As far as I know this isn't on the web yet but Dr James Kroll (Dr Deer) and the whitetail Institute have an article on page 105 in the most recent issue of North American Whitetail that points out all the flaws in the study out of Mississippi By Dr Demarious claiming that AR actually has a negative effect on antler quality
How could there be a flaw in the Miss. study when it was based actual rack sizes that decreased across all soil types in Miss. Furthermore, there is no logical reason why harvesting the best buck in each age class wouldn't produce bucks in the next age class that ,on average , wouldn't b smaller than in a non-AR herd.
BTW, Dr. Kroll's theory on protecting 1.5 spikes does not apply to PA since it is based on the assumption that the 1.5 spike will live to become a 4.5 buck. The vast majority of our 1.5 buck do not survive to become 4.5 buck,so our average 1.5 spike buck is still inferior to our 1.5 6 pt. for the rate of antler development.