So what price did the hunters in KQDC pay for a small increase in regeneration? The answer is that the deer taken to check stations dropped from 192 in 2003 to only 29 in 2007. due to the extremely low harvest in 2007 the 2008 harvested rebounded to 62 deer checked.
Here is what the report said about the prospects for trophy buck in the future.
47
Representativeness of Harvest. – Proportions of antlered and antlerless deer recorded
from roadside counts and brought to check stations indicate that hunters were overharvesting
bucks and under harvesting does (Fig. 26). Proportion of antlered deer counted in roadside
counts exceeded 25% only once, in 2007. Proportion of antlered deer brought to check stations
always exceeded 50%, except in 2003 when more antlerless than antlered deer were brought to
check stations. Initial hunter response to increased antlerless licenses in 2003 – harvesting
more antlered than antlerless deer – reversed in 2004. With the exception of 2007, when few
deer were harvested, the trend has been for hunters to bring proportionately more antlered deer
and fewer antlerless deer to check stations. By 2008, hunters returned to 2001 level of
overharvest of antlered deer and under harvest of antlerless deer. There will be fewer and
fewer antlered deer in the future, and hunters may not restrict their harvests of antlered deer to
older bucks with more impressive racks. Thus, few potentially older deer will survive hunting
beyond 2 1⁄2 years of age and there will be few trophy racks harvested.