Plenty of doe tags in PA will be available this hunting season! The Game Commission allocated 1,186,000 antlerless deer licenses Statewide for 2024 to 2025, which is up from 1,095,000 licenses made available last year. No hunter may possess more than their personal limit of six antlerless licenses at a time. A doe tag will cost a resident $6.97. 

An unused antler deer harvest tag from the general hunting license can be used to take an antlerless deer during the after Christmas Flintlock Muzzleloader season. Licenses cannot be transferred between licensed hunters. 926,000 hunting licenses were sold. 

This indicates that hunter numbers have declined at a steady and predictable rate for the last 28 years. 

The new antlerless license purchasing process allows Hunters to purchase antlerless licenses online at HuntFishPA or at any in store hunting license issuing agents. No hunter may possess more than their personal limit of six antlerless licenses at a time. 

A resident adult hunting antler license will cost you $20.97. You can take one antlered deer per license with a general license. Hunters are required to find bucks that have at least three 1-inch points on one side. 

The number of antler points a buck has does not correlate with the bucks age. Yearling bucks rarely have antlers that grow wider than their ears. Each year a male whitetail deer shed their antlers after rut and breeding season. 

Each spring as days strengthen the bucks begin to grow a new set of antlers. 

Antlers are made up of living bone tissues that regenerate throughout the life of the deer. The average whitetail deer lives six years. Females tend to live about 2 years longer than the males. The record whitetail deer in Georgia lives 22 years old. 

At four to five years, and beyond, bucks are considered mature. At this age bucks have heavy swelling on their neck during the rut, and the defining line between the neck and shoulder disappears and looks to be one mass. 

Their legs now look in proportion with their body and their weight drops to become even with their chest. Some species utilize a simple formula that converts the deer’s age to human years, in which 2.29 deer years equal one human year. 

Deer are aged by examining the wear and replacement of the premolar and molar of the lower jaw. As deer grow older, its teeth continue to wear. 

We wonder if it hurts a deer to cut off the antlers. Some may fear that this virtually causes harm to a deer but fear not, cutting the buck’s antlers is not painful for the deer. 

You wonder if a deer feels their antlers? The Velvet nourishes the growing antler for about 5 months. During development, antlers are delicate and extremely sensitive to the touch. Deer in velvet try to avoid any contact with their antlers. Studies have shown that deer sleep an average of around 4.5 hours a day and only 30 minutes in a deep sleep state. Generally, a deer sleeps less than five or 10 minutes at a time although some trail camera evidence has shown deer sleeping for nearly 20 minutes. 

When measuring the antlers of the deer ear tip to ear tip. Ear tip is very important reference points in determining the buck spread. The frontal view is needed to get the best estimate, but generally, a buck’s ear tip to ear tip measurement will be 13-15 inches. 

Deer do not always grow the same size rack each year. Growth is triggered by increasing daylight and subsequent testosterone production. Adult white tail antlers grow one quarter inch per day. 

March is the month when bucks start growing their antlers. A drop in testosterone after the rut causes weakness in connection tissue and the antlers fall off.

Norfolk Southern Railroad Fined $15 Million!

The federal government agreed to a $15 million fine for Norfolk Southern Railroad over last year’s disastrous derailment in Ohio, and the railroad promised to pay more than $500 million to complete the efforts to improve safety that it announced after the crash and addresses community health concerns.

Residents who had to evacuate their homes after the derailment of hazardous material were generally underwhelmed by the deal the Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department announced that doesn’t include any criminal charges.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the fine is the largest allowed under the Clean Water Act, and the railroad agreed to continue paying all of the cleanup costs. Plus, he said Norfolk Southern committed to meaningful safety improvements.

Regan went on to say, “This settlement is historic in many ways and will begin to make up for some of the damage caused to the residents here in Ohio. And it would absolutely push the industry in the direction that we would like for the industry to go.”