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It really wasn't a big issue here. It happened, but not to any great extent. Here's the news release about it after the first season with the higher restriction.

GAME COMMISSION RELEASES FINAL MISTAKE KILL REPORT

Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Vern Ross today released the final totals for mistake kills reported for the 2002-2003 deer seasons, noting that he was very pleased with the results.

"Based on other states' experiences, we had expected anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 mistakes during the first season with antler restrictions," Ross said. "However, our Wildlife Conservation Officers handled only 2,096 mistake kills."

Of that number, 2,050 resulted in hunters paying a $25 administrative fee and surrendering the antlers. And, of the remaining 46 cases where our Officers rejected the mistake kill claims and issued a $500 fine, 17 involved hunters shooting bucks in mistake for does, which had nothing to do with antler restrictions, and is something our Officers have to deal with each year.

"So, in reality, there were only 29 cases of our Officers rejecting hunter mistake kill claims involving antler restriction cases," Ross said. "This rejection rate of 1.4 percent is down from last year."

For comparison, Ross noted that, even though the new antler restrictions were not in place for the 2001-2002 deer seasons, Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officers handled a total of 122 mistake kills involving antlered deer. Of those, three were rejected for a rejection rate of nearly 2.5 percent.

"Also, under law, a hunter charged with illegally killing a deer is subject to a one-year license revocation," Ross said. "However, if there are aggravating or mitigating circumstances, our agency is empowered by law to increase or decrease the revocation by one year. Therefore, we used our discretion to waive license revocation for any hunter who turned in a mistake kill that was ultimately rejected."

The mistake kill reports by region are: Northwest, 293; Southwest, 264; Northcentral, 556; Southcentral, 325; Northeast, 443; and Southeast, 215.
http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?A=11&Q=157685

Didn't seem to be an issue in the second year. The PGC website has a good bit of info on it.

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It always did, but now there's more older buck remaining to do the breeding and curb those less dominant ones and yearlings from breeding. What's not good about having more older buck in the herd come breeding time? I just don't see the logic there.

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Well they say the hardest part of wildlife management is people management. Hunters around here have been saying "there's no deer left" for decades, but until only recently has it been fairly close to true. While there are still lots of deer out there it's probably close to half of what it was during the peak year of 2001. The reduction here has definitely worked well with the exception of a few urban areas difficult to access. We're in the stabilization mode now for the most part, letting the food supply catch up to stay ahead of the herd.

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Boy that didn't take long Stone. Your type is so predictable. When you can't refute someone with facts, you try to discredit them with slanderous comments. And anyone who disagrees with him is in the minority and not even a hunter. It's sadly funny how predictable you guys are. Your a PUS member aren't you? BTW, deer don't have horns.

I think Wisconsinhuntr is a smart enough guy to see who's blowing smoke and who can provide him the info he's looking for. I'm sure he can see your comments are all over the board and your only concern is about yourself without any regards to the wildlife, hunters, or the future of deer hunting for future generations.

Now back to the topic. I came across a poll today, it's a weekly one in a popular periodical and this weeks question is on Pa's AR and it's running about 60% in favor. http://www.paoutdoornews.com/ Another poll is running 80% in favor (579 votes) to 14% opposed (98 votes) http://www.pasportsmenportal.com/ There's about 15 polls it randomly cycles through so you may have to keep hitting reload to see a new poll question. There's been several polls over the last few years and it almost always comes out with a majority in favor.