophilist does here in PA.

I had the biggest 6 point I've ever seen in bow range a couple seasons ago. He was a beautiful buck. Some guys might have shot him and said they killed him in another management unit, I'm not one of those guys. Rules are rules and I could never be proud of killing anything that was poached.

I should add that I sure did wish that big 6 point I saw had just one more antler!

" In the area where she was, if you are caught poaching the first time, there is a huge fine and you are put in prison for LIFE ,,,period ....and your family is still responsible for paying the fine !!!!! If only we could have serious punishments like that in Pennsylvania !!!!!!!!!! I believe poaching activities would reduce quickly...... "

Nah, you will just wind-up paying lifetime room and board for desperate people who don't care about family anyway.

Jim are you down in 2a?

I'm close to the line of 1a & 2d so hunt both.

Jeff, I live in 2B but not far from the border between 2B and 2C.

Both of the spots I have permission to hunt are in 2B.

I know for certain that not legal 6 points have been killed in 2B and tagged 2C. It's pathetic what some people will do for a buck.

Don't get me wrong, I want to kill the biggest buck in the world every time I head into the woods if I still have my buck tag but I'll never break the rules to do it. I still have a buck tag and a couple doe tags I'd like to fill before my shoulder surgery in January but I'll be doing it legally and enjoying my time in the woods.

I've been down your way cutting osage before. Seems to be a little more of it down there for some reason.

I hear ya. There's always going to be a few folks who find killing a buck more important than following the law. I'm glad they raised the fine.

I'd be happy with a buck that didn't meet today's antler restrictions, and shot some of that sort before they changed the regs, but would never break the law as it stands to do it. Getting a buck doesn't mean much to me anymore, other than the food, skin, tendons, antler and such they provide for practical use. I do greatly value that stuff.

I didn't hunt much of bow season cuz I hurt my shoulder too, but it got to feeling better so I was able to start shooting again. Good luck out there. And good luck with your surgery.

Before antler restrictions I shot a big 4pt that actually won the local archery club big buck contest. The antlers actually curved across each other significantly in front. Real nice deer but illegal now in PA 3C.

Never understood the concept of shooting any game illegally, just what is the self pleasure in that ? But always was, and always will be those that choose to do so.

It's always a hot topic with antler restrictions. I know there is some "data" that suggests it does help the deer population keep bucks that are young growing. ANYBODY can cook numbers and make "facts". Where I get to hunt most of the time, we have antler restrictions as well. Deer have to be outside the ears (13") or bigger. I know this is small for some areas, but for east Texas that would normally mean a 3 yr old or older. BUT what I have seen is a definite increase in older deer that will never make the spread requirements, and that makes perfect sense. In the words of a good friend of mine, this is a classic case of "Shoot the best and leave the rest." They all eat good, and IF people were made to follow the rules that were already in place, the antler spread would be a mute point. I believe the polite term used above was "good ol'boys" kill everything that moves out here. Point being, I understand the frustration with the original post, sometimes a nice body sized deer has to walk by because it isn't legal and not worth the fine.

-Bones

I don't care about the antler restrictions in Pennsylvania one way or the other. I just wish it was the same for the whole state. If I'm bowhunting Allegheny County, it's one way. And if I'm bowhunting Indiana County it matters which side of Route 119 I'm on. And if I'm bowhunting Westmoreland County it matters which side of Route 119 or Route 66 I'm on.

I stick by the rules in part so that I will never end up having to look over my shoulder about anything. And yes, it did frost me a bit one year when I shot a “doe” early in the season and ended up burning my one buck tag on a 2 inch spike, but them’s the Roolz.

Antler point restrictions and similar hunting regulations (like certain class rule requirements in competitive archery) are written not so much so that they make the best sense possible as so that they are easily, fairly and objectively enforceable.

To the extent that there is an “agenda“ behind APR‘s… It makes perfect sense. Pennsylvania has (and certainly DID have) a tremendous overabundance of whitetails, and something desperately needed to be done. I don’t think anyone who has shot a really nice buck down there since the APR’s went into place has much ground for a complaint. Reducing the dough population and allowing the black population to achieve some thing approaching a natural age structure is 100% a win in a situation like that. I know Gary all made himself a lot of enemies at the time and in the process, but personally, I think it’s pretty hard to argue with the results..

