Originally Posted by
Steve863
So are you telling us the younger bucks that are now protected through antler restrictions are not doing any breeding??
No...actually you are the only one that seems to be suggesting that.
Originally Posted by
Steve863
Whether a buck breeds with a doe when he is 1 1/2 years old or 3 1/2 years old makes absolutely NO difference. He will be passing on the same genetics no matter what age he is.
Obviously...And your point relative to this discussion is?
Originally Posted by
Steve863
This is all a bunch of mumbo jumbo that is trying to be sold, but the reality is that AR's do nothing but grow bucks a little bigger for those hunters who prefer to shoot a bigger racked buck over a smaller one. AR's don't make any difference to the herds health one little bit!
And you are basing this is what on what factual data? (A herds health is determined by thousands of variables only one of which is the age structure. There is absolutely no way to make such a sweeping statement as you are attempting to do without considering at least a half dozen other of the most important variables starting with nutrition, deer density etc. However, for the purposes of this discussion where AR's are being discussed in relative isolation from the other variables, any qualified biologist will state your claim has no basis in truth whatsoever when discussing a whitetail population that has an unnaturally high doe to buck ratio as a result of hunting just as we are doing here....After all, by defintion, a "healthy herd" is a population that lives in as natural a balance with the carry capacity of the land, in as natural a state as they would without human intervention.....By eliminating the disproportionately excessive harvest of yearling bucks AR's contribute significantly to returning the natural balance of the population toward that of a "health herd"...and as a result improving the overall
breeding ecology as has been previously stated.
JC