ARs always produce a higher percentage of 2.5+ buck in the herd , but it is a meaningless figure to the hunters in the field. To them the meaningful figure is the number of 2.5+ buck available to be harvested and that number was less in 2007 than in 2002, the first year of ARs.
You certainly can’t say that is an accurate statement. In fact I can pretty much guarantee that is not an accurate statement.
Well, let's see how good your guarantee really is. In 2002 we harvested 112,814 and if ARs saved 50% of the 1.5 buck than we carried over 112,814 buck to become 2.5+ buck. But in 2003 we only harvested 80K 2.5+ buck or 54% of the 1.5 buck that were carried over. If you apply the same harvest rate to the 2.5+ buck harvest in 2002 then there were over 96K 2.
Now compare that to the harvest of 61K , 1.5 buck in 2007 and the 61K that will be carried over to become 2.5+ buck and you will see we had a lot more 2.5 plus buck in 2002 than we had in 2007 or 2008.