Yes, you can look at any situation and find the exception, which makes the rule look ridiculous, but if it guides the population at large to the correct decision, eight or nine times out of 10, then that’s a win for all concerned.

Would it be better in every possible way if the regulations could simply prohibit the taking of any deer under 3 1/2 years of age? Of course it would. But there’s no way to judge on the hoof which is suitable keeping for the average Deer Hunter on the right side of the law. Pretty much everybody can count to six.

That’s one helpful thing about the Colorado Elk hunting point restrictions which they got substantially correct… The requirement is four points on a side, OR a brow tine of sufficient length, so that a relatively mature bull with some kind of oddity in his rack development can be legally taken at a certain point. I recall sitting in a restaurant somewhere down in Texas, and seeing a spike bull on the wall… Each spike was probably 36 inches or more and thicker than my forearm even 25 years ago. That bull would be protected for life under the Colorado regs , but it’s not as if those monster spikes are taking over.

Bucks just need to get past 5 yrs old and they all become impressive. Whether they make the record book or not. I saw a spike by one last year a lot that most would wish to cull. He already had a bit of a limp. This year he has a tall 3x4 rack which is a genetic trait on this farm.

The other day I saw one of the high narrow gene spread Bucks that was an absolute Toad! I doubt his spread was more than a foot wide but he was guaranteed a Booner Non Typical.

Even tho they may not make a record book. When they get past 4 yrs old, you're hunting a totally different animal.

Corax, you seem misinformed and/or qdm-alt-pilled. Results? You apparently aren't aware of their real effects. Here, we live with them. Deer are gone, gone where they shouldnt be... for any legit reason. Many Alt supporters have changed tune and expressed their buyers remorse. Many haven't shot a deer in years or quit hunting altogether.

APR's were used as a shiny trophy grail to sell the doe kill... and naturally today's head hunters bought it hook, line, and sinker.

But every buck needs a momma.

It's a deer ghost town out there in many areas, unnecessarily.

They overdid it. Some say, purposefully.

If the deer is legal to take and you want venison then take it. Who cares what others think?

Supernaut I hunt an area in 2B that borders the 2C line and know what you mean. I’ll have multiple nice bucks in range that aren’t legal and they seem to keep getting older without adding anymore points onto their main beams. I too have heard of guys shooting a non legal 6 in 2B and tagging it as 2C. Anything to fill their tag .

Rules are for everyone good or bad. We have people in my area that will kill 7-8 deer and say it’s all they eat Hmmmm, I believe it’s a sickness. Be proud it you hunt within the rules even if you don’t fill your tag this season. You’re someone to be respected a Hunter.

Rules are for everyone good or bad. We have people in my area that will kill 7-8 deer and say it’s all they eat Hmmmm, I believe it’s a sickness. Be proud it you hunt within the rules even if you don’t fill your tag this season. You’re someone to be respected a Hunter.

I was out behind the house yesterday with my rifle. It's getting harder to shoot my bow with the accuracy I want to hunt with my torn rotator cuff.

I saw 12 doe and 6 bucks. 4 of the bucks were not legal. 2 of them were decent 6 points, not legal where I hunt but legal just a couple miles away. Shooting one of those 6 points never even crossed my mind. Rules are rules.

2 of the bucks I saw looked to be legal but I couldn't get an accurate point count on either at they were together chasing doe in some real thick stuff. Couldn't have got a good shot at them anyway. It was a great day and that's hunting.

Honestly, I still get excited to see deer when I'm hunting. I don't care if it's a doe or a half rack spike. I just think to myself, maybe that little buck will be bigger next year and I'll get a chance at him. Seeing deer is better than not seeing deer and it's all better than being at work IMO.

Get that rotator cuff fixed buddy. I have been there. You will be ready to bowhunt next fall.

Thanks Doc, surgery is January 11th

Dry Bones, in Pennsylvania there is no cooking the data. It is all out there for anyone to see.

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