So now it seems 2 1/2 year olds are being shot over the 1 1/2 year olds that used to get shot. So what is the difference in the scheme of things?? In reality nothing. Horn hunters now just have a little bigger rack to brag with, while the herd itself doesn't benefit at all. Whether a buck breeds with a doe at 1 1/2 years of age or 3 1/2 years of age the genetic makeup it passes is the same. AR's are put in place simply to try to make trophy hunters happy. As far as a management tool, it doesn't make one bit of difference since a states goal is to reduce deer numbers and they could care less how many points the bucks antlers have when it gets shot by a hunter. Of course they will try to justify it by some biological theories just so they don't have to admit that they are only doing it to keep the horn hunters happy. That surely wouldn't look good to the non-hunters who are looking in on all this.