Commentary
Antler restrictions approved for Pennsylvania deer seasons in 2002 In case you haven’t already heard, the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Board of Commissioners approved antler restrictions for the coming deer season by a 4-3 vote during last week’s regular meeting.
Locally, Washington and Westmoreland counties fall under the four points on one side restriction, while Fayette, Greene and Somerset come under a restriction of three points on one side.
Apparently, opponents of antler restriction did win some concessions.
However, the requirement that antlerless deer licenses that are unsold after the first round would once again be sold for use only on private land only was re-instated.
At least, junior hunters, certain disabled hunters and veterans on active duty can still hunt under the old buck-hunting regulations.
I was happy to see that all senior hunters, 65 and older, were included in the exemption.
Many senior hunters are not physically able to hunt more than a day or two so it would not have been fair to see these sportsmen who have faithfully purchased hunting licenses all their lives get shut out from taking a deer, because all they saw was a four- or six-point buck, depending on which county they are hunting in, and couldn’t shoot it because it wasn’t “big enough.”
Also, the proposal to allow junior hunters to take an antlerless deer in any county and tag it with their buck tag was rejected.
I was glad to see that shot down. While I want to see youngsters have as many hunting opportunities as possible, I don’t like them to be used as pawns in a killing game.
I think Dr. Gary Alt has a great plan for deer management in Pennsylvania, but I, for one, feel the plan is moving too quickly and is alienating many sportsmen.
The Commission also approved a new youth pheasant hunt to run concurrently with the youth squirrel season on Oct. 12 and 14. Plus, a new junior combination license was created. It will cost $9 and includes archery, flintlock an furtaking licenses.
Maybe a special pheasant hunt will get kids afield. According to most WCOs I’ve spoken with, there hasn’t been much participation in the special squirrel youth hunts.
One new rule proposed (it still has to be approved at a future meeting) at the meeting would allow any type of muzzleloader to be used in the October antlerless deer muzzleloader season. The regular post-holiday muzzleloader season will remain a flintlock season only.
Earlier it was indicated that hunters who shot an undersized buck by mistake could tag it and report it. It was indicated that after a $25 fine was paid the hunter could keep the deer.
The report out of last week’s meeting didn’t say anything about the hunter keeping the deer once he paid the fine as earlier reports did.
I hope that was an oversight for what many hunters indicated to me was that with antler restrictions, there would be plenty of dead deer left lying in the woods.
Without the right to keep an accidental kill, I tend to agree with them.
We’ll just have to wait and see how things play out.
In order to make room for the 85,000 additional bucks that are expected to survive the season, antlerless deer license allocations were increased to 922,600.
Most hunting and trapping seasons and bag limits remain the same as last year. Check the graphic elsewhere on this page.
Rod Schoener is the Herald-Standard outdoor editor.