I agree with kldad06. The "trophies" that get harvested are trophies due to their age. QDM allows for us to harvest good mature deer and still allow those deer to breed and disseminate their "trophy" genes. If a trophy hunter lets say shoots and average deer at 4 yrs of age, that deer has probably already bred 40 - 50 does depending on the herd, location, buck:doe ratio, etc. Now when someone shoots a 2 yr old deer with tons of potential before he has been given the chance to breed, you are absolutely diminishing the "good" genes from the pool. I have no knowledge of the research that is referenced above but I would be willing to bet that that data is taken from predominantly publicly hunted areas where no trophy management practices are conducted and many young male animals are harvested which as I described earlier will diminish the genes. I think trophy hunting absolutely promotes good genes because it allows the good deer to live and reproduce before they are killed. Just take a look at south Texas where there are huge mature deer in an abundance because QDM is very prominent in the area.