I would say the damage that's been done by PA hunters over the past century, shoottng 90% or more of yearling bucks, causing a buck to doe ratio so out of whack that any buck, small, crippled, retarded, whatever, could breed any time he wants with as many does as he wanted to, etc, well, if that hasn't "genetically altered" the herd, nothing will. I don't think there'll be much negative effects, by lowering the doe herd, and assuring many more bucks make it to 2.5, at least you'll have some competition for the does, so the better bucks will breed. The rifle season is after the rut anyway, so any breeding that's been done will have already occured anyway. Sure some dandy 1.5 year old ddeer will breed, but at the moment, there's so many does, a large percennatge of them come into estrus late, so all the fawns born to them will have spikes or 4pts, even if they have the genetics for the next state record.



"In heaven, even the fish have antlers"