Pennsylvania Game News - February 2022 - 8

None of that suggests Pennsylvania
can't someday give up another 200incher.
Bob
D'Angelo, Big Game Records
Coordinator for the Game Commission,
scored the Eric Carns 228-6/8-inch
buck taken in 2016 that ranks No. 1 in
the nontypical archery category in the
Game Commission's record book. He
also scored the current No. 1 typical
archery whitetail. Taken in 2017, it scores
184-4/8.
Beyond that, he's scored only a dozen
typical whitetail racks in his 14 years
as an official Boone and Crockett Club
scorer that met the 170-inch minimum
for entry into the club's all-time records.
But, he pointed out, four of the five
top-ranked deer in Pennsylvania's typical
archery records were harvested since
2017.
" I wouldn't be too surprised to see the
No. 1s in the typical categories be overtaken
in the near future, " D'Angelo said.
He attributed that to a change in
culture.
For decades, most Pennsylvania deer
hunters shot the first legal buck they
saw. Now, D'Angelo said, antler point
restrictions and " quality deer management "
strategies adopted by many private
landowners have hunters letting little
bucks walk.
That's incredibly important when
it comes to record-book deer, Spring
agreed.
" You look back at some of the historic
hotspots back in the day, the reason they
produced those big deer is we allowed
them to age, " Spring said. " Yes, there are
genetics involved and forage and all that.
But the No. 1 thing to get a big deer is to
find an old deer. "
The Keystone State's biggest and
oldest deer are coming from all over.
8
8
That includes some places D'Angelo
would never have imagined.
" I'm amazed at some of the bucks
being taken from our big-woods counties,
like the 183-7/8-inch nontypical
Cypher buck harvested in Cameron
County in 2018, " D'Angelo said. " In
my early deer hunting days in the late
1970s in Cameron County, you'd be
lucky to see a 3-inch spike among a herd
of does. A 4- or 6-point buck was a big
rack back then. "
That's partly a function of hunting
pressure, he suggested. Whereas once a
large percentage of hunters went to the
" big woods " to chase deer, now they're
more spread out. That's allowing deer
in those northern counties to reach older
ages.
The suburbs are producing big racks,
too. Allegheny County is " really good for
trophy deer " in the Southwest Region,
as is Westmoreland County, D'Angelo
said. Chester and Berks are hot spots in
the Southeast.
But big deer can come from anywhere,
anytime. That's what makes
hunting so exciting, Fish said.
" These are God's creations, " Fish
said. " No two are ever the same. And
you just don't know how they're going
to grow. There might be a buck out there
with the genetics, and it's his winter to
grow to a giant rack, and then he's running
through woods and snaps off a tine,
or he gets worn down physically at the
wrong time and can't put energy into
antler growth.
" You just don't know what's going
to happen in nature with these animals
or what's going to come next. Someone
could shoot a world record tomorrow
or the world record could stand for 100
years. We just don't know. And that's the
fun part of white-tailed deer. "
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2022

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