ORIGINAL: Windwalker7

Well, when you take that big boy out of the herd, he won't be passing on any more genes. But the little buck with smaller antlers will.

I see you are from PA. If you look at the way PA has been before ARs, any buck with at least a 3 inch spike was legal. It was that way for a long time.

Now with ARs, we are seeing lots of nice bucks. So after all those years of shooting any buck, we all see that there are stiil good genes out there floating around.

I do agree with your point about letting them grow and it will be easier to see whick buck has the better genes. The only problem is, he is the one that will be everyones first choice.

The other part of the equation is the genes that the does are carrying.

The only thing I see are older deer. I don't believe they are healthier, just older.