guys, as an outsider(from vt, not ny) you are talking crazy talk. your " quality" ( and who is to define quality to a first timer, or to the rest of us who like to eat deer meat) did not happen just because it is shotgun only, it most likely came about for safety reasons. and your quality bucks happened because of management, fertilizer, and genetics. the way you describe it, the nice bucks came about because of shotguns, and can' t happen with rifles. i think you should check, while some of the above described states do have shotgun regulations, other states, with " qulaity" deer, allow rifle hunting, and don' t seem to have any problems